Module 3: Publications (cont.)

One of the things that I really want to improve on my job is my ability to publicize events. One aspect of that involves making posters and handouts. Too often, I wait until way too close to the event to publicize it in the library. Perhaps I would make the posters sooner if I had more skills and confidence in using Publisher.

After this excercise, I am a little bit closer to my goal. I used Photoshop again, and, though I continue to struggle with it, I am learning bit by bit with each use. Also, I am becoming less frustrated and angry each time I use it, which is always a plus.

First, a little background about the event I am publicizing: For the past year, the youth of Hastings have been working on poetry with a teacher from Flagler College. The project was done through the O.U.R. Center, a non-profit organization that works under the umbrella of Communities in Schools, and the Hastings Recreation Center. Another teacher at Flagler obtained a grant to get the poetry published. The book, called Juice Up the True Say, came out last month, and I have arranged with the teacher to have the kids do a monthly reading. Our first reading was last month.

I wanted to use a dynamic graphic, and the hand holding the mic in the air seemed good. However, I didn't like the avocado green that was in the clip art. I wanted something brighter, more vibrant. I went back, with some dread, to Photoshop. After much trial and error, I remembered how to remove a background using the polygonal lasso tool. After more trial and error, I managed to get two separate layers going, one for the mic, and one for the new background I wanted to put in.

I played around with the brush tool and found one that made little stars. My first draft used yellow stars on a white background. It was okay, but I wanted to get rid of the white and put some color in. I started with a new, orange/yellow background and made the stars a little darker orange. I also made sure the color was most saturated on the edges of the hand and mic.

I chose a playful font, Jokerman, for the title of the poster, and Times New Roman for the information about when and where. Finally, I put an orange frame on the edges. One strange thing that I noticed when I was almost done was that there was one orange star in the middle of the grahic of the hand. How that got there, I don't know, but I had to get rid of it. I re-familiarized myself with the clone stamp tool and covered it with black.

One thing that I learned was quite easy was to make a flyer in Publisher and then to copy and paste to make the flyer into a poster. Now I have something that people can see, the poster, as they walk up to the library, and something that they can take with them. In the future, I know that if I am tired of the same old clip art, I can change it.

Module 3: Publications

I have worked in Publisher using trial and error, but have never taken any tutorials. I really need to do that because I have not felt very good about what I've produced so far.

Yesterday, I looked at a few video tutorials for this class and found them very helpful. I have learned how to group objects align, and center them. I have also learned about the concept of a master sheet.

Onward I go . . .

I am having trouble getting my text to wrap properly. I'll have to wait until my husband wakes up for help with that one.

I have now learned about templates.

Module 2: Presentations

I have been working on my presentation, and it is so refreshing to work in something less complicated than web design. I am finding the slides relatively easy to make. The time-consuming part is finding the graphics to go with the slides.

My planned audience is one of teens and young adults at our library. A little background: Our library serves a very poor, rural community of about 610. Teens here lack the resources that many of us have come to take for granted. Several young adults who frequent the library have dropped out of school. Others are struggling financially.

One of our library Friends suggested offering an etiquette class for teens so that they could practice conducting themselves in more formal situations. I think this is a great idea, but how would I ever get them to attend? Then a colleague suggested holding workshops on how to do resumes, cover letters, and to present yourself at an interview. Etiquette would fit in nicely during the interviewing practice part.

My PowerPoint is designed to get teens thinking about setting and apporpriate behaviors in different settings. My intent is to stimulate discussion and to educate. While the first slide is serious, the pictures in the body of the presentation are quite silly. I want to inject a little humor for this somewhat reluctant audience.

Also, the content covers very basic issues regarding presenting and promoting one's self. From what I have observed, this is the place to start. The slides are intending to be a jumping-off point for discussion. I do not want to be lecturing, but getting the kids to think. Therefore, the slides are quite simple and not chock-full of information; rather, they invite the audience to ponder.

