Friday, May 16, 2008
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Friday, April 4, 2008
Word of the Day - 04/04/2008
Is this my blog now or is it going to have to be coeval with a work blog?
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Library 2.0
Where do you stand on the Library 2.0 spectrum?
Personally I feel I am at stage 5 of the Library 2.0 spectrum however I believe the Sutherland Library is at stage 6 having already implemented a number of initiatives. Obviously there is a lot more that we could do and I'd love to be involved in future Library 2.0 projects.
Casey and Savastinuik point out libraries are used to providing the services and programs to the same users. Embracing Library 2.0 is a way of expanding our client base and perhaps ensuring our long-term future by capturing the teen/young adult audience.
Stephen Abram's "25 Technologies in 50 Minutes" summed it up in Task 1: "..libraries and librarians must fully engage with these technologies to remain relevant and attract back younger users. That means not just having your own website but putting your content up and engaging with potential users, where they are: MySpace, Facebook, Youtube etc.
Is Web 2.0/Library 2.0 relevant to you... our library... our customers?
Intuitively I believe the answer is yes. But Casey and Savastinuk say, "the heart of Library 2.0 is user-centred change" so I believe it would be useful to survey our existing and potential customers before commiting to specific Library 2.0 projects.
Can you see any ways in which the tools you have explored could improve our service offering?
Image Sharing
* Good way to document and publicise library functions and events, current displays, any renovations or new building works, equipment upgrades and local history collections.
* Publish staff pictures.
* Put a digital camera in each branch.
RSS Feeds
I can see how it could be useful for the professional development of staff at libraries and also as a way to help patrons use their limited time on the internet more productively.
With more frequent content upload people would want to have us on RSS Feed.
Social Bookmarking
* Ability to access your bookmarks from any computer.
* Dialogues on books - an expanded version of the Library Lover's Day bookmark.
* Allow our patrons to tag items on our catalogue.
Wikis
Wikis do have potential as a knowledge management tool within libraries.
Podcasts and Vodcasts
* Linking and storage of Sutherland Shire footage by Local Studies.
* Links to author interviews and book reviews.
Myspace, Facebook and Social Networks
I do think Sutherland Shire Libraries should have a prescence on Myspace or Facebook (depending on where the majority of our teenage patrons are).
Personally I feel I am at stage 5 of the Library 2.0 spectrum however I believe the Sutherland Library is at stage 6 having already implemented a number of initiatives. Obviously there is a lot more that we could do and I'd love to be involved in future Library 2.0 projects.
Casey and Savastinuik point out libraries are used to providing the services and programs to the same users. Embracing Library 2.0 is a way of expanding our client base and perhaps ensuring our long-term future by capturing the teen/young adult audience.
Stephen Abram's "25 Technologies in 50 Minutes" summed it up in Task 1: "..libraries and librarians must fully engage with these technologies to remain relevant and attract back younger users. That means not just having your own website but putting your content up and engaging with potential users, where they are: MySpace, Facebook, Youtube etc.
Is Web 2.0/Library 2.0 relevant to you... our library... our customers?
Intuitively I believe the answer is yes. But Casey and Savastinuk say, "the heart of Library 2.0 is user-centred change" so I believe it would be useful to survey our existing and potential customers before commiting to specific Library 2.0 projects.
Can you see any ways in which the tools you have explored could improve our service offering?
Image Sharing
* Good way to document and publicise library functions and events, current displays, any renovations or new building works, equipment upgrades and local history collections.
* Publish staff pictures.
* Put a digital camera in each branch.
RSS Feeds
I can see how it could be useful for the professional development of staff at libraries and also as a way to help patrons use their limited time on the internet more productively.
With more frequent content upload people would want to have us on RSS Feed.
Social Bookmarking
* Ability to access your bookmarks from any computer.
* Dialogues on books - an expanded version of the Library Lover's Day bookmark.
* Allow our patrons to tag items on our catalogue.
Wikis
Wikis do have potential as a knowledge management tool within libraries.
Podcasts and Vodcasts
* Linking and storage of Sutherland Shire footage by Local Studies.
* Links to author interviews and book reviews.
