Social Networking

Oh no, I knew it would come up. I am more familiar with facebook/my space than I have been with any other technology that we have looked at so far, but I have to admit I am not a believer. I can see the potential, certainly, but there seem to be some important concerns. My main, initial concern was the amount of time people waste on their facebook pages (having just come from university, this was very evident, as a common form of procrastination was decorating one's profile, finding new friends or playing scrabble etc with people on facebook.) But it also seems concerning that people collect friends like stamps, with little intention of really having a relationship with them - the aim is just to find as many friends so that people think you are popular. And don't get me started on the whole virtual worlds thing, to me, that is just plain creepy... Or maybe I am just cynical.

Online applications

Wow, there are so many things avaliable for free out there. The bargin-hunter in me is excited!! I was also pleased to see the guy from u-tube who explains stuff with his little paper cut-outs was back. I find it much easier to understand things when they are explained through this medium, rather then just reading the explanations - which I guess underscores the usefulness of this course, by introducing new forms of communcition which may be more effective than other, more traditional methods.

I can really see the usefullness of this online collaboration thing - I know what it is like to have hundreds of versions of the same document floating around on emails, and can see great potential for this to be effective and time-saving behind the scenes at the library. Organising newsletters, co-ordinating press-releases and other events, etc would be much easier if everyone could work on the same thing. THis was what appealed to me about wikis as well - the fact that things don't need to be updated individually.

More mashing...

I had fun looking at the different projects that Huge Big labs allowed me to create using my photos - some sounded and looked really interesting, and I will keep them in mind for use with my personal photos. (I just hoped that these kind of projects were the ones we were meant to make for this week, I couldn't find the word "mash-up" any where on the flickr page.)

This allows for some really interesting possibilities for library advertising, where we can use photos of the library etc in really unusual and professional lookng ways. Making posters using these techniques will certainly be more eye catching than the usual clip-art + publisher versions!

I am not sure I really understand the whole range of mash-ups though. I get that they are a hybrid of two web-based ideas which allow new and different uses, but I'm not sure I would recognise one if it wandered across my path. (perhaps I needed that guy who introduced the earlier weeks with his little videos to explain it to me.)

Mash-Ups

Wow, the images of stars that were avaliable through the star viewer were incredible!!

Answer boards

I have been putting into practice that which I have learned from this course, and actually posted a library related question on the yahoo answerboard. While I haven't actually received any replies yet, I was impressed that the things I have learned could so easily and quickly be applied to real work!

Librarything

Well, I'm afraid that all my attempts to embed a search widget in my blog for librarything were not no avail. Alas!! Well, I tried.

buttterflies

Tag-licious

Oh dear!! Somehow I am having serious difficulties with this week. I have started it, skipped it, returned to it and now I am determined to finish it!! I wonder if anyone else is finding this week particularly challenging? I think the problem stems from the fact that I am not a very prolific bookmarker normally, and so the idea of a way to manage this has not really occurred to me because it doesn't take much effort to find what I am looking for in a bookmark list of ten sites!!

I can see the usefulness of this system, however. My mother suffered intense frustration recently because she changed her server and lost her carefully hoarded bookmarks, so having a system where they are accessible independent from your PC could really make life easier.

I checked out the 'tag cloud' (which is, by the way, quite a poetic name for a list of web addresses) of Sutherland library and Cleveland library and the first thing I was struck by was the usefulness of having a list of addresses whose content has been vouched for by the library. Sometimes I waste ages on the web trying to find information, and only accessing addresses from which the information seems a little dodgy. Using tags which other, more informed, people have found useful helps to avoid this situation. It also allowed me to find information which I may have had a little trouble looking for but which was really interesting, such as the transcript of the PM's apology speech, or death, funeral and tribute notices in the SMH. I really enjoy reading newspaper tributes because they are so touching.

I created my own delicious account, and am in the process of finding bookmarks to decorate it with. I quite enjoyed the process of selecting tags for the sites (I felt a bit like a cataloguer) and found the way the site suggested popular tags that had been used for the site before helpful. Being able to keyword search bookmarks does seem handy - a bit like having a little, personally selected web.

