Bonnie Lass of Bon Accord

# 23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning .....

2007-11-26T15:59:00.000+11:00

This really does now feel like the beginning of something big!! I am really happy to have reached the end of the 23 tasks and within the time frame of the course - but after this Library 2.0 learning journey so far I now feel really enthused to continue on. As soon as I attend to a few other things that I have neglected in my new found enthusiasm for blogging over the past few weeks I will start on the next series of exercises in Learning 2.1!

Learning 2.0 has been very much a learning journey with a sense of discovery and delight at having the world of web technology suddenly opened up to me. And the learning is definitely an ongoing journey, as I continue on to the next step of Learning 2.0 and beyond.
In the process of following a variety of links during all exercises in the course I have also learnt so much more about libraries and librarians around the world today. I also have lots of sites to follow up on and go back to. Because I am now thinking about the new technology I have become aware of references to it in all sorts of places that I never noticed before! I have read articles in newspapers, magazines, online, heard about it in conversations, and see symbols refering to it everywhere!!!

I had great fun with the photos, mashups and online image generators. I was really happy to learn about RSS feeds and Del.icio.us, both of which will help me enormously in keeping up with information. I also subscribed to Library Link of the Day, that I learnt about during my travels on this course, and have already had some very interesting library related sites emailed to me to peruse. Ideas for implementing Web 2.0 technology in libraries are endless.

This Library 2.0 course was, however, quite difficult to follow at times (especially in the beginning) and it is a shame to see so many participants drop out. We need to be able to give more support and encouragement to staff members who are undertaking the exercises. I also ended up doing the whole course at home because of the amount of time needed. It is also the kind of course where the more you put into it, the more you definitely get out of it.
The requirements of the exercises were not always clear and a lot of time could be wasted in trying to find out what to do. The learning process was also not linear as a textbook would be - dipping in and out of sites and following links in different directions is a whole new concept in learning in itself for some of us. Talking to other participants was always helpful.

Before I go any further I think I also need to go back over the 23 things to refresh my memory of each one and to ensure that I continue to use the new skills that I have learnt. I am looking forward to continuing to explore the world of Web 2.0 technology, especially in relation to libraries of the future. Thank you to everyone involved in the presentation of this Learning 2.0 course.

# 22 Audiobooks

2007-11-26T15:25:00.000+11:00

Downloadable audio books appear to be a resource that will expand much more in the future as more and more books become available online. The concept of the subscription services Netlibrary and Overdrive that enable libraries to purchase audio files so library members can download them on to their mp3 players is very interesting - especially the fact that the audio files are automatically deleted from the mp3 player at the end of the loan period!

I had a look around the World eBook Fair site http://worldebookfair.com/Mp3eBooks.htm, especially the Gutenberg's Audio eBook Collection and The Sound of Literary Works Collection. I had a listen to some of the The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde, Briar Rose by the Brothers Grimm, and The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. Just as in the audio books in the library now, the skill and quality of the reader makes a huge difference to your enjoyment of the story. The titles are generally of very old books at present.

The World eBook Fair site also has a section marked Project Gutenberg of Australia, but the page is under construction. Even though I had read about Project Gutenberg before, it was interesting to follow some of the links about it - http://www.gutenberg.org/ and a site with some of the history of the project - http://promo.net/pg/.

# 21 Podcasts

2007-11-26T09:18:00.000+11:00

I had a look at the podcast directory tools - podcast.net, podcastalley.com and Yahoo podcasts. I did find some interesting podcasts through those directories, but I think the best podcasts I have come across have been in my general searching and visiting of Internet sites at other times. Many Internet sites now have podcasts available.

The SirsiDynix Institute has some really good podcasts of library related seminars and talks. I have listened to some already during this course. One I plan to go back and listen to is -
25 Technologies in 50 minutes, a presentation by Stephen Abram (Vice President of Innovation at the SirsiDynix Institute) on the new technologies. http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/seminar_page.php?sid=69

I have added the SirsiDynix Institute podcasts to my Bloglines account so that I can keep up with their latest seminars.

