#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