On a totally different point, I have joined a wiki for work relating the youth activities, and wanted to show off the fact that I am putting into practice what I have learned!!

Pod casts

This is about the first piece of technology that I have recognised in this program. Yay!! Podcasts are great for being able to catch radio programs when you miss the airing, or if you come in half-way through and discover something really interesting, and want to hear the start, or if there is something important that you want to keep the information on for future reference. I didn't have a television for a really long time (See, I am a really late starter to the technology revolution) and so radio was really important, but sometimes difficult to use. (have you ever tried to take notes from the radio so that you can remember the info later?) Podcasts overcome so many of these problems.

I can see a lot of potential for this technology in the library field. In the same way that the videos we looked at in week 6 allowed remote access to library events, this offers it in a seemingly more accessible format. Author talks, storytime, cultural activities could be offered this way, allowing access to people who aren't physically able to make it to the event.

Answer board

I was really impressed by the 'slamming the boards' initiative. It seems like a great way to demonstrate the way that librarians are both willing and able to answer questions about a great variety of subjects. In our library, we often struggle to find interesting questions for our reference librarians to answer, perhaps because people are just not aware of the type, breadth and wealth of help that they can offer. By bringing their answering and research skills to a forum where people are already asking questions, they are able to clearly show how much reference librarians have to offer!!

I wonder if there is a way that this could be used on a smaller level. It would be really great if there could be a local library answer board where people from the local library could post questions and the reference librarians could answer them in the same way that yahoo!7answers work. The anonymity of this kind of forum also could be a bonus - people may feel they can ask questions they may feel silly asking of a real person. However, I don't think this could completely replace traditional reference interviews because there is no way to have interaction - it isn't really possible to clarify or expand the questions people are asking. But I guess this is the point of the internet and all this new technology - offering effective supplements, rather than replacements.

video online (week 6)

In some ways, videos seem like less useful technology than some of the other things we have looked at for libraries, mainly because they require quite a bit of work, and the quality can be quite variable. I am not convinced that the pay off is great enough to justify the effort. But I can see that if they are done well, they can really showcase things the library is doing, in a very accessible way, and one that is very widely disseminated. Mosman Library did offer insight into a way that video can be very useful, recording interviews talks so that people who didn't make it to the event can share it. This seems like a much more achievable way of using this technology. Perhaps other events such as storytime could be recorded in this way.

It's TV advertising, but at a price libraries can afford!! And they offer a far more interesting way of promoting what libraries do and what services they offer, but I'm not sure if they are not more time consuming than they are worth. Particularly for local libraries where the staff can help as soon as the patron enters the library. Still, I guess that a variety of forums allows access to a variety of audiences, and videos offer another way to reach the younger demographic, which could be particularly useful for encouraging students to better use their library.

I really enjoyed the extracts of the film about Olive - what a character!! This offers a great way for these stories and pieces of oral history to be recorded, because it is such a loss if the stories of the older generations pass away. One of my greatest regrets is that my grandmothers were not interested in telling stories of their early life, and so there is all this family history that has just been lost.

Nice to meet U-tube

I have always heard people talk about u-tube, describing great videos they had seen and which were really funny and just had to be watched. I had read an article recently which described the political force that U-tube was becoming, making and breaking campagns, particularly in America, but also in Australia, demonstrated by the use both Kevin Rudd and John Howard made of it. However, up to this point, I had never actually viewed any U-tube video myself. I began with some light entertainment - singing, dancing lego men, which, I admit, were actually quite amusing.

I had previously come across wikipedia and used it quite a bit to find out random information or find answers to trivial questions that came up. I had no idea that it came from a larger type of website that had functions other than allowing everyone to answer trivia. I can see how having a centralised place for people to share information and ideas could be very useful in a library context. When organising activities for young people, I often looked at other libraries' websites for inspiration or to find out what other libarians had found effective, however, using a wiki such as the library success story took this to a whole new level by allowing questions to be posed and answered, as well as ideas and feedback shared.