Myspace, Facebook and Social Networks
I do think Sutherland Shire Libraries should have a prescence on Myspace or Facebook (depending on where the majority of our teenage patrons are).
Myspace, Facebook and Social Networks
I do think Sutherland Shire Libraries should have a prescence on Myspace or Facebook (depending on where the majority of our teenage patrons are).
As Meredith Farakas points out it's important to have "...links on Web pages your patrons are most likely to visit". For teens and young adults I suspect we are more likely to capture their attention on social networking sites than through the Sutherland Shire Council site.
I was particularly impressed with the eVolver - Denver Public Library Teens site. I like that most of the information on the site was teen specific
not just a drip feed from the library's general patron blog. It allows for two-way interaction, teens can write reviews of books and music and submit comments.
I also liked the way many authors were friends of the library. It always disappoints me to see the pristine state on the books in the YA section. Social networking sites that engage in a bit of book promotion might help increase the YA catalogue borrowing statistics.
Farakas says just having a prescence on social networking sites is not enough, "it’s what you do with it that matters".
As Meredith Farakas points out it's important to have "...links on Web pages your patrons are most likely to visit". For teens and young adults I suspect we are more likely to capture their attention on social networking sites than through the Sutherland Shire Council site.
I was particularly impressed with the eVolver - Denver Public Library Teens site. I like that most of the information on the site was teen specific
not just a drip feed from the library's general patron blog. It allows for two-way interaction, teens can write reviews of books and music and submit comments.
I also liked the way many authors were friends of the library. It always disappoints me to see the pristine state on the books in the YA section. Social networking sites that engage in a bit of book promotion might help increase the YA catalogue borrowing statistics.
Farakas says just having a prescence on social networking sites is not enough, "it’s what you do with it that matters".
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Online Collaboration - Wikis
After reading Angela Kille's article, Wikis in the Workplace: How Wikis Can Help Manage Knowledge in Library Reference Services, I can see the potential for staff-based wikis in libraries but I do have some resevations about wikis that allow public input. As Michael Gorman points out in his article, Web 2.0: The Sleep of Reason, Part 1, "...(learning)depends on the authenticity of the connection between the teacher/researcher/author who has created a part of the human record and the person who wishes to learn from the study of that part". Wikis that allow general public input cannot be viewed as authoritative sources unless they are professionally mediated which would be a very time-consuming task. Librarians would need to become wiki-gardeners.
Wikis do have potential as a knowledge management tool within libraries. Kille says wikis support a group of users that need access to a single knowledge repository. Circulation and Overdue Procedures could be posted as wikis so that when they were updated all staff would have access to latest draft.
A wiki might be particularly useful as we migrate from one system to another. When a librarian in one branch discovers something new the knowledge can be shared throughout the organisation almost immediately especially if it was coupled with an RSS feed that alerted everyone to updates.
A wiki may also be an appropriate way to host the subject based reference pages on a libraries web site however a discussion would need to take place about whether the public should be allowed to edit it. A HSC student wiki perhaps?
Hmmmmm
Wikis do have potential as a knowledge management tool within libraries. Kille says wikis support a group of users that need access to a single knowledge repository. Circulation and Overdue Procedures could be posted as wikis so that when they were updated all staff would have access to latest draft.
A wiki might be particularly useful as we migrate from one system to another. When a librarian in one branch discovers something new the knowledge can be shared throughout the organisation almost immediately especially if it was coupled with an RSS feed that alerted everyone to updates.
A wiki may also be an appropriate way to host the subject based reference pages on a libraries web site however a discussion would need to take place about whether the public should be allowed to edit it. A HSC student wiki perhaps?
Hmmmmm
Friday, March 14, 2008
Podcasts and Vodcasts
I have chosen to embed this video of Jeff Buckley simply because I think it's heaven to listen to and watch and it drives my husband up the wall. It's my revenge for his Bob Dylan obsession.
Anyway YouTube what do I like and dislike about it? I like that it exists but I really find it's lack of categorisation or tagging frustrating. When I first went to browse the site I was a bit lost as to what to search for, a tag cloud or categories would have given me more direction. I suspect you have to sift through a lot of dross to get to something that might interest you if you just follow their homepage links to videos being watched now, promoted videos and featured videos.
