Social networking

On a personal level this is the one area we've looked at in all the library 2.0 training that leaves me cold. I can understand the attraction of Facebook etc if you are geographically isolated but it eludes me why people near each other would choose to spend hours on the computer rather than visiting or even talking on the phone. I must be getting old!!!!!
However, I can see that if we want IT savvy people to engage with libraries, then we have to meet them where they are. Some of the library, museum and art gallery sites on Facebook, Bebo and My Space are quite good and I can see that they really promote these services well, plus allowing people the chance to give feedback or just talk to staff etc. It would take a commitment of resources (especially staff time) to set these sites up and maintain them. The key is keeping them current, interesting and eye catching or they actually work to the detriment of the organisation. I would be reluctant to take this on in our library unless the process is properly resourced and budgeted for each year. That way we know that someone will be working on it constantly and we will always present a good image. If we can do that, then these applications have great potential for us and keep us more relevant in an increasingly technological world.
Note: Second Life, Avatars etc - I am definitely the wrong person to comment on these. I try hard to understand the attraction but have to admit I've failed miserably. Good luck to those of you addicted to this pastime. I'm sure you enjoy yourselves immensely. I'm quite happy with my social contact person to person and I get great enjoyment from a good book!
This is the end of the library 2.0 training for me. I've found the program to be excellent. I was nervous at the start but have found it all extremely informative, well structured and enjoyable, except for the immense stress involved in actually choosing what to put on this blog. Congrats to the State Library for offering it. I feel I am more comfortable with some of these new technologies than my own children (who are in their early 20s) so a big thank you for allowing me the chance to develop this knowledge. Please don't remove these links from your website for a while. If I can't remember what something is called or where to go to find it, I just get onto the library 2.0 website and it is all set out for me. Au revoir!

Google Docs etc

I can see that these online applications can be very useful if I am working with people outside Council - in Council we have the T drive! I'm working with different community groups on an early literacy program, including grant applications, and it would be handy to have the document stored on Google Docs or Zoho for us all to work on.
Knowing about the availability of online word processing, spreadsheets, powerpoint etc will help provide a better service to our customers. So many of them come in wanting to use Word, save their docs to the hard drive and then get angry when they lose it all at the end of their session and the computer reboots. This way I can advise them to save them online and it doesn't matter which computer they are at they can access it. I know they could also save it to a disk, CD or memory stick, but this is a good alternative.
Google Docs is very easy to use.

Mashups

Interesting concept and I can see how it could be very useful. I've seen a commercial version in Mapping Country - where they use information from Council on a BM map to show Aboriginal sites etc. It would be interesting to get the postcodes and country locations of the many tourists we have coming in asking to use the Internet. Putting them on a map may be an easy technique for showing counsellors why we need the latest in IT to keep our customers happy!
I read the comments on mashups and was interested in PamL's where she says that apparently most mashups breach copyright. Something to think about before we dive in!
I tried creating a mosaic of my travel photos but could get it to work. I checked the Flickr address and it seemed ok. I'm hoping someone in blogsworld can help!!!
In the end I went for the easy mashup and did the map. It includes my last holiday and planned destinations for my holiday in '09. I'd love to end up with all Europe in the 'red'.

Podcasts

This is one of the training sessions that really spiked my enthusiasm. I've always wanted to listen to podcasts of 2BL radio shows that I've missed but never got round to doing anything about it. Now that I've found them and can see what's available, I can't wait to get my Ipod back from my daughter and start downloading!!!
The other great thing is the Online Education Database in the Adventure section. What a wonderful resource - free online classes from Stanford, UC Berkeley, MIT, Harvard, UCLA, the list goes on. I've found heaps of topics I'd like to listen to, now I've just got to find the time.
How we could use podcasting in our Library? It could be a great tool for 'How to' on our catalogue and homepage eg how to make a reservation, how to get an ILL, how to do a list of DVDs etc. It's an easy way for people to get the information they want, quickly. We could use them for local studies, family history, searching on the Internet etc. I'm not quite sure how you actually make a podcast - I'm assuming a microphone, software and willing staff member are crucial ingredients!
Well, I'm off to listen to: String Theory, Black Holes and the Laws of Nature from Harvard - and I won't have a HECS debt at the end of it!

Yahoo!7Answers

Well I've just found out the major problem with doing a reference inquiry on an answerboard. If the Internet is slow (and mine certainly was) it takes forever to move through different sites trying to find the answer. I was searching for information on radiation ecology. I found only one decent site on Google and Yahoo - the University of GeorgiaLII - and it took 15 minutes to finally log onto to lii, only to find it had no references! I searched on Metacrawler, Dogpile, Altavista and Lycos and still only found one decent site. I've put that answer in but know I could do better - if only my stupid computer wasn't so slow and it wasn't 10.30 at night!!!! It certainly is quicker with an encyclopedia in hand!
If I get some free time at work I might look at Yahoo!7Answers again and have another go.

