I am starting this post just after finishing our last "assignment" and before I have had too much time to think very deeply about the past few months. I have been reading the other posts and the blogs that I have been following - they are all pretty unanimous in being positive about our shared experiences. And yes, most of us would take another guided tour similar to this again.

There have been some pretty tough evenings when I was not sure if I was up to this challenge, and then evenings when I was definitely sure that it was not worth it. You are never too old or too tired to learn, but I have had my doubts - but perserverence paid off. The discipline to practice some of my new skills and even the vocabulary is another fresh goal for me.

I cannot imagine the challenge that the NLC staff faced in following all of us along this journey. Wincing as we stumbled along must have been painful, but at least humorous when you weren't pulling out your hair. Your patience was a godsend to us whiners and pokey puppies. (Susan, you are a kind soul.)

I use and enjoy Library Thing, Delicious, Picasa and I loved the PBWiki. That is social. Now these tools are being used to make my life easier and more efficient and even more fun (Web 2.0) but I am working on ways to apply them to the place I work (Library2.0). Hopefully that's not too backwards.

The surprises were in myself: some things that I thought I could manage easily were not so fun. And then when I would postpone a topic because it looked beyond my scope I sometimes found them intuitive. Or maybe that was just the week it was or the level of difficulty; a 1.1 maybe.

Sixteen weeks appeared to be plenty of time to accomplish these tasks - not so simple in reality. I found that I spent far more hours weekly than I had anticipated. Possibly breaking the program into two sessions of sixteen weeks covering half the material in each? Of course, there were those who finished before December 15th - and I told her she wasn't my BFF anymore.

It has been great. I would do it again.