It's true, the last of the series. I never thought I'd make it, much less enjoy myself along the way. It's certainly been an eye opener & hopefully I'll be able to introduce more & more of the things I've learned into my professional activities as time goes on.
So now we have social networking & the possibility of expanding our contacts seemingly infinitely. Maybe I can find a whole world of sad people also interested in the obscure art of medieval widget construction. As for the Second Life Library Project, that's truly mindblowing. I thought it was disturbing enough that I dream about work, now I have the possibility of actually entering an alternate library reality!
Seriously though, social networking will become a fundamental feature of our professional life. It will enable us to network as never before. The mind boggles at the ideas that will flow from peers around the world who face similar challenges in radically different ways. Sharing our experiences & floating suggestions can only enhance the service we provide. The interaction it will facilitate between us & our clients & between our clients will also make us a social hub.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
The penultimate blog
The online versions of productivity software represent a huge leap forward in facilitating group interaction. Even on a personal level, it means that I will be able to collaborate with friends around the world in writing articles, without the usual tedious back & forthing of emails & routing from A to B to C. Not only is it a great timesaver, it's also free. What more could I ask?
Within the library, as we have a number of sites & there are generally projects that staff are cooperating on who are not in close proximity, Google docs will make everything so much simpler & easy to coordinate.
I've transferred a travel diary I've been working on to Google docs (& shared it with nswpln@gmail.com) It needs a lot of work & I would like my brother, who is overseas, to be able to make ongoing suggestions & my wife, from her computer at uni. to be able to edit my more blatant lies & jog my memory. She wrote half the original diary, but I've exercised poetic license in my transcription.
Here's a little picture from the diary to relieve the tedium of my drivellings.
Within the library, as we have a number of sites & there are generally projects that staff are cooperating on who are not in close proximity, Google docs will make everything so much simpler & easy to coordinate.
I've transferred a travel diary I've been working on to Google docs (& shared it with nswpln@gmail.com) It needs a lot of work & I would like my brother, who is overseas, to be able to make ongoing suggestions & my wife, from her computer at uni. to be able to edit my more blatant lies & jog my memory. She wrote half the original diary, but I've exercised poetic license in my transcription.
Here's a little picture from the diary to relieve the tedium of my drivellings.
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Mashups
Another interesting development with great potential for libraries in creating reference resources.
My library has just been commended in the National Trust Heritage awards for its recently developed picture database. This could be made into an even better site by adding in voice threads to bring various pictures to life & enhance the oral history of the area.
The video explaining Voicethread put me in mind of Hell, which I envision as an eternity of looking at people's old photos while listening to their interminably tedious recollections. However, I'm sure our local history voicethreads wouldn't be like that!
The Starviewer was wonderful, although I'd have to give some thought as to the technique could be applied in a public library. I can see uni. staff having a lot of fun with it in creating resources for students through their library services.
The British Library's 'London:a life in maps' is v. interesting, but I wonder if we have the staff resources to put something like that together, it must take a lot of work.
My library has just been commended in the National Trust Heritage awards for its recently developed picture database. This could be made into an even better site by adding in voice threads to bring various pictures to life & enhance the oral history of the area.
The video explaining Voicethread put me in mind of Hell, which I envision as an eternity of looking at people's old photos while listening to their interminably tedious recollections. However, I'm sure our local history voicethreads wouldn't be like that!
The Starviewer was wonderful, although I'd have to give some thought as to the technique could be applied in a public library. I can see uni. staff having a lot of fun with it in creating resources for students through their library services.
The British Library's 'London:a life in maps' is v. interesting, but I wonder if we have the staff resources to put something like that together, it must take a lot of work.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Podcasts
I have aged considerably while waiting for podcasts to load here at work, but I can see they are great stuff if your computer has the capacity to open them quickly.
I went straight to the ABC site and what a lot of time I could waste, I mean spend, there. There are so many interesting programs that I would never watch or listen to when they are actually aired, but that I would love to access at my convenience. Actually, I've been using the BBCs site for a couple of years to listen to radio programs that never get broadcast here, that I became a fan of while spending time over there, but it never occurred to me that there was a much wider potential for podcasts.
