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

Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ... I can answer this in the most definitive way, it is just the start. I made comment earlier in the program that the more I learn the more I realise I do not know, that has not changed. It is technologically an exciting and challenging time for all industries and Libraries are no different. This program has given us a look in the window of what is coming. It has given me the confidence to experiment and the interest to keep searching.


As I read over my Blog I realise that I need to go back to the start and revise the whole program, give myself a chance to play around a bit more.

So it's onwards and upwards and a huge thank you to all the people that made this learning journey possible.




Cheers for the festive season and may we all be safe and happy.

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

eAudiobooks seem to nicely accompany the growing interset in Talking Books. The Library provides the path for the download and the patron enjoys their eAdiobook for the designated loan period.

I enjoyed the ebook Advent Calendar.

An annual World eBook Fair offers a month of free access for one month to over a million free eBooks. This could be a greta way to launch eBook access in the Library.

Great way to increase a collection.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

Searching through Podcast.net for some Library specific podcasts. The SirsiDynix Institute has some interesting Podcasts and this has been added to my Bloglines account. Another interesting group is The Arizone State University Library Channel.

#20 You too can YouTube

YouTube, friend or foe?

YouTube is testimony to something we have all suspected for a long time, it takes all kinds!

Great way to share videos in a social setting. The searching was made easy by the categories and help screens. Clear screens and well sorted search results made navigating relatively easy.

Library applications could include the sharing of Community activities, readings, events.

The music videos sparked my interest immediately and I have had some viewing fun!

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

2007 WEB 2.0 AWARDS

Over 200 Web 2.0 Sites in 41 Categories

Rated, Ranked and Awarded
Our team reviewed hundreds of sites in the Web 2.0 sphere to uncover the best in each of 41 categories. From there, we assembled a team of 25 of the most knowledgeable, well-respected experts in the field to vote on the winners.

15 Interviews
with Founders of Winning Sites
The creators of the winning sites share their insight and approach, including technology, funding and methods for attracting traffic.

Contributors
The Web 2.0 Awards were first created by SEOmoz in 2006. This year's edition was assembled by Jane Copland, our resident social media expert and Kiwi extraordinaire. Check out the judges and contributors section to see a full list of participants.

___________________________________________________

BOOKS

1st Prize winner - Lulu

A self publishing website. Create works, publish creations and connect with other authors. A useful tool to introduce through writing workshops or just to patrons looking for a forum to unleash their masterpieces.

2nd prize winner - Biblio

A book search and marketplace for second hand, out of print and rare books. Easy to search and to sort.

____________________________________________________

Looking at some of the other prize winners in the categories of games, lists and polls and health a lot of the information is only relevant to North America but the concepts are very useful.

#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

This list is not comprehensive, but rather is just a short listing of some of the FREE web-based options that are available as alternatives for traditional desktop office suite applications: Word Processing:
Zoho Writer
Writely
Think Free
gOffice

Spreadsheets:
Google Spreadsheets
Zoho Sheet
Think Free
gOffice
NumSum

Presentations:
Zoho Show My Zoho Show

Goffice
Think Free

Calendars & Planners:
Zoho Planner
30 Boxes

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

Added content to the Learning 2.0 Wiki Sandbox. Played a little in the sandbox, checked a few favourite posts, took a few tours, got a few hints and tips, saw a few galleries, added my blog to Blog favourites my work here is done.

#16 So what's in a wiki?

Wiki comes from the Hawaiian phrase "wiki wiki" used to descibe something fast. A dictionary definition : wi·ki (wĭk'ē) n. pl. wi·kis A collaborative website whose content can be edited by anyone who has access to it.

Described to me as a free and open publishing system. So a fast, collabrative site that can be accessed by all. On investigation of some wikis from varying sources it seems that the best thing about wikis is the worst thing about wikis, the ablility for anyone to add, edit and delete. Some wikis are now asking for an email confirmation because of problems with vandalism.

Library applications could include:
- Comments and reviews on items in the Collection
- Reviews on events.
- Customer feedback.
- FAQs on Library Services.
- Library Group Conference wiki.
- User group wiki. (e.g. Library Management System user group)
- Reference user group, facilitating discussion between users.
- Meetings , pre and post discussion.
- Topical discussions on local events and news within the whole of council.
- Collabrative project work.

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

They say there is nothing more constant than change. As time passes it becomes more and more apparent that Libraries are and must change. Reading the perspectives from the eOCLC Next Space Newsletter articulated some of what is being discussed in all Libraries from the smallest regional Library to the State Library.

Rick Anderson's (Director of Resource Acquisition,University of Nevada, Reno Libraries) perspective Away from the "icebergs" is an interesting read. He discusses a 55% drop in circulation in twelve years and he questions the place for a print collection. Self serve services is coming up more and more as technology progressses, Rick also comments on the lack of time and resources for teaching in Libraries and states " if a service cannot be used without training, then it is the service that needs to be fixed - not our patrons". Having recently introduced a computer booking system that is designed for self service this was an interesting point. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) has never been more pertinent.

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

Over a year ago Technorati tracked it's 50 millionth Blog. I searched twenty different topics from Learning 2.0 to music to recipes to a very strange Blog on Teddy Bear craft. My point being a good search tool such as Technorati is a must.

