#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.