Well, I've just listened to a library podcast, from an English public library who's name I shall not mention (OK Manchester Public Library if you must know), and I have to say that we really need to put out a professional production if we want to get any listeners. It needs to be scripted, so there's no umming & ahhing as the presenter thinks of what he's going to say next, & if there's film it needs to look better than a home movie. The competition for attention is fierce, so we really need to hone our skills to be in the game. If we can produce quality podcasts, such as the series on Early Literacy from the Pierce County Library System, & advertise what we are doing to relevant groups, this could give us a whole new area for service growth.
I went straight to the ABC site and what a lot of time I could waste, I mean spend, there. There are so many interesting programs that I would never watch or listen to when they are actually aired, but that I would love to access at my convenience. Actually, I've been using the BBCs site for a couple of years to listen to radio programs that never get broadcast here, that I became a fan of while spending time over there, but it never occurred to me that there was a much wider potential for podcasts.
Well, I've just listened to a library podcast, from an English public library who's name I shall not mention (OK Manchester Public Library if you must know), and I have to say that we really need to put out a professional production if we want to get any listeners. It needs to be scripted, so there's no umming & ahhing as the presenter thinks of what he's going to say next, & if there's film it needs to look better than a home movie. The competition for attention is fierce, so we really need to hone our skills to be in the game. If we can produce quality podcasts, such as the series on Early Literacy from the Pierce County Library System, & advertise what we are doing to relevant groups, this could give us a whole new area for service growth.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Answer Boards
Welcome to the future! This is where librarians can really have an impact. Slamming the boards has a range of positive outcomes for the library world in general. Not only can we show how accurate & professional we are to a sophisticated audience, we can provide a universal service to vast areas of the world who do not have the capacity to provide it for themselves. After all, there are still some places on the planet where the libraries have card catalogues (I expect that most of the participants in web2.0 have never even come across such a thing). There are many people in such places who do have internet access & would bypass their libraries as being redundant. These are more likely to be the people with the potential to drive change in their countries & anything we can do to influence their attitude to the potential of libraries should be pursued.
Anyhoo, apart from my little ideological diatribe, we can highlight our skills through answeboarding and, although we would generally not be answering our own client's enquiries, hopefully there would be a general rise in consciousness re library services which will benefit us all.
For once this stuff is not completely new to me. I've been using the Lonely Planet's Thorn tree for years, where you can put specific travel related questions. I often have the kind of queries that are not addressed in guidebooks and have almost always found answers from other travellers that I couldn't otherwise have found out. When reading the answers to questions I think people would certainly take note if the signature indicated a librarian was at work & note the quality of the response.
Anyhoo, apart from my little ideological diatribe, we can highlight our skills through answeboarding and, although we would generally not be answering our own client's enquiries, hopefully there would be a general rise in consciousness re library services which will benefit us all.
For once this stuff is not completely new to me. I've been using the Lonely Planet's Thorn tree for years, where you can put specific travel related questions. I often have the kind of queries that are not addressed in guidebooks and have almost always found answers from other travellers that I couldn't otherwise have found out. When reading the answers to questions I think people would certainly take note if the signature indicated a librarian was at work & note the quality of the response.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Tagging
This is a great way to give our customers easy access to relevant information. Whilst we need Dewey & LCSH to catalogue our comparitively large public library collections in a meaningful way, tagging provides an efficient means of getting information on topics of broad interest.
Tags for currently in demand topics can be organised in a way that the public will identify with eg; as Sutherland & Clevland have with Art, History etc. These tags lead to a variety of informative sites which will be v. useful. The only danger is that the tags get overloaded with sites so that it becomes hard to sort through them to determine what is relevant for your needs. The ability to view tags as clouds, by frequency of visits, & specifying the no. per page, makes it v. user friendly.
Librarything is a lot of fun, if only I could be bothered entering my thousand books & getting all the benefits. I tend to be too busy reading them. The big advantage is networking with others & finding directions to other titles you might be interested in. The actual information that's provided about the titles you enter isn't so useful, unless you have a bigger collection. With only 1,000 books, I pretty much know what I've got & exactly where it is (being pedantic enough to have shelved them in general Dewey order).
