The Last Post

Well the original dead line has long gone and today is the final day for this to be completed. I feel like I have been sprinting towards the end.....
A BIG Thank You very much to the web team for letting me persevere with the programme.
I am very glad that I have continued as I have learned so much and it is reassuring to know that this old dog can learn new tricks.
I have enjoyed most of the 23 Things that I have learned about.
Flikr, Wikis, Image Generators, Library Thing, You Tube (must get broadband!!!) and Podcasts will be revisited.
Not so keen on RSS feeds and new readers, and it took me awhile to click onto what technorati was about, though I now understand what the tags are for and will no doubt find using them handy in the future.
I am sure that the applications we have learned about will be beneficial for us in our jobs in the library and I applaud the library for giving us the opportunity to discover these tools. My one little niggle is that we were not all given a chance to do some of the exercises at work. All of this has been done at home on my dialup access computer which has lead to some frustration along the way.
Finally I am very grateful that I have been able to create a blog in a positive environment, where I have been able to read about other peoples experiences along the way. I think that the quality and content of my fellow library web travellers blogs is absolutely FABULOUS, so a big Bouquet of thanks to all the inspirational blogs out there.

Libraries and social networking services

Well it looks as if American libraries have taken the bull by the horns so to speak, judging by the number of libraries that have Myspace profiles orientated towards teens. We could learn alot from these libraries and make good use of the positive aspects of social networks.
When I read Beth Evans article "Your Space and My space" my initial response was Yes, She has made some valid points especially about peer pressure driving youth and that "Investing some time in this new social network can really pay dividends" especially if the users stay loyal to the site.
Libraries do need to connect in a responsive and responsible way with the youth of today, and social networking on the surface appears to be a good way of tapping into that group.
I appreciated The kaleidoscopic world blog, "Libraries get Social" which talks about Libraries having a role in protecting and supporting students on SNS, and teaching teens how to be safe on line.
A Myspace site for our libraries would be a great place for recommending good age appropriate, topical reading material and for generating discussion about the books that are being read and also about films and music and anything else that is of current interest.

Exercise 21 Social Networking Services

Welcome to the social networking mediums of the 21st century, where all your on line friends are connected to other on line friends like at best a fresh daisy chain, or at worst a nasty chain letter.
At the heart of Face book, My space and Bebo is the desire to share and communicate with other like minded people. For many this is a wonderful way of interacting and the potential for libraries in terms of networking with a younger generation of library users is huge.
How ever with technology there also comes responsibility. My first experience of Bebo was at the library. I noticed that a very large number of the people using the computers in the library were on Bebo. They are quite often young, not going to school, and not gainfully employed. Some come into the library with very young children who are ignored and not supervised for long periods of time.
This was my first experience of the impact of social networking on the library environment.
I know Bebo is very popular with the young. I went into Bebo using my son's log on and he navigated me around his Bebo page and onto friends pages. I was concerned about the amount of personnal information that some of the teens had given out. I doubt very much that their parents would be aware of all the connections and some of the content. There seemed to be little awareness of the need for safety when on line.
I wish to thank my son for giving me a glimpse into a world that I would not have had access to.
I looked at both the Auckland City library and Rotorua library Bebo sites. I thought Rotorua's was by far the best. I think libraries can definitely take advantage of these tools to reach a younger audience, for promoting of library services, book reviews, and for discussion on what people would like to see happening in their libraries.
I decided not to join Face book as I don't think I would revisit it, but did have a look at My Space. Thought it was good that my space allow potential users to "take a tour" and to get a peek at the different services that are on offer, ie music, videos, forums and finding people.
I was listening to radio New Zealand the other day and they were promoting My Space as a place to listen to good New Zealand music, so I may very well find myself being drawn by curiousity to take a closer look at this on line space.

E Books

I love reading books and have always found comfort in curling up with a book, thumbing my way through the pages. There is such a nice feel to newly bought books, and psychologically there is something very appealing about having a favourite book at hand for times of stress, (even old and slightly tattered ones have their place).
That said I can also see the merit of e books. The ability to be able to store and access lots of books with the extra components of sound clips, videos and pictures will be a wonderful way of sharing the written word (and other auditory information) with a greater group of people. For librarians and students it will make searching for that elusive quote or poem so much easier. (provided the material has been put out there for any one to access). It should be remembered that many writers still keep their work off the net.
I think there will need to be quite abit of education regarding what is available and how to access this material. E books pre suppose that every one has access to a computer in one form or another.
I do wonder how this technology will become available to families who have not invested in books....are they likely to invest in a kindle for their children???
When I asked my teenage children if they would read an entire book on line they both said no way. Yes they do use computers for research and information, but when it comes to leisure reading, the pleasure of a paper book comes first.

Podcasts

I have been listening to National Radio's radio replay of interviews not subject to copyright restrictions, done by the Nine to Noon presenter, and Kim Hill for quite some time, so was interested to see what was on offer from the podcast directories.
http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio for those who are interested in listening to National radio programmes.