I am also interested in ABC Radio's podcasts of shows such as The Health Report. It would be great to just listen to The Health Report via podcast as it is broadcast at a time that is not suitable for me. I have added The Health Report podcast Pod feed to my bloglines account too.
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/default.htm

Podcasts will be very useful for me in keeping up with the latest information or talks etc that I have missed. They have great potential for use on our library website for such things as author talks and interviews, explanations of library resources, library radio show broadcasts, showcasing library events.

# 20 You too can YouTube

2007-11-24T01:04:00.000+11:00

I have spent some time looking at lots of interesting clips on YouTube. You can really get carried away here!

I really liked the Medieval IT Help Desk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQHX-SjgQvQ - I could relate to the poor fellows confusion with new technology (the book!),
and Conan the Librarian at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZHoHaAYHq8.

I looked at quite a few clips on libraries, and then started looking at fiddle music clips of Alasdair Fraser, a really wonderful Scottish fiddle player who now lives in America. I hadn't really looked at the YouTube site before (only seen odd video clips elsewhere). It was really great to see some good clips of fiddle concerts. I wanted to post an Alasdair Fraser clip on to my blog but the clips of his concerts said no embedding by request. I guess that means that I can't do it, but maybe I can still add a link to one. I ended up putting a funny one of Mr Bean in the library on the blog instead.

The Alasdair Fraser video clip I wanted to share is at - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffHz3wry5Nc.

Video clips could be used on the library website or blog for recording events, author talks, library promotion, reader education explanations about aspects of the library. They could be used on the staff intranet for teaching purposes, promotion of branches, news etc etc.

The material that is already on YouTube varies between really good clips and rubbish. Libraries can however create their own material.

# 19 Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

2007-11-23T22:54:00.000+11:00

I looked at a large number of the sites listed on the Web 2.0 Awards pages http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/ .
Many of them didn't seem to be all that useful. Some had potential though and were interesting.

Realtravel - describes itself as the travel guide and trip planner powered by advice from real travelers. It shows places to go, things to do, helps you plan a trip, hosts your free travel blog. The advice is from real people talking about their own trips. Could have some very useful information.

Listdump - is a community list generator based on the simple fact that everybody loves a good list. Some of the top lists I saw were: Most beautiful mountain ranges in the U.S., Best Food Websites, The Coolest New Blogs, Generators for Web 2.0, All Things Japanese. Some lists had lots of entries, some just a few. They were open to anyone for contributions, or you could start your own list.

Ucoming - upcoming events, and it did come up with events on in Melbourne first. Only had a small listing of what is really on in Melbourne in any given week.

These were all made up of contributions from anyone and therefore the content and quality of the information varied a lot. The concept of being a community resource open to all for contributions is very different to what we are used to, though it does have lots of potential. I can see this idea being well used for sharing information on reading, favourite books and authors.

# 18 Web based Applications and Tools - Zoho Writer

2007-11-23T20:12:00.001+11:00

I am writing this piece in Zoho Writer after creating an account for myself, and hope to post it to my blog when I have finished.

The idea of being able to access your documents from any computer, anywhere, and being able to work collaboratively with other people on them is great. This would perhaps have been even better than using a wiki for my previous example of editing a book. We could perhaps have used Zoho Writer effectively for drafts, although a lot of the book was done in the first instance by using specialist music software and as I understand it Zoho Writer is confined to standard word processing.

Zoho Writer seems to have a lot of the word processing style features of microsoft Word, which I have used endlessly over the years. I am about to experiment with background colour to distinguish this piece from my normal blog posts.

This colour is very bright! What do you think?

