Where do I start?

Embeded videos

2009-12-07T02:24:00.000-08:00

Well this is an interesting one. Once a gain just what can't you do. This would be a great way to do staff training in our area. With our 8 libararies being so far away (up to 340km) we find that we can't always get training, so with this application we can embed training videos into a common area and recieve the training required. We can also develop this for use with the public by showing selected content of author chats, how to care for books oh dear me but this list would be endless but have a great effect to the public just how easy to use this application and to create this application into your own igoogle webpage. i would like to try something for NAIDOC week using indigineous clips to bring to our region. if we can get this embeded into our library webpage it would just be great.

I chose this episode of The Librarian as it amuses me that they have made a show so wrong that you have to laugh at the fact that you can never have as bad a day as Francis!

Google maps

2009-12-07T01:54:00.000-08:00

What a fun page to play with. You can build anything with this. I can see that with our council libraries being so far away that this could be a great way to see what there is in the other towns. In my library I would us this for funtimes with the children to show mapping, grey nomads would be able to be shown around the town and just what there is. I think that i would play on this one too much if i am not careful and come up with some other clever ideas to use it.

Gogoling over google

2009-12-07T01:48:00.000-08:00

Just what can't google do? It seems to come up with some of the easiest applications available. The calendar would be fine to use in the library with all its little addons. I did like the calendar butI guess it is what you get used to.Already using Outlook and all of its applications I find that Google calendar can't offer me anything more but a few pretty it up kind of things. I have to be honest but I did not get too much out of the calendar. It would be good for the young and the ones that seem to have a lot of time to play.

Oh there it is!!

2009-12-07T01:40:00.000-08:00

Wired marker seems to be an add on that i would use on the reference desk. As each library is different to its major clientele i find that many of my people have similar questions to ask. With the school kids that come in you find that you can answer the same questions over and over for a week as a new assignment has started. This marker will make the bookmarking style of the application a quick and easy find. Apart from that I would find that I would use this application many other ways. As I am on the look out for ways to improve the library and you read bits and pieces everywhere that would be good to modify and try this is an easier way for me to keep up with my thinking out of the box style by marking and rereading my highlights.

Make listening fun!

2009-12-02T22:27:00.000-08:00

Podcasts are brilliant! I love to listen to the radio podcasts on Triple J, it makes me feel like I'm in the room chatting with them.
Finding Dr Karl on podcast will be a great to get the kids to listen to in the library. This podcast is short, quick and interesting full of facts that the kids won't get bored with. I will be trying out the podcasts during the afternoon sessions with the children and see how they react. This brings in another way of using their spatial awareness and learning capabilities.

I will be checking out other podcasts now to see how other libraries use this applications. I could see us using this with our own kids programs. Living in regional Queensland we have several families that can't make it into their nearest town to use the library so an application like this would be benificial for them.

Mashup - you don't eat it!!!!!

2009-09-23T18:00:00.000-07:00

Checking over several pages of older mashup sites out there I have come to one conclusion - If you use twitter you are out there everywhere!

I was amazed to see that twitter is used so much in a mashup. I even experimented with twitter and cat pictures using a site called LOLWRUS. It did give some interesting images that did match up with what others have commented on their twitter site. A little bit of fun but you might want to be careful of what you write on twitter now.

I did try another site called Triplify using Yahoo, Google and Bing. This gave me a triple search range on the three sites which I found interesting and it only gave me 16 hits from each site. Now this can be a good thing or a bad thing as it may not have given me a great search range so it may depend on what I am searching for and just how much info I require for the subject.

Now an interesting site was Bubble Machine what a cool way to show what is happening around your town and the shows and displays that are on. This is an application I could see on our website to have the residents want to check out what is happening in our region.

Gotta try one!!!!

If I knew now way back when........

2009-09-23T17:48:00.000-07:00

I love the application of GooleDocs. It is so easy an application to use and create that one document and not have 50 copies floating around the country with 16 different versions.

I have just finished putting together a submission that I sent out to our 8 libraries but when I did one more proof read, I found a couple of errors. Well that meant I made the relevant changes but everyone else had the copies with errors. Now what do I do, send them another copy or what? This GoogleDocs would have been the ideal application to create the submission, have everyone read, edit, and changes etc all on the one document and wham, bim, bang its finished with minimal fuss.

I created an experimental GoogleDoc to put out to the other libraries in my council, our concil covers 60,000km2, just to get everyone to play with the idea. You know how some people get with new technology- 'don't want to try it' - 'ohhhh I can't do that, I only know how to turn on my computer' etc etc. This way with the experimental idea we may, as a team, be able to use this application in many different ways.

I am looking forward to using this application heaps and teaching others how to use it!!!

Techno-licio-thingy

2009-06-10T23:06:00.000-07:00

Well I have to say that I am still trying to get my head around todays session online. I get Librarything and can see where this can inspire other readers to try new books or authors especially when you read some of the reviews that others are putting up. Delicious seems to be another thing to me that I am still refining to suit me. I cannot get my head around this one yet but I am going to keep at it till I understand the site and where it will be of an advantage to me to use and keep track of it.
I have placed the last 6 books that I have read on Librarything and could see that many others have read the same. I think that the tag clouds are a great idea and also look pretty cool. This site is already being used by some of my library members who have obscure tastes in the sci fi world.
I have to say that it sure takes a lot of time to keep up with any/all/some of the sites that we have been shown and learnt about during this course.

