Week 12 - Wrap Up

What a sense of accomplishment I feel! So many times throughout this course I wanted to throw it in but I'm glad I persevered. It was a steep learning curve for me and I was totally out of my comfort zone. But hey, I learned heaps and that's the idea, isn't it? My favourite blog's have been Lossy Learning (for professionalism) and Atticus Mockingbird (for everything including having a social conscience).

So, how can libraries use social networking? I think we can use it to communciate with our clients and find out what services they want as well as let them know what we provide. We can use social networking to promote upcoming events and activities, and to advertise for volunteers for storytime, home delivery service and Friends of the Library. I think adding a touch of humour to a social network site is a good way to engage people, for example, the British Library Facebook site has a humurous title to a link to another site about the Magna Carta. The title is something like "Who is Magna Carta and did she die in vain?"

Week 11 - Update

I created my google document on a computer at work as mine at home couldn't cope (go figure?)

Week 11 - Online Applications and Tools

First, the good news - there isn't any. Now, the bad news. I haven't been able to create a document in google docs. I click on "New" in the top left hand corner of the screen as Help says to, and I check that I am in "documents", but I can't type on the screen/page. I can get access to all the other features of google docs. I've also gone back to trying to get Library Thing on my blog. As you will see I've got a beautiful heading on my blog, but no list of books showing. Might go back to that later.

In my library I can't think of many ways to use google docs. Library has a small staff and I'm not involved in admin work to know what goes on there. I can only think that agendas for staff meetings could be put in google docs. I also know that our Librarian is writing a procedures manual and it might be an idea for her to put that on goggle docs so that all staff could add their two cents worth before it's printed and put into use.

Success At Last

So here is my mashup at last. Husband advised me
how to upload the picture to make the mashup.
Must go now and make a mashup of another kind
for family's dinner.

Week 10 Mashups

Oh no, another catastrophe! I wanted to make a motivational poster for this exercise. I planned to find a photo of something interesting re libraries via Flickr, put my nifty motivational speil on it, etc, etc. But couldn't get any photos from Flickr - I don't have any on my computer - don't have a digital camera. To solve this problem I downloaded a photo from Microsoft Office Online (little boy looking between two rows of book shelves), but couldn't upload it again for making my mashup. Anyway, I think one of the best uses of mashups in libraries is as advertising posters for upcoming events.

Week 10 Experiment

Ireland

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

Week 9 - Podcasts and Audio

I agree with comments made by Jalen on 29 March, that podcasts could be used for "teen webcasts, storytime, book reviews, poetry readings, author talks, lectures on specific topics, oral interviews and library newscasts." For me, I especially like the idea of hearing poetry rather than reading it as I get more meaning from it when I hear it read with the correct expression. On the ABC website I listened to the podcast of a Lingua Franca show, which I always miss. My library has a large clientel who have difficulty reading and listen to audio books. I see podcasts as being of interest to them.

Week 8 - Answer Boards and Social Searching

Is there a place for "slamming the boards" in my library? It would be worth a try, although I think only a small number of our patrons would become involved. For a bigger library with a high percentage of younger patrons who would be more keen to get involved in online communicating it would be a great thing. I can certainly see the benefit in patrons rating books and reviewing things they've read. As there is only so much reading librarians can do it would benefit us to see what others think of some of our collection. We could then make recommendations on books we might not have read ourselves by telling patrons, "This is a book a couple of other people liked." Also it would be great to have patrons rate library services and especially the personal service they get from staff. That would certainly keep us all on our toes going out of our way to help.

The "exemplary answers" site was interesting - some great questions that I was interested in, and then some very particular questions with limited appeal. It's all friendly and makes you feel welcome, like your questions are important. And of course, the answers that were rated best really covered the topic thoroughly. They went into a lot of detail without getting away from the point, and it showed what extensive knowledge the librarian/author had of the subject. Good public relations for librarians. I put this site on my delicious tags. It worked. I'm having a much better day today.

Week 7

I've found week 7's tasks really difficult and I'm not sure I've managed to successfully do them. Can't view my blog at the moment to see if my delicious account has a link in it or not. Can't work out whether I've been able to register my blog with Technorati either. And as for setting up a catalogue of books in Library Thing, forget it! My computer skills are just not up to scratch, and neither is my knowledge of "computer-speak". I was only able to manage to attach a delicious account to my blog with much assistance from a work colleague, to whom I will be eternally grateful.

