Thing 23 - The End

Well, I've done it - I've finished this learning experience. Thanks to all those who contributed knowledge about Web 2.0 tools to the Canberra Learning 2.0 Blog.
It has been really interesting to finally find out what all the fuss is about and to use the tools and think about how they can be applied in a library setting. I particularly liked the Generators and Flickr Mashups - I can see a big use for those in producing displays. Del.icio.us and Wikis will be useful to share knowledge for both staff and customers but the thing I liked best and use the most at the moment are RSS feeds.
The only negative has been the time needed to explore some of the Things. But the positives of understanding the terminology and their application far outweighs this, I would definitely do another discovery program like this if it was offered. Thanks everyone.

Thing 22 - audiobooks

What a wonderfully eclectic bunch of titles. Everybody should be able to find something to read or listen to from this selection. eAudio and eBooks are such useful things for those who like to do something else while they listen to a story or want to read it from their computer when it is convenient. This is a Web 2.o tool that can be used pretty easily by lots of people and is good PR for any library that offers it.

Things 20 & 21 - YouTube & Podcasts

YouTube - well what can one say about this Web 2.0 tool. I'm afraid that it doesn't really appeal to me although I did laugh at the lady dropping the cake when someone emailed it to me. But I can't really be bothered to sort through thousands (millions?) of junky clips just to find the useful jewel. I haven't put a YouTube video on this blog because we are no longer able to access them at work - they are too space hungry - and I for one don't mind at all.
The above sentiments are pretty much the same for podcasts. I know that there are jewels out there but it takes time to find them. I found the podcast directories very confusing and hard to navigate. And when it comes to podcasts of presentations that I know will be interesting I'd much prefer to read them, particularly if they are quite long. I'm not sure I understand why you would want to have them as an RSS feed, they don't seem to be an ongoing sort of thing but appear for a very short time on a particular topic. Anyway not my favourite Tools.

Thing 19 - Web 2.0 Awards

I've found an interesting site that may be helpful both professionally and personally. I was very impressed with all the award winning sites there are but I only had a look at a few of them and found an absolute gem. http://www.lulu.com/ This was an award winner in the 'Books' category. You can do so much on it - simple to complicated. Sure it costs money to publish but think how much fun it would be to be your own publisher. Just the site to recommend to those keen library users who are members of writing groups.

Thing 18 - Zoho Writer

This is an experiment with Zoho Writer - what is it good for, can I actually add a comment but how will I read it? Try click. Yes!

Will the formatting transfer to other applications, like my blog? What if I change the font and colour and size? (There isn't a lot of choice of fonts) How to I get it over there? And really when it comes down to it how much different is it to Word and copying and pasting. Actually I'm not sure you can do that with a blog. I'll find out.

This is a test to see if I can cut and past from Word to my blog. I will change the font and the colour and the size and see if the formatting comes too– that is if it comes at all.

OK - that was interesting. Most of the formatting stayed with the Zoho test - the comment didn't come. The words came over from Word but none of the formatting.

Even more interesting and somewhat annoying is the fact that in my edit screen for the blog I can see the formatting from Zoho but when it is posted most of if changes. In edit I can see that the word 'size' is much bigger than the surrounding words, but when I publish it it is the same. Seems to defeat the purpose somewhat of having applications that "talk" to each other when the message gets garbled.

Thing 17 - add a wiki entry

This is proving an interesting exercise. I tried to follow the instructions 'click on edit at top of page' followed by 'add url with square brackets' however....edit was at the bottom of the page and the link wouldn't add when it had square brackets but seemed fine when I took away the brackets and just did a copy and paste of my blog url. I haven't signed out and in a again to check but it looks ok. Its a bit disconcerting to have pages and pages of people's favourite things but with no indication if they were added last week or last year. You can see when the page was edited but no info on individual additions. Well, I've checked - it's working.

Thing 16 - Wikis

I like the idea of Wikis - they seem to be a cross between a website/intranet and a blog. The ACT Public Library Blog doesn't allow comments to be added to it but if the library had a wiki that was restricted to library members it would allow customers to add feedback and contribute to booklists, favourite reads, reviews etc. Having a staff wiki would also provide a flexible way of gathering and disseminating information on such things as recommended websites, favourite books etc. Bull Run Library Wiki http://bullrunlibrary.pbwiki.com/ seems set up for customers more than staff, whereas the ALA 2006 New Orleans Wiki is for a specific group http://meredith.wolfwater.com/ala2006/index.php?title=Main_Page

Things 14 & 15

Technorati was interesting, it seemed like an attempt to impose some order and standardisation on blogs - a very library thing to do. I didn't sign up for it as I don't yet feel the need for people to be able to find my blog easily. But it is good to know that it is there if a want to find blogs on a particular topic.



I thought the article Into a New World of Librarianship by Michael Stephens http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/3.htm had a lot of sensible advice in it. Particularly the paragraphs on controlling 'technolust' and the need to understand 'content'.