Hungry for RSS feeds????

2009-05-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

Well it is a scary world out there that has a zillion RSS feeds for information and updates on nearly everything. That is good if you are into everything but once again I look at the variety of information sources and get flabbergasted at the amount of items that you can or can't keep up with.

I write this blog after sitting on the computer for an hour, going through all sorts of articles trying to find the one's that I hopefully will read and keep me on top of things or at least informed on some of my interests.

When you have so many interests I think it would take an awful long time to go through all the RSS feeds that you could subscribe to. The information that is given is great for the sites that I chose as my interest points. Reading the sites today gave me some great stuff to try or do.

I chose a small mix of different sites

Dictionary - word of the day : to increase my vocab
Opal training : to keep up with libraryland
Library stuff : once again to keep up with libraryland
NYT Books : check out the book reviews for my book club
Digital Photography : just a personal interest to better myself

As I am developing a better library website for our council I feel that putting in our own RSS feed will assist some of our clients to keep up with any of our 8 libraries with what is going on in their local branch and other branches. Other uses is that the local bookclub can keep an eye on some new and interesting tales that they may want to read for the club.

Anyway thats all for now as I am going to check out some more of my interests and see what I can find.

Facebook friendships

2009-04-29T18:40:00.000-07:00

Well I was amazed at how easy this one was to set up. It didn't get too messy and as I am not a great believer of placing all my personal information on I have been able to block the information that I don't want others to see. I was amazed that once I had signed up with the limited profile details that I wrote, how they popped up 2 dozen faces that are living in my town or have recently moved out of town to around the country. Nice feel to see some old friends faces.

Looking at other sites that use facebook eg: UQ University I can see how this networking site has the ability to reach further out there into cyberspace for others to use places like UQ for information. This adaption of using the search capabilities to borrow from the library and then have your friends know of it is great.

Could this be adapted to our regional library I would have to think hard and fast as we are developing a new website and I could see that Facebook maybe an easier way of getting it out there to people in our region.

Wetpaint

2009-04-22T22:25:00.000-07:00

Well I have started my wetpaint page. I have designed it for my friends and I who have a local photo comp between ourselves. I found it very easy to set up but I still won;t put a lot of details in my profile as I still am not comfortable with this part.

Anyway I have added a monthly calendar to my site to show my mates when the comp starts and what the subject is going to be and when our judging night will be. I have also put up a photo gallery ( as yet no photos are in it but I have to wait until everyone takes their photos to be loaded into the gallery)

The process of adding the above was relatively easy and i have thrown a thread into the site to start my mates off as I invited them to the site because the site is for them to use as well.

Well off now to put a comment on slq and check out wiki.

Wonderful Wikis

2009-04-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well there is a world of wikis out there that blows the mind!!!!

Having looked over several of the sites I found that I was inundated with information overload with so many links to links to links to do with a subject. I found it easy to get lost (thanks goodness for the back button) or else I may have ended up in cyberspace.

What I found interesting was how you can compare different editing and that it is coloured so that you can see in an instant just what was changed. Some sites seemed did seem to lose me as there seemed so much to look at and I found this distracting but I think the simpler the better.

I can see where there is a place for the application to be used within the library industry and useful for the libraries such as our regional councils 8 libraries that are up to 350km apart from each other. It can be a means to

keep our library procedures up to date
use for swapping of ideas for what is happening in each of our libraries
holding an event that all 8 libraries are to be involved in

The list can go on and on.

I would hope that the IT department would be tolerant of our needs when we decide to start our wiki on the intranet for the libraries to use. This is definitley one piece of technology that will be discussed at the next library meeting and its applications as above and whatever ideas come from others to be used. My only thought is that not all of those in our libraries are techno savvy and are not all that interested in becoming too techno savvy so it might hold up some people from learning even the basics.

Well I am going to start my wiki now and see what happens!!! Keep you posted!

Wow wiki

2009-04-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

Well I have a look at the tutorial for this and it looks amazing. Straight away I could see it used for an application that I am working on currently in the library. I had to get this off my chest first before I can proceed to actually create a wiki.

Is anyone out there enjoying this as much as me?????????????

Flickerphotos

2009-04-14T21:05:00.000-07:00

I think that I am putting this next blog in the right place (could be wrong usually am lately).

I did like the idea of flicker. I haven't used it before on gone onto the site to look for images/photos etc. This is not my thing really as when I take personal photos (even if they have no people in them) I don't know if I would put them out there for the world to see. I know a lot of people that use this and facebook but I like to keep personal things personal.I can see where this application will and could have its uses in the library industry and I am making my personal challange to have a link placed on our libraries website so that we can share the photos of what is happening @ our libraries to assist in sharing ideas great and small.

Where do I start!

2009-03-18T22:32:00.000-07:00

Where do I start! With this first blog! Web 2.0 has always looked a bit scarey to me but I know that to keep abreast with the youngun's and my own children I need to learn a bit more and develop my skills.

Well starting this blogging has got me doing it all wrong to start with. But with the assistance of a couple of templates, some instructions (that I missed the first time round) and perserverence I know that I will succeed with this.

I can see where this will have its uses in the library and I will develop and increase my knowledge over the timeframe of this assignment. The young adults of the library will be able to show me a thing or two to try on my blogs and I know of a few elderly clients that might enjoy learning this new web knowledge.

So here I go blogging!!!