Wednesday, November 28, 2007
#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
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
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.
Monday, November 26, 2007
#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?
Sunday, November 25, 2007
#14 Discovering More Web 2.0 Tools
#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
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.