Finale

It's hard to believe that twelve weeks has passed since we first started blogging.

I must admit I was ready to give up around about week 3 - the usual excuses, "I don't have time", "it's too hard", I'm glad I persevered. The fact that I continued was mainly due to the the badgering and bullying, encouragement and mentoring that I was lucky enough to receive from my colleague Kiwi Owl. Thank you Kiwi Owl.

I would also like to thank NSW State Library, you gave us the opportunity to travel the road, a little bumpy for me at times but enriching and fulfilling in the end.

I'm looking forward to using my new knowledge in the workplace and would love to participate in any further courses that the NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.00 team create.

Social Network

As always the Commoncraft video explained in good basic language how social networking happens. As an older person I find the whole idea of finding a job, friends and partners on a social networking site a tad desperate. Is there anything wrong with hidden connections, does this not leave some aspects of our life open to serendipity?

I have enjoyed blogging, I have enjoyed reading comments and the camaraderie I feel with fellow library bloggers has quite surprised me. I must say I have some concern regarding the number of young people that seem to be addicted MySpace and Facebook.
Are we going to lose the art of face to face communication?

I read an article in one of the major Brisbane papers that spoke of social networking sites being used by employers to check out prospective employees which also made mention that lawyers were now using these sites in courts of law to show the "true" person. This shows that care should be taken when presenting yourself to the World.

With the right people, libraries can use social networking to show the activities of their particular library. Second Life Library is a 3 D World that is able to offer a glimpse at events, lectures, exhibits and collections and is built by its residents.

The map showing a breakdown of popular sites around the World was surprising with a great variation between countries using MySpace, Facebook, Skyblog, Bebo and Netlog.

Josh Bernoff's chart showed how corporations might use social media showed an excellent breakdown of objectives that could support research, marketing, sales and development.

Today our small library had two flamenco dancers and two musicians accompany me at a special dance themed story time. How great it would have been to have been able to advertise online and follow through with a presentation on the activity. As always in our system there just isn't the staff available to devote to this pursuit.

Online software

I just can't believe how much free online software is available on the net. Why would I bother installing expensive, well known programs. I had no idea and as I am about to purchase my first new computer I am so glad I discovered Google.docs and Zoho before rushing off to have something installed.

Google.docs seems like a simple to use word processing program well suited to novice word processor users. Zoho word processor is more elaborate and has more features. You can share, collaborate, chat and email from this site and I think it has huge potential.

I haven't had the time yet to visit all the programs available on the sites you suggested but the fact that they are free is a great help to those of us on limited budgets.

On the library front, no more flash drives or floppies, all can be saved online.

Mashups

I love the idea of mashups, pinching a bit from here and there to customise to suit yourself. I couldn't resist going into Countries I've visited in big huge tabs. That got me thinking about my "big" trip over thirty years ago on the liner Australis. I was so surprised to find some pictures of this ship in Flickr and felt quite nostalgic. I was on one of the last voyages this liner made, I guess five weeks at sea these days would be price inhibitive for most people. The route was from Sydney-New Zealand-Tahiti-through the Panama-Peurto Rico-Spain and finally UK.

What a trip!

Keir Clark's Star Viewer was endlessly fascinating with Utube trips into the galaxy. From there I ended up in google maps checking out a crime map which gave breakdowns of murders, burglaries, drug offences and crimes of violence in each particular borough of London. Scary!

Countries I've visited

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Australis' last Sydney visit
Originally uploaded by FredBom

Podcasts

I join the others that had trouble with listening to lots of recordings because of restrictions but I did manage to hear a few by trying out different computers.

Had a bit of a look around the British Library podcasts, was most frustrated at not being able to hear the voice of the real Evelyn Waugh reading extracts from New British library "spoken word", also will revisit the birds from Madagascar, a lovely relaxing podcast I'm sure.

Moving on to Library Success wiki, I would liked to have been able to listen to Denver Public Library's Small Bear Lost. I don't know whether story reading for small children via a podcast would work or not. I guess if you had a sick child that was used to going to story time each week it could be an alternative. I also thought that the Kankakee Public Library poetry slam was good use of a podcast. There was good, general advice on this site on how to podcast - simply phone in to record and publish. Also gave advice on how to podcast for libraries. It was this podcasters first attempt and she made mention that there were probably more experienced people out there that could advise her on more efficient methods she could try in future.

I can see the value of podcasts for students who have missed lessons or live remotely and also for people who are unable to listen to their favorite programs. I also think in larger libraries podcasts could be used for tours of the library, story time, an introduction for new employees and also oral history.

Once again, in our library system it all comes down to funding, the availability of staff to spend time on podcasting and on having staff with the flair, imagination and dedication to produce something worthy. I am afraid we are all struggling to get through our day to day duties and I can't see in our library system that podcasting will be happening any time soon.

