#23 That's all folks

Well, I've finally made it through all the exercises for Library 2.0. I feel a lot more confident and knowledgeable about some of the Web tools we've looked at. Before starting this program I had looked at YouTube, LibraryThing and Wikipedia briefly but knew nothing about blogging software, social bookmarking or RSS feeds. I thought I was fairly competent with the internet but I have learnt a great deal through this program, discovered some great sites and blogs and have been able to give some thought to ways in which we can incorporate these innovations into our library services. Blogging is much easier than I realised it would be (and more addictive). It has taken a lot more time than I anticipated and a lot of perseverance but I think it's been worth it. Who knows, after a little break I may even continue down the road to learn more about Library 2.0. Congratulations to everyone who made it!

#20 YouTube Zorba the Greek Yolngu style

Where is Conan the Librarian when you need him? I thoroughly enjoyed having another look around YouTube. There's an enormous amount of material here. The recent Federal election showed that politicians were aware of the enormous influence of YouTube in popular culture (and also that the art of political satire is alive and well). Check out the ABC's Unleashed site for their poll of the most popular election videos.

While on YouTube I had a look at some of my favorites including the weird and wonderful Kransky sisters, also the mad antics in my favourite bookshop with Bernard and Manny of Black Books.
It was hard to choose just one to share but I decided on the wonderful Yoglnu Dance Troupe and their version of Zorba the Greek. It's been an enormous hit on YouTube and the dancers have been invited to a Canberra arts festival on the strength of it. Enjoy!

#22 Audiobooks or "The end is in sight"

Very interesting to have a look at what's happening in the world of audiobooks and the potential for libraries to offer this service via internet downloads. The World eBook site was fun to have a play with. There's a lot of old, out-of-copyright material here and it's a great resource for this kind of thing. Lots of literary classics - Sherlock Holmes, Shakespeare sonnets, some obscure sci-fi from Baen books. I had a listen to some of The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, some Andrew Marvell and Edgar Allan Poe. However, as is always the case with audiobooks the quality and style of the reader are very important.It's also interesting to see what's happening with Project Gutenberg.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts

I've encountered podcasts before but had no idea that there were actually directories available to find podcasts on different subjects. Previously I've just encountered them by accident when searching different websites. I can see lots of opportunitites for the library to take advantage of podcast technology. Our Eastern Regional Library radio show is now available as a podcast. It would be great to have some of our visiting author talks available as a podcast. Podcasts would also be useful for small tutorials for library users, similar to the manner in which we've been using them in our Library 2.0 learning. The SirsiDynix institute offer a number of library related podcasts which sound interesting. Lots of stuff on podcasts, RSS feeds, Library 2.0. I've added this to my bloglines account along with Radio Nationals' The Book Show, one of my favorite ABC radio shows which I always seem to miss.

Posting from Zoho Pt.2

Well, there it is on the blog. Like everyone else I've lost the little emoticons on the way. Next time I'll just leave them out. The rest of it's there and it was easy to post from Zoho.

#18 Posting from Zoho

The Six Stages of the Novice Blogger

1.FEAR I can't do this. It's for IT specialists and anime fans.
2.CONFIDENCE  Hey, it's easy. I might start 2 or 3 of these.
3.DISMAY  I didn't mean that to happen. How do I edit that post? There's bits missing. Oh-no, is it something to with HTML?
4.OBSESSION I just have to keep tinkering with this until i get it right. I need to add this widget and how about a whole new template because i hate this colour-scheme and i think i'll just look at this blog and this blog and this blog....
5.PARANOIA No-one will ever bother to read this. I'm not sure they should. What a waste of time.
6.ACCEPTANCE Hey, it's not so bad after all. It's starting to look like a real one.

RELATED TERMS:

bloggus interruptus: The phone rang before i finished my post.
blogtired: Time to take a break.
blogjam: 1.Reading too many blogs at one time.
         2.Nice with toast.



Technorati Tags     zoho,blogs

#18 Online Productivity Tools

I've had a look at Zoho.Its seems to me quite a useful idea to have a web-based application. No carting round the old memory stick. No problems with different word-processing application etc.
Let's see how i go posting to my blog.

#19 Web 2.0 Awards

I've had a good trawl through the Web 2.0 awards - a few we've already encountered in our Learning 2.0 experience. Blog guides Technorati and Bloglines are there although Findory seems to have left town. Picasa is a great photo-sharing site and Wetpaint seemed to be a really easy tool for building wikis. In the library I might use and show people Reader2.com which shares a lot of similarities with Librarything, although it's nowhere as comprehensive. There's lots of fun stuff too. An absolutely fiendish but absorbing game is the "Guess the Google image-guessing game" where you have to guess the keyword that goes with the images. I've put a little widget on my blog that gives a "quote of the day" using Springwidgets and now I'm more than ready to relax with a suggestion from the cocktail builder. Slainte.