Slammin' the Boards

I have to admit that I had no idea there were all these sites dedicated to answering people's questions. No wonder we have so few reference inquiries in our libraries today! It is a bit of a concern that people are asking complete strangers to give them answers to often quite technical questions. I'm sure some of them were for uni or school assignments! They certainly didn't look like your average question. Consider this question: What potential is selected in chronoamperometry? I for one, was not going to volunteer to answer that one!
I'm glad to see that there is a Librarians Answer Board which should ensure that the answers are of a good quality plus it allows us to promote the skills we have as librarians, but I wonder who has the time to take this on? I thought our new ISC might give it a go, but I'll have to wait until they start to run it by them. I'd love to have a go at some of them, because I do so few reference inquiries today that my skills are getting rusty. Maybe I'll just have to 'find some time'!!!!!
Getting our customers to rate our services and collections would be very challenging. Firstly it's often hard to get people to become involved - look at the difficulty we have getting members of the public to comment on Readers in the Mist! If, however, we could get people to comment, it would be a good way to get feedback and find out if what we are doing is meeting people's needs. Getting ratings on items on our catalogue could actually become a readers advice tool. Getting ratings and comments on programs we run could also help us make sure we are providing what the customer wants. It certainly is food for thought!

RSS feeds news feeds

2nd attempt to add an RSS news feed to my blog. I've chosen the Powerhouse Museum feed.

Library Thing

I love it!!!! I've started my own account and have added a few books, and had great fun doing it - I suppose that's my cataloguing alterego coming out. I've got quite a few older books (early 1800 publications) that have been left to me by various relatives. Library Thing allows me to create a list of them all and look for similar records and holdings in a variety of places. I can see great value in this. These books are now in the public arena, in a way they never would have been if they'd just sat on my shelves. Also, if the worst happens and they get destroyed, at least I have a record of what they were. This also could help with insurance claims - but I'd have to investigate further along those lines. I'm telling all my book reading relatives and friends about this site - I think they'll love it.

del.icio.us

Del.icio.us seems like a good tool to help me organise my bookmarks. I find it difficult to get my head around the idea that anybody else would be interested in my personal, as distinct from work, bookmarks. I can see that it would be an excellent tool for sharing good websites for reference inquiries. Could be an excellent tool for our staff to be able to share their knowledge and to make it easier for us when handling difficult questions.
However, I still wonder when I will get the time to write on my blog, check my RSS feeds, add to the entry for Lithgow on Wikipedia and, now, add more bookmarks on del.icio.us - let alone look at and comment on other peoples blogs! I shall add to my bookmarks over the next few days and see how useful del.icio.us is when I want to organise things.

Embedding a video

Hope this works

You tube

I've watched the You tube videos and surprised myself - I enjoyed some of them! Olive's return to Broken Hill was heartwarming and, at times, funny. Great way to present enjoyable local and oral history. She's a feisty old dame! I hated the timelapse construction video for the State Library of Qld. It made me feel sick watching it, and I had to keep looking elsewhere. Obviously it would be good to document the construction of a new library (thinking here of the new Katoomba Library!) but not using timelapse for that amount of time. Maybe short tours of the site at different intervals of the construction?
Book reviews - The Dr Dyl Show... what can I say!!!!!!! I think it would work very well for children and teen book reviews, and even for book groups with specific themes (I can see a Star Wars/Trek group doing video reviews - but maybe that's my biased perception!) Something for our Childrens/YA team to think about? Maybe they could work for adult book reviews - I would like to see a professional job for this, which is a bit outside our scope. But, yet again, that could be my own bias.
I can see great potential in tours of the library - especially of specialised collections. A tour showcasing our local history collection would be great. If we put it on You Tube it will reach people who may not normally come in and ask to look at this collection. Also staff updates and training delivered by You Tube would work well in our multi-location library service. Great potential to reach casual staff as well. We just need to find staff willing to stand in front of the camera!
Artexpress - I can see that these videos (there were lots more on both the shows and the process went through to create the art works) would be used a lot by art teachers and students. Great resource for parents trying to help their kids with HSC art. We could use video to promote exhibitions we hold. I think of the photographic competition held a few years ago. We could have taken video of putting the displays together and then the function when the winners were announced.
First thing we need to do is purchase a library video camera that is 'idiot proof' so we can practice making some videos. 2nd thing we need to do is find time to do all this stuff!!!!
Looking at Google Video. Much longer videos are possible. The ones for Mosman Library are talks of around 45 minutes. However the quality of the picture is poor and I hated watching them. I listened rather than lookedg at them. I really enjoyed the Peter Fitzsimons talk about Kokoda. The story about Nancy Wake is especially funny.

