Final Thoughts

Well, even though I was away I think I was able to catch up on all the weeks of this program. The only thing I may not have written about is Zoho. I'm on there now and writing this in Zoho. This is a fabulous thing for those people who just hate the MS monopoly. It can be used as a kind of political statement. I personally believe that the Gates family does much good with their money so I'll likely stick with the obvious but you never know when you'll be on a computer that doesn't offer the MS office products.

So, thoughts about this program? Hmmmmm. I would say that my favorite discovery was not so much a product I learned how to use as it was the creativity and effort that my fellow staff members put into their blogs. It was a real eye opener to learn about those we work side by side with but don't really get to delve into.

As I opined in the beginning of this exercise my goal is to not be left behind in the information age. So many times we have patrons come to the library - men and women my age - who use their age and supposed lack of work experience as a badge of pride in their ignorance of basic computer skills. I don't ever want to be one of them. I don't understand how people can expect to function in society without joyfully embracing the sense of accomplishment that comes with being a lifelong learner.

Technology is changing at the speed of light and I worry that we'll never have the time to really keep up. Unless one uses these various programs every day one could never become truly adept at all the fine tuning that can be done. I love the concept of this program and I applaud the library administration for encouraging us to participate as part of our work day. I'm wondering if there was 100 % buy-in from those in supervisory positions though. I've heard some grumblings from staffers who simply cannot find the time in their busy day to give this learning and discovery experiment the time that it deserves. Even those of us who were already experienced at many of these applications cannot come close to doing what's required in an hour a week. The result is that we are working on this from home or multi tasking like mad. I think there needs to be a more organized way of making sure that all staff members are allowed equal time to work on an all-staff learning project. Other than that, I feel that this was a fabulous idea and I would likely participate in another such program if it was about a subject that I was even remotely interested in. Since I'm a librarian, I guess we'll assume that it would be!