#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...AND #7 Blog about technology

This program has been a real eye-opener. Some of my friends had been talking about how wonderful sites like FaceBook and Blogs are. I had been trying to avoid it, as I know what I'm like when I find something new like this - I get obsessed and can't stop! As a librarian though, it really is my duty to familiarise myself with such sites. This task has allowed me to do that. It doesn't mean I have to use it all the time - but I have enjoyed finding updates on people I went to school with on FaceBook, for example. If I was overseas, these sites would be a godsend, as I'd be able to keep up with family at the click of a button. What really worries me though is people reducing their face-to-face contact with people in favour of cyber contact. I don't think I will be one of those people. And I often wondered where people find the time to continually update their blogs, MySpace pages, FaceBook pages, Bloglines? I can think of nothing worse than going online at home for a few hours after looking at the computer screen at work all day! And I HATE all that cyber-speak. You know all the abbreviations people use like LOL etc. Grrr! All in all though, the program gave me a wonderful experience. YouTube was a real favourite - you now have the opportunity to see footage that you never thought you'd see again.

It took quite a long time to complete this program. Fortunately I was able to find time at work, as my computer at home is a dinosaur and going online is a nightmare. One thing I found really frustrating was not being able to access and sign up to a lot of the services - this was because of firewalls here in the library. I am looking to update my home PC in the next few months, so I will be able to continue the learning!

Okay, I didn't realise I'd missed #7 so I thought I had better do it now. What I would have blogged about at the time is how frustrating technology can be. I know it's wonderful - we wouldn't be able to provide half of our library service if it wasn't for the computer system and some of the amazing digital technology we have recently acquired. However, I still like to write things down - I'm not fully trusting of the the technology we use daily yet. Last year, our computer system crashed, and we lost 3 days worth of work. Fortunately, I had written notes on all of the calls I had taken from borrowers, so although it was a pain to have to re-do my work, I at least knew what I had done. Perhaps I am being too critical - there are so many things that wouldn't be possible if it weren't for advances in technology. Even day-to-day things we take for granted, like the co-ordination of traffic lights, getting through the checkout quickly (okay, that's not always the case!) and email. What did we do at work before the Internet and email? Oh yeah, we would walk to a colleague's desk to tell them something. I kinda miss that.

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

Downloading eBooks is something we often get asked about at our library, as all of our borrowers are vision impaired. We provide audio books and Braille books as part of our service, but being able to download the text would be wonderful. Some of the books I came across in my travels (like some of the children's books on www.openlibrary.org) were scans of the book pages - this would be problematic for our borrowers, as it doesn't comply with screen reading software like JAWS. I didn't particularly like the structure of World EBook Fair - I would prefer to be able to browse the titles and see a list of most popular downloads, for example. The 'Browse Collections' option didn't break the collection up into genres like I thought it would. I don't believe eBook sites are available in Australia yet, but I'm sure it can't be too far down the track.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

This was one of my least favourite exercises. I did not enjoy exploring podcasts at all. Well, I couldn't actually get any of them to play on my computer at work, but that wasn't the worst part. I found browsing terribly difficult. I think in the case of podcasts, you really need to search for a specific podcast rather than browse the many categories, as there is so much garbage out there. I imagine you would have to listen to many to find one that is relevant or interesting.

I found Podcastalley to be the most user-friendly. I did a search for 'library news', and I like how you could click one of the results and explanation of it appeared below without taking you to another screen. I chose to add a 'Library Geeks' feed to my Bloglines account.

I can see how podcasts would be useful for libraries. Author visits and book nights could be recorded and uploaded to the website for those who couldn't attend, for example.

#20 You too can YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SvdkP573ak

This is the blog I choose to direct you to - I chose it because this guy says everything I think most of us would LIKE to say as librarians! I especially like the woman doing sign language - funny stuff. I could watch the Johnny Depp clip over and over! And Conan the Librarian had me in hysterics. The very old Librarianship video was absolutely fascinating. I only really had a chance to look at the librarian-based videos, but I could spend hours exploring this site. I like that 'related videos' similar to the one I am watching are displayed on the page.