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

2007-11-23T00:20:00.000+11:00

On the PBwiki Learning 2.0 I added my blog to the Favourite Blogs list http://plcmclearning.pbwiki.com/Favorite%20Blogs. You'll find it under Australian Blogs - Learning 2.0 Blogs, Eastern Regional Libraries.

I also added a line to the Favourite Vacation Spots list.

#16 So What's in a Wiki?

2007-11-22T22:51:00.000+11:00

The essential thing that I learned about wikis is that they are collaborative websites that allow users to easily add, remove and edit content. I had often checked out Wikipedia before, knowing that the content could be contributed by anyone, but I didn't know anything about other wikis.

I can see, after looking at a number of library wikis and checking out all the links on this topic, that wikis can be a very useful tool for a number of things - group projects, staff intranets, conference planning, meeting discussions, collaborative editing of documents and so on.
I have just been involved with the editing of a book for publication. It involved a couple of other people in Melbourne and the author in Bendigo. We could have usefully used a wiki for our little group instead of emailing sections back and forth and sending full hard copy drafts in the mail.

I like the article by Meredith Farkas on Web Junction where she says that wikis.. at their best, they can become true community resources that can postiton the library as an online hub of their local community. http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=11264
We are trying to create libraries as physical hubs of our communities, so a vision of them as an online hubs, contributed to by the community, is very interesting.
There are good examples of wikis as community information resources, as book review sites, as subject guides in libraries (that include information not only on books but also on local clubs, shops, other Internet sites etc on the topic).

Library Success: a best practices wiki provides links to very interesting blogs on library success stories. http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page

#15 Web 2.0, Library 2.0

2007-11-19T22:21:00.000+11:00

I read through all the five perspectives on Library 2.0 that were listed, but the best articles I found were from the references listed at the bottom of the Wikipedia entry (though some of these references were a couple of years old).

One link was to an interesting blog of John Blyberg http://www.blyberg.net/2006/01/09/11-reasons-why-library-20-exists-and-matters/ with a posting entitled - 11 reasons why Library 2.0 exists and matters. He talks about Library 2.0 being partially a response to a Post-Google world. Google's impact on the way we do business has already created profound changes in usage patterns in libraries. He argues that Library 2.0 is revolutionary, is essential for survival, is an ever-changing amalgam of ideas, dreams and visions, and is happening - and requires great changes in libraries.

Another link was to a podcast of a seminar talk in 2006 available on the SirsiDynix Institute site - Creating a 2.0 Library by Thad Hartman & David King from Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library in the U.S. http://www.sirsidynixinstitute.com/seminar_page.php?sid=93
They talked about libraries needing to be with the times, not behind; about the library as a human, changing organism; about the great books and other materials that we have that we need to let people know about; about creating a digital branch with all sorts of ideas about providing the best of library functions in a digital space, connected as well to a physical library. They gave examples of using blogs, podcasts, YouTube, Flickr, RSS etc (linking catalogue information, ILL access, ebooks, digital subject guides, author broadcasts, event attendance on-line, events connected digitally to relevant books/authors, digital events, email reference services, patron participation).

They also talked about creating a Travel Neighbourhood (genre collection) in their library, which brought together all the travel related materials (mostly books in 910's in dewey, foreign language phrase books, books on hotels, restaurants, travelling with children, travel magazines/DVD's). The also then created a Travel Subject Guide on the library website's blog and included postings on travel books, events, finding articles on travel, planning a holiday, local attractions. This was especially of interest as we have recently re-arranged the non-fiction collection in our branch into genres (all into genres, not just one genre).

I was inspired to go to the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Libray website to check them out.
http://www.tscpl.org/.

I also looked at an article in the SirsiDynix montly e-newsletter by Stephen Abram (Vice President of Innovation at SirsiDynix) - Can This 2.0 Stuff Help Libraries with Promotion?.
http://www.imakenews.com/sirsi/e_article000862006.cfm?x=bb1LCGK,b5PTDpv0.
This article is also posted on Stephen Abram's good blog Stephen's Lighthouse http://stephenslighthouse.sirsidynix.com/
He described a great many ways of using Library 2.0 technology to promote libraries - using YouTube, Second Life, Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Podcasts, Wikipedia, Ning, Twitter, Mozes, NowPublic, Blogging and RSS, SearchEngine Optimization, eSurveys.

