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).

Ah, this looks more like it. Tips and tricks are helpful if answering the questions, and I have bookmarked Snappy Fingers as a useful tool.
It would be good to promote Australian libraries in the responses. Is there any way to determine from where the questions emanate? I presume that Yahoo!7Answers is an Australian website, and thus most questions are from our compatriots.

I have found rankings of hotels and travel tours to be of use in my personal searches, and can see the value to our clients of Library Thing.

I enjoyed this module more than the last - there was less to digest for a start!

Week 7 - Social bookmarking.
"Overwhelming" describes my initial reaction.

Delicious strikes me as a twee name - after all, the US don't add a country to their domain names.
So, get over that reaction, and then wonder what happens if the web page disappears? We have links to pages on our Online Reference library and the urls do change sometimes, requiring manual editing. If the web site goes, do the tags go too, or will I be directed to a 404?

Is this "manual" cataloguing any more useful than Google's mindless but comprehensive trawling?

Technorati looks helpful if searching for blogs, although once again Google offers a blog search.
The instructions are a little unclear. Step 2 mentions searching in keyword, OK. Results =192, then in Advanced with Language=English, results = 152.
However in step 4, nswpln2008 didn't return any results until I checked some comments and searched in the tag field instead.

Library thing looks like a fun place to check out other people's recommendations, but too much like work to set up for myself!

From a library point of view, opac and Library thing links would be beneficial.

Lacemaking in Belgium

Video online this week.
Until now I have only used video online when I have managed to miss recording the last few minutes of a TV show!
It has been very handy for this task, but actually filming and uploading is a whole new world.

The examples of uses are interesting, but I found the "welcome" to new employees a bit offputting - too impersonal. Mosman library's author talks are a great idea for those that can't attend. I presume the authors gave their permission for the recording of their speeches.

YouTube doesn't excite me in an exploratory way, but it could be a useful adjunct for ephemeral information. I notice that searching on Google videos brings up links to YouTube sites, so I think I'd stick to Google (the one-stop shop).

Lace-making in Belgium: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qbvlcZxqK4

Funny cats: http://video.google.com.au/videosearch?q=lacemaking&emb=0&aq=f#q=cats&emb=0

Further to the last post, Bloglines seems to return an "Internal Error" message rather frequently, but re-clicking the link will sometimes bring up the site. I have many mouth-watering recipes from one of my RSS feeds!

Wikis this time. Enabling the opac as a wiki sounds like a useful idea. Patron reviews can assist with reader advisory services. I suppose someone needs to monitor the entries though, library tasks are changing are they not?

Blogs seem to be of the moment (eg. promoting current events) whereas a wiki is more of a reference tool. Sharing information and ideas globally online is very powerful, and a little overwhelming, until I remember that is what books do too, just not online.

RSS

I have just set up some feeds, including the Powerhouse "Picture of the day" (which I set up with the url) but then there was a problem with the Bloglines database or an internal server error or both, so that put a stop to my additions.
I'll try again later.

As some other bloggers have mentioned, this facility could be a useful marketing tool for libraries, promoting events and linking like-minded patrons.

I belong to a couple of listservs which seem to do a similar job to RSS, although I note someone mentioned that they have to be mediated - a lot of work for a person, rather than the automated set-up of RSS.

Found a cute cow, but discovered the photo was licensed - better not use that one. I do have my holiday snaps on Flickr - it was an easy way to show friends and family, although I had to burn a CD (to be played on the DVD player) for the Luddites. Interesting to see library activities logged in this way - "a picture is worth a thousand words" or so it was said.

This photo doesn't seem to be restricted: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jolivillage/3159627801/

and it is beautiful.

first post

OK, blog's up. That went fairly smoothly except for DECISIONS! I hope I have disguised myself sufficiently unlike the wiki we had to set up. I do feel that all this contributes to the information overload that is prevalent today. Anyway, maybe I'll feel differently by the end of the 12 topics.