I can also see how wikis could be used to gain customer feedback and suggestions for the library. I am always seeking to gain teen involvement in the library and find out what books/activities they might like to see happen, and this allows this type of communication. Of course, there would always be the danger of graffiti and inappropriate comments, but I guess regular monitering of the site could minimise this.

This collaborative librarians' wiki seemed like such a good idea I thought I would include a link to ensure I found it again later.

I discover RSS

I had a few initial hiccups in subscribing to feeds. I clicked on the icons as instructed in the training video, but somehow ended up having these feeds saved in some very strange location on my computer's harddrive (at least I think this is what happened. In several years time, I may be able to discover their fate and whereabouts!) Finally I conquered the art of adding feeds, which was actually quite a proud moment. That is definatly one advantage to finding this stuff so difficult, the self-actualisation that results when things do what you mean them to!!

I really enjoyed the photos on the Powerhouse museum photoblog. I was particularly excited to see the beautiful photo of the chairs from the Paragon cafe in Katoomba. I come from the Blue Mountains originally, and can remember many cold mountains days spend drinking hot chocolate in the Paragon. As a kid, I always thought it was the most interesting and luxurious cafe - always did like that art deco style.

I tried searching for other library blogs to subscribe to, in order to get a feel for the ways this technology is currently being used by libraries. I was particularly interested in the ways that libraries used blogs to attract younger patrons, and advertise upcoming events. It seems a fantastic opportunity to reach teens by having a blog they can subscribe to, thus ensuring they are aware of all upcoming events. The biggest challenge I have found in orgainsing events for young people is trying to reach them through publicity. Advertising events in the library only really works if they already use the library, and can't really attract new users, but by presenting a blog, if they can be encouraged to subscribe to it, allows us to reach a whole new lot of teens. I guess the challenge then becomes making the blog attractive enough for kids to want to subscribe.

I was particularly impressed by the Mosman library blog, particularly the attractive pictures that accompanied the posts. The beautiful image of the sun-bathed lop-sided fence that headed the post about the legal information kits avalible was a good example.

Finally, the warning offered in the training video on u-tube was very relevant. Checking all the new incoming information and reading the new posts could really become a great way to spend lots of time!!

realised I forgot to include the picture I was raving on about. Apologies!! Here it is
http://www.flickr.com/photos/elhawk/304274008/

I am really impressed by this technology. Flickr seems to be a really useful way to protect photos. My friend's laptop was stolen recently and the thing she was most upset about was the loss of her photos. I find that I rarely get around to printing off my photos and so the only copy I have is on my laptop. Flickr offers a great way of ensuring they stay safe.

Viewing the photos of the various libraries demonstrated the way that this technology can be used to promote library activities. Being able to see events and spaces in the library made the library much more acceptable and inviting, as well as offering people a chance to view the library before they come, or see what fun activities they could be part of.

There were so many photos available on flickr. I can easily see how much time could be, well, I hesitate to say wasted, but certainly spent, browsing all the weird and wonderful images. I really responded to the beautiful, warm colours in this Autumn tree, and the intricacies of the leaves and vines. I really love the contrast between the warm red of autumn trees and the cool weather that accompanies them.

my first day

hi everyone,
Sorry I am such a late addition to the learning 2.0 program. I am looking forward to learning how to use the various programs that are available now on the web. I have never been a very adventurous user of technology before - It took me years to master email!! I think, particularly as someone who works with young people, learning how to use these aspects of technology is crucial. It isn't enough to hide behind the excuse of being technophobic!

I am impressed by how easy it was to begin this blog - things certainly seem to have come a long way from the HTML that was presented in the video last week where you had to learn another language to be able to create things to put on the web. I guess this ease of access, and the ability for anyone to publish what they think in a place where it is publicly available provides a whole new dimension to democracy and free-speech. It seems like a great force to be harnessed for use in libraries, as well as a great way for up-to-date information to be disseminated throughout the community regarding library activities and initiatives.