Week 12: Wrap up; social networks and catch up

Well, here I am huffing and puffing into the end of this journey - what do I really think about it? It's been a fasinating experience. All these things we can do, learn, experience and be part of from the comfort of our own home. It's nothing short of amazing and we as information people really need to be abreast of it. For this, a big thank you to NSL for the opportunity and the efforts of it's staff - it's been a challenge but also lots of fun.

As for social networking and the library, well..... it's certainly a form of communication and as such it can/should be embraced by libraries as an inexpensive form of advertising for upcoming events whatever they may be. Maybe we could have book club groups and writer's groups and short 'How to' course groups - look at how much have we've learnt through doing this. What about downloads to ABOOKS, EBOOKS don't seem to have a great interst but downloads to audio books, that would take off. Of course all the pesty things like copyright/creative commons and inappropriate contacts would be sorted for us. Who knows where this brave new world will take us but we must be bold. With one foot in the new and the other in the old we'll have the majority of out community catered too - wouldn't that be wonderful.

I guess what I really think is - this is the way of the future and whether I like it or not its happening and I need/want to know about it and be comfortable using it. As much as I love sitting in my backyard with the sun on my back reading a fantastic book, I love the ease of checking out Wikipedia to find the meaning of something rather than trawling through endless pages in an encyclopedia or dictionary. So... at the end of the day they're all just more resourses to help us on our destination and for that we should rejoice. A little deep - possibly, but its late and I'm finished - so good night. Did I say it's been fun? Many thanks...

Week 11: Online applications and tools

Yet again, completely blow away with these things I had no knowledge of. I'm completely amazed at all these free applications.

I found Google Docs to be very friendly as was Zoho. As for uses in the library, I can't see a space for library staff to use them professionally, I think our IT section would have collective heart attacks - but certainly will be great to let our patrons know they exist and there's always personal use.

Week 10 - mashups

straight faced, originally uploaded by winnie-ago-go.

Another really interesting adventure, had an excellent time checking out the universe - its one of the problems with online learning - you just lose so much time checking things out, but really was a pleasure. Messed around with the google maps and located the library and added a placemark as well - very easy. Back to work - loved playing with big labels and so easy to use to.

Uses in the library, definately useful for local history, library walks, promotion of events. As 'they' say - limited only by ones imagination. I've spent so much time playing that my imagination is quite spent. (what a way to spend a sunny sunday)

Week 9: Podcasts and Audio

Podcasting our very popular author talks would be a great way of promoting the library and offer an alternative for our patrons who are unable to attend. These talks are generally held at lunch times and patrons have often commented that they were disappointed that they had missed out. Podcasts advertising the Library and Council's upcoming events or interviews pertinent to the community could be added to library's site.

Staff trainings and meetings would be another area where this medium could be useful.

The quality of some of the casts I listened to were quite poor so I would hope that this would be addressed if we were to use this means of communication.

Week 7: Tagging, folksonomies, del.icio.us and LibraryThing

Can't believe it - just went it to make a minor adjustment and lost the whole topic. Can't - won't go through the whole thing again but in brief:

Del.icio.us - Fantastic, have often lost bookmarked sites due to upgrades etc. this gives us one space where all colleagues can allocate useful sites, thereby saving time, frustration and irritation.

Library Thing, liked it a lot and very easy to use. Thought that it would be very useful for our library patrons particularly the book clubs and link could be added to our library site. Not only for the obvious use of materials etc. but for social interaction and added reasons to be internet savvy.

Week 8: Answer boards and social searching

"slaming the boards" - I think it would be a great public relations exercise and useful for staff in gain experience in this form of information service. As our library doesn't have an "Ask a librarian" link this could be used in place of it with library patrons voting etc. and may create a more relaxed, relative and contemporary view of Libraries and Librarians in general. The more interesting questions could be posted on our site and patrons invited to comment etc.

However, for this to be relevant it would demand an amount of staff hours that may not be available.

Again, another interesting concept that I had no idea existed.

week 6 - Video online; Youtube and Google video 'And the winner is... The Dancing Robots'