Slamming the boards

The internet has changed all aspects of the World and our lives, nothing seems to remain untouched. We are an instant society and I guess that libraries have to keep moving to remain relevant.

Slamming the boards is one way that libraries can hang in there, stay involved and promote reference services. I don't think that people who have grown up with the internet being ever present have the patience to attend a library, present a reference query at an interview and wait for an answer. Now that I think of it, I can remember the last time I sent off a subject request to our reference librarian. Having a site that librarians can demonstrate their skills and provide answers along with sources to questions posed would give a guarantee of truthfulness and accuracy rather than an opinion. Answer boards allow libraries to remain pertinent and to retain their niche in the knowledge market.

I am sure their are many librarians in our library system who would love to participate in answer boards, it may be the future for reference questions. As always, with staffing issues finding time from the day to day activities is another matter. We would need major senior management encouragement and acceptance.

LibraryThing

I have found all of the sites that we have been taken through over the last few weeks interesting and useful. But LibraryThing, oh! what fun. I particularly enjoy being able to check out the books that like minded LibraryThing users recommend and also find the list of books suggested by LibraryThing quite intriguing.

I will spend and endless amount of time on this site, reading reviews, posting entries and being guided by suggestions. As yet, I haven't posted a review but I do intend to, nor have I entered one of the discussion groups but I have had a little peek and once I am more confident on the site I am prepared to dive in.

Bookmobile

Keyword Bookmobile in Technorati brings up seemingly endless posts. Doing an advanced search means you can refine these hits to more relevant posts or posts that have been tagged with bookmobile.

At first I had no success searching for nswpln2008 until I noticed the top left hand corner of the screen had posts, blogs, photos, videos and then I was able to bring up all photos that had been loaded on to Flickr in a prior adventure activity.

Social bookmarking

Del.icio.us, what a great resource for research. Having looked at Sutherland Shire Libraries tag cloud and Cleveland Public Library's tags I found the first page of Cleveland to be more attractive to me. This is of course because I hate change and a list is more the format I am comfortable with, the cloud presentation seems messy to me - so I am going to step out there and force myself to do some more research in the cloud format. I must keep moving with new technology and formats and not let myself be bogged down with old methods.

You can't help be more impressed with sites that have had more hits. Who knows where you can end up following other people's tag. It's a bit like patrons taking a book from the returns trolley rather than the shelf, the idea being that if someone else has read it, it must be good. I did some research on a music site looking for specific titles, following tags has taken me to some fascinating sites and unknown territory.

There are many benefits in being able to keep all your bookmarks in one place, have them tagged for easy sorting, being able to stretch into similar tagged sites and I see huge potential for use in the library.

If only we had a video camera

I have in the past watched the odd things on YouTube and Google video but hadn't thought of it in terms of how we can utilize it in the library.

After coming across Olive Riley returns to Broken Hill on You Tube I realised what a fantastic way to record oral history. Olive was over 100 when she returned to Broken Hill and because she is such a character and her memory is so good she relates many stories and anecdotes from a bygone era with zest and wit.

I loved this video. I have an elderly neighbor who can spin spellbinding yarns for hours, if only we had a video camera at our library!

The new employee orientation video is a great idea and could be a time saving and therefore cost saving introduction. To be of benefit I think these videos need to be library specific rather than generic and be of a simple format that would allow economic, regular updating.

I also enjoyed the 2006 HSC art express video Stagenoise. The artists interviewed were confident behind the camera and I found YouTube a great vehicle for Year 12 students to display their works.

We have had some great storytime guests at our library, a drumming session, ukulele player and flamenco dancers. I wish we had thought to share this experience with others online.

Woolworths in Mullum?

I was able to find the following video on YouTube. It is exciting to find people well known to you just by doing a simple search. Once again the topic is Woolworths coming to Mullumbimby, these people are certainly passionate in their opposition.

Telstra site Mullumbimby

I found this on google video. The town of Mullumbimby was shocked to find out that our local Mallams store has been sold to Woolworths. There is very vocal opposition to Woolworths coming to town and the purchase of the Telstra site by Council was seen as a victory for this group. It adjoins the block that Woolworths will be building on and restricts the chance of their future expansion.

Wikis

I have of course used Wikipedia in the course of my library duties but have had nothing to do with Wikis in general. What a great way to collect and share information providing that contributors meet the standards of quality and accuracy.

The first of the three wikis I chose to look at was Wisconsin Heritage Wiki. They are attempting to have all cultural institutions submit their digital content for access and the provide education and training opportunities. I found this site to be rather formal and technical, it didn't beckon me to stick around and I also found the format rather boring.

