D. Today I spent about 3 hours at Family Support Network. Essentially almost all of that time was spent in preparation for a presentation I will be giving them next week. I brought in my laptop today because I can save files on it and that way I can still have Internet access, but don't have to go through their systems (and therefore their long training). Sandra helped me get my laptop set up and then I spent the rest of the time working by myself in my cube. I am trying to make this presentation as professional as possible so first I sent out a Google calendar invite to Tami, Sandra, and Kelly, who I will be presenting to next week. Then I used the Presentation program on Google Docs to create a presentation. The presentation basically covers: a summary of the FSN needs in a resource center, Koha, LibraryThing, a comparison of the two, and then a formal recommendation that LibraryThing. After reading the articles Dr. Bird sent me and the time I spent in LibraryThing yesterday and today I strongly feel that it would be a great program for them and would meet their needs. I also looked at the word document where FSN has listed all of their resources. I counted their resources to get a ballpark figure about how many records they had. They had about 320 pamphlets, 40 books and videos, and 60 websites, so just about 400 total. These numbers are necessary because of the limit of records that LibraryThing has (5,000). After I completed the presentation I went to check in with Sandra and Kelly before I left. Both of them were very excited to be this far in the process and Sandra told me that she had sent a blurb about the project to the FSN main office for North Carolina in Chapel Hill. That office was also very excited about this project.
E. My major emotion today was excitement. I really enjoyed making the presentation and I tried to make it very professional, hopefully next week when I present they three listeners will agree with my suggestion. I feel like this week I have really been in the role of a consultant and now I am making a recommendation to the board. I feel that I need to present koha to them to explain what I originally thinking, although I will be honest and hope that they are not interested in it at all and that they can see why LibraryThing is better for their needs. I tried to be honest in my presentation mentioning and showing the pros and cons of both software choices. But I ended the presentation with a recommendation of LibraryThing and clear points as to why it is a better system.
AL. Sometimes it is hard to describe my learning when I spend my time alone with just me and my computer. I guess today I did learn the ins and outs of the presentation software on Google Docs. I don't like it as much as PowerPoint, but because FSN uses Google Docs almost exclusively for their documents I decided that Google Docs would be the best presentation program. This way I can also share the presentation with them so that they can keep it if they need it for future use. On a more personal note, I learned or had reconfirmed, that I work so much better when I am out of the house and in a desk space than when I am at home. Home has way to many distractions.
Overall I am very excited and looking forward to next week when I will be presenting my recommendations.
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