The video from YouTube that was linked to the Library 2.0 training - "Web 2.0 - The Machine is Us/ing Us " was excellent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE

It really does seem that libraries have changed for ever. We don't want to leave behind the patrons who are not computer literate, or throw away the great things that we do, but we do need to get people back into libraries by making libraries relevant to what they want and need in their daily lives. Many, many people today use blogs, eBay, Amazon, Flickr, Facebook etc and expect the library to be similar. We need to be visible in these places so that the library is, as Sarah Houghton said in another article, a destination and not an afterthought. http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/.

I am really glad to be doing this training - it has opened up a whole new world of Web 2.0 technology to me that I knew very little about before. There are a great many articles, blogs, and discussions on Library 2.0 that I wish to come back and look at later.

#14 Technorati

2007-11-11T23:41:00.000+11:00

Technorati is supposed to be the leading authority on blogs and for searching content within blog posts. However I felt that I didn't have much success with it. First of all I couldn't get the video clip in the exercise to load, so I just had a look around the Technorati site myself (and found it a bit confusing). I discovered eventually that to keyword search in Blog posts, in tags, and in Blog Directory (as the exercise indicated) it was necessary to go to Advanced Search. Doing a search for Learning 2.0 did not yield much in blog posts or tags, but brought out a clear list in blog directory. Maybe I wasn't using the search process correctly. I wasn't inspired to join Technorati or claim my blog or tag the posts in my blog at this stage.

# 13 Tagging and Del.icio.us (a social bookmarking site)

2007-11-11T21:58:00.000+11:00

Del.icio.us will be really great for organising bookmarks, being able to access them from any computer, and for the capability of sharing a network of useful Internet sites with other people.

After looking at the Del.icio.us site at http://del.icio.us/ I created my own account, and added toolbar buttons to my computer for easy access to my Del.icio.us listings and for easy tagging of useful Internet sites. I then tagged a number of sites that I had been using and will want to visit again in the future, as well as some for my nephew Aden.
I added a Network Badge to my blog (a little Del.icio.us link to my listings) and a list of my tags (subject headings that I had used to describe the Internet sites I listed) in a cloud formation.

When I have more time I will go back and have a look at what other people are listing and tagging. I can see that following the tag trail of another user could yield some useful sites on topics of interest as well.

The Del.icio.us facility could be well used for sharing a network of useful Internet sites with a group of colleagues, friends, or library patrons.

#12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo

2007-11-11T17:04:00.000+11:00

I had a look at a couple of Rollyo search engines on different topics, then created a Rollyo account for myself and decided to put together a search roll that could be useful for me when searching for sheet music of folk music tunes. I called my search roll Folk Tunes - see www.rollyo.com/bonnielass, and added it to my blog.
I often find myself searching for tunes on the web. Being able to search several of the main sites at once (instead of having to search them individually) would save me a lot of time and effort. For some topics, especially when searching for specific information (like specific tunes) , this would work really well. At other times it would be better to browse an individual site.

#11 Library Thing

2007-11-06T22:51:00.000+11:00

Aden's Favourite Books
I opened an account at Library Thing, created a short list of Aden's favourite books http://www.librarything.com/ and posted the list to my blog by using a Library Thing widget.
Now I've managed to do the same with some of the books from my book shelves, though a number of books I tried to show were not listed through Library Thing, and most of the others had no covers available. I also created a search link to my own list of books at Library Thing.
It was really interesting to see who else had listed the same books and I learnt about a number of literary groups by following the links to these other people and under the groups button.

