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.