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

I'll start with the negatives and finish on a high note! Firstly, I found it took a lot longer than the suggested hour a week. What, with slow downloading times, recalcitrant computers, my own lack of expertise etc., I found that the whole thing was taking up a lot of my time and I was feeling guilty about the other work I wasn't doing as a result. For part timers, especially, it is a big ask and maybe the program could have been stretched out over a few more weeks so that participants needn't have felt so pressurised and overwhelmed - for I did find it a bit overwhelming at times and my brain was becoming scrambled towards the end taking in so much new info. (though partly my own doing as I went at it full tilt upon returning from leave so that I could complete the program by the 30th and get on with other things). I noted that Helen Blowers , in her podcast on the establishment of the program, made a point of allowing plenty of time (13 weeks including a month's 'playtime')and emphasised the importance of not moving through the program too quickly, like I did, and having FUN.

Now for the positives - all the reading and the examination of Web 2.0 library catalogues and federated searching sites such as Library Labs and World Cat leaves us in no doubt that the landscape is changing, and changing fast, and that we, as library professionals, have to keep up (or be one step ahead, if possible), or become irrelevant. I believe that the State Library IS effectively engaging with Web 2.0 through its SLV21 agenda and Learning 2.0 program. Some of us may wonder at times why we need to bother about seemingly frivolous things like Flikr, YouTube and blogs but, personally, I have found it empowering to become familiar with the 18 plus things I looked at in this program. Not only am I more familiar with what our users are doing on all those free internet terminals, I have a greater sense of what the Library's interfaces will be like in the future. And, I did have FUN trying out all those creative things that Web 2.0 has to offer.

What will I take out of the program to use myself in the future? Well, I'll certainly keep up some of the work related RSS feeds I subscribed to, I'll be able to refer Zoho and Google Docs to those disappointed users wanting word processing facilities, I expect to be using wikis at some stage, I'll probably keep playing with Flikr (at the same time, feeling reassured that Picture Australia is using Flikr iresponsibly on its database!!) and, now that I've finished this program, I intend to start moving all those Australiana bookmarks from Backflip to del.icio.us: looks like I'll just have to learn to love tagging. I intend to go back and have a look at those optional extras I didn't try out, mainly due to information overload, such as Rollyo and I'll probably adopt applications like LibraryThing and fun RSS feeds for personal use.

Thanks to Lynette, Leanne and the training team, and the mentors, especially Paul, for their support along the way.

#17 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I found food for thought in Kelly Gardiner's Powerpoint presentation and in the articles by Rick Anderson, "Web 2.0 Where Will it Take Librarians?" and Dr. Wendy Schultz, "To a Temporary Place in Time". Rick Anderson reminds us that Web 2.0 technologies are forcing libraries to take their services out to the community (how long have we been told that we should be doing this!)in a way that integrates library services into users' online daily activities (via instant messaging, blogs, wikis, mashups of content etc.). The days of "just in case" collecting of hardcopy material are over, he tells us (hopefully not true of heritage collections, though of course their access is greatly enhanced, but it is certainly true for newspapers and serials as we have seen). Anderson argues that library services should not require training to use - debatable, but when you consider the low attendance figures of some of the SLV's LLL sessions, and the staff time taken to prepare and deliver these poorly attended sessions, perhaps he has a point. We need to be looking at ways of delivering this content online and at point of need - this should be easy peasy with Web 2.0 technologies! He also makes the point, encouragingly, that libraries shouldn't be adopting Web 2.0 technologies and applications just for status and to appear cool - they have to have a reason for being there and actually improve service delivery. As far as allowing users to add value, I've already noted my reservations on tagging. I would, however, like to see the Picture Catalogue's "Share What You Know About This Image" facility enhanced to make it more meaningful. As it stands, the Picture Collection staff have no way of being able to actually do anything with all the comments they receive, some of which are useful(?!) but if the comments could be viewed, and responded to, by all as per blogs, the Your Treasures site etc., it could develop into something more interactive and useful than it is now.

In conclusion, I liked the following comment by Dr. Wendy Schultz, "...as more information becomes more accessible, people will still need experienced tour guides - Amazon's customer recommendations are notoriously open to manipulation, tagclouds offer diverse connections, not focussed expertise." We're still needed, it seems, even if in the form of avatars as online mediators in her version of Web 3.0!

#16 Podcasts Smodcasts

Somehow I just didn't seem to get Yahoo Podcasts. Firstly, the link to the so-called Tutorial just dropped me into the Yahoo Search page - no link to a tutorial. I duly "searched" and linked to Yahoo's Help pages for podcasts but will never know if these were what was intended - they were mildly helpful. When it came to checking out the various podcast directories the Yahoo Podcasts link just dropped me into the Yahoo Search page again. I tried some video and audio searches but they got me nowhere - just ended up on web pages. So,in a fit of pique I gave up and tried podcast.net and podcastalley.com with happier results. I subscribed to a couple of Irish music (radio programs) RSS feeds via Podcastalley for fun and on a more serious note subscribed to Writers on Writing via podcast.net (problem is, I haven't heard of many of the writers listed - however there is a discussion between Hazel Rowley and Adam Braver which I'll have a listen to when I get a minute). I do have reservations about the quality of content of much of the material on these listings. I'm sure the good stuff is there but you have to work pretty hard to sift it out.

