Thursday, December 11, 2008

Wrap up; social networks & catch up

As an avid Facebook user - love that I've 'found' friends that I haven't seen since I finished school - I can see so many uses for public libraries with social networks. We could set up a page for the library and use it to advertise special collections, new books, reviews, events, storytelling times etc. While social networking works really well for teenagers (an audience that we desperately need to attract BACK to the library) I think that they work really well for the older audience (my generation) of the 20-35 yr old too.

Online applications & tools

I really, really, really like google docs. At the moment we share a common drive on the library server & only one person can edit or contribute to it a time. How much time would be saved in day to day word processing etc if we could all access a document at the same time? We could have our roster, for example, online which would allow our casual/volunteer staff to look at the roster online at home & not ring or come & see us to confirm work. (that's if I'm on the right track with this) or if we're all consulting on updating a policy or creating a new one, we could all be contributing ideas & editing at once. So much more convenient. Quite impressed - one question though? How secure is this? Can it be locked down so only designated people can access it?

Mashups


I enjoyed playing with bighugelabs -

this is one of my all time fav pics taken on a family holiday 3 yrs ago!!! Mashups would be a good tool for promoting children's activities - a big plus for me! I could link photo's & events & google for example if I was promoting an event away from the library so parents/carers could find it. Or create a mashup that shows the library & branches for newcomers to the area.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Podcasts

I can see how 'how to' podcasts could be useful - both as a training tool for other or new library staff AND for patrons i.e. 'how to create your own email account.' I like that you can subscribe & than listen/watch at your own convenience. In today's go at 150% ALL the time, that has to be an advantage. I'd like to see us start something along the lines of teen podcasts - for the teen users of our library by other teens. Maybe book discussions? I listened to one on the ABC which was interesting. These podcasts actually would help when someone comes in & says I missed part of a program - where can I get it?

Thursday, December 4, 2008

Answer boards

I really like this - what a good PR thing for library staff!?! Customer service & PR all at the same time!!!! I'd like to see us put a link like this on our webpage - how cool would a link where a patron could input a question & one of their own library staff could answer it - like we do face to face but in this technological era, libraries need to embrace and not hide from using technology to do their day to day business. And INFORMATION is our business.

Library Thing

I've done what was required on librarything - have to say though, that I prefer Shelfari. That could be because I've used it for over 12 months & am more familiar with it. As I've already said, tags are a personal thing. As a cataloguer, I look at some tags & shudder. I know this sort of site is good for the general library user & tags would make finding their books/info easier for them but that will only work if they are looking for the same tags as the person who put the tags on in the first place. http://www.librarything.com/home/GIKate

del.icio.us

I've created my del.icio.us account and bookmarked my pages, added some tags, http://delicious.com/GIKate - while I think this is a good idea for general use, I'm a bit dubious about using tags as a research tool purely from a professional standpoint because tags are a personal choice. So, while one person may use 'dogs' as a tag another person may use 'dog' 'Kelpie' 'breed'. I think it could be little confusing - this is one of my main concerns with using librarything too.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

You tube

I've just looked at the suggested you tube & google video clips - WOW!!!! So much information - starting to feel just a tad overloaded!!! When I searched for lego on google video clips I found a Monty Python Camelot animation - very funny. http://video.google.com.au/videoplay?docid=99174057823861673&ei=MCoRSdyaOYSKqQODp7WHDg&q=monty+python+camelot+lego&hl=en
I think some how to's would be beneficial i.e. how to use the catalogue.

Wiki's

I've just looked at the wiki's suggested in Learning 2.0 - some things are just way over the top. The Montana state symbols were a bit of an eye opener. Made me go & look to see how many NSW has. Did you know that we have four as opposed to Montana's eleven? Quite liked the wookieepedia site, think anyone who seriously likes Star Wars would enjoy this - I know I did. And I enjoyed the Booklovers wiki - found a couple of reviews for some books that I might go and find.

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

RSS Feeds

Unfortunately, when I tried to use Bloglines it was unavailable so I'm going to have to come back & try it. I have used google reader & added RSS feeds to it. I like the fact that all the sites that I visit for news etc is available straight from my google reader & I don't have to go to favourites or type in each address when I want to look at them.
Found a readers advisory blog that I hadn't seen before - looking forward to reading through it when I have a little more time.
I can see how RSS feeds would be useful in filtering information once it's set up & how it could be used in a library or on a library website to show those non techno-phobe people what is happening in our library.

Waterloo Station


Waterloo Station
Originally uploaded by headlessmonk
I am really enjoying using flickr - put in my area/town & found these pictures of Waterloo Station & pictures of my techno-phobe brother-in-law! Love this pic of the old church that's on the Gwydir highway heading to Inverell.

Waterloo Station


Waterloo Station
Originally uploaded by headlessmonk
I see this creek everytime I go to my sister & brother-in-laws place - have actually gone fossicking off the bridge.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Post 1

I'm hoping to learn about some new uses for various technologies - i.e. introducing a YA blog or a list of upcoming events, readers advisory. I'm looking forward to undertaking a program that is going to increase my brain use - don't seem to be using too many of my brain cells, in any way that should be stretching my grey matter. I'm hoping that learning 2.0 will be good for my professional development.


Professionally I think we have a responsibility to our patrons to keep up to date with the changes in information provision & access so that we are able to provide information in formats that quite a few people have regular access to.



I enjoyed Stephen Fry's clip - the more computer savvy of us are able to locate information or 'lost' material on the internet fairly easily. Those of us (me) who use the net for the same thing all the time aren't actually using the available information to the extent that we could be. I use it daily for email, reference questions, regular stuff like checking the weather but don't very often venture out of my comfort zone.

Blog 1

This is my very first post on my very first blog. This is the website for the library that I work in: http://www.gisc.nsw.gov.au/library.html