I did a keyword search on Learning 2.0 and got 6547 results. The same search in tags returned 655 results with the first few pages much the same as with a keyword search. A search in Blog Directory search gave 793 results and were completely different to the first two searches as I would have expected. The results from this search were varied and not topic specific. A little bit of playing and you get the hang of which search for what.

#13 del.icio.us

Why del.icio.us?


Initially I could not appreciate the application of del.icio.us and had to delve further. The main benefit that appealed to me was the access from any computer, so a mobile bookmarking system. The social bookmarking aspect of del.icio.us is a great way to share the workload especially for research where a group studying the same material can share their information. Tags are becoming second nature as they are appearing again and again through our 2.0 journey. Some personal ideas for travel and recipes sparked my interest and I will explore this more in the future.

#12 ROLLYO

Have had a play in Rollyo. It was fairly easy to navigate through the site. I found the screens to contain a lot of information and are quite hard to filter through to what you want. On discussions with a colleague and experienced Blogger he recommended Google Custom Search and I found this much clearer and easy to read the results, thanks Harps!

#11 LibraryThing

Done the thing on LibraryThing. I found the search results hard to refine and so had to sort through a lot or irrelevant information. An interesting concept but I need to use it more to really comment on it's application potential.

#10 And some more

This came from Make your Own Sign Generator , I like this website as there was no sign up involved.

#10 More Play

The Generator Blog has a plethora of generators to try, like this one http://www.glassgiant.com/rocket/.

#10 Playing

My creation
Originally uploaded by hey nonny

Yet again there are endless possibilities. I did my mag on bighugelabs.com .

#9 Finding feeds

Having a play with feed searching was an interesting exercise.

On Feedster when doing a search on Libraries I found blogs on everything from Dracula to Queen Victoria. I found it a little hard to narrow down the searches in Feedster and found the results were often very general. I also found it difficult to ascertain the source of the postings.

Technorati was listed as a good tool for Topic Blog searching and I found this to be true for me. The results are displayed clearly and I was able to refine my search easily.

I used Topix for topical news feed searching and again found it to be useful. The results are displayed clearly and I was able to refine the searches.

I tried the Google Blog search and found it easy to use, I do not know if this has more to do with my familiarity with Google rather than the search itself.

I added a couple of publication feeds to my Bloglines account fairly straight forward. I did find some of the screens are very busy for example the Ebsco Reference Centre but the more sites I visit the more I am able to visual sort the information for myself.

Everest and Clouds

Everest and Clouds
Originally uploaded by Not so fast

This photo is amazing and I got it through my Blogline account on a Flickr feed.

#8 Bloglines

http://www.bloglines.com/

RSS and Newsreaders are a great way to specify the information you want to receive and avoid the deadly world of SPAM. Leading the busy lives we do I want to keep up with current events in all my interests from news to music. I love the idea of being able to do so when I have the time and the inclination..

I began with five simple feeds and have now expanded into Podcasts, Library sites and Flickr.

With our own Library Blog I can see a great application to allow us to link into current events and topical issues as they happen. The scope is global.

#7 Technology

I ask myself how I use technology. When was the last time I used an a phone book, looked up an Encyclopedia or even wrote a letter ? The questions interest me for where we are headed and how it will affect all of us.

When I was at secondary school we had a computer room and classes were allocated time per week. Now Primary School children have multiple PCs in their rooms. I have been given instructions on using Microsoft Publisher by a someone who still has their baby teeth. A whole new language exists that you have to use when sending an SMS and emails are replacing the written letter. All of this has been written about in newspapers, magazines and debated in a public forum but I wonder about the reality of technology and what it means to me.

Being part of the X Generation we are in the middle of what has become a technology explosion. Daily I use the internet to search for everything from clothing, shoes to the latest supermarket specials to looking up information to make me better informed about daily issues. I hear something has happened out in the big wide world I am on the Age or ABC website for the immediate lowdown! And there it is immediate. It is all about the I want it now. No waiting for the paper or the evening news..... no way!

The more I am learning about what is available the less capable and informed I feel....but hey that's okay there's a website somewhere with lessons on what I don't know!!!!!!!!

# 6 My creation

Mashups

My creation
Originally uploaded by hey nonny

The possibilities that are out there blow my mind. It is the ole cliche, the more that I am learning the more I realise I didn't know. Trading cards are a hoot. Blog On!

# 5 What a great lookin place!

Library photos 008
Originally uploaded by hey nonny

Uploading from Flickr this is too much fun.

Possibilities are endless.......

Blogging #3 and #4

So we are have begun Blogging. Interesting looking around at other Blogs. We have our own Blog at the Library and I have been lucky enough to have some limited input. I enjoy the two way interaction that a Blog allows it provides a great forum for feedback in an informal way. And a great stage for self expression... it really does take all kinds!

Had a play adding some pictures and a little link or two.

Wikipedia on blogging http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

What's in a name?

Hey Nonny

It comes from a fabulous poem recited in the Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing.

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever,

One foot in sea and one on shore, To one thing constant never:

Then sigh not so, but let them go, And be you blithe and bonny,

Converting all your sounds of woe

Into Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no more, Of dumps so dull and heavy;

The fraud of men was ever so, Since summer first was leafy:

Then sigh not so, but let them go, And be you blithe and bonny,

Converting all your sounds of woe

Into Hey nonny, nonny.



A rather nice film was also made of the play. A brilliant cast and a setting to die for.