A little about bells and whistles: I personally cannot stand animated graphics. I find them distracting and annoying. I want my audience to be engaged in discussion rather than mesmorized by something jumping on the screen. This is just a personal preference.

Transitions and design: Again, I prefer simplicity. These kids are stimulated enough by technological gadgetry and it's effects. I want them to focus on ideas.
I did pick silly images, though, as I mentioned above, to keep them interested. Nothing is worse than those tired old Microsoft clip art graphics.

I am, surprisingly, quite happy with my product.

Thing 17: Podcasts

Something I did not know: Podcasts are different from other forms of digital media in that they can be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded when new content is added.

You need a "podcatcher" to capture the shows. itunes is one example.

http://podcast.com/: You can look up podcasts by subject. I started listening to a few: one from the Economist, one from Bloomberg news, one from the Onion, and a few from Entertainment.

http://podcastalley.com/ doesn't really appeal. Not so user friendly.

Yahoo Search: Mostly music here. Why am I having a hard time finding what I want?

Here is a very interesting news story I heard yesterday: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102243287

I think I prefer www.podcast.com in terms of searching. However, I just tried to sign up, then went to sign in, and was unable to do so. Errrg. I have spent too much time on it. In addition, "webpage cannot be displayed" keeps coming up in the middle of everything. I am going to put it to bed for now.

Back agian (the next day). I am going to have to leave podcast.com behind. Though I've signed up, I can't sign in. I get a message that this acct. is not active at this time. When I try to sign up using the same email, the system won't let me. I tried using a different email. I hit submit and nothing happens. I downloaded the newest Flash. Still nothing happened. ERRRRGGGHHH. I'm going to podcast alley.

I'm going back to podcast.com because the podcast I want isn't available, at least I can't find it on podcast alley.

My Yahoo mail is still down, but I set up an acct. using my work mail. I got in there and finally activated it.

I tried signing up AGAIN. This time the only thing I did differently was to say I had a certain kind of cell phone. It let me in!!! ??? Oh no. It is again saying my acct. is not active. I don't see where to go to remedy this. I left a comment.

Back to podcast alley. I signed up, but now my Yahoo mail page won't open so that I can activate my acct. This is by far the most frustrating Thing.

My Yahoo mail is still down, but I set up an acct. using my work mail. I got in there and finally activated my www.podcast.com acct. FINALLY. Here is my link!



Despite the frustration I've had with this, I am very enthusiastic about doing podcasts with the teens in our library. Specifically, I would like to use it with our book club and with a poetry group that is starting up.

Thing 16: YouTube

I am no stranger to YouTube. It is one of my procrastination tools. But, for the first time, I will embed a video. This is a 1989 claymation by Nick Park. He interviewed people around Enlgand about their living conditions and then had their voices come out of these clay zoo animals. It's hilarious. I found a lot of knock-offs, but this one is best.

Thing 15: Rollyo

Lets you roll together various search engines. Examples of some that have been created:

Public Domain e-Books Search, Quick Quotes, Rare Book Library Search

I tried Rollyo. I honestly don't have much use for this Thing right now. I practiced making one called Michelle's News. I only put three websites in it. Here's the link.

http://rollyo.com/index.html

I didn't find the site all that easy to use.

For someone who is online all the time and has to keep track of many sites on different subjects, this could be helpful. I'm not that person. For me, it is helpful, though, to look at sites that others have grouped together. Maybe I could learn more about sites that might interest me by looking at those.

I could see a group of people in a library using this collectively. If I'm an expert on home repair, someone else on law, someone else on dog breeding, we could all consult each other's rolls when a patron has a question. Patrons, too, could create their own rolls for each other.

Finished with the Web Page!

Removing my old stuff and putting on the new worked. I had to call the help line because I forgot to save the page as "index.html." Now it's fixed. Hurray! Here's the link:


http://mkiley.myweb.usf.edu/