Checked out the SLV's list of podcasts - of course I've looked at these before but the list is growing into quite a respectable number now. Wonder if tutorial or introduction to the Library type things could be included here, especially if we encompass video in the future.

Had a quick look at World EBook Fair and Librivox - interesting but look to be in the early stages?

Finally, had a listen to Helen Blower's podcast on the original Learning 2.0 program - would have been good to had this first up i.e. right at the beginning of the program for inspiration and encouragement. It was interesting to hear about the responses of those Learning pioneers in their blogs.

#15 Video Sharing Websites - YouTube et al

Cowboys Herding Cats

I know I'm meant to be looking for, and commenting on, serious stuff in TouTube for the purposes of this exercise but a) is there any serious stuff on YouTube? and b) how could I resist looking for cat videos! (I did look up some of John Howard's but we can hardly take those seriously can we!). This one,an ad for a technology company, depicting cowboys herding cats,is hilarious, the best thing on YouTube.

I DID find something serious, subsequently - some video clips for a competition for the best video to advertise the Brooklyn Art Museum - maybe something for the Library here, humorous little clips highlighting both the fun and serious aspects of a visit to the museum.

Also, had a quick look at TeacherTube and ScienceHack; both look pretty useful, especially TeacherTube - another resource for our chat services?

#14 Discovering More Web 2.0 Tools

Couldn't have a proper look at lots of these as registration, logins etc. are required: I liked Biblio.com for its value added features such as the ability to browse by subjects, its (for the main part) detailed author biographies with links to related book listings and book review and and discussion facilities. Also liked rollyo.com which is in effect a diy search engine tool i.e. it allows you to choose your preferred sites including news sites and blogs which Rollyo will "roll" into a customised search engine which can also be shared with others (and have just noticed that it turns up as an optional exercise at the end of the Learning 2.0 program). Also had a quick squiz at Medstory, another great site which enables you to search for medical terms and symptons and then refine and expand your search through listed related terms that come up with the search results. Results are catagorised into general results, clinical trials and research articles. I tried searching on terms relating to my ever present back condition and found the quality of the returned results to be very good and relevant.

#12 Online productivity tools (word processing, spreadsheet) tools

Am preparing this post in Zoho Writer for uploading to my blog. Obviously a useful tool, particularly in the SLV context as, in the absence of word processing facilities, which we get asked for all the time, it gives us something to offer our users as an alternative. Whilst fully appreciating the good reasons why we don't offer Word & Excel to the public, I always feel I'm being a bit negative when I have to say so. I knew about Zoho and Google docs but never really felt confident in referring people to them as I didn't have any real idea of how they worked. Now I know (about Zoho, anyway) and so can be more helpful in the future. Zoho seems to have all the standard word processing features and, although I can't foresee right now when I might need to, it could be very handy to be able to store and share documents in a central, accessible location.

#13 Musings on technology

The way I see it, technology is the thing that stands between me and Alzheimer's i.e. the constant learning and acquisition of new skills that is such a routine part of one's working life these days surely must be doing wonders for the old brain and my mental agility. For someone who has spent my working life in the same career, mostly in the same workplace, the emergence of technology has been a godsend inasmuch as it has enabled me to learn many new competencies which in turn has led to an increase in the interest and variety of my role over the years. The job I am doing now, and the skills I need to do it, are in so many ways very different from the ones I started with all those years ago. One of the greatest improvements that technology has been able to provide to our users is, in my view, the opening up of hitherto hidden or restricted parts of the collection through the digitising of pictures, manuscripts, rare pamphlets and (soon) newspapers. When I first started at the Library, these sorts of materials were accessible to a select few who were able to prove their credentials. Now anyone and everyone can view our treasures via our website together with our catalogue and an increasing range of databases. This is a seismic shift in information provision and the interactive aspects of the Web 2.0 technologies means that our users just aren't passive recipients - they can participate by ordering materials online, contributing information on images in our Pictures Catalogue, posting pictures and info on their favourite things on Your Treasures, subscribing to podcasts via RSS feeds etc. In a year or two's time, now doubt there will be interactive technologies available to our users that I haven't heard of myself yet so I'll just have to KEEP LEARNING!

Had a look at Educause's 7 Things You should Know site and chose Facebook, Wikipedia, Citizen Journalism and Social Bookmarking - good, solid information site. Likewise, the post on the Librarians Matter blog was thoughtful and informative, certainly the reasons outlined there for keeping, or trying to keep, one step ahead of the punters as far as technology is concerned applies to us in the SLV.

#11 Mashups: trading cards

cat image as a trading card



And another lovely puddy with a caption


Also had a go at creating wallpaper using a Flikr image of, you guessed it, cats!

