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!
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
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.
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.
Monday, April 7, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, April 4, 2008
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.
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.
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.
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