#17 PBwiki Learning 2.0

Just added my blog to PBwiki Learning 2.0 . Instructions a bit confusing but it's there now. I've also added a few of my favourite TV shows.
As Captain Jack Harkness says The 21st century is when it all changes.

#16 The Magician

Here's an image of The Magician from the Tarotpedia, an online encyclopedia of tarot which operates as a wiki. Now that I'm aware of them, I'm finding Wikis everywhere. Until recently I was only really aware of the Wikipedia project but the Wikipedia is only one example of a Wiki, software that creates a collaborative website. There's many examples of places where a Wiki would be a useful tool for library staff and users. Wikis would allow us to constantly revise and improve our online information. Operating our online information links as a Wiki disperses the responsibility for keeping the links current and relevant. A Readers Wiki with reviews and comments about authors and books would get staff and users interacting online about that great thing they have in common - reading. The Princeton Public Library BookLoversWiki is a terrific example.
A Community Information Wiki would be a great community resource. Local and Family history could also benefit from the input of local enthusiasts. In fact anywhere the input of many authors would be an asset is an opportunity to use a Wiki.

#15 More thoughts about Library 2.0

"Library 2.0 is a user-centered virtual community. It is a socially rich, often egalitarian electronic space. While Librarian 2.0 might act as a facilitator and provide support, he or she is not necessarily primarily responsible for the creation of the content."
That's a quote from a very informative article by Jack Maness on Library 2.0 Theory.The key concepts here are community and facilitator. Library 2.0 is about not only being responsive to our library users but allowing them real input into the shape of the library - and by this I mean the library as an information community existing in the virtual as well as the physical world. Wikis, blogs etc are just two of the tools that might be used to achieve this. Goodbye to the desk!

#15 Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

postcard - Biltmore Estate library
Originally uploaded by Jassy-50

The library as repository of knowledge, as meditative space, as a temple of the book.
Interesting that Wendy Schulz's article posits a Library 4.0, a retreat with comfortable chairs, quiet, a single malt. The dilemma - to bring the innovation, interactivity, the user-centred focus of Library 2.0 into our libraries and to make it accessible to all, not just the techno-savvy.
Maintain all that's wonderful about the old-fashioned notion of the Library as a sacred space for learning and launch it into cyberspace.

#14 Technorati

Time to have a look at Technorati. It seems pretty easy to use. No surprises in the list of most popular blogs. They seem to appear again and again in our Learning 2.0. explorations. The wonderful Boing, Boing is up there. If you haven't had a look check it out. I love the steampunk laptop. We've had a good look at tags with Flickr and Librarything. It's a great way to organise the web although the librarian in me gets a little distressed when i see the variations in tags. On Librarything you might get people using magical realism, magic realism, magic relism, Magical Reality, magical realsim, magical-realism, magical.realism magicalrealism, magicval realism and so on...
there's a whole debate out there on whether or not tagging should be "free" or "controlled". What does everyone think?

But back to Technorati, there's some interesting stats on it. I like the little Mentions by Day box that shows how many people have posted on a particular search term over the last few months.I did the recommended search on Learning 2.0 and it's amazing to see the different results, over 6000 results by searching the blogs but only 600 or so by searching just the tags. I guess that means not everyone is using tags. I'll have a go at tagging this post although I'm not too sure I know what i'm doing yet.

#13 del.icio.us

I wasn't too sure about del.icio.us at first. But if you're like me and you go from home computer to work computer (or any one of a number of work computers) I can see how it's a great idea to have all your bookmarks accessible.
It's a great tool. The really fun stuff is when you take a look at what other people are bookmarking. How can we resist The 50 Dumbest Things George Bush has ever said or, in a more literary mood, 201 Stories by Anton Chekhov
What's not to like?

#12 Rollyo

I'm not too sure about Rollyo. What does everyone else think? It seems kind of slow and it seems to me that just as easy to search the entire web. After all the nice thing about searching the web can be that moment of serendipity when you find a new site that is really useful. Anyway I've added a bookish search box to my blog to play with.

