Week 13: Online applications and tools

Google docs rocks - just like the video said. In Collection Services we have a weekly newsletter which would be ideal to set up in Google Docs. It would save the editor a lot of work. When asking staff whether they are interested in attending workshops etc the spreadsheet could be set up in Google docs and people just drop in and add their name. Occasionally when working on documents at home rather than emailing or transferring on to a memory stick one could simply go to Google docs. Also it would avoid confusion as to what draft you are working on. Writing essays and assignments on Google docs would avoid the dreaded 'computer crash' and loss of documents. However, one should be careful not to put any sensitive document/s on this site. I would have liked this to have been in week 3!

del.icio.us

I must say I am very impressed with my del.icio.us bookmark on my toolbar. It certainly saves heaps of time and it is so very simple to save a page/site that you are interested in. It's great that I have access to del.icio.us where ever I go - it's now on my toolbar at home.

Week #12 – Mashups

Now this could have some interesting uses. One could map a travelling exhibition, map libraries by type i.e. council, university, TAFE etc.

Libraries I have visited in New York and Washington

My library travels to USA

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

A great photograph on Flickr

Podcasts and vodcasts

Now this is good stuff. My poor ipod is being loaded up as I type. At least this way I can carry info with me and listen whilst I travel to and from work. The ABC has great podcasts. I've also downloaded an ABC program I missed seeing the other week - good stuff.
I must confess I have not had a look at my google reader this week - but I would guess I have lots of RSS feeds.
I'm determined to finish the course as so far it has been extremely interesting. Tomorrow at work is the Collection Services Learning 2.0 seminar which will spur me on - really looking forward to Alex speak.
I loved del.icio.us and tagging was really easy.
Tomorrow night I will at week 10.

Been a while but I'm back!!!

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
It will make life a little easier - all information in the one spot
What sites did you select for your RSS reader?
Libraries Australia, Powerhouse Museum, New York, New York Times, National Gallery
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work?
Definitely. It will help me in keeping abreast of all fresh news from areas I am interested in.
How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
With caution! One will need to be very selective or RSS feeds will be worse then emails.
Did you find any good examples of other library, or other relevant, blogs?
There are so many.

Week four of Learning

Gosh I'm exhausted and it's only week four. Finding the time is getting harder but I guess that's because I am new to all of this. Wiki's - another form of communication - I wonder how many more there are out there!!! All this makes me wonder where it will all stop. My kids like that I'm on Face book but one of my kids asked me 'if I were spying' on them. I've read their walls etc and am somewhat appalled at what is written there - besides the spelling and grammar of course - must be showing my age.
Anyhow, Wikipedia had photos of the suburb where I live and I added a photograph of our house which ties in very well with the article.
This whole exercise is a steep learning curve, enjoyable, interesting and it's great that the Library is running it.

Time : where does it go

I am really disapointed that I have not been back to my blog for a few days. Where does time go!
Today I had a very quick look at Wikis (interesting). At first glance it makes you wonder about the relevance of emails!!! I will delve deeper tomorrow. I know I also said that I was going to create my very own Flickr account to save all my photographs - but you know what - I haven't had the chance. All this new and wonderful technology takes TIME and time is an expensive commodity these days. I ask myself 'Do I want to be on the laptop at home uploading photographs to Flickr when I can be outside enjoying the sunshine (when it's not raining of course) or curled up reading a good book'. I don't have the answer yet, but I guess it would be yes if I lost all of my photographs due to my laptop crashing!!!
Well that's my post for today. Will continue on with Wiki's. Thanks to the State Library for giving me the TIME to browse and learn.

I found this photograph on Flickr and it appealed to me. The photographers caption "the value is in the people" is apt.

2nd Life

Oh, I forgot to tell you that last evening I delved into 2nd Life. I think it will take hours if not weeks to get a grip on the whole scenario - but I will keep at it. I created my name ... it's a secret ... just incase we meet up sometime.
Tonight I will create my avatar (I think that's what it's called). All I can tell you is that I'm cute!!!

Flickr

Golly gosh - very interesting. Would not have thought that so many people would take a photo of the State Library especially from so many different angles. I liked that Barry Nunn had commented on the photograph NOT of the State Library. I am definitely going to go home and create a Flickr account just so I can back up my photographs. I am still contemplating whether to go public or not.
So far so good. However, I must remember my new gmail account and signin.
That's my 15 minutes for today. Cannot wait unto tomorrow.

Technorati experience

Had my first negative experience this afternoon. I was looking in Technorati and was reading a very interesting article about the number of USA libraries which are putting in place censorship restrictions on social networking tools. Among other things the author was asking the question was it censorship of young adults and a way to keep them out of the library. I attempted to click on the associated image only to see this Sorry! We have a zillion pages, but not that one. How unlucky!
I have spent 15 minutes having a look around and look forward to delving deeper into library2.0.

Learning 2.0 and blog names

So far the most difficult part of exercise two was establishing a UNIQUE blogname - it took me about ten attempts to find something original and meaningless to anyone but me. Stay tuned.