Tags for currently in demand topics can be organised in a way that the public will identify with eg; as Sutherland & Clevland have with Art, History etc. These tags lead to a variety of informative sites which will be v. useful. The only danger is that the tags get overloaded with sites so that it becomes hard to sort through them to determine what is relevant for your needs. The ability to view tags as clouds, by frequency of visits, & specifying the no. per page, makes it v. user friendly.
Librarything is a lot of fun, if only I could be bothered entering my thousand books & getting all the benefits. I tend to be too busy reading them. The big advantage is networking with others & finding directions to other titles you might be interested in. The actual information that's provided about the titles you enter isn't so useful, unless you have a bigger collection. With only 1,000 books, I pretty much know what I've got & exactly where it is (being pedantic enough to have shelved them in general Dewey order).
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Video easy
I must admit, I've been delving into youtube for a while. There are all sorts of gems there, including snippets from wonderful TV programs that I thought had been lost to my dim dark past. Oddly enough, I hadn't woken up to the possibilities inherent in online videos for professional use, but it's so obvious when you think about it & the excellent examples from the US and even Sydney libraries that are already getting into this are inspirational.
Whilst there are a variety of uses we could make of online videos in promoting the library & showcasing our services, the big challenge is to get the broader public to look at the videos. Being in a poor area, with a large aged population, an important part of what we do in utilising this new technology is to promote its use. This could become part of our regular internet training for seniors (which is incredibly popular), and also be highlighted in conjunction with the promotion of other services and events.
It's vital that we reach as many of our clients as possible. This seems to me to be a greater challenge than the actual production of online videos as any number of our staff are so computer savvy that they could probably get a great clip online with their eyes closed whilst handcuffed and under water.
Whilst there are a variety of uses we could make of online videos in promoting the library & showcasing our services, the big challenge is to get the broader public to look at the videos. Being in a poor area, with a large aged population, an important part of what we do in utilising this new technology is to promote its use. This could become part of our regular internet training for seniors (which is incredibly popular), and also be highlighted in conjunction with the promotion of other services and events.
It's vital that we reach as many of our clients as possible. This seems to me to be a greater challenge than the actual production of online videos as any number of our staff are so computer savvy that they could probably get a great clip online with their eyes closed whilst handcuffed and under water.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Wikis
I like this, the idea of being able to develop a website without having to plough through all that tedious HTML stuff. It has so much potential in so many areas. The Library success & Book Lovers wikis have already given me ideas. The Mint Museum wiki shows just how useful it can be to an organisation, giving exposure to all its' facets.
In the above cases I can't see any problems, as editorial access is restricted to members. For sites like Wikipedia, for the most part, it's a great source of info. which I'd be happy to consult. However, when it comes to using it as an academic or scientific source, I have my doubts. I can't see that my supervisor for a History PHD is going to accept a citation from Wikipedia without having a more definitive source to back it up. What's to stop anyone from making a minor modification in an article, even with the best intentions, that may change its whole meaning. After all, men have been hanged due to the fact that a comma was inserted in the wrong (for them) place (Roger Casement in 1916, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Casement, there, Wikipedia has its uses). If, as Stephen Colbert jokingly suggests, the Wikiality of a statement conveys truth, just because of popular consensus, would we be prepared to have doctors using Wikipedia as a source in determining treatments? Not for me, thanks!
For finding travel info., lifestyle guides and all sorts of things, it's a great resource, and restricted wikis are certainly professionally valid sources of information. I'll be using them a lot in the future.
In the above cases I can't see any problems, as editorial access is restricted to members. For sites like Wikipedia, for the most part, it's a great source of info. which I'd be happy to consult. However, when it comes to using it as an academic or scientific source, I have my doubts. I can't see that my supervisor for a History PHD is going to accept a citation from Wikipedia without having a more definitive source to back it up. What's to stop anyone from making a minor modification in an article, even with the best intentions, that may change its whole meaning. After all, men have been hanged due to the fact that a comma was inserted in the wrong (for them) place (Roger Casement in 1916, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Casement, there, Wikipedia has its uses). If, as Stephen Colbert jokingly suggests, the Wikiality of a statement conveys truth, just because of popular consensus, would we be prepared to have doctors using Wikipedia as a source in determining treatments? Not for me, thanks!
