#23 Learning 2.0 wrap

This has been such a great opportunity for us all- so many staff have participated. They won't all finish on time, but they will finish. Time is always our enemy but we are running help sessions for them & they will get there. And they will all have learned something new & gained confidence in using web apps they didn't even know existed. They have been talking to each other about the ideas, helping each other, & we have discovered some real web 2.0 stars! Plus the concept of play has reinforced that it is ok to explore & learn on the web at work for some of the time.
We have introduced web 2.0 to our strategic conversations in branch meetings & are planning new services based on what we have learned. As well as learning new skills the program has kick started interest in the internet again just when we were all getting a little jaded. And we can all see uses for web 2.0in our everyday lives as well. Some staff feel they know more about what their kids use the net for, others are posting their holiday snaps on flickr.....Thanks you to all who made this program available to us & especially to Lynette & Leslie for your help.

#23 audio book downloads

The great thing about the Gutenberg project is its aim to digitise the classics of the world. But the problem with it & the other audio download sites is the age of the content which has to be out of copyright. This is not high demand materila & so will not induce people to overcome the current lack of interest in e book readers. But I am certain this will change as n more & more contemporary content becomes available & readers are improving all the time. I think there is a big future for public libraRIES in providing access to audio downloads from subscription sites, just as we now provide access to databases. And not just ebooks but video content also. No packaging, security, dmage oh & s issues- bliss! Will there be at some time a statewide purchasing consortium for this content, like GULLIVER? You betcha!

#20 youtube

I love youtube but of course the problem with it in the public library environment is network speed & bandwidth- it uses heaps of both. Also filters don't like it! So there are problems in using it at the moment for us. And I do get fed up with all the rubbish that's on it too. But it's very nice to be able to watch a clip of my son's band performing at the Melbourne Festival on it !

#21 Podcasts

This was a really interesting exercise. I have added a feed to the British National Public Radio Books blog, where there are many podcasts about or by contemporary authors. I can see many ways to use this on our website- but I would like to know more about the legality of it all. For example, there is a podcast of Ian Rankin reading an extract from his latest book, Exit Music. How much more interesting our online booklist pages would be if we could have a link to this podcast next to the picture of the cover, summary & link to the catalogue! But is that ok to do since it is not our podcast? Is it like linking to another website, where it is ok as long as you acknowledge & don't make it look like your own content?
I also found a podcast interview with Alice Pung, who gave an author talk for us recently. How cool if we could have had a link to this podcast on the promo webpage- & then added a podcast of her talk later. If anyone out there is doing this or knows the "rules" I would really like to hear from you!

#19

I love montage- a- google & guess the google! The montages are beautiful & I will be looking for ways to use them in my collages. And SO easy to do

Guess the google is lots of fun- once you start you won't be able to stop- & it's perfect for librarians because to be good at it you have to understand keywords!!

#18 web based apps

Well I tried, I really tried. I looked at zoho, watched the video on zoho meeting, could see some possibilities with it. Then looked at zoho writer, selected a template & created a shared document. Fine. Tried to publish it to my blog, got as far as hitting the publish button then zap- site blocked by our web filter!!! So there you go
What I was wanting to publish was the thought that there are too many apps all requiring different logins & passwords etc, I've forgotten half of mine already. Which is where google is so clever- one login, then you have access to shared docs, picasa etc & I have to say I prefer to use their products for that reason alone
I can certainly see the value of shared docs eg for a team to work up a project without 10,000 emails flying back & forth. We have tried it & it works, just have to remember to use it, so easy to fall back into email habit!

#17 Just love that google! ( & RSS feeds)

The value of RSS feeds was demonstrated to me today- I got an alert from the feed I set up to google systems from blogspot, about the new beta google translation tool. The actual translation tool is not perfect but babelfish isn't perfect either. The real winner is the SEARCH & TRANSLATE tool- it rocks! You can search for a topic, select the translation you want & off you go eg a search for "peking duck" brings up a list of relevant Chinese websites AND translated English versions of them. So you could do a search for a patron & bring up a list of results for them in their language ( as long as it s one of the languages google covers- it's not comprehensive but does include trad & simplified Chinese, Arabic, Spanish, German, French etc.)
PLUS you can get toolbar buttons to translate text into the language you want, even the whole webpage. Try translating your library homepage. It's so clever that if you translate the page into Chinese & follow a link, it translates the page you link to as well! While the translations are not perfect, they are readable & it is only in beta. I can see lots of potential in this

http://www.google.com/translate_t