I then moved on the the Booklovers wiki created by Princeton Public Library where you were able to read and create reviews of book. You need to be enrolled in their summer reading club to be able to submit a revue so this makes it a locals only type Wiki. This was a very friendly, eyegrabbing site which even offers prizes to participants. There were simple instructions on how to write a review pointing out that approximately 50% of content should be a summary and the rest, your reactions to the book with your star rating. I found this site engaging and encouraging.

Next was the Montana History wiki. This wiki is not open to editing but you are able to email your comments which would allow you to point out anything that you considered to be lacking or in error. This wiki had a guide prominently featured for quick reference to disasters, firsts, place names, Montana symbols and elected officials and was easy and interesting to navigate.

I can see that wikis would be a wonderful way to share information in the library, although I presume it would have to be a closed model to combat vandalism. Unfortunately in NSW with funding issues and staff shortages there could be a problem with the wiki not being constantly updated and kept interesting and relevant.

Bad hair day

bad hair day 2..coming to a theather near you.........
Originally uploaded by spidy69ca

It is amazing the different way that images can be interpreted.

I found this when I decided to have a bit of fun with my image searching. I am finding the more I use Flickr the more confident I am becoming with my blogging.

Me and RSS

I have stumbled through Real Simple Syndication and now managed to get a number of feeds in my account. Must admit, couldn't have done it without a very patient, very clever colleague.
I used the NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.00 recommendations, I found there was enough happening without having to go out and do my own searches. Besides, the Powerhouse Museum's picture of the day will be a brilliant way to start my morning.

I enjoyed the YouTube introduction to rss. It was basic, this is how I need things. It immediately pointed out that with rss things came to me in the form of latest updates, I no longer had to go out and search. I can see how this can be a real time saver. I can have all my favorite sites listed and choose what up to date information I want to view, all from my own site.

I have now gone and done a search for rss and libraries and come across three very interesting sites. I hope to digest them tonight and really get a feel for how libraries can best use rss.

Riberry (Syzygium luehmannii)

Riberry (Syzygium luehmannii)
Originally uploaded by imbala

I found this photo while doing a Flickr search on our local community. The street outside our library is lined with Riberry trees. Each year a number of the local cooking enthusiasts (myself included) do a little raid and produce jam, chutneys and sauces from these edible berries. They are very attractive trees and I am all for the street planting of native trees that produce edible fruit. This year a young patron brought me in a jar of riberry sauce to have with Christmas dinner. She had it beautifully presented and I got a real buzz out of receiving it. The added bonus was that it was delicious!

Narrabeen Tidal Pool - Empty Pool

Narrabeen Tidal Pool - Empty Pool
Originally uploaded by h a n g i n g p i x e l s

Oh, Narrabeen rock pool, how wonderful to find so many photos on flickr. I have so many memories of splashing away at Sunday swimming club, spending hot, balmy evenings diving in for a quick dip. I look forward to going back to this site to revisit my childhood.

Not in the air yet

It's time for another entry on my blog. Up until a week ago I would have thought I was writing another blog but now I know it is another post or entry. This gives you some idea of how basic my understanding of the blogging world is.

As yet I haven't received any comments although I have made a comment on another blog using a site I found on Technorati.

As I don't have the net at home and live in a small country town, the most convenient place for me to access the net on the weekend is the local RSL club which has a couple of public access computers free of charge. The yeasty smell of the venue and the squeals of excitement as someone gets free games on the pokies are an interesting background for my NSW Public Library Learning Activity. I may even win a chook!

Takeoff

What do I hope to learn from this program? Hmmmmm, I am one of the unfortunates, I do not have the Internet at home. This is not by choice, simply family circumstances and I am doing my best to rectify it. The result is I feel that I am constantly being overtaken by exciting new things without the time to explore them, there is only so much you can do in your lunch hour in between bites of your salad sandwich. Before you know it, you are being passed by your colleagues and patrons and you loose confidence. I want to learn how to swim instead of dog paddle, I want to charge into the unknown instead of avoiding something new. I want to accept that updating my skills and knowledge is a constant, ongoing thing that we all face and embrace the challenge.

A few days ago a library patron came in for a chat in her new capacity as Youth Development Officer for our local council. This is a newly created position and she is eager to get the library on board, along with local sporting clubs and youth orientated bodies to help show young people that there are places out there for them to access if they know where to look. Keeping in mind that there is a good possibility that some of these kids would consider a trip to the library as about as much fun as a visit to the dentist what a good hook blogging would be.

The thought of locating fellow bloggers with similar musical passions is too delicious for words. To be able rave on about the music from the dust bowl era and the folk music that evolved from that and the possibility of receiving an enthusiastic response makes me dizzy.

I am ready to take off.