You Tube would be very useful for posting videos from library conferences on a library's website. It would also be nice to have a 'video of the week' on the library website. It could be a funny or interesting video that one of the librarians has found and posted for patrons to have a look at.

I just found an even funnier video - Human Tetris!
http://youtube.com/watch?v=84_QL1kEmH4

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

http://www.cocktailbuilder.com/

This site is wonderful! If I was having a cocktail party I would be doing some research on this site beforehand. The 'some random cocktails' list has changed even from when I visited the site last week. I have always wondered what's in a 'Cosmopolitan'. I just typed the name into the 'find cocktails...' search box and it came up. I love that when you click on the drink's name, the ingredients slide down below it, and you aren't taken to another page. You can still see the rest of the results list. You can even add drinks to your own personal bar menu - when you click on the bar menu next time, the list of cocktails you selected are displayed. All drinks are given a star rating too, which is handy for me as I'm not a big drinker and I'm not sure what's good. You can even type in ingredients you have in your bar, and it will find a drink you can make from them. It's wonderful and a well deserved winner of an award! Not too sure it would be relevant in a library setting though. Then again...hehehe ;o)

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

I had a play around with PBWiki - there wasn't any Vision Australia blogs posted yet, so I added our library name under the Victorian section and posted the link to my blog below it. I hope this was the right thing to do! I said in my previous post that in setting up a wiki I would go to 'Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki', but I think the 'PB Wiki Central Tips' (http://pbwikicentral.pbwiki.com/PBwikiTips) is just as useful. I made a little contribution to the Favourite Vacation Spots section - Inverloch in Victoria.

#16 So what’s in a wiki?

I have often used Wikipedia to gather info quickly (for example, what books or papers someone has had published) but I have never thought of it as an authoritative source. I think a library wiki is a great idea! It's not much different to the reader advisory resources already on offer on most library websites, but it would allow members to contribute too. As one of the article mentioned it can be difficult for librarians to find the time to update the library's reader advisory web pages, but allowing clients to post their comments about books and recommend others (much like Amazon) is fantastic. You could get a real community going. Plus it would be very satisfying for borrowers to see their words posted on the website. I'm not sure about internal library wikis though - we have an Intranet here at work and it seems to be sufficient. I don't think I could keep up with another forum! I see that Wikipedia now requires an email address because of vandalism - this would be a good practice to adopt when setting up a wiki. If I was to set up a wiki for our library, my first port of call would be the 'Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki' (http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page).

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

The shift to online communication with tools like FaceBook and MySpace concerns me - they are great for re-uniting people and for keeping people who are separated in contact, but I worry about people using it to keep in contact with friends who live just down the road. Will it contribute to the gradual death of real human contact? I don't know about you but I can think of nothing worse than going home and jumping on the computer after I've stared at the computer all day at work. I would rather go out with a friend than webchat with someone I have never met and not really sure if they are who they say they are.

But getting back to libraries - I think it's exciting to see the changes in how libraries deliver services. I know as a librarian it is my responsibility to keep up with these new online tools, but because I don't wish to use them everyday I feel I am being left behind already. Rick Anderson suggests there may not be any need to build a 'just in case' print collection any more but I don't think we are at that point yet. Since I deal with mostly elderly clients every day I know that there is a large population out there who WANT to access a print collection for some time yet and I don't like the idea of forcing them to learn a new technology when so many of them are resistant to change. I have to admit - I much prefer to read something in print than off a computer screen. However as pointed out by Michael Stephens I do recognise that services are enhanced by the digital revolution, but I think he poses a very tall order for librarians!

#13 & 14 Tagging, Folksonomies & Technorati

I like the idea of tagging, because it made it possible for me to conduct a search for 'chocolate' on Flickr weeks ago. However it can be subjective and I did come across some pictures that left me wondering how they relate to chocolate! For the most part though, I got what I wanted.

