#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

#16 wikis

I like the idea of the reader reviews on the book lovers blog, the wiki format makes it easy to manage- but it could have been done on a blog too I think? The subject guide blog is not very attractive visually- & the news item was about the 2006 winter olympics! Which I guess proves that the golden rule applies no matter how hi tech you are- if you can't maintain it, forget it! But I really like the way you can list links at the side, in categories. My goodness I can't believe the illustration on the library best practice wiki is a card catalogue!!!!!!!!!What an incongruous image. I really do think that if we are going to use wikis in public libraries we are going to have to make them look more appealing. We have started an ideas wiki for staff, called the Idea Box. We will also be creating an Information Services wiki to try to cut down on emails flying back & forth

# 13 delicious

This is what I call delicious!
Photo by Darren Hester (Macon, Georgia USA)

Well I have learned one thing already - the interface for Fiction Connection is a tag cloud!So now I know how they do it. Very clever. Fun, but I don't really think it is that useful- who has the time to keep up with all these alerts etc once they are set up? I do like the visual representation of the groupings, rather than using folders, & I suppose it might be useful to share tags but I found the rss & blogrolls have a lot more potential. But anything that can take a creative approach to what is basically indexing is all right by me- I HATED cataloguing!

# 13 Technorati

I'm not sure about the usefulness of technorati, though I like its name. But it isn't what it suggests- to me it sounded like a sophisticated group of tech savvy glitterati- but no. My search on travel brought 250,000+ blog posts up & going by the first page they were mostly completely self indulgent & uninteresting. So I did a blog search- 29,890 but more of the same.
A more specific search on Vanuatu was better, 804 posts, & I did enjoy some photos of the market at Port Vila which looked just as I remember it, but really I don't know if I would bother with this again

# 12 rollyo

Wow! I love this tool. From a personal point of view, how cool to be able to search all the travel related websites I usually use AT ONCE! I could spend hours searching for holidays I'll never take....try it, the search box is on the right & it was very easy to install.
From a library point of view well- homework help searchrolls about popular topics; info about books, authors etc; library technology; current events. I wonder if it would work with the GULLIVER databases- have to try it.

#11 Library thing

What a great product! I have only had a quick look but can already think of ways to use this- for example, as part of a book blog on the library website where patrons & staff could share their reading experiences, make recommendations, create booklists...the possibilities are endless.
The chiclet linking to my catalogue is on the right, but there are not many titles in it yet . I loved the widget, it was so easy to use & displays the selected titles so nicely. I'l be coming back to this one.

# 10

This is my librarian avatar. Don't mess with me!

This is from http://www.doppelme.com/create/step2.asp

#10 Play around with image generators

These image generators are fun!

This is from http://www.says-it.com/record/

I have now added some shared items using google reader- I can go on to the next exercise at last! Found out you can also use google reader to create a feed from your blogs which displays next to the favourites icon in IE7, so I did that as well. It's time to move on....

Very interesting- the link takes you to my bloglines account but the blog feeds it lists are not mine! Hmmmmm.......there is a ghost in the machine. I'll think about it over the weekend but just now my head hurts

# 8 share my blogs

This is my last try! If you can't see my blogfeeds from this I give up!


http://www.bloglines.com/public/Janem

# 8 Make life really simple with rss

This has been a very interesting exercise- quite hard at first but as I went on I could really see how I could use it
I also got the idea from a colleague's blog to use google reader & that worked very well! I was able to share items on my blog from the rss feeds to travel blogs that I set up in google reader very easily. This could be useful when working on a project with a team....but it's also fun reading about bars in Cologne & garlic festivals in Sweden.....
I think I will use google reader in preference to bloglines as it is so easy to import shared items into my blog with the automatic widget. Feedster is a disappointment, the little screen takes too long to load.
I need to explore more but there are lots of possibilities here for sharing info. I want to incorporate some rss feeds into our website as well
Plenty of food for thought!

RSS certainly has been interesting! I am only part of the way there, but starting to get it. I can see lots of possibilities already- keeping up with tech news, the latest info on a topical level. Also using as an information service to our patrons. Lots ot think about!

A week in the garden

Well I meant to get onto my blog again long before this, where did the week go? I finally got around to finding some photos of the garden taken in late spring last year, I'm looking forward to the irises & roses coming out again. Still, the camellias have started to bloom this week, our season is way behind Melbourne's because of our cold climate. The daffs are still out & the bluebells are on the way. And just to show us that spring really has sprung, my neighbour's horse which is agisted in our paddock at the moment had a beautiful little colt this morning. I'll post a photo of him next week, all legs & so cute.

#7 Blog about technology

I blogged about SKYPE- if you haven't tried it yet, check it out! We are saving $20- $30 week on overseas calls
www.skype.com.au

#5 Discover flickr & #6 More flickr fun

I have had another look at flickr, I use it at home to store pix so that family can see them & it works really well, I have put 200 pix from our recent trip to Europe on there & it was very easy although the uploading took a while. But it's so much better than emailing image files to people.

But the mashups were new to me, I couldn't get anywhere with colrpicker but I did get this nice image from montagr to continue the spring theme- OK so it is from Japan but I don't have blossom like that in my bush garden. No point planting fruit trees becuase the rosellas eat all the fruit!

Next I'll have a look at the trading cards

Week 2 create a blog

Hello all my fellow bloggers! It's good to be starting something new in the spring season, I am not a winter person & don't feel like doing anything when it's cold. But the daffodils are up, the wattle is out, the grass is green & the sun is shining sometimes at least so here goes....I'll have to put some photos of the garden up on flickr to create the spring mood.