The end is nigh

Phew, I have made it to Week 12. It took a while but I have really enjoyed the online learning, although finding the time was a challenge and also having to battle through IT blocks. My name has been logged a million times for trying to access inappropriate sites!
This course has been immensely useful for me. I am now familiar with the jargon and no longer afraid.




I have retained some knowledge, if I was online at home I could hone my skills, but I'm not.



I feel proud that I have not fallen by the wayside - thanks to my work colleagues for their support.



Rotorua Public Library makes fantastic use of social networking, unfortunately IT blocks prevented me from accessing other links : (

Social networking is definitely the way of the future - a way to reach the "MySpace" generation.

Google Docs

I was amazed to discover this tool, it opens up so may possibilities. I looked at both Zoho and Google Docs and decided that Google Docs was more user-friendly and easier to visualize the end result.

Google Docs could be used for collaborative works between members of our library Co-op. These libraries do not share an electronic network. Google Docs could also be useful for libraries with branches. It could also be used for compiling lists for deletion of the collection as well as working up agendas for meetings.

The general public would also find this tool very useful, we just need to tell them about it!

At a later date I am going to investigate converting a file, but not today. Shelving awaits!!

MASHUPS

Due to the lapse in time between Web 2 sessions I realized I'd forgotten how to download an image so spent quite a bit of time relearning through mistakes!

A few of the images I chose at first were pixillated when I Bighugelabbed them. I guess this is because they were images that the Flickr person didn't want to be copied.

It was great fun once I got the hang of it though and can see applications for private use. The library could use it for promotional materials, calendars, invitations etc.

Blogging in a cold climate

The "Wrap with love" blankets that our library has been the drop-off point for certainly came in handy this week, as my colleague and I worked through the Week 9 module at the public internet PCs. After an overnight temperature of minus 7 , the icy blasts coming through the foyer made us don the wraps!

It took ages for the British Library to download to listen to a podcast. I did manage to listen to the Valerie Holman "Print for victory" talk. The ABC site worked much faster for some reason. I discovered many interesting podcasts to listen to at a later time. Local (Australian) content also appealed to me on this website.

Uses of podcasts for our library could include book reviews, audio book clips from selected talking books, author visits, oral interviews to tie-in with the local Folk Museum and Family History Group.

Answer Boards

I had a look at the Answer board links, and concluded that the questions posed on Yahoo!7Answers were quite trivial/amusing - ranging from Help I need a kennel! to How can I clean my wallpaper, it looks dirty and dusty!

WikiAnswers was easier to navigate and looked less cluttered.

I can see a use for "slamming the boards" in our library, but we would need to advertise heavily to encourage more familiarity with the online services. When hosting live events in the library, given the cool/temperate climate of our region it is often a challenge to gather a crowd (especially in winter months!). This would not be a problem with a computer driven service however!

Currently the library has an "Ask a librarian" link from the Council's website. This attracts approximately 3-4 hits a month. Questions are mainly local history/family history based, with the occasional Census data query.

TECHNORATI & LIBRARY THING

I had a look at Technorati and in my searches got 405 hits with keyword search for bookmobile, 762 in the exact phrase - advanced search. When searching for nswpln2008 I only got 37 hits - what was I doing wrong?

LibraryThing would be a fine thing if you had so many books you couldn't remember what you had, and if you really wanted other people to know what you had. Neither scenario applies to me so I will not be looking at LibraryThing again. But still I know what it is and how some people think it's terrific.

Del.icio.us

I only completed half of week 7 this week, there were problems with our system and I couldn't add the buttons to the browser. Yet again I had to work around our system. The libraries listed are using Del.icio.us in so many ways, from information on local history, environmental issues, health, law, music and even professionally recommended bookmarks.
At least I managed to put the link to my Delicious account in this blog!
http://del.icio.us/corellibach
Tomorrow I am going to attempt to finish week 7...maybe

YouTube take IV

I must confess to becoming addicted to YouTube and Google video for a day! I discovered a new way to cast on my knitting as well as how to carve a gourd, but did also explore some library YouTubes as instructed. The Rosetta Stone @ your library looked liked fun and the Art Express exhibition was terrific. A few of the library tours were a little dull I must admit.

Uses for YouTube in our library would be for author visits, showcasing of story time activities as well as a walk-through of the proposed plans for our new library building. This would be great for the many members of the public who missed seeing the static posters that were on display for a short time in the library. Also, the plans are constantly evolving as more consultation takes place with the architects so YouTube would showcase the current stage of development.

Embedding took a few goes, but this Rock the library is for my son because he looks a little like these guys and plays the guitar : )

Wikis

I looked at all the examples of Wikis on the list, I was drawn to the Wookieepedia one - what a great play on the word Wikipedia. There is so much to know about Star Wars and fans would have a great time browsing. The Wisconsin Heritage Wiki I thought was difficult to use. The Book Lovers Wiki was great, especially the genre listings.

Posting my own Wiki was good fun, and reading the comments from others in my job position was quite amusing.

The Tasmanian State Library site is so easy to use and has such a clean look. I am totally jealous.

RSS

We had to create another user account to work through this module......it is this particular aspect of the course that has been the subject of a lot of discussion in my workplace. How many user accounts will we all have by the end??
I found it quite easy to follow this module, having had a lot of trouble with Flickr. I feel quite overwhelmed by the volume of material out on the internet and it is also taking me a lot longer to carry out the required tasks. This is due to 2 factors.
1. It is so easy to get distracted on the internet, just to keep clicking and before you know it be somewhere you didn't even know you were going!
2. Our library workstations do not allow us to satisfactorily view the instructional videos so I'm having to use the public internet machines before the library opens.
Having said that I found the module quite easy to work through, I now have discovered that I have forgotten a lot of what I had learned. Anyway, I must post this blog.

Gourds not aprons

After a very frustrating first attempt to post an image on my blog I thought I would try again. A dose of friendly borrowers and satisfied reference enquiries left me feeling calm and confident, so after my opening desk shift was over I tried again. I chose an image of gourds instead of aprons because last summer I grew a crop of gourds and dried them over winter. They are to given away to friends and family because our house is not big enough to hold them all!

I am left feeling a bit worried that this has nothing to do with library work, but nevertheless I am learning something.

I had a lot of trouble uploading an image to my blog. I tried three times before I had success. Then I got strange formatting of the text. I've still got a lot to learn. I might try this exercise again later on but I have to open the library now.

First blog

I hope to gain some level of confidence and comfort in the new and wonderful technologies that have sprung up in my job just lately! I must admit I have some reservations about my abilities at the moment.
I think that Lifelong Learning is therefore just what I need and I look forward to my weekly challenge.
I have not discovered any blogs as I have never gone looking for them before, that is about to change though.
Working at a country public library, I'm not sure about how useful blogs are, and I can see that blogs can take up a fair bit of time. Also availability of computer access for all is a problem, as not everyone has a computer and the older generation have problems using computers.