Jingle-jangle jingle, and following other blogs.

I just added some other folk's blogs that I am now officially "following", i.e. read regularly. Some are LIS-related, others not. I don't know if ya'll can see them on the public side or not, or just me, on my "dashboard". Still trying to figure this stuff out, bear with me.

I also had to give a brief oral presentation on what I saw & did at TLA 2009, on behalf of the assembled library staff. I was really nervous and waited until I was the last one; I think I managed to pull off an acceptable oral presentation, despite not having as many (read: any) visual aids, unlike my reference colleagues.

I did learn about a neat new software application called "Jing", which is quick and easy screen capture program that can be downloaded here. It's pretty darn cool, and I can already think of how I can use it as a cataloger, either to come up with a tutorial on how to do database cleanup, especially fixing holdings data, or a way to ask complicated questions about the LC tables in Classification Web which confuse the heck out of me. So many times I'll come up with a potential call number for an item and then hit a funky table in ClassWeb that I really don't know how to cope with, and no one I can readily turn to here and ask about. Now I can screen capture that, send it to some experienced catalogers I know at other institutions, or to AUTOCAT at large, and get a response. Sometimes it's just easier to show rather than explain in writing, y'know? You can also upload these screen capture videos to YouTube, and narrate them, which is cool. I may also get a webcam for my work PC so that I can show elder catalogers the book in hand that I am considering and they can see why I am considering the call number in question, etc. Not a perfect solution, but something I think is worth giving a go, especially as I'm still learning the cataloging ropes myself. If/when RDA ever rolls out, I will probably need the help of others bigtime then as well.

With enough knowledge and experience, one day I'll be able to "give back" to the community in turn.