I like the fact that YouTube is an archive - I enjoyed showing my kids all the 1970s Sesame Street ABC songs that I grew up with.
Applications of YouTube for library websites might include the linking and storage of Sutherland Shire footage by Local Studies. As already done in the case of Marcus Zusak any featured guests of the library could be videoed and broadcast on the library's web site and YouTube potentially bringing a different demographic to library services. Links to author interviews on YouTube about particular books or book reviews could be linked new book announcements going out on blogs and RSS feeds.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Social Bookmarking
The greatest advantage of social bookmarking on del.icio.us I have found to be the ability to access your bookmarks from any computer. This would also be very useful for library computer users too who often don't have access to a computer of their own which is why they use ours. Any person who uses more than one computer say at work, university and home would benefit from only having to set up their links once rather than on each PC.
Tagging is also a much more dynamic way to organise links enabling you to access them from multiple points rather than just under one particular folder. I also like the way del.icio.us suggests tags so that there can be some uniformity (synonym control) with other users and you can further explore your areas of interest.
I did have fun exploring other people who had saved the same internet sites as me. Someone who had saved the same knitting blog as I had turned out to have numerous library links on their site including this interesting article on user-based tagging and folksonomies: http://infotangle.blogsome.com/2005/12/07/the-hive-mind-folksonomies-and-user-based-tagging/. Is this seredipity or are a high percentage of librarians also interested in knitting? I also believe though that following an individual down their list of bookmarks could turn out to be a "Timewaster 2000" unless they are a recognised expert in a particular field. I am still more inclined to trust a recognised organisations' del.icio.us list rather than an individuals. The Sutherland Library's account is a good example. I recently found masses of internet-based information on the seemingly narrow subject of corrosion in shipwrecks for HSC students there when the library catalogue only produced a few items.
It could be a good thing to allow our patrons to tag items on our catalogue because as stated in the hive mind folksonomies and user based tagging article, "for taggers, it’s not about the right or the wrong way to categorize something and it’s not about accuracy or authority, it’s about remembering." If patrons remember the tag terms they create as opposed to the precise Library of Congress subject heading then the information is more accessable.
Tagging is also a much more dynamic way to organise links enabling you to access them from multiple points rather than just under one particular folder. I also like the way del.icio.us suggests tags so that there can be some uniformity (synonym control) with other users and you can further explore your areas of interest.
I did have fun exploring other people who had saved the same internet sites as me. Someone who had saved the same knitting blog as I had turned out to have numerous library links on their site including this interesting article on user-based tagging and folksonomies: http://infotangle.blogsome.com/2005/12/07/the-hive-mind-folksonomies-and-user-based-tagging/. Is this seredipity or are a high percentage of librarians also interested in knitting? I also believe though that following an individual down their list of bookmarks could turn out to be a "Timewaster 2000" unless they are a recognised expert in a particular field. I am still more inclined to trust a recognised organisations' del.icio.us list rather than an individuals. The Sutherland Library's account is a good example. I recently found masses of internet-based information on the seemingly narrow subject of corrosion in shipwrecks for HSC students there when the library catalogue only produced a few items.
It could be a good thing to allow our patrons to tag items on our catalogue because as stated in the hive mind folksonomies and user based tagging article, "for taggers, it’s not about the right or the wrong way to categorize something and it’s not about accuracy or authority, it’s about remembering." If patrons remember the tag terms they create as opposed to the precise Library of Congress subject heading then the information is more accessable.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Sentence using Word of the Day - 21/02/2008
Apart from occasionally doing a sentence using the word of the day my blog has been torpid. I must get back to it.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Sentence using Word of the Day - 29/01/2008
We try to issue fiats to our four-year old, Angus but they often don't work.
Sentence using Word of the Day - 01/02/2008
The foam sword Hamish got for Christmas is relatively innocuous.
Sentence using Word of the Day - 02/02/2008
The air was redolent with the scent of the Turkish Apricot Chicken.
Monday, January 28, 2008
Sentence using word of the day - 28/01/2008
The Austrian author, Peter Hanke is widely believed to hold heterodox opinions.
Saturday, January 26, 2008
Sentence using the word of the day - 27/01/2008
At least the heat wasn't palpable like it was last Australia Day.
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