Wrap up - Social Networking - Thank you

I can see a number of uses for social networking in the Library. MySpace to promote programs and services for young people. What about a MySpace page to build a network of 'Friends of the Library'.

Thank you to all those hard working people at the State Library who have made this course possible. It has been a great learning experience.

Online applications and tools

I am amazed at the variety of online applications available for free. I am sorry they weren't around a couple of years ago - maybe they were and I just wasn't aware -before my Library provided Microsoft Office products for customer use. However, I can still see a use for them as a service for Library customers. We charge for customers to use Microsoft Office products and it can work out quite expensive for customers having long assignments etc to type up. These free online products could be offered as an alternative to customers who cannot afford to pay.

LibraryThing

Great to be able to see who reads the books you like and read their reviews. One of the things that impresses me about these social networking sites is how they generate the html code so that you can add the features to your blog. I can see uses for both LibraryThing and Del.icio.us for Libraries. LibraryThing could be used as a tool for Booksclubs and Readers Advice. I liked the Sutherland Library use of Del.icio.us. I can see this is a way to provide access to Links on a Library webpage. It would also be great to be able to open it up to Library customers to add tags if they found a link that they thought was particularly useful on a subject.

Mashups (2)

Great to be able to add captions to a photograph so easily. I can see a use for this in adding captions to photographs to be used on the Library website and for adding some 'fun' to photographs on Library events pages. I am interested in investigating the use of maps further as I can see would be a good way of getting maps to put on website to show locations of branches etc. I would need more practice at this and unfortunately haven't got a lot of time at the moment.

Mashups

Where I've been

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

I thought I had visited a lot of the world until I plotted it on this map - obviously I need to do some more travelling.

del.icio.us

I have set up an account in del.icio.us and put a link to it on my blog. Seems like a great tool for organising and categorising websites. Could be used in place of the list of links to good and popular websites that now appear on most library websites under various subject headings.

Podcasts and Audio

I love podcasts - great way to listen to radio programs etc that you otherwise wouldn't know existed. Found a podcast about Evelyn Waugh on the British Library site and lots of interesting podcasts on Radio National. Was mainly interested in what public libraries were doing when I looked at Library Success Wiki. Denver Public Library podcasts storytime - stories for kids - great idea. I listened to one of these called 'It's quacking time'. I think this is a great way for public libraries to use podcasts and another way would be to podcast book reviews by staff. One way that I hadn't thought of was to use podcasts to education customers about new technology in the Library. The Wadsworth Public Library had a good podcast about how to use their new online catalogue - what a great idea!

Answer boards and social searching

Have just posted a reply to a question on Yahoo! 7 Answers. There are a lot of 'stupid' questions so I am a bit skeptical about the value of these sights. Nevertheless, I think I found a 'valid' question and have done my best to answer it. I would like to have a go at the monthly slam the boards but so far have always been too busy when it has come around - maybe next time!

Video

Found some great videos. Olive Riley returns to Broken Hill - great idea for Local Studies Libraries to video personal histories of local residents. Also thought the video on Reference & Research assistance was good. Useful to have on a public library website to show what services and facilities a Reference library has to offer. I loved this video about Barbie's bookclub.

Wikis

I have just had a look at some of the wikis on the list. I was a little confused by some - don't seem to be interactive and therefore I wonder whether a blog would be more appropriate. I love the Book Lovers Wiki - this is where I think Libraries can make good use of wikis. My Library runs a number of book clubs. I think it would be great to set up a wiki so that the members of these book clubs can share what they are reading and add reviews. I also think a wiki to do with Local History could be successful. Inviting the public to contribute to a wiki to draw together historical information about an event, building, school etc in a local area.

RSS

One good thing about RSS is that it is so easy to use. A great way of getting all the things you want to read in one place - my problem is remembering to logon and read them. Besides the Powerhouse Museums's picture of the day blog I have added feeds for the ABC Book Show, NYT Book Review, Tennis.com.au, About Contemporary Literature, ABC News and Yahoo News. Hopefully I will get time to download some of the broadcasts from ABC Book Show and NYT Book Review on to my IPOD.

I think it would be great to use this technology on the Library webpage to allow customers to feed in to book reviews and a blog of library events. I had a quick search and found some interesting blogs on marketing for Libraries which could be very useful.

Flickr public search problems

I uploaded some photos of my library to Flickr which was very easy. Even though I had made the photos public they were not being retrieved in a public search. Consulted a Flickr Help forum for some advice. The trick was to click on the 'Flag this photo' link and make sure the box 'Hide this photo from public search' was not checked. Obviously mine was. I made and saved the necessary change to each photo and now they are being retrieved in a public search. Took me quite a while to figure this out. I also requested my account to be reviewed (this was another suggestion from the forum) but am not sure whether this was a factor in the problem being solved.

Flickr uploads

Have just uploaded photos from Flickr to my blog. Very easy. Had a few problems positioning the photos and the text so need to go back in and change the layout a bit when I have more time.

Great North Walk

Found these photos on Flickr of a walk I did recently. The walk was much longer than we thought and we were carrying backpacks for overnight camping. Obviously these photos would have helped us get a better idea of what we were letting ourselves in for. Beautiful scenery but very difficult terrain.

Success

Success - I have posted the blog. Unfortunately I forget all the intelligent things I wrote in the first post. It am finding it difficult to keep up with the program at work so I am having to do it at home. I am keen to complete the program as I know it is increasingly important for Librarians to keep up with the new technology. The other day I ran an Internet training session at work and I was amazed by the questions I was getting about Web 2.0 technology. Everybody seems to have heard about blogs, wikis etc - they don't know much about Web 2.0 but they have heard the words and want to know more! How can I help them if I have not taken the time to learn myself!

Failure

For some reason my original post did not display on my blog. This is my second try. It am assuming that I did not select the publish option.