sallysetsforth

So, I'm still taking part in the Daily Image 2011 challenge on Flickr. I'm slightly surprised that I'm still going, and haven't missed a day yet. Even when the last thing I've felt like doing was taking a photo of myself, I've still managed to give myself a little push and do it. And I'm glad, because although I'm getting sick of the sight of myself ;) I'm really enjoying being part of this community activity and seeing the interesting photos being posted by all of the participants :) You can catch up with all my latest photos HERE.

A friend of mine that I haven't seen in years, but who I reconnected with on Facebook recently, came across one of my photos from Daily Image 2011 and liked it so much that she asked if she could "scrap it". Anne is a very talented scrapper, who creates beautiful layouts using photographs, card, hand embroidery, buttons and all kinds of embellishments. You can find out more about her work at her blog, Scraptastic Stuff.

I've attached here a screenshot from Anne's blog showing the layout that Anne made using my photo. I especially love the dragonflies that flit across the page, almost as though they are coming out of the fan. Please visit this link to see it in more detail :)

The Library Day in the Life project began in 2008, inspired by a blog post from Bobbi Newman. In 2011, more than 200 librarians are taking part in the sixth iteration of this project (#libday6) to share their day, and give others a look into what librarians do :)

For those who haven't visited my blog before, I work as a Liaison Librarian (Health Sciences) at a regional University in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. We're in the middle of our summer break, so there aren't many students about. We use this time of year to plan and prepare for the busy first semester ahead.

My "Library Day in the Life" was as follows:

• Arrive at work 9.10am (I'm a bit late actually, as I haven't been sleeping well)
• Check my work emails, deleting irrelevant stuff from various e-lists
• Respond to an email query from a student regarding prescribed text books for her subjects, refer her to the Uni bookshop website, and provide some tips on searching by subject code
• I'm rostered on for our "Ask Us" email service today, so I check for emails throughout day, at this time of year there are few enquiries (but some spam!)
• Transfer some files from DropBox to my work PC
• Do a quick Twitter check, mostly for replies/mentions and a bit of cycling news
• Add my major activities for the last couple of weeks to our team's report to the fortnightly library management meeting
• Stretch my legs by wandering over to the bookshop to buy a newspaper and a diet coke
• Create my first LibGuide from scratch for our upcoming orientation activities, which will involve QR codes - realise I still have a lot to learn about LibGuides
• Have a discussion with a colleague about LibGuide box types and statistics generation, she sends me a link to Springshare's online help resources
• Edit some of my existing LibGuides to reflect some of the tips I've just picked up
• Have a discussion with another colleague about running intensive library training sessions for postgraduate students in late March, to be held in the same week as a series of first year library sessions (that will be a busy week!)
• Communicate with a colleague in Alice Springs by email (as that campus is about 1500kms away!) regarding lesson plans for nursing students - we share information about topics of particular interest (ebooks) and handouts
• Schedule in some more training for postgraduate students in mid-March, via discussion with a colleague on MS Communicator
• Set up a PBworks account to participate in #libday6
• Take my lunch break in my office, starting with a quick Twitter check (where another colleague offers to help me with a PC problem), then I lock the computer and read a book with my lunch :)

• Do some further reading on LibGuide box types for the orientation LibGuide and my subject LibGuides
• Do a quick review by email of a Twitter contact's job application, following on from having provided more detailed feedback on the weekend
• Have a drop-in visit from a student looking for contact information for the academic support section
• Add a post to our group Tumblr account (we use it for information sharing within our team) to let my colleagues know about #libday6
• Respond to a lecturer's email query regarding placing an order for some prescribed texts - I explain that copies of prescribed texts are automatically ordered for the library, and that they should hopefully appear on the library shelves soon
• Another quick Twitter check, this time I'm delighted to come across a link to the Royal College of Nursing's information literacy competencies thanks to @jaygee35 - I spend some time reading this, as most of my students are in nursing
• Another drop-in visit from a student, looking for help with setting up a collaborative online workspace for a group assignment - we chat about wikis and other resources in Blackboard, which she will follow up with her lecturer
• Send an email to the editor of the Student Association newspaper regarding including some information in the next edition about the library's orientation activities
• Check the Bureau of Meteorolgy website to see whether this storm is going to last - yep, there's more on the way so I'll stay put for a while longer
• Post another interesting information resource to our group Tumblr, this time the blog which had featured the Royal College of Nursing paper
• Fill out my timesheet for the day, and head home at 5.30pm

Phew! Was that too much information? Yeah, probably :)

If you'd like to see Library Day in the Life stories from other librarians (most likely better written than mine!), check out the list of participants at the wiki or check out the Twitter hashtag #libday6

Thanks to a intriguing invitation from Kathryn Greenhill, I've started off the year by participating in the Daily Image 2011 challenge on Flickr.

