Week 15 - Delicious

or del.icio.us (as it was originally known - cute!!)

                                        
I understand the use of tags - we use Library thing tags in our opac as a readers advisory tool.
I do wonder how many patrons are aware of this though - perhaps a blog entry or web page item is needed.
However, although delicious tags had been added to our circ. desks browsers, I never used them.
I find Google is still the fastest way to locate required info, rather than trawling through random headings then hoping the links are (a) live and (b) useful.
Setting up delicious could be very time consuming too - akin to "tidying up" electronically.

Week 14 : Twitter

Twitter is used in our library - as an alert for upcoming events mostly, or re-tweeting items of interest.
Twuffer had been invoked in the past to save double-handling between Facebook and Twitter. I'm not sure if this is still in place.

I notice in the published blogs at the end of this session that many people indicate it takes quite a while to "warm" to Twitter. It still leaves me cold. Also, I think the initial question "What are you doing now?" has been expanded to include comment on current issues; viz. the tweets by pollies.

Week 13 : web 2.1

Changed the appearance of my blog as per instructions. Would actually like the old set-up back, but it doesn't appear to be available any more. Ah well, a change is as good as....

Week 12 - the final session.

Social networking, Facebook, My Space, Bebo etc.
Sorry, not interested. I'm a private person and don't want my stuff "out there", and, once again, it is so time consuming. The argument may be that it will operate like the annual catch-up (name escapes me) that was sent to many recipients, but where's the personalisation in that (and I'm not that interested in other people's lives either). Misanthropic, that's me!

Now, library uses - free feedback by the look of it, once the patrons are introduced. In terms of surveys though I would be a little careful - the sample is uncontrolled, the results may be skewed. Patrons may feel more comfortable posting queries "anonymously", but the responses need to be kept up to date.
The only site I found interesting was that of the BL (showing my cultural background maybe).

Anyway, thanks for the ride. I have been introduced to many and varied tools during this course, and now understand a few more terms relating to the interactive web (2.0).

Week 11
Online applications and tools - yes, could be very useful when collaborating. Wouldn't want to be working with sensitive material though - despite promises of "secure" etc, there are always hackers around. Fortunately most library work is not really of a sensitive nature.
I don't think I would have much use for this in my area of work, but it is good to be aware of the possibility.
I would imagine that our children's librarian could make good use of this when planning combined activities (flyers and media promotion etc).
The file conversion site Zamzar had me excited on behalf of our library clients who sometimes need to change the format of their word processing and picture files. I'm not sure how the time delay would affect them, though, they are usually after instant answers!

thanks Pikaluk for the photo from Flickr (except reading the conditions I find I shouldn't have "altered, transformed or built upon this work" - sorry, run out of time now to find a "no rights reserved photo"!)

Week 10 - Mashups.

BigHugeLabs looks fun, really.

I think Billboard and Slideshow functions could be used to promote upcoming library activities on a library web page or in a blog.

Mosaic could be a marketing "look what we did this year".

I decided to use a Flickr photo and the Warholizer, but had trouble finding one with "some rights reserved" - thus the end result.

My first thought had been to use our library photos, but even they had "all rights reserved".

Our team leader has produced a mashup of the mobile library stops using Google maps - a very useful product.

Podcasts and Audio:
Great. Time-shifting of radio programs, http://www.abc.net.au/services/podcasting/
access to the TV program I forgot to tape .... now, library applications?
Numerous I should think. Training, promotion, time-shifting of meetings for the library's part-time and casual workforce, storytime (vodcast of the craft activity, podcast of the story and songs), author talks, inclusion of remote clients, and then there are all the possibilities for client use, especially young adults (by the people, for the people), etc.
Revisiting the Library Success wiki http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page I have now bookmarked this too.
I think when I finish the course I might do a quick review of the units to consolidate an overview (unless, of course, that is what happens in week 12).