Thing 24! Refresh

Hi again!

Even though I had been using my blog since finishing 23 Things last September, I had not looked at the new "Things" until today. My blog has a new look with a different color scheme. I decided to give the avatar a new background and hairstyle. The blog has been a good place for recording information on conferences (MLA and MnPALS) that I attended. I also have added some links that I like, and check some of them almost every day. With the snow melting this week, I added a countdown clock today with the number of days left until spring.

Thing 20 (Faceback) is one that I surprised myself with by using so much! I now have more than 80 friends, and check the site most days. At first my friends were college students and the children of my friends, but now I have more relatives, classmates and people around my age. TIME magazine had an interesting page by Lev Grossman in the February 23rd issue, "Facebook is for Old People," about the baby boomers now "hijacking" Facebook.

From the "increased traffic" on the 23 Things Ning, I knew that a lot of people have "taken off' with the new Things. There are many photos posted since my sunflower was the last one. This week I was happy to find a group for MnSCU librarians, and became the third member.

MnPALS

MnPALS User Group Meeting

On Thursday, 30 October, I attended the second day of the MnPALS User Group Meetings. This is the first year to use the new format of just having Fall User Groups with work days in the Spring. I really like having them at MSU-Mankato as I can leave home later than to be at work at 8 AM at Worthington! I always enjoy returning to MSU. Before 9 AM, I was in the parking lot. I was happy to have plenty of time to walk to the Student Union, but after arriving there I realized that I left my glasses in my vehicle when I checked my cell phone. Anyway, I am finally reading all of the hand-outs in my blue folder that I was unable to see too clearly that day!

I attended the 9:30 General Session in the morning, and the 11 AM interlibrary loan user group. At lunch, one of the MSU folks mentioned that the Al Franken folks would be coming to the Union at 3 PM, so I decided to stay for that after the last session.

My 1 PM session was on interlibrary loan best practices and workflow. At 2 PM, I attended the breakout session on inventory management. I do not think that we have done inventory at our library recently, so it was good to hear what other libraries are doing.

The campaigning group was late, so a student with a guitar sang in the basement of the Union until they showed up. Our Representative Tim Walz, Senator Amy Klobuchar, and our former Congressman Rick Nolan from St. Cloud spoke before Al Franken did. I had forgotten about Rick Nolan, and shook hands with him afterwards. He almost seems like a "Walter Mondale type" now. The Senate race with Senator Norm Coleman and Al Franken still has not been decided. I hope that the recount does not drag out too long . . .