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.