Reflections from "The Vision Place of Souls"

I arrived last night in Gettysburg, and as I do every evening I am not involved in an event or the weather is inclement, I visited a few favorite places on "this deathless field" to "ponder and to dream" in the words of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. I usually end by visiting Little Round Top to watch the sun hit South Mountain in the distance and then the Angle, near where my General Garnett was killed, to watch the sunset. No sunset tonight as the sky was overcast, but it is a place ripe for reflection, so I find it particularly appropriate to begin this post here.

When I was approached about the Library 2.0 Challenge, my first thought was: How exciting! I had been using several web 2.0 tools for months for personal use - YouTube, Photobucket. I had even attended a workshop, though I hadn't gone back to any of the sites I had joined *my bad*, but I had not explored many of the new tools popping up almost daily and had little understanding how they might be used in a library setting. My second thought was: This is going to be a lot of work!

And so it was. Both exciting and a lot of work. :-)

Just prior to the launch of the Challenge, I spoke with another organizer and we speculated on whether or not staff would be willing to engage in this challenge to discover, explore, reflect, even play. We hoped for maybe 10-15 participants. I was so amazed and delighted that we had over 30 staff members create blogs. We have lost a few along the way for a variety of reasons, but many of you have struggled and carried on. I can unequivocally state that I am so very, very proud of everyone. I have marveled at your creativity, your humor, your forthrightness, and your hard work. I have been tickled, excited, frustrated, tired, enthusiastic, thoughtful, miffed, determined. I have learned a bit more about my co-workers from the favorites wiki, your personal photos, and your insights. I learned a lot about myself *go me!* I learned about many web 2.0 tools I had little or no experience with and also about how much there still is to learn. I learned there are some I loved and now can't do without. I learned that some I had initially dismissed I now think I may wind up using after all. I also learned there were some I hated and want to have nothing more to do with. :-) And I am more willing to jump in and explore something new. I have learned to be less confrontational about change *who knew?* And I played - a lot!

I truly believe in the quote I shared from the introduction to the Challenge blog: "Nothing is a waste of time if it adds to the person you are." I hope this experience added to the people you all are.

I hope that from this shared journey, we don't lose what we have begun. I hope some of you keep your blogs (I would hate for all that creativity, wit, and insight to disappear) and continue to share your thoughts and experiences with each other. I hope that perhaps, whatever 2.0 tools we use in the professional sense (and boy, did you all have some great suggestions - and cautions!), that we use some tools just for us. That we perhaps create a staff blog to discuss real life work experiences. That we maybe create a staff LibraryThing group to share our own reading suggestions, etc. That we perhaps create a group to encourage each other in getting and/or keeping fit (I loved that suggestion. I'm in. I need all the encouragement and pushing I can get. I need to get back to my gym 'cause I have let my fitness lapse completely. Boy, you know you are in trouble when your former PT actually calls you and asks where the heck you have been!)

This isn't truly a Final Reflections post. I will actually answer the questions in Part 2. But I wanted to thank you all for going on this journey. It has been amazing.