2007-11-06T20:50:00.000+11:00

This great photo was taken by my brother at the Mainz Festival in Germany a few years ago and I have turned it into a motivational poster at http://wigflip/automotivator/, once again found through The Generator Blog.

# 10 Play Around with Image Generators

2007-11-06T18:22:00.000+11:00

After browsing through lots of image generators I chose some to try out on my blog.

Aden's Tartan

The first one is from the House of Tartan site at http://houseoftartan.co.uk/.
My nephew Aden has recently been on a trip to Scotland so I created a tartan for him with the interactive weaver on this site. You choose the colours you want and the order of the colours in the weaving and then the interactive weaver weaves the tartan for you! You can then even have the tartan made up for you in Scotland.
I found this generator on The Generator Blog http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/.

I also used the Wizard Text Generator at http://www.fodey.com/generators/animated/wizard.asp to create a wizard message banner at the bottom of my blog for Aden and his dog, Shadow. Hope you like it Aden!

I created a magazine at http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/magazine.php

Shadow's Magazine

# 9 Finding Feeds

2007-11-06T14:28:00.000+11:00

I tried to find some other useful feeds about libraries by using the search tools listed in the exercise, but didn't find them all that helpful. Blogline's Search Tool and Google Blog Search were straightforward, Topix is more for news items which was not what I was looking for, Technorati produced some feeds, and I couldn't get into the Feedster site. The best way of finding good feeds about libraries in the end was to use links and blogrolls on other sites and blogs. I had already found some very interesting blogs about promoting libraries and using the new technology in libraries and have spent some time checking out the links from these sites. My RSS feeds in bloglines have already given me some very interesting posts to read.

I finally worked out how to create a blogroll on my blog. It turns out I just wasn't using the correct username!

#8 RSS and Newsreaders

2007-10-29T15:02:00.000+11:00

I have been learning all about RSS and newsreaders today - I have read through and listened to information on RSS technology, created a Bloglines account, subscribed to several newsfeeds, and organised my feeds into folders (http://www.bloglines.com/public/debonnielass).
I also used the search box on Bloglines to search for feeds on various topics. Some of the library feeds looked really interesting and I will go back and have another look later.

I really like the idea of being able to keep up with information in areas that interest me - without having to remember to go to Internet sites and blogs myself to check them for new postings. I can see myself using this technology to keep abreast of innovations happening in the library world and as a way of gaining great ideas that can be implemented in my work. It helps to create a sense of being part of the whole world of libraries. We can have library patrons connected to our library blog and reading sites etc in the same way, so that they are informed of the latest books, and library resources, events, and technology.

I am about to have a go at adding a Blogroll to my blog so that my list of feeds can be shared.

#7 Technology

2007-10-28T20:30:00.000+11:00

Taking part in this Learning 2.0 really does make you think about the rapid changes in technolgy in our lifetime.

The process of creating and using photographs of Aden today is so different to the process my father used when taking photos of me as a young child.
Now it is possible to take lots of colour photographs of Aden on a digital camera, to check straight away that you have some good pictures, upload them on to a computer and manipulate them if you wish (change colour, lighting, crop etc), use some of the technology that I have been experimenting with here to create works of art (create frames etc), print out as many individually as you want on photographic paper, insert them into a document and print out, email some to relatives on the other side of the world in minutes, download some to your blog so the whole world can see them!

When I was a child my father was interested in photography, but he took black & white photographs of me with his Ilford camera and developed them with photographic chemicals and a stopwatch timer in his darkroom, which was actually the linen cupboard in the hallway of our house! He could only process a few at a time, but everyone thought it was great that he was able to make some into slightly enlarged photos (postcard size) and even do a little cropping of backgrounds. Relatives overseas had to wait for the postman to deliver a photo or two in a letter from Australia.

I have also been thinking about the means we have today of creating a newsletter or brochure with a computer, the right software, and resources available on the Internet - including variations of layouts and fonts, inclusion of photographs and graphics, printed out or online etc. We are already using some of this technology to promote our library services and resources and there are amazing possibilites opening up for the future.