#11 LibraryThing

I've been exploring LibraryThing and I'm hooked. It appeals to all those among us who are irresistibly drawn to other people's bookshelves.
I love being able to catalogue my own books, it appeals to my inner mad book collector and catalogue fetishist. It's so easy just to enter an ISBN and see the book pop up on screen, cover and all. It's fascinating to see how many other people out there share your literary tastes.
I also had a look at the various groups. There's a group of Librarians who LibraryThing. I'll have to check that one out (in particular the message threads about funny requests from patrons and also favourite books about libraries/librarians). Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Travellers' Wife just has to be in there somewhere. I also took a look at a couple of favourite authors who've catalogued their books on LibraryThing. Mind you I don't think I'm quite obsessive enough to add all my books but here's a few.

#6 Mash-Ups and Election 2007.

Well, I've finally solved the mystery of mash-ups.
The Mash-Up Awards site
has a new "Mash-up of the day" to play with every day.

Today's mash-up of the day is a ripper.
Magg (your friendly neighbourhood movie aggregator) which searches the
different video-hosting sites for you. Yes, go beyond YouTube!

Seeing as how we're all in election mode I just had to share this one which I found by searching for John Howard on Magg.

Online Image Generators

This exercise has been so much fun.
I've generated my "blues" name
on the Blues Name Generator
Just call me 'Louisiana' Dinah Clearwater.

Sent a Bob Dylan message.
(think Subterranean Homesick Blues)
on the Bob Dylan Message Generator

and created my very own EMO
with the pocket EMO generator.

RSS Feeds

I've seen those three little initials RSS on many a web-site before without ever knowing what they were. Now thanks to Learning 2.0 the mystery is solved and I've set up a bloglines account. I can see if there's any news
from the ABC or the BBC, keep up with the online New Scientist and see if any if any of my favorite blogs have been updated. I can download NASA's image of the day. In fact I spent a LONG TIME yesterday following one link to another link and ending up in some weird and wonderful blogs. Great for keeping tabs on your favorite sites, the ones you check every day...

Technology or 10 Things I Love/Hate about You

Looking back at that last post it was sooo serious.
Technology:
Ten Things I love (and hate) about you
1. Hyperlinks
Broken Links
2. Email
Spam
3. Looking at the Pyramids on GoogleEarth
Spending half the night on GoogleEarth
4. Interesting information on Wikipedia
Mad crackpot misinformation on Wikipedia
5. Johnny Depp on YouTube
John Howard on YouTube
6. Getting a bargain on Ebay
Getting ripped off on Ebay
7. I can listen to that program on a Podcast
I have far too many podcasts to listen to.
8. Great music on the iPod
It crashed and all my songs have vanished
9. Bookmarking that fabulous website
Forgetting to bookmark that fabulous site and now I can't find it!
10. Download success!
Cannot find server.....

Technology thoughts

We're surrounded by technology of course, not all of it new. Even the pair of scissors in front of me is an old and useful technology. Once i started to think about it i was amazed to reflect on how much easier life has become with contemporary technology. Things that many people do every day such as netbanking, reading online newspapers, sending email, checking out real estate sites are all things we take for granted. In the area we work in - that of information - the changes have been enormous. When I first started work(for a media organisation) it was still a world of typewriters and linotype machines. Court reports had to be phoned in from a public phone and dictated to a woman sitting at a typewriter. Now we see journalists reporting via satellite phone from world troublespots and have seen the rise of the citizen blog as a way of getting information to the rest of the world.

Remember Knowledge is Power (Sir Francis Bacon, pictured above)

Flickr takes me to Laos

Vientiane - Laos
Originally uploaded by Blazing Productions

I've been exploring the Flickr website and it's easy to get lost in all the wonderful images. I've just started reading Colin Cotterill's detective series based in Laos about the adventures of Dr Siri, an elderly coroner. Very quirky and with a wonderful setting so i just had to go and look at some of the amazing pics of Laos. This is a wonderful temple in Vientiane. Book 1 in the series is called The Coroner's Lunch.

The Technology Thang

I've been thinking about the technology thing and how the temptation is to start a stream of consciousness kind of ramble and send it out into the ether.
It's hard to keep track of the latest thing without a teenager to keep you honest and on track with YouTube and MySpace not to mention mash-ups. What the hell are they?

One day maybe we'll be cyber-librarians like something out of a William Gibson novel and and we'll fly around in cyberspace plucking bits of information from the oh-so realistically rendered virtual shelves.

Sometimes it's hard not to feel a little bit reactionary and querulous and a bit like Garrison Keilor's wonderful Ruth Harrison Reference Librarian refusing to Google. Have a listen, it's on Radio National on Sundays at 7 pm.

Confession
I still love books. I love the way they look and feel.