Daily Image 2011 involves posting a photo or video of yourself each day for 365 days, or however many days you can manage. You, or part of you, must appear in each day's picture. The details are on the Librarians Matter blog, and on the Daily Image 2011 Flickr group page.

I'm a sucker for a challenge it seems, although I try to keep it realistic ;) Daily blogging challenges are a bit beyond my reach at the moment, but a daily photo should be manageable (most of the time anyway!). I decided to take up Kathryn's suggestion to try it for a week at least ...

Well, a couple of weeks have now passed, and I've published fifteen photos of myself (actually, sixteen now at the time of posting). Here's a snaphot of my first fifteen days:



Photos can be uploaded relatively quickly compared to writing blog posts - but they can be just as challenging, as every photo will reveal something about me. I'm already wondering about how I want to present myself through this challenge. How open or private do I want to be? Which moods am I prepared to put on display? How do I feel about showing my imperfections? And should every photo be "interesting"?

I think I will persevere with the Daily Image 2011 challenge - partly to find out the answers to those questions. I may not post 365 photos, but I'll give it a go for as long as I can, or at least try to post a couple of times a week.

I have a feeling that it will reveal more than I initially anticipate as the year goes on. That has happened before in other online challenges, such as blogging, videocasting and story telling. Is this a good thing? My instinct says yes. Participating in a challenge like this, in an atmosphere of trust, and with friends (old and new), encourages me to stretch myself, try new things, push some boundaries. And maybe even get comfortable with looking at photos of myself :)

You can view all of my Daily Image 2011 photos by clicking on the above image, or on this link.

My best wishes to all of you for a happy and healthy 2011!

The last few months of 2010 were pretty tough for me, for a variety of reasons that I won't go into here. And I'm pretty sure that 2011 will also throw a few challenges my way.  I generally try to blog in a positive frame of mind, so posts have been few and far between while I've been in struggle-mode. But it's a new year, and I'm ready to get back on board :)

I've got plenty of blog posts in draft mode, just waiting to be polished and published. I think there'll be a lot of craft-related posts this year, as I'm finding crafting very relaxing, and a welcome outlet for creativity outside the workplace. I'll be making an effort in 2011 to stretch myself in some new techniques. And as we move into more pleasant weather here in Darwin (although admittedly that's still a few months away!), I'll make sure to share our experiences with you, as we explore the beautiful natural environment that we're surrounded by.

The frogs in our garden are going crazy. They're barking, belching, quacking, grunting and honking. Loudly.

Apparently some people enjoy this noise. Nuh. I don't get it.

The last time the frogs were this loud, this is what we found in the morning:



These frisky frogs were in our pool. We chased them out - and snapped a couple of photos ;) - but soon discovered that they had left something behind in the water. Hundreds and hundreds of little frog eggs. You can see some of them in this photo (upper right).

I would have thought it would be too chlorine-y for them, but we've had a lot of rain, so perhaps there was a layer of freshwater on top - enough for them to think their little froglets would have a chance.

We like using our pool, so the frog eggs had to go. Tim scooped them out of the pool (they looked like sago in the pool scoop!). He put them in the drain along the side of their house, which always has some water in it.

I can report that the tadpole population in our garden is doing well, and I'm sure they'll do their parents proud when they grow into frogs that keep us awake at night.

In the meantime, tonight's racket leads me to believe that we'll be cleaning the pool again tomorrow ...

Addendum: We did a quick check of the pool last night before going to bed, and discovered no less than three mating pairs of froggies on the rim of our pool (including the pair in the photo below). Tim shuffled them off into other parts of the garden, but we knew that wouldn't be the last of it. And sure enough, an inspection of the pool this morning has revealed that the frogs were very busy indeed - eggs, eggs and more eggs. *sigh*

Yes, yes, I know October is over now ;) I created each "digital story" for the #Octshowntell challenge during October, and posted links on Twitter. It's just taken me a bit longer to showcase them here on my blog ...

Anyway, I thought I'd try something different for the final week of #Octshowntell. I first came across DoInk a couple of years ago, and had been meaning to have a play with it ever since. This seemed like the perfect opportunity.