I looked at podcastpickle, podcastalley and the yahoo audio search.
I liked the yahoo audio search best as it was very clear, and easy to follow and search on.
I did a "library" search in all three directories and found that alot of the material was quite irrelevant. I think a good sense of humour goes along way when searching for material via these directories as there is alot of weird and wonderful (and not so wonderful) material out there.

You Tube: "Non, Je ne regrette rien"

I found you tube frustrating as I could not download videos from home as our internet connection was too slow and it took a very, very long time to play the video clips. In the library it was very easy to look at a multitude of clips, but I was very conscience of the fact that I had very limited time to do this exercise.
I can see why people love accessing you tube in the library as it eliminates the frustations experienced when using dial up internet access.

Web 2.0 Awards

And the Winner is.........
I found the number of categories and the sheer number of sites to choose from abit over whelming so went into the short list and as I am a dedicated follower of food and anything of a culinary nature I looked at Im Cooked and Urbanspoon.
As I don't have broad band at home decided to by pass looking at the video recipe sharing site in favour of the restaurant review/maps/menu site.
It is very American, with only Melbourne, Sydney and London listed outside of US/Canadian cities. It is a pity that it did not have a New Zealand city (cities) included.
However having said that, the Melbourne site was very good and I found it easy to find information about restaurants, either by suburb, types of food and price. I also did a search on a restaurant were I deliberately misspelt the name and I was directed to an Alphabetical index where I easily found the restaurant.
The Urbanspoon site could be quite a handy site for information centres to have listed as a search site (Not in New Zealand) for tourists to search on when visiting cities. It could also be that as libraries increase the scope of their services that information like recommending a good restaurant could become a question that is asked, after all we can never really predict the scope and nature of the enquires that will come our way!

Zoho Writer: Word Processing Tool

I have been trying to publish my scribblings by posting to my blog as instructed, but it would not recognise my logon or password, then when it did access my blog it still would not publish so not sure what I was doing wrong. Have copied and pasted instead, minus the smiley faces which did not come across with the text.
Well here I am in Zoho Writer. It was very easy signing up to this online tool but did take awhile to load (have slow internet access), but now I am here it looks very easy to use. The icons are well laid out and the program appears to be very user friendly. Could be a very useful tool for a school writing group who have to work collaboratively.
The one problem I have found is there is no down bar on side or across bar at bottom for scrolling across and down the page.
Love the smiley face icons. Very Cool!!

Rollyo

This exercise has taken me longer to complete than I had hoped. Initially I did not fully understand what it was all about. Once I had created an account and created a search roll it all became clear, and I was able to find other search rolls which had web sites that were also of interest to me.
I was very pleased that when I added a search roll to my blog by following the instructions as listed, the steps were very clear and straight forward.

http://www.rollyo.com/aliceminwonderland/

Library Thing

I really enjoyed doing this exercise. I am an avid book reader and belong to a book discussion group and quite often find myself remembering a book and not quite remembering the full title or author, and lamenting the fact that I don't have all the books I have read recorded in one easy to find place. ( Recording in the back of old diaries and on scraps of paper is not a very efficient way of keeping track of all those volumes!)
I found Library Thing such an easy way of recording books. So simple to just search for a title, click on it and have it go into "Your Library". It was simple to add tags, either at time of title search or once title is added to your library. The bonus of this site is that there are plenty of reviews and recommendations and shared social data. I am sure that this online tool would be very beneficial for readers advisory and for getting ideas for the next great read.

http://www.librarything.com/home/aliceminwonderland

Image Generators

I enjoyed looking at many of the different image generators and found it quite hard to decide what to include in my blog. So much to choose from....so little time. Definitely a fun activity.

NSL Learning 2.0 Wiki Sandbox

Well I must say that this exercise was highjacked for awhile by my son when I found a lot of blogs on "LOST" (one of his favourite TV programmes) in the Discovery Resource WetPaint........all those theories of what it all means.......I'm still none the wiser.
I initially was unsure of how to add my blog to the favourite blogs and in the end I "phoned a friend" who pointed me in the right direction and Hey Presto it was really easy. I think that this particular exercise was in fact relatively easy once I was talked through the "Easy Edit" steps.
When adding my current fav movies in the favourite movie site I initially tried going through the threads link and again was helped by my "phone a friend", and of course typing into a page and saving is very staight forward.
I'm still not sure what the WYSIWYG editor is!!!

Wikis

I enjoyed this exercise and found the links very interesting. As an avid reader I was very impressed with the Princeton Public Library Book Lovers Wiki. I think that many of our patrons would be happy to add their opinion to book reviews. The Library Foundation book discussion groups have many groups of avid readers who get together on a monthly basis to talk about a book that may or may not have been to the readers taste. A library book review wiki which also incorporated the Library Foundation book groups would be a great way of getting a wider social network of keen readers sharing their opinions.
A second beneficial use of a wiki for libraries is as a public "notice board". The St. Joseph County Public Library's arts and entertainment page had an inspiring list of links and public notices. The ability of individuals to add, edit and delete information on the wiki would ensure our local community is informed of up to date events and attractions. It would mean that community groups would have the bonus of on-line promotion as well as their traditional posters and paper based notices.

