Category Archives: talks

A Much Happier Post

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | May 4, 2013 - 10:45 pm | , , , , , , , , , ,
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My last post was a serious downer, and I apologize for that. I debated skipping the medical stuff, but I really felt like I needed to justify my decision to back out of ALA—if not to everyone else, then at least to myself. (And enough people have asked “What did you do to yourself, Coral?” that it seemed worth getting it all written down somewhere I could share it, anyway.) Deciding not to do ALA was a hard call. People have been super supportive, though! I am really grateful for the amazing folks in the library world, and I’m glad … Continue reading →

Best Practices for Blogging

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | April 3, 2013 - 8:29 pm | , , ,
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I agreed to teach a session on “Best Practices for Blogging.” In case others are making these kinds of presentations, or other libraries are just now starting blogs (hey, we have a couple of new blogs, so surely others must, too, right?), I thought I’d share the best practices I’ve pulled together and leave the floor open for others to comment and add theirs. I’m focusing this talk on blogs by library staff, for patrons. But these best practices are also applicable to other kinds of blogs (and, arguably, I should follow more of them, here). Also, I’m really not … Continue reading →

ALA Midwinter 2013

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | January 30, 2013 - 1:44 pm | , , , , ,
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I’m combining my obligatory “lessons learned” post (past ones: here… and the others all got left in draft format) with my “how’d conference go?” post. I didn’t learn that many lessons—not enough for a full blog post—and, spoiler, I had a great conference. Quickly, my lessons: Get a prescription for sleeping pills before conference. Because, seriously, I laid in bed for hours before sleeping, each night, and it wasn’t even an uncomfortable bed. Sounds crazy, but here’s my theory: I squash down my inner introvert all day, at conference, and I act totally extrovert-like. But, as social as I enjoy … Continue reading →

Quick News Post

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | October 10, 2012 - 1:08 pm | , , , , , , , ,
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I have so many real posts queued up—some of them are even started! But I’m on what I hope is the tail end of a super hectic, um, year. I’ll share some quick news, though (bolded for quick scanning), because I want to tell folks about the things that are going on, and I don’t want to seem to have fallen off the face of the earth. Probably my biggest news is that I’m running for ALA Council—the link goes to ALA’s press release with the list of nominated candidates, not to any kind of Facebook page or other campaigning … Continue reading →

Bird TLC

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | September 4, 2012 - 12:31 pm | , , ,
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I am starting a new project, and I am super excited about it! So excited, in fact, that I’m writing all about it in my blog before I’ve even gone anywhere with it. :) There’s an organization in Anchorage that serves as a free veterinarian for wild birds. Part of their mission is also to educate people and to advocate for these birds, as well. It’s called “Bird Treatment & Learning Center,” or “Bird TLC.” As part of Bird TLC’s education efforts, volunteers can sign up to bring live birds to places (examples I’ve seen: libraries and schools, First Friday … Continue reading →

Librarians Build Communities talk at PNLA

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | August 4, 2012 - 12:42 pm | , , ,
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I talked (for what seems like the millionth time, though it’s not) about Librarians Build Communities at the Pacific Northwest Library Association conference, yesterday. This is what I gave as the description of the talk: Librarians have a set of very useful skills, which could benefit our local communities enormously. Librarians Build Communities is a program designed to match librarian volunteers with organizations in their communities, both to build partnerships between libraries and other organizations and to advocate on behalf of libraries and librarianship, by showcasing librarians’ skill sets. It is still in its early stages, with pilot projects in … Continue reading →

ALA Day 1

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | June 22, 2012 - 5:09 pm | , , , , ,
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(Numbering the day is no promise to write one of these every evening.) I’m on an iPad, so this will run brief (and choppy) for a post in a CoralBlog. It isn’t so bad to type on, but it’s slow. This was the first day of my first conference in a repeat location. (I attended Anaheim 2008, as an enrolled-but-not-yet-matriculated library student.) I am staying at the EL house, which is a bit of a walk, so I actually passed the hotel I stayed in the last time, which was cool. And then the giant tree I remember admiring, in … Continue reading →

Bits and pieces

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | February 20, 2012 - 4:34 pm | , , , , , , , , ,
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Google Plus OK, I don’t know how long this will be available (and I don’t know a better way to capture it forever than to play-and-grab with screen capture—any Elluminate Live wizards out there with a better plan?), but my Google Plus talk is available here. You’ll need to fill in the email address and name boxes, for some reason I don’t understand, but nothing will happen because of it—you can put in gibberish with an @ sign, and it won’t know. :) It isn’t the world’s best Elive session, but neither is it the worst. I wish I’d said … Continue reading →

Google Plus for Education

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | February 14, 2012 - 4:40 pm | , , , ,
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And now, after looking more into it and organizing my thoughts (as much as I ever do—see photo on left), I find that I actually have more than half an hour of content to cover, in my Google Plus for Education talk. Much more. But the online session is set to shut down right after 2:30, I believe, so I’ll have to restrain myself. (The in-person session went OK. Not amazingly, but not badly.) Here are the links I’ll share: Google Plus Cheat Sheet Michelle Stephens’s talk (57 minutes) on using Google Plus with students – covers the pros and … Continue reading →

#AkLA12 – Plan

  By Coral Sheldon-Hess | February 13, 2012 - 3:49 pm | , , , , ,
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I keep being asked if I have free time at the Alaska Library Association conference, coming up on February 23-26 in sunny Fairbanks, and I keep having to look up my registration. So I thought I’d share my schedule (even though I’ve learned not to post ahead of time what I’m going to attend). This way, I’ll have it in an easy-to-view format, and I’ll be able to share it. Plus, I haven’t planned all my meals, so I’m hoping to make plans with folks (look for bold text). :) If I put a star (*) by it, I’m either … Continue reading →