DoInk allows you to create your own animations - you can either do all the drawing yourself, or you can use the wide variety of props that others have made available. I used a bit of both - I drew the snail and butterfly myself, and then made them available for others to use (a couple of other users have already incorporated my butterfly into their own animations).

It's not much of a "story" per se, but it was great fun to make and I felt really pleased with what I produced. I hope you think it's kind of cute too :)


A snail and a butterfly by sallysetsforth, made at DoInk.com

You can view the animation as it appears on the DoInk site HERE.

For the third week of #Octshowntell, I made a cartoon using Pixton.

I've been going through a rough patch lately, and this cartoon is my picture-tells-a-thousand-words way of showing the wonderful support that Tim has given me.

Pixton's embedding function isn't working for me, so unfortunately I can only attach a small version to this post. You can view the full-size cartoon HERE.



P.S. No, neither Tim or I are stick figures, but I couldn't figure out how to change body shapes in Pixton's free version ;)

My second attempt at digital storytelling for #Octshowntell was made using Storybird. Storybird is a website where you can use high quality (and gorgeous!) illustrations to create stories, and publish them in a visually appealing digital storybook format. I encourage you to give it a go, the site is a real pleasure to use.

I wrote a simple little story about a helpful librarian (in the guise of a green fairy) answering questions about finding books and information. The artwork is by the very talented Paul McDougall. You can read the story here on my blog, or click HERE to view the full-screen version of my story at the Storybird site.

The Helpful Librarian (aka The Green Fairy) on Storybird

First there was #blogeverydayofjune. Then there was #1pic1thoughtinAug. Now it's time for #Octshowntell :)

#Octshowntell is a challenge to explore a variety of digital storytelling tools - one each week in October - and share the results on Twitter, using the #Octshowntell hashtag. As well as being great fun, it's a terrific idea to get to know these tools, and to consider how they can be used in both personal and professional contexts.

My first effort was using Animoto, which creates beautiful animated slideshows from your photos. Just add some Creative Commons licensed music, and you're done! It's free to make 30 second videos, with longer videos and more options available for a fee.

My first attempt was a simple slideshow of some photos that I took at Floriade in 2007:



My second attempt was more of a story, demonstrating how Roxy helped us (hah!) put some flat-pack cupboards together:



I hope you enjoy them! :) My efforts for weeks 2 and 3 will be uploaded shortly ...

Hello, did you miss me? ;)

I've been in Darwin for 7 weeks now, but the time has absolutely flown! I'll try to make this a quick catch-up, with more blog posts to come ...

We lived out of hotel rooms for the first 3 weeks, before finding and moving into a house here in Darwin. By Darwin standards, we were lucky to find a place so quickly! Of course, we're paying through the nose, but that's a given here. The house is close-ish to my work, it's got air-conditioning in every room, a plunge pool and a lovely garden. We're still unpacking, but getting there (just need a bit more furniture to unpack stuff into - it's probably no surprise that we've run out of bookshelf space already!). Our cat, Roxy, is settling in surprisingly well (we're keeping her indoors here).

I'm really enjoying my job, although it's been a steeper learning curve than I expected. I'm slowly getting my head around the many different aspects of my job: the library; its resources and workflows; my colleagues; the university environment; my clients (both faculty and students); the subject areas I'm responsible for; etc. I've also really enjoyed the opportunity to meet library folk from other sectors through the active ALIA Top End / ALIA NT groups.

And then there's the climate. Gorgeous weather for my first month or so, but the humidity is starting to kick in now. We've even had a bit of rain (plus thunder and lightning), which is unusual for this time of year. We're trying not to fall back on the air-conditioning too much, but it's nice to be able to escape from the heat on occasion. And ceiling fans are one of the world's greatest inventions, I think!

Tim and I have been out-and-about a bit, visiting several of the local markets, scenic spots and eateries around town. With the dry season well and truly on the way out, we must make sure to fit in some more sightseeing while we're able. Tim already has a croc story by the way, having received a nasty nip from while volunteering for a day at Crocodylus Park! He's fine now - no lasting damage :)

Although the blog's been quiet lately, I've been fairly busy in some other online spaces. I've been tweeting (of course!), and posting photos and videos. Most notably, I posted a photo on Flickr for each day in August for the #1pic1thoughtinAug challenge. Click on the photo below to check out some of the places I visited and things I saw during my first month in Darwin :)