There have certainly been a lot of words written about web 2.0 and it potential in libraries and I am going to add a few more with particular reference to public libraries. It worries me that Web 2.0 is seen as a way of enticing the 'digital natives' into a library when normally they wouldn't go near one - I think that the sorts of social networking that these potential customers like to use will have no effect on their library usage. Sitting at a computer trawling Facebook or YouTube or Flickr can be done anywhere and unless the library is going to spend big money on a lot of computers, thereby alienating lots of other users of the library, it is not going to attract the 'natives' with these tools (and shouldn't, I think). If we can think of ways to attract customers to use the space available in libraries for actual social networking perhaps initially via blogs or wikis which then lead to meetings of different groups that is innovative. If we just want a lot of extra computer users we might as well be an internet cafe. However there are loads of really good applications that can be used in a library situation to make life easier and more fun for staff and customers alike. Things like Mashups for displays, Wikis for communication, Rollyo and del.icio.us to help staff find relevant information fast and VUFind http://www.vufind.org/ to add value to the catalogue. To finish this rant I will quote Michael Stephens 'This librarian does not buy technology for the sake of technology. “Techno-worship” does not exist here. Without a firm foundation in the mission and goals of the institution, new technologies are not implemented for the sake of coolness and status. Technology is put to the test....'

Thing 13 - revisited

I have had an enourmously useful comment left on my last post which has shown me the sort of thing that del.icio.us can be used for. It would seem that it is a good way of sharing websites of interest to particular groups. So for example, in a library all the Readers Advisory sites could be on it and any staff member could access it and add other useful sites. I will definitely be exploring it further.

Thing 13 - del.icio.us

I have been quite confused about this Thing. But once I sorted out the terminology; bookmark = favourites I was happier. However at this stage in my life I don't think I need to spend the time exploring this tool. I can't honestly think if a reason for using it in a library situation and for my own needs using Favourites is quite adequate. I can rearrange my favourites list however I want and see at a glance what I have access to without signing in to yet another website.
If any other Canberra 2.0 bloggers can tell me of a wonderful use for it I will be happy to hear it.

Thing 12 - Rollyo

Another fun new tool - what a great thing for busy librarians. Choose all your favourite sites and search them and only them - fantastic! I am having a bit of trouble working out how to link to my search roll but will persevere. Ok I think I've done it. http://rollyo.com/explorer/canberra_culture/

On Tuesday I went to the 'Web 2.0 and its potential for the library community' seminar at the National Library. There were a lot of interesting and knowledgeable presenters and a vast amount of new information to think about and consider.

Play - Thing 10 & LibraryThing - Thing 11

Hi - I have been having a good look at generators - there are a lot of creative people in this world. I particularly like The Generator Blog http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/ it has an amazing amount of ways of manipulating text and pictures. I have had fun putting in names to have them translated into Chinese Characters. http://www.chinesetools.eu/names/
Australie 澳洲，澳大利亚 - prononciation (PinYin) : ào zhōu ào dà lì yà

I have also 'discovered' LibraryThing. I've catalogued some books and am still thinking about all the uses of the site. I'm not quite ready to open up my library to public view.

Things 8&9 - RSS Feeds

Hi, RSS feeds - any technology that starts with the words 'really simple' has got to be worth checking out. So I did and I like them. It's great to just log on to a website and see if any new 'stuff' has come in. I also like that you can mark and keep any item. I'm adding and subtracting different feeds as I decide if they're worth keeping or not.
I can see that they are a useful tool for busy librarians and customers. With time on the internet at a premium, a service like Bloglines is an excellent way of getting lots of information in the shortest possible time.
The tools that allow you to search for feeds on specific subjects are useful (Feedster is still offline) particularly if you are after a group of feeds in one subject area but it is more fun to find feeds randomly.

Thing 7 - Technology

I've come to the conclusion that technology is addictive. What would I do without my remote controls (all 5 of them), my oven timer (no one likes burnt cake) or my computer (I can do work on it, keep in touch with my family on it and play on it). But it is also pretty mind blowing to think that I can type this in Canberra knowing that anyone in the whole wide world might read it!

I worked out that someone had posted a comment to my blog - thank-you. Now I have to work out how to post a comment of my own.

That is another thing about technology - it constantly forces you to learn. This is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. I am having fun learning about Web 2.0 but it can be very frustrating when I want to watch a DVD and I have to use 4 remotes to do so.

Thing 6

I've been having a lovely time getting ahead of myself and learning new terminology and signing up for all sorts of fun Web 2.0 things. A bit much of Habit 71/2.





But.... I should be doing things in order so here is a post about Thing 6 - Exploring Flickr. As I said before great fun but very time consuming. I liked the idea of the photo mosaic but found it to be soooo slooooow. Mapr I thought might be useful if you liked scrapbooking/making lovely photo albums etc. I really wanted to have a look at Spell with Flickr but like a lot of things on the Web it doesn't appear to be online anymore - or at least I couldn't find it despite some quite extensive searching. I though the heading on the blog looked great and I was hoping to have some fun with it. Oh well never mind - on to the next Thing.

Exploring Flickr


This is an amazing site - a mind boggling number of photos are being uploaded every second, thousands and thousands of them.
You could spend hours looking at just a fraction of the images - an enormous waste of time. But on the other hand it looks like a really useful way to sort and organise your own photos.


How could I choose just one photo to put on my blog. In the end I chose one that has a slender library connection and a cat who looks very similar to mine. Hopefully this will inspire me to upload my own pictures.



http://www.flickr.com/photos/whooz_queen/57469110/

Welcome

Welcome to my first ever blog posting. Setting up was more complicated and time consuming than I expected but by utilising Habits 2 & 3 I have moved a bit closer to understanding the process. Habit 4 is the hardest for me to stick to, I'm much happier with Habit 71/2.

I'm looking forward to adding extra bits and pieces to this blog as I continue my journey.

Explorer