The Bubbly Librarian

I need to thank my readers for their kindness and concern since my last post.  Sadly, there is nothing new to report about Erin.  The police have named a “person of interest” but no arrests have been made.  There have been many letters to the editor of our local paper criticizing those of us who worked with Erin for failing to get involved.  I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting and I can honestly say that I did the best I could. I never suspected anything like this was coming. Erin was a happy, positive kid who never showed signs of physical abuse.  She wasn’t fearful or timid. Even now, knowing what I do, when I look, I still don’t see any red flags that I missed.  She was a sweet girl who had the misfortune of living in filthy house. All I ever hoped for was for DSS to make her family get rid of some of the cats and clean up.  As it turns out, DSS was called at least three times.  Their handling of the case is also under scrutiny,  but that’s not something I’m prepared to write about.

I am writing this post with a heavy heart.  Last night I learned that one of my students has died. And the police have ruled it a homicide.  She was 11 years old and the sweetest little girl.  She died at home, though there are no more details being released.  I can’t help but remember sitting in my principal’s office discussing whether or not we should call social services regarding her living conditions. I know they had been called in the past for the same concerns.  She lived in a home with over 120 cats and the smell was overwhelming at times.  I had to throw away a couple of her library books because I couldn’t get rid of the smell. I feel horrible about telling her she could no longer take books home during vacations. I wonder if I should have pushed harder for another call to DSS. She always seemed happy enough; I never thought she was in danger; I just didn’t think her living conditions were appropriate. I don’t understand how anyone could have hurt this sweet tiny girl. 

I am totally enjoying my participation in SLJ’s All Together Now project!  I haven’t exactly followed the steps in order, so last night I went back to Thing 8 – Social Networking. One of the suggested activities was to join Facebook, which I had been hesitant to do.  Aren’t I too old for Facebook? Apparently, the answer is a resounding no.

I have been a member for less than twenty-four hours and I am already friends with two of my favorite authors, some much admired fellow librarians, and have discovered an old college classmate who is running for state senator! This is so much fun! I am operating on less than 6 hours of sleep because I was setting up my profile. 

I’ve been pleasantly surprised to discover many legitimate professional groups and fellow librarians here. I’ve been wanting to be able to offer parent classes on social networking and I think it will be much easier if I have a presence of my own to use as an example.  Knowing what’s here will also help me address internet safety issues with the children using actual examples.

Summer ends in three days.  I’ve learned so much, but now I have to get back onto a school schedule.  That means it’s bedtime. NO MORE FACEBOOK TONIGHT!

My daughter has been scolding me for failing to update my blog.  I’ve been busy building my Moodle site, which has its own blog and wiki features and isn’t blocked at school.  Blogging is definitely going to slow down as school begins.

Thing # 10 in SLJ’s All Together Now was Twitter.  I set up my Twitter account back in January but I haven’t done a lot with it.  I got my brother to sign up with me, but he didn’t last long.  He quit after a couple of months because he couldn’t see the point. I follow some library and educational tech folks that I admire, as well as my sister and a couple of friends.  I thought maybe, with it being one of the SLJ “things” that I might have an ah-ha moment and finally get the hoopla.  So far, not so much. My Twitter name is msmolly27, in case you want to follow my oh-so-exciting life.

Yes, it is sort of cool to check in and see that my sister must be trying a new recipe and is wondering if she really has to follow the cooling directions.  It’s fun to notice that someone else is doing the same thing I am at the same time. It is cool that I can follow Barack Obama, but it would be cooler if HE was doing the update and included the mundane stuff. 

I do find useful links through Twitter occasionally, but I wonder how many I miss. I don’t click on many of the posted links because they are not typically accompanied by a lot of descriptive information. That’s the downside of the 140 character limit.

I discovered Tweet What You Eat, which is exactly what it sounds like, a place to post what you eat when you eat it.  The point, I think, is to keep you from downing a whole bag of Hershey’s Miniature candy bars in one day, because it would be embarrassing to post that for all the world to see. But that assumes total honesty.  I do follow and post TWYE, but if you think I really Tweet everything I eat,  you don’t know me very well.

Most importantly, Twitter is blocked at school, which means that by the time I get online, I’ll be hours behind everyone’s updates. The reality is that, even with the ability to send and receive updates with my cell phone, my day to day use of Twitter is not likely to continue after September 1.

Will Richardson wrote a provocative post about Twitter on his blog.  If you are at all interested in Twitter, I highly recommending reading his post as well as the ensuing comments.

 For those of you who have been working on learning Web 2.0 this summer, PBwiki offers a challenge with the potential to win $1000 in school supplies.  At the very least, everyone who enters and accomplished a few basic tasks will be awarded a free upgrade to a premium account. 

I’ve been intending to create a wiki for book sharing.  This challenge actually got me started.