I looked at some of the websites recommended in Learning 2.0, like Sutherland Shire Libraries and Cleveland Public Library (but can't remember now what I was supposed to be taking note of!) Week 8 can only be an improvement.

Week 6

What a lot I've accomplished in week 6. Firstly I managed to change the time of my postings to Eastern Australian time. Secondly I did my first Adventure and posted a terrific Mr Bean in the Library video from YouTube to my blog. Anyone reading this MUST watch it. It's hilarious (of course). Also completed the survey in week 6.

Now for the business part of the course. I checked out a video of Kogarah Marist High School's 20 year school reunion. I chose to look at this because the first school dance I ever went to was at this school (more than 20 years ago unfortunately). I tried searching for Mosman Library videos as Learning 2.0 recommended but couldn't find anything. Found Mr Bean instead. I also looked at some book review videos, which I envisage we could download on a computer in our library for customers to watch. Ideally it would be great for library staff to make our own video clips recommending books or upcoming events and download them to a computer for customers to view. In general, I found watching the videos on YouTube great. Previously I had only looked at a few music clips on YouTube and didn't realise its massive content.

YouTube - Mr Bean - Library

YouTube - Mr Bean - Library: "<param name='movie' value='http://"

Week 5 - Wikis

As instructed I looked at three of the wiki websites recommended. "Book Lovers" wiki had a review of Cry The Beloved Country which I read in school and hated. After reading the review I realised why I didn't enjoy the book in school - apartheid and South Africa's history is all so depressing and miserable. I don't like feeling down after reading.



I next looked at the "Montana History" wiki. I was intrigued by the "Contributions from the Public" section which I thought could be interesting, however there only seemed to be one contribution and that was all about the history of the Krug family. Family history is mostly only interesting to the family members. Then I looked at "Monthly Feature" and that gave little snippets of info about the past in Montana.



I also looked at "Full Library Success", after all, isn't that what we're all striving for? How practical to be able to add to or find info relating to libraries on this wiki. I liked the section on how to select materials for inclusion in libraries. This particular wiki would be useful to set up as an RSS feed at work. Any ideas which have proven successful in other libraries are worth taking note of.

Week 4

I've enjoyed learning about RSS feeds. It's not unlike adding sites to "Favourties". The ones I chose were the five recommended sites on Learning 2.0. However it was so difficult to chose one from the SMH, there are too many of interest. I ended up choosing two, one for fun, "Stay In Touch", and one that will be of a bit more use at work, "Entertainment", because they have a section on books with reviews and info. I also loved looking at the Powerhouse Museum's Picture of the Day. Favourite photo was of the Clyde Engineering staff voting to donate to the HMAS Sydney fund in 1941.

I found another terrific site that I have added to my RSS feeds, and that's one called Library Link of the Day. It already has 1,287 subscribers!! So that shows how useful others find it. It has a huge range of resources that library workers should know about, ranging from light hearted humour to new technology, and of course it has heaps about books. Also has an on-line shop selling library related merchandise, T-shirts, etc. I didn't dare visit this site as I'm a shopaholic, but maybe closer to my birthday I might.

These sites will be great to check out every day (if possible) to get some up-to-date conversation starters with library patrons, and keep abreast of what's going on in the world of books, libraries, research methods, etc. The more knowledge we have in this field, the more professional we are, and the more we can impress our customers.

Week 3

Well, what have I learned so far during week 3? I've learned perseverence and the importance of attention to detail. I've also enjoyed looking at other people's blogs. It's given me the incentive to get cracking!!!!

Bluey- cattle dog -Jillie -4

Bluey- cattle dog -Jillie -4
Originally uploaded by pat.bluey

I love cattle dogs and I found this beautiful photo on Flickr and want to put it on my blog. I've tried this numerous times and hope I've worked out all the fiddly bits now. If this works you'll hear me shouting for joy all over the country. PS: I wish I owned a dog like this. My last cattle dog ran away - not a very good advertisement for me as an owner, is it?

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

I guess I've failed week 3. I haven't been able to work out how to copy a photo from Flickr to my blog. I've had no success "configuring my blog" which I guess means hooking it up to Flickr to receive the copy. I've found heaps of great photos though. I've even had hubby in here helping and he's normally pretty good at this sort of thing. But still no success. Goodbye.

Week 2

Hi to whoever is reading this. This is my second ever experience with blogging. The first being when I looked through a few of the blogs in Learning 2.0 last week. I want to know more about communicating on the net so this is going to be fun. Even though I think I'm starting this program a little later than most of the rest of you, better late than never. Bye for now.