Perspectives on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

The articles that I read were interesting and thought provoking.
I agree with the ideas expressed in the "Away from icebergs" article. We do need to think about our collections, and why we keep what we do in our limited building space.
There are many advantages of using web 2.0 and library 2.0 for the accessing and storing of information.....These way outweigh the odd sore wrist and tingly fingers that results from too much time spent at a key board!!
We also need to remember that we are here first and foremost to meet the needs of our local community. Public libraries must offer services to ALL their patrons from the very young to the very old and meet the needs of a diverse range of people.
In "To a temporary place in time" Dr Wendy Schultz comments that "libraries are not merely in communities, they are communities".
This week I visited the library at Puhoi. This community library is housed in a single room. The walls are lined with neatly arranged, donated books. The books are recorded manually and there was not a computer in sight. The library is well loved and used by the small community and is proof that small community libraries can exist without the use of current technology.
Personally I like the idea of a library that offers a good collection of reading material in conjunction with web based services, and an in house cafe for that steamy cup of coffee and food fix, after all we are still seen as, and used as community sitting rooms.

Technorati

I have spent way more time than I should have looking at alot of different headings in the different sections of technorati. I did not find it an easy site to look through. There are way too many advertisements which are a distraction, and some of the content appears to be trivial, for example found news headlines like "Celebrity hissy fits are in fashion" and 'Rover, call me an ambulance - dog calls 911"!!
I did not find it easy to search for learning 2.0 blogs,and to be honest I ended up feeling very frustrated at the results of all my different searches. Time to move along to the next exercise.......before I become lost in a labyrinth of lifestyle and entertainment blogs!

Del.icio.us

"" Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where-" said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat."

from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

When I went into del.icio.us I didn't know where I wanted to go. I ended up going places that where amusing and of interest and other places that were of no interest at all.
A lot of time can be spent in different web pages and I think the great thing about bookmarking is that it means that you can have easy access to the sites that provide useful information or are of interest.

RSS Feeds and News Readers

Once I had signed up to Bloglines I found it easy to subscribe to the newsfeeds.
I did like the idea of getting daily quotes so have added the link to my blog as an added exercise. I also went to the TVNZ website and used their RSS feed to get daily news highlights . I think that having direct feeds to websites would be useful for finding information quickly on the reference desk. There is so much information out there in cyberspace it can be quite overwhelming when searching on the net. Having links to topics/subjects of interest and using the favourites shortcuts is very helpful when time is an issue.

Click here http://www.quotationspage.com/qotd.html

Technology:

Today I balanced my check book using a calculator, (oh dear, surely those figures can't be right!)... but no the calculator is right.........Great technology.
I texted and received messages back and forth from hubbie who is away......surely one phone call would have been a more efficient means of communicating. Great Technology for a short sharp message, but not so good for detail!!!
I went searching the net.....epicurian.com and foodlovers.com for inspiration for dinner.....would still be there now if children weren't desperately hungry and not at all interested in the culinary delights that I found online. Now thats a technological advance that I can live with......google and all that information at my finger tips
Checked my emails. Not so thrilled to find I had a heap of spam, but do enjoy hearing from friends who are near and far.
I am now going to turn my cell phone off, disconnect the computer, turn all appliances off except for the XBOX (which I use to play CD's on), and give thanks for the fact that I control the technology in my life and not the other way round.

Widening My Horizon

Well what an exercise that turned out to be. Like the cheetah who is searching for something out there beyond the confines of his territory, I felt like I was very much looking beyond the realms of my world when I went searching for a photo in flickr that I could turn into a jigsaw.
There are many very talented photographers storing their images for all to see, but I also felt that I did not want to use someone elses photo in this exercise. I love photography and have quite a collection of family photos stored on my home computer so finally decided I would save some of my own family pictures, taken at Orana Park Zoo into flickr, so I could "play around" with them......and Yes it was fun!!

finding my way around flickr

This task should have been simple enough........Unfortunately the prior claims of teenage sons and husband to the home computer over the weekend meant that my time was rushed and I didn't get to explore the photo cites on flickr as thoroughly as I would have liked. I ended up feeling a bit "snarly", so when I saw the photo of the angry lion I felt complete sympathy with his sentiments. My teens demands of "when are you getting off the computer?" and "have you finished yet?" are akin to having ones tail bitten!!!!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlessf/2371554133/

Now that I have had a chance to look at different photo cites, I think it is great to be able to see so many great photos, there is certainly alot of "talent" out there.

Small Beginnings

Whew I have made it at last in to the world of blogging. This second task of the web 2.0 training programme has been accomplished after much indecision and delay. Like the rabbit in the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland I was thinking that I would be too late!
Now that I am here with this white canvas before me and the time to write I find myself feeling very relieved that the process was in fact not hard at all and I now look forward to finding the time to continue on this journey.