Task #8 - Creative Commons is a fantastic resource. The US has the toughest copyright laws in the world--thank goodness. However, images, info, music that can be shared are useful to students just beginning to learn their way around the universe. I've had questions on Ask Colorado as broad as "I need to know about the pyramids." An image they can use for a report plus just the basic info about pyramids is enough to get a student started. For my own personal reasons, I like to use images to make cards and collages. A stock photo of autumn foliage, for example, is just what I'm looking for because I plan to alter, cut, paste over, and change anyway.

I checked out Case Studies and found Artabase, a social networking site for artists, galleries and art lovers, dedicated to the promotion and archiving of artistic exhibitions and events. It operates out of Australia with an online presence since 2007. This creative database is available for use by art historians, journalists and collectors underscoring the site as enabling a collective definition of history. Another one was Orchestration, a dance-theater performance with hundreds of background projections, created as a student project at New York University. Using photos from Flickr available under various CC licenses, the creator was able to do so without having to license hundreds of images or incorporate them into the work illegally.

So this is great to know that all kinds of creative resources is several media.

Task #7 - The best reader websites for me would be Shelfari and LitLovers. Shelfari seems very simple to use, not a lot of clutter. However, I signed up for LitLovers, and the main reason is their offerings of self-directed lit courses. What fun. I'm all for rereading classics, or even reading them for the first time. I'm an English major, undergraduate and graduate, and I still haven't read all the classics, especially so-called modern ones, that I want to. 1000 books to read before you die? I'm only on about number 100! So LitLovers is the one for me. I think I could spend months and months checking out their courses, so a year from now, you'd still find me actively using LitLovers.

Checked out the Boulder PL Good Reads, and thought it was quite good. However, I'm not a bestseller reader, so would hope more people would be chiming in about that odd little fiction book they found tucked away in the stacks. I'd be the one contributing that kind of fiction. I'd like to see MCPLD get something similar, and I would definitely volunteer to be a contributor.

Task #6 - Really impressed with the Ohio Library Council's website. User friendly enhanced by the pleasing graphics. Important information in the middle with tables to the left, photo to the right. Headings make for easy browsing. Their mission statement was short and sweet--"Serve the community"--the the four requirements in bullet points. When I think about our own library mission statement, I can't help but think we really can't enhance the quality of life for some people just through library service. That's a big order. Definitely liked the way they explained call numbers and classification for people. We get people all the time looking for fiction but they say, "it doesn't have a call number so I won't know where to look." And tech services vs. public services is very well explained. Oh, and the quiz at the end. That's great. I think we could take some tips from this for our website. The Houston Area library Service training module was altogether different, but again, the graphics enhance learning about the library so much. What a pleasure to use--just three easy choices to get you started.