INVESTIGATE & CELEBRATE

It is women's history month. What a perfect time to surf the web and look at all of the blogs (http://www.nwhp.org/blog/), wikis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women), and websites (http://womenshistorymonth.gov/) devoted to the lives and achievements of women who came before us. Take some time to visit some of these links I have been enjoying http://www.kerncountylibrary.org/HTML/news/b_whm.html. I have been making a point to peruse at least one site each day this month as part of my perpetual search for inspiration. Despite the month being half over already I decided this morning to Twitter an "Inspirational Woman of the Day" during the remainder of March. Truly, it should be all year not just one month...perhaps I will make it my TechnoRitual 2009. Today's "Woman of the Day" is my friend and mentor Dr. Joanna Frueh: artist, writer, beauty, and brilliant inspiration. Prepare yourself to be in awe, and then visit her website: http://www.joannafrueh.com/

A book I can hardly wait to read:

I am tremendously eager to get my hands on the new book by Elaine Showalter - A Jury of Her Peers! I keep hearing such great reviews.*_*

Library Weekend

I had the good fortune to spend much of my weekend in Sierra Nevada College's Prim Library. Located in Incline Village, NV (Lake Tahoe), this is an open, warm, inviting space housing a varied collection. What a pleasure to immerse myself in the stacks! I recommend you stop in if you ever get to North Lake Tahoe. Remember to watch for bears.

Geocache Games

The idea of geocaching (usually an outdoor GPS search activity for planted caches) has great potential applications for use inside the library.  I would like to design a game that utilizes GPS devices as part of an information scavenger hunt; this will be exhilarating fun for patrons of any age.  One can use strictly GPS or can integrate letterboxing (use of clues or landmarks in a text/narrative/etc)  The caches can range from bookmarks with information to lead the players to their next answer, to token treasures for the players to keep, and to small objects which the players gather and turn in for a prize.  Really the fun and thrill should be the process of searching and problem solving rather than the prizes.  The possible combination of details for this idea are endless, and it all sounds so fun!  This will allow the patrons to learn how to use tools/resources that may be new to them.  Of course, paper based scavenger hunts have long been used by educators to guide students through a series of experiences/workstations/etc, and this is the next step in a successful hands on learning activity.  The use of the GPS devices will help the activity feel and in fact be technology driven and yet simultaneously object based.