George Orwell diaries

So yet again I haven't loaded the link to a webpage properly. Here's my 2nd attempt at the link to the George Orwell diaries

You Tube

I found some very corny library videos. Brisbane Library needs to have a good look at itself, though it was a good choice of music - U2s I still haven't found what I'm looking for! I enjoyed Lego Indianna Jones as well. If you want to watch a great video, check out Christian the Lion

Library 2.0 wiki

I've just added my bit to the SL wiki under branch manager. I agreed with most of the comments - especially the ones about the public thinking you don't need any training to be a librarian and their perception that we read books all day at work!

RSS update

I've just been checking my RSS feeds and have found some interesting stuff! Like Leonard Cohen is 73 and performing live to great acclaim. Being a Leonard Cohen fan from the 70s it does my heart good to see that 'music to slit your wrists by' is still appreciated. This was from the Guardian.co.uk.Books feed. Neil Diamond is 67 and also still performing to appreciative audiences - I bet they're not climbing trees to watch him.. Hullo Tree People!

On Librarian.net they mentioned the Internet Public Library. It seems to be like our Ask a Librarian but American based. All new stuff to me! Very apt cartoon that says - Public Library: Like Wikipedia only it takes 4 hours!

How about this one: Librarian fired for writing book on patrons - "A library employee in this Lake Michigan resort community has been fired for writing a book that describes a range of unpleasant patrons, from the merely unpleasant to online sex fiends, in a town she calls "Denialville." Imagine what we could write about some of our customers!

And my final interesting item - the diaries of George Orwell are being released daily in blog form 70 years after he wrote them. Check it out at:

Wikis

Now that I can upload a photo, I've moved on to wikis. I see wikis as a great way of amassing knowledge from different sources. It gives people with lots of knowledge the chance to share it with us lesser mortals. I think they would work well in areas of interest, like hobbies etc where people can share their experience and know-how with other interested people. This would also apply to work places - and would ensure all people have access to the same information. Our procedure manual is a great example (and so much easier to use than the old one). However, I have got concerns about the quality of knowledge that is shared eg on Wikipedia, and the potential for people to hijack information or manipulate it to suit their own views. I read in the paper this week about a call from the P&C Association for kids to be tested on accessing quality information on the Internet - great idea!!! We will really come into our own if this happens.
Enough of my ramble - back to the wikis. I loved the SJPCL subject guides - and spent quite a while looking at how to reasearch the history of my house. Amazing how Star Wars has entered the lexicon - I knew instantly what Wookipedia was going to be about before even going to the site. It must be heaven for Star Wars nuts!
I loved the Hennepin County Library - Bookspace. Some great ideas there for Readers in the Mist.
The next generation catalogues are going to be great. Such a blurring between bookstores and library catalogues. I'm sure the public will be happy to use a catalogue with so many extra features and which is so intuitive. The Google Book Search on John Keats was good - I enjoyed reading snippets of his poetry and having the chance to read more if I chose to.

2nd attempt to upload a picture

Hope I have more success this time

Adventure

I tried adding a news feed to my blog, but had no luck. Every link I copied came up with an error in the edit page. I think I'll slink away now and go read the newspaper, instead of trying alternate news sources!

RSS feeds

I've subscribed to 11 RSS feeds - a selection of library, books and current affairs. I'm having a ton of fun looking at them all and have to resist the urge to subscribe to more. Information overload is quite a risk with such a variety to choose from. I like the fact that I can stay current with areas that interest me. I'm always checking the ABC website for news, so the RSS feed will suit me. It's especially useful during the Olympics!

Picture

I've no idea what I did wrong adding the picture to my blog. If you want to see what the picture looks like, click on the cross in the top left hand corner!

Water cube

Searching Flickr was a lot of fun. What photo to choose to put here! I found lots on my home town - some of which I can't be sure were of my home town (they certainly didn't look familiar to me!) When all else fails - go for the Olympics shot. I found lots of smoggy Beijing and some great shots of the birds nest. But this one of the water cube took my eye.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nanoflux/2751792862/

Blogging for beginners 1

I find this whole process a tad stressful. I have only ever looked at other people's blogs and have had no desire to create my own, and indeed wonder why people want to!!! However, I know I can't hide from Web 2.0 so should at least understand how it all works.
I'm a passionate believer in lifelong learning and am always looking for new opportunities that increase my knowledge and challenge me. And thinking of what to write in my blog certainly is challenging!
I've just come back from the PLC conference at Tamworth and heard Chrystie Hill speak on building online communities. Fascinating stuff - makes me realise how much is happening on the web that the library world has no part of! It certainly is different thinking of all these new ways for libraries to engage with people, and not just those who walk in the front door. I suppose the challenge is to still provide great service to those who do walk through the door, while cultivating a new clientele out there in webworld.