Podcasts

I finally remembered to do this at home! Unfortunately we have no sound on our staff computers, so it made it slightly difficult to do this at work...

I found the podcast really interesting, I loved some of the online courses that could be undertaken. I see real benefits of podcasts to libraries- allowing patrons to hear presentations that have been held, storytime and also involving the community in creating content.

I also think podcasts and vodcasts could be really beneficial for training benefits- perhaps some of the professional development seminars that are held could be made available via podcast for those library staff that are a fair distance from the city.

Social Networks

Having looked at some of the social network sights, I definitely think there's a huge benefit to them. However some were better than others, I really loved the Rotorua Bebo page, it was up to date, well set out and easily followed.

I think the main benefit of these sites is marketing libraries to a different audience and getting information out about events, promotions etc to people that may not actually normally visit the library.

I had a bit of a look round at Second Life and I'm not really sure about it. I'm sure like the social networking sites it's necessary for libraries to have a presence on there, but I'm not sure it's for everyone... Including me!

Have really enjoyed doing this course, have tried things I've never done before and realised I knew more than I though I did about some of the things out there for libraries!

Online applications and tools

I love some of these tools! I'm a regular user of the online photo editors at work. Currently not all of our computers have access to a good photo editor, so when I'm having trouble manipulating an image for our website I head to google type in free online photo editor and go from there.

I've never used google docs before today, but found it fantastic, I made a presentation and I couldn't believe how quick and easy it was. Will definitely use it again! Here at work, not all of our public use computers have microsoft word etc on them and most of the time the people using them forget to bring something to save their work to! By showing the google docs, they could do and save all of their work online and access it anywhere they go.

Mashups

I've skipped Podcasts for the moment and will get back to it when I remember to do it at home! Unfortunately none of our work computers have sound!

I really loved the Big Huge Labs site, had great fun playing around. A couple of people from our library have already used this site. They've created motivational posters from some pictures we had taken for our new website. They look so fantastic and it's nice to have posters that show our library!

I've attached my play, I created a calendar with one of our latest puppies at 6 weeks- isn't she gorgeous!!

Answer boards and social searching

I've never really looked at answers boards until the last week or so, but I've had an invasion of spyware, adware on my computer and was hoping to find a solution. They were interesting and gave me a start but unfortunately my computer is still invaded!!!!!

I also browsed through some of the Yahoo Answers Pet section and was a bit horrified by some of the answers people gave- I can definitely see a benefit in librarians/ and experts in some of the fields slamming the boards.

I like social searching elements, I'm a big fan of the site fantasticfiction.co.uk and have found a few different authors to try with their "Visitors to this page also looked at these authors" and "Similar Books by other authors...". I could definitely see this as being a huge benfit for a fiction collection on a library catalogue. The State Library of Tasmania has this and I think it makes their catalogue so useful.

Tagging, folksonomies, del.icio.us and LibraryThing

I really like del.icio.us, it's great for keeping all your useful links in one spot and allowing you to tag them with meaningful phrases. We had problems where I work adding delicious as council won't allows us to add buttons to our computer, however IT came up with a great solution:

If you go to the buttons page (http://del.icio.us/help/buttons) you add the two buttons as favourites.
To add the buttons, right click and select "Add to favorites"
Accept the warning about the "dangers" of the shortcut - they are javascript and we know what they do.

Once added, when you are browsing the web, have your favourites open as a tab on the left hand side.

To bookmark a page to del.icio.us, go to the page and then click the favourite "post to del.icio.us" - you can then complete the metadata as per the button.

I also had a look around LibraryThing and loved it. I really like the catalogues that have integrated it. I really, really like the State Library of Tasmania's new catalogue. I created my own catalog and as you can see I'm a bit of a chicklit/ romance junkie: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/bex80

YouTube

I love YouTube! I've always used it more for a laugh than for anything serious.

Someone I work with has been talking about trying to create videos of how to use our library for a while and also a competition for local youth on what they like about libraries. My only reservation has been having the equipment to make these videos, however as most digital cameras now allow for short videos it's becoming more and more possible for these things to be done!

The clip I've included is old but hilarious! Hope you enjoy!

My Wiki Confession......

I think Wikis are great!

Students regularly come in to our library with the belief that EVERYTHING about wikis is bad, however I always try and tell them that they are a useful source, especially for new and emerging information eg, a new technology etc. Wikipedia and the like are a great starting point for an information search. I always make sure that I tell them that they should verify the information against another source though!

I also use wikipedia in my day to day reference enquiries.... If someone asks me about something I have no knowledge about, I'll have a quick scan of wikipedia to allow me to search our catalogue more effectively. For example if someone is interested in a certain artist, if I can find out what period they were from, I can find books that might include them in them as well as specific books about them.

Our IT department is in the process of getting a council wide wiki off the ground. So far there's not much on there so it's use is limited however in time I think it could be a really useful resource for all of council.

I really liked the book lovers wiki, I think this is a great idea for readers advisory, it allows a variety of people to share their opinion about a book in a format that's easily accessed!

RSS Feeds

RSS feeds aren't entirely new to me- I did the Ebsco database training at the State Library where I was introduced to RSS feeds and all the useful things that you can do with them. Since coming back from the training I've signed up for a google reader account and subscribed to some great feeds. Having now also signed up for a Bloglines account i think I might slightly prefer it!

One of the most useful things I discovered during the training was that I can sign up to feeds of database searches I carried out. This could be a great tool for someone studying/ researching a subject where they need to keep up to date with a subject in the news. I did a test run and carried out a search on my local council and now every time an arcticle appears about the council it appears in my google reader accout.

Most of my subscriptions have been work related, but the discovery of the Sydney Morning Herald blogs I've found some slightly more fun subscription! One that I particuarly liked is the Beauty Beat Blog, which I will try and add as a feed to my page.

Thousands of photos on disks

My second confession....

I have thousands of photos on disks sitting in a pile on my computer desk! I've always thought about organising them- getting them printed and and putting them in photo albums, but 4 years on and my next trip booked for 4 months from now and still nothing. I didn't realise how easy to use flickr was and how I could share my images or make them private. So my next job when I have a spare couple of hours is to load up all my pictures to share with my family and friends.

The photo I've decided to include is a place I'm planning to visit on my next trip, hopefully when I get back people will be able to admire some of the photos I've taken in the same places!

Internet Addict

My first confession....

Internet Addiction....

Sites addicted to:
Facebook
MSN Messenger
Yahoo Groups
Google
iTunes

Looking forward to learning and experimenting with blogs and a variety of other "web 2.0" tools and maybe expanding my list of sites addicted to as part of this course.

I think blogs a great tool for libraries they give library staff a way of communicating with there customers in a slightly more informal way than the regular website.

More confessions soon....