For finding travel info., lifestyle guides and all sorts of things, it's a great resource, and restricted wikis are certainly professionally valid sources of information. I'll be using them a lot in the future.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Week 4
This is great, RSS will give us all the opportunity to find out the latest doings of Brittany Spears as they're reported. How our lives will be enriched! Seriously though, I have signed up for BBC news feeds & Scientific American & so will be alerted to developments I might otherwise have to wait hours or days to find out. When I put it like that, it doesn't sound like it will make much difference to me though. Still, I can see that in a lot of contexts it would be very useful.
From a professional point of view, I will subscribe to some library related sites which will alert me to developments in service delivery and generally what's going on out there. The ABS for librarians is an excellent way of familiarising oneself with the latest news & info. of popular interest in this area.
Obviously, public libraries will be able to utilise RSS in various ways to provide better access to info. for their clients. We should encourage our clients to subscribe to our sites as this could be a great way to publicise upcoming events etc.
From a professional point of view, I will subscribe to some library related sites which will alert me to developments in service delivery and generally what's going on out there. The ABS for librarians is an excellent way of familiarising oneself with the latest news & info. of popular interest in this area.
Obviously, public libraries will be able to utilise RSS in various ways to provide better access to info. for their clients. We should encourage our clients to subscribe to our sites as this could be a great way to publicise upcoming events etc.
Monday, February 25, 2008
Not a mouse
Murray & I have had a disagreement. He wanted to post a picture of a mouse, but I had to remind him that he's supposed to be giving them up, so he's gone off for a snooze. Instead, I selected this picture (above left) from flikr of the Coliseum by Pat E. Nation.
I had a bit of trouble getting it onto the blog, so I ended up downloading it to my computer & from there to the blog. That's probably not the proper way to do it, but it's easy.
I think flikr offers a lot of opportunities for libraries to promote services & provide easy access to resources. However, in terms of personal use, I can't see myself using it much. This picture of the Coliseum is OK, but I've taken better ones (my picture of the Moreno Glacier, above right, is just as good quality). I suspect that if I want a professional quality picture, it would be quicker to go straight to the shelves & grab a book, rather than searching through masses of photos on flikr.
The only people who really want to see my own pictures (purely travel related) are the aged relatives, so I normally arrange a slide show on my computer, put it onto a disc, then show it to them on their tvs. It's a bit dangerous offering to show my holiday snaps to friends as they're liable to start pulling out an endless file of pics of their children growing up.
Still, it's early days & this kind of technology has a way of sneaking up on me until I suddenly start to wonder how I ever lived without it. Just so long as I can avoid other people's family photos.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
First effort
At last I have made it this far. I spent so long trying to find a username I liked that wasn't already in use, I was about to give up. In the end I went for something really boring & obvious.
I'm looking forward to finding out all about web 2.0. I am a bit of a Luddite, but it sounds exciting. The main danger for me is the likelihood of addiction to youtube & flikr etc. when there are already too few hours in the day to cope with my busy schedule of watching the grass grow. I have gone through the units for weeks 1 & 2 & so far so good, not too daunting. The Stephen Fry interview really got me onside as I am a big admirer of him. It's encouraging to find out that I might be able to able to utilise web 2.0 without needing to gain much technical skill.
I am committed to the concept of Lifelong Learning though, but up until now my own pursuit of it has been through continuing ed. courses (I'm starting a semester on Ancient Rome at Mac. Uni. on Tuesday.) Online learning is a great opportunity for the future and has the most important advantage of often being free!
I haven't actually looked at anyone else's personal blogs yet, but they'll have to be a lot more interesting than this one to keep my attention. The library blogs look v. useful & I can imagine all sorts of ways blogging could enhance our service.
Blogging has enormous potential for the library, through facilitating creative dialogue in all sorts of ways. It probably also has a lot of potential in dealing with client groups eg., I run a Book Group at our library & I can see that this might be a great way of interacting & providing info. between meetings & with other groups.
That's got to be 150 words, it certainly feels like it.
I'm adding a picture of Murray (see above), who thinks this is all a complete waste of time & says I should get back to watching the grass grow.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)