Del.icio.us was interesting - one link from our account that caught my eye was 'Youth Tech - MySpace handouts', which was bookmarked by 16 people. This is a MySpace handout for parents. It caught my attention because if I was a parent I would be very concerned about my child's use of the web. I love that you can leave a comment on these pages. There was a very sad story from "Kelli's Mom" who tells of how her daughter was killed and when you roll the mouse over the link to Kelli's MySpace page a little miniature version pops up on the screen. A lot of the other links on the page did that too. Technorati was pretty much the same, except that new articles/links were being added to the screen before my eyes! I clicked on a link to an article about Johnny Depp (anything that mentions his name is of interest to me!) and there were also comments posted at the bottom of the article.

I don't see this as a useful tool for research. I think it's more useful for socialising and finding people with common interests. They in turn can then direct you to new interests you haven't explored before.

#12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo

See my rollyo to the left... I can see the potential - I created a rollyo of real estate sites I often visit. I entered the suburb 'Wantirna' into the Search box and got results from all of the sites I visit. Just another tool that is out there - it's becoming quite overwhelming! I can't see how I could possibly use them all...

#11 All about LibraryThing

Library Thing was interesting - I typed in a couple of books that I thought would not be found, but they were there. To see my list of books, see http://www.librarything.com/catalog/melin.

#10 Play around with Image Generators

I had a play - I quite enjoyed all the different generators, however the technology issues I had were very frustrating! I tried creating a billboard, a number plate and a Bob Dylan message card (with the words 'Librarians Rock!') but it didn't work, no matter how many times I tried! Once again, I think I am missing an Active X Control or two on my PC and it's limiting what I can do for this program. I tried downloading later versions and I couldn't even do that. Oh well. I still got to have a play. I found out my Blues name is 'Boney' Dixie Sawyer, my Bunny name is Luna Stretch-Hop-A-Long, and that my future husband's name is Edgar Andrews! Who knew? My Elvish name is Ireth Silimaurë (see http://www.chriswetherell.com/elf/). This was the most exciting as I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan. What I did discover though is that there is no limit to the ridiculousness of what generators can offer you! I found the name generators more fun than the image generators. I had technical issues with Letter James, and I didn't quite understand what FD Toys was about (I had difficulty getting past the technical issues with the Create a Billboard). Till next time...

#9 Finding Feeds

I had a go at some of the tools to help find feeds - I found Feedster quite useful. It helped me find a feed for Melbourne weather (Weatherzone) which I have now added to my Blogline. Topix was not quite as user-friendly - there were links and pictures all over the place and it was a little hard to work out what to do. Nevertheless I found an Entertainment feed and added it to my Blogline. I also went to the Herald-Sun website as it's one of the sites I often go to for news, and signed up for Breaking News, AFL and Entertainment feeds. It will be nice to be able to go to one place to view the information I want. I found a couple of my friend's blogs and added them to my feeds also.

#8 Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

This was a difficult task! I found the instructions a little confusing, but I muddled through with some help from colleagues. I'm not sure that this is a service I would use that often, but it is handy to be able to look at what you are interested in from particular sites without having to trawl through the site or move to another window. I imagine it would be really useful for reader advisory for example - you could subscribe to book review sites, library journals etc. My blogline can be found at http://www.bloglines.com/public/library-inklings

#5 Flickr

Exploring Flickr was quite an experience. I was overwhelmed by the number of photos available for viewing. Some were fantastic, some strange, some a little unnecessary. But it's like an online diary of sorts so everyone can post what they want. I searched for a couple of my favourite things eg. cats (there were some hilarious pictures - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/junku/12752017/);
chocolate (mmm - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/77824231@N00/100082824/);
New York (what a gorgeous skyline - see http://www.flickr.com/photos/arno-4m/134257663/).
I also had a look at Picture Australia. What a wonderful resource - I was able to see historical photos of some of my favourite places (like Inverloch). I also found some old pictures of the sports grounds here at Vision Australia in Kooyong! The outlook has changed a little...

'The page cannot be displayed'

Aaah, technology. You gotta love it. Every time I try to create an account on Flickr it tells me the 'The page cannot be displayed'. I wonder if our network has a block on something and is restricting access? I know other people in the building are having the same trouble. I may just have to explore Flickr, find a pic I like and post a link to it. I'll be back.

#4 Register your Blog

Well blow me down, I think I have successfully set up a blog! That's quite an achievement for me...

First Post - scary!

This is my first post... hope it works! ;o)