Think it's time to stop playing around with Flikr and move on but Flikr's possibilities seem to be endless - I'll be back!

#10 Flikr

This is the rather cute outcome of my diligently carrying out the first exercise under Flikr.

I really like Flikr - I'd encountered it before, of course, including through Picture Australia and its projects encouraging people to add their own images: I did a search under Maldon and the hit list included some really good images from Flikr. I get the impression that Flikr contributions are carefully vetted so that quality images only are added to the Picture Australia database.
I'm thinking, also, on a personal level, that Flikr could be a really effective way of sharing one's own photos with (selected) others, better, perhaps than attaching them to emails which can be a dodgy process at times. My partner's nephew who has been living in Thailand for the last few years uses a similar photo sharing facility called Ringo (ringo.com) allowing us view his various high jinks (mostly comprising running in marathons followed by celebratory drinking sessions with friends!)

I carried out, with some misgivings, the exercise on uploading one's own images onto flicker using our SLV Learning 2.0 login. The two pictures of Byron Bay which I recently posted on my blog are now hanging around somewhere on Flikr - hopefully no-one will ever be able to trace them back to me, just to that mysterious individual 'slvlearning'.

#8/9 LibraryThing booklist

Have just started looking at LibraryThing - this one is most promising: at the moment I keep a running list of the books I've been reading over the year as at my age one tends to forget what one has read all too soon. Maybe LibraryThing is the way to go as far as keeping tabs on my reading is concerned. I've signed up and have started adding titles:

#8/9 Tagging, folksomonies ....

Had a nodding aquaintance with del.icio.us before now via slvchat which I'm still in training for, so haven't actually used del.icio.us as a reference resource yet, However, my Workplan 2007/08 has a task flagged which will have me moving all the sites in the current Australiana bookmarks on Backflip over to del.icio.us so I'll have to skill up starting now. SLV bookmarks on del.icio.us is a resource we would certainly want to make available to the public, I would think.

After reading the recommended articles, the first of which I found a bit turgid, being too techie and detailed for me at this early stage, I then went onto have a look at the Yarra Plenty Library and Danbury Library catalogues for examples of tagged catalogue records. Handy, I guess, but my immediate reaction was that the effectiveness and usefulness of tagging depends on the quality of the tags themselves. For example, with the suggested Kite Runner e.g., there were no tags covering the theme of the immigrant experience in the U.S. which was an important part of the story. Similarly, I looked up books by Charles Dickens on the Danbury Library catalogue such as Bleak House and Oliver Twist but found the tags to be pretty feeble and general: for example english and literature of themselves don't tell us much about these particular books, especially when they are repeated many times in the list of tags. Perhaps I'm just a control freak but the thought of the contents of the SLV's online catalogue being thrown open to tagging makes me feel a tad uneasy. On the other hand, given that our users don't always avail themselves of the powerful search options provided by Voyager, such as Subject List searches, perhaps tagging is a way of moving them onto other useful related resources. Could also be a way of further opening up the Pictures Catalogue. Tagging in the context of social bookmarking in del.icio.us is another matter. Here, the freewheeling, open ended nature of this facility can really work to one's advantage when you're looking for online resources on an unfamiliar subject area in, say, a chat session where you're just looking for relevant keywords rather than structured headings.

As far as Technorati is concerned, I've had a look, but sorry, I'm not putting my blog out there by "claiming" it, tagging it etc.- I tried searching for it though, and found the same problem as oscar8 who said "I'm having trouble with Technorati via Mozilla Firefox - whenever I try to do a search, I get a dialogue box asking me to select a program to open an application/octet-stream with. I'll try it on IE6 later..." I did, and unfortunately found my blog but hopefully no-one else will!

#6/7 RSS and Newsfeeders

After checking out and adding a few recommended feeds to my blog, I was beginning to feel that these weren't for me. The BBC & ABC news sites and The Age were among the feeds I added but I actually prefer to go directly into these sorts of websites and fossick around, following my fancy as it were. However, I dutifully subscribed to five feeds as instructed. Then I did the optional exercise and identified some journal titles I'm interested in on the ANZ Reference Centre database. It was then I realised how useful this facility could be to me in my work. In an ideal world I would be across the content of the latest journals in my subject areas - Australian history, literature and cultural studies; in the real world it just doesn't happen. Now I can get the contents pages of relevant titles availaible on the ANZ Reference Centre fed to me for skimming, thus enabling me to keep up with who's publishing what in my areas of interest. I've deleted the feeds I initially added and replaced them with half a dozen journal titles which I'll add to as I get time. By the way, I couldn't get into Feedster - seems they're reconstructing the site at the moment!

Back From Byron

Here I am back at work again after a lovely month away from blogs, wikis, RSSs etc. Two weeks in Byron Bay drove Learning 2.0 right out of my consciousness, to be replaced by long walks along the beach and lots of coffees, food and wine. But it's all over now and I am about to start wrestling with RSS feeds. (I didn't abandon Learning altogether, though - I've been teaching myself to use my new digital camera, upload and email photos etc. two of which grace this blog!)