Some College & Career Related Websites

Did a last-minute presentation last Tuesday in which I spoke to parents about some websites where they could explore college and career-related topics with their kids.

Here they are for your perusal as well. . .

http://www.ilcis.intocareers.org/ - Sponsored by the Illinois Career Resource Network this has a career exploration feature for kids called “CIS Junior.” TIP - Create a free profile if you don’t want to loose the results of the interest inventory your child can take. Adults may find helpful job resources on their main site at http://www.ilworkinfo.com/icrn.htm which is powered by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. I highly recommend this site for students. Start early thinking about careers and interests !

http://www.collegezone.com/ - Sponsored by the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, this site has an online exploration center where you can discover your career interests, get matched with colleges via Illinois Mentor, find out about financial aid and much more. There is a listing of programs/speakers/events on their website as well.

http://www.collegeboard.com/ - Sponsored by the College Board, the organization who hosts the SAT and publishes many college guides and helpful educational resources. Their “college search” feature expands your search outside of Illinois and allows you to find schools that may be the perfect fit yet not necessarily ones of which you’ve ever heard. Lots of other information too!

http://chooseyourfuture.org/ The website for the Chicago Public Schools Department of College and Career Preparation includes listings of what to do each year of school and ways to make sure you are preparing now for college and investigating your options. They have online programs for college/career exploration, Choices Explorer and Choices Planner. These are similar to ISAC’s Illinois Mentor, but you must be a CPS student.

ENJOY - Jana

New Thoughts & Actions 2009

Yes, it is a new year and as usual I anticipate the possibilities and think of new schemes - I am going to post at least a couple of times on this blog, although I confess I'm becoming more of a facebook junkie than necessary - it keeps me away from thinking about all things Web 2.0 and being an information specialist. Yes, I am still that helping out kids as a librarian at a not-for-profit music school here in Chicago.

As for my "new thoughts and actions" in 2009 or my, don't say it, resolutions, I will list the following -
1) Keeping up with information happenings and posting here 2x a month.
2) Networking with other information specialists and making an effort to hang with new people.
3) Being more in touch with the spiritual - my relationship with Jesus and daily walk with him.
4) Performing music at the homeless shelter and senior center, yet looking for additional trumpet gigs as well.
5) Adopting a dog.
6) Considering a move to a bigger apartment that allows dogs.
and finally . . .
7) Making a difference in the world - forgetting myself and seeking for a life of service, living my most heroic life as God calls me - it's not what I want from this world, but living the kind of life the world needs from me.

****Consider reading Wide Awake: The Future Is Waiting Within You by Erwin Raphael McManus (Author) . That is my first read for the new year and hearing him at the Breakthrough Urban Ministries Banquet in November was a life changer.

Library 2.0 Spectrum

Though my current job is primarily face-to-face customer service with young kids, teens and their parents, I am very excited about the possibilities of Web 2.0 and updating myself through research. Still looking for my dream Library 2.0 job. However, like any hobby, these interactions via the Internet and keeping up-to-date are very time consuming. I partially utilize social networking as a performing musician, yet I never want to replace the live community of performing and rehearsing. Finding the balance is the key, but I do believe I am further to the right than the left. This said only 2 days before America's big 2008 Presidential election :)

If you are a librarian, where are you along the Library 2.0 spectrum?

Full article from which I took this graphic at - http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/08/01/am-i-a-20-librarian-and-the-library-20-spectrum/

Navigating Information Clutter - Mindmap

An academic librarian with a keen visual way to navigate information overload and clutter has given us a great educational tool.



Check out more of Keither Stanger's ideas and great content at http://keithstanger.com/. I could explore his recommended websites, webblogs, and other web development resources for hours.

Hats off to Keith, a librarian at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti!

Scrapblog - Worthwhile Web 2.0 Resource

Just found out from a friend about an online scrapbook that allows one to organize photos and videos in a creative fashion. Move over "Creative Memories" and home-based scrapbook clubs - Web 2.0 is taking over your domain. Scrapblog has been around since Fall 2006, but is now catching some media attention with recent spots on ABC and NBC. (Oct 13, 2008 Scrapblog's Blog)

As stated on the website "Create stunning multimedia scrapbooks. Share them online with family and friends and print them." By the way, due to copyright issues, the embedded music choices are limited, however, my friend got around this by linking to sound files which were located on other websites.

SEE - http://www.scrapblog.com/

Conveniently enough, the currently featured scrapblog "Italia 2007" is of a person's visit to the three Italian cities which I visited last fall - Rome, Florence, and Venice. I'm thinking my first scrapblog will not replicate this but be an educational one . . . still plotting.

Thanks, Phil for sharing this fun resource with me. Keep sharing your ideas and creativity . . .