In my earlier working days the process was out of a different world!
I was also the newsletter editor for my bushwalking club and in order to produce the monthly newsletter I had to type all the articles on to wax stencil sheets on a big old manual typewriter, with no changes of font, graphics or pictures possible, and little variation in layout. If you made a typing mistake with stencils you had to paint over it with a solution like nail varnish, wait for it to dry and then try to line the word up again in the typewriter in order to type the correction over the top. Too many mistakes and the wax stencil would start to break up! For printing, the stencil sheet had to be wrapped around the printing drum of the gestetner duplicating machine (trying not to crease it in the process - that would cause wavy lines to print out on the page along the crease lines). A few turns of the drum would print out a test page and then you could turn the power on and let it run to print your copies (one sided of course, only black ink, and on rough duplicator paper). There was a limit to the number of copies you could get off one stencil sheet before it started to disintegrate on the drum. This was only in the early 1980's, before widespread use of computers or photocopiers.

2007-10-20T18:01:00.000+10:00

Tranquility
A beautiful scene in China taken by my brother Alan, which I have framed with FD's Flickr Toys Framer (using Brushed Edge). It makes it appear more like a painting and I think could be used to great effect with lots of photos. The possibilities are endless!

#6 More flickr fun

2007-10-20T17:40:00.000+10:00

From FD's Flickr Toys site I used the Badge Maker to make sure that Aden's lovely dog Shadow could have her own library card.

It was a really straightforward process using a photo of Shadow sent to me via email attachment by Aden's mum.
I created the badge on the Flickr Toys site, saved it on my computer and then uploaded it as an image to my blog.

There are lots of interesting possibilities in the Flickr toys. I'd love to have more time to play with them but I guess I had better move on to the next step in the training!

# 6 Flickr fun

2007-10-18T22:47:00.000+10:00

Tonight I looked at lots of Flickr mashups and 3rd party sites and found some amazing things that you can do with your photos. I created this trading card of Aden having fun at Christmas time a few years ago.

FlickrFont sounded interesting - where you can turn text into graphics using photographs of letters from Flickr to spice up headings. But it came with a warning that "it is not recommended from a usability, design, engineering or aesthetic point of view". Greg Hill, PhD candidate in IT at Monash University who developed it, says on the site "In fact, it is so gimmicky with such garish results that I refuse to use it myself"!!

#5 Flickr

2007-10-17T00:47:00.000+10:00

I have finally managed to thoroughly explore the Flickr site after reading the instructions for this week, listening to the podcast, and looking at the Flickr tutorials. I signed up for a Flickr account and uploaded some photos. I checked out some amazing photos on Flickr but decided to upload some of my own photos to my blog. Now I hope to utilize another Flickr service and add a Flickr badge - if I can work out how to do it without taking all night! This exercise has been really interesting and actually straight forward when you come to finally do it. It is sifting through all the maze of information that takes a lot of time. Thank goodness I have broadband at home now as there is no way that I have time to do this training at work.

2007-10-17T00:11:00.000+10:00

A photo of tulips taken by my 8 year old nephew Aden at the recent Tulip Festival.

2007-10-17T00:01:00.000+10:00

Aden enjoying the tulips at the Tulip Festival.

2007-10-15T17:18:00.000+10:00

This beautiful red flower is a tulip photographed by Aden at the Tulip Festival. He has a good eye for taking photos and seems to be quite at home with the technology of digital cameras!

On a Journey

2007-09-25T23:08:00.000+10:00

I have dipped in and out of a number of blogs from Learning 2.0 and elsewhere in the past week and have seen some fascinating pages, especially in the Blogs of Note on the Blogger home page. I also sifted through some confusing information about our tasks and on setting up a blog and was starting to feel a little stressed about being left behind. Now that I've started my blog at last I feel that I am finally on the journey!