Del.icio.us

This has been an interesting week. I have read the terms tag cloud, and even seen them, but as with the rest of this program - the explanations finally made sense! I can see a real practical application for del.icio.us within the library. Just about every staff member has their favourite searches and sites bookmarked...on their own machine. It would be good to have these in one place. I am sure it would prevent that muttered curse "I've searched for this before, now where was that?"
I probably sound like a real librarian when I mention this, but we do have a tendency to use our own jargon, catalogue subject headings are a case in point. A term may be 'catalogically' correct, but our borrowers use real-speak. Tag clouds use real-speak. Am I speaking revolution to suggest that one day folksonomics will find its way onto the library catalogue? :)

You Tube

I loved the lego animations on Youtube. Following my travels in Wookieepedia, I watched a bunch on Star Wars Lego adventures - too cool : ). From a learning point of view, the Common Craft videos on You Tube used in this programme have been fabulous. Much easier to follow than a text. I also searched under public library, and found a large number of videos. The quality ranged from pretty good to pretty awful. I am not going to embed a video here in my blog, even though I thought the one in the week 6 lesson was good, because it would require registering to yet another service, and to be honest, I am a bit over that part of the training.

Wikis

I have just had a look at week 4- wikis, spending a great deal of time wandering around in Wookieepedia...is that a great name or what?
I can see wikis having great applications for libraries. My particular library system has 11 service points, so co-ordinating project teams has always been an issue. Setting up a wiki for a particular project would mean everyone gets all the information all the time. It would certainly save on travel and meeting times too. It was interesting to see a library system using wikis for their procedures. I imagine the editing would be restricted, but the instantaneous nature of the updates etc would mean everyone gets the information at the same time. Just the cost savings from photocopying and printing alone should encourage more libraries to consider a wiki as a procedure database.

Feeds Blogs and Observations

I have been doing a lot of exploring in the last week, and have a few observations. I have followed links to recommended blogs, only to find the most recent entry to be several months old. I have followed links to find that a blog has moved, and I need to follow another link, or sign up to another service to access the updated blog. I have signed up for a couple of RSS feeds and been bombarded with mail, and yet nothing at all from others. As with the rest of the web, blogs and feeds are a very mixed bag. If I sign up some feeds to my personal email, this isn't really such a big deal, but if I do that to the blog that represents my library service, then yeah, it actually is a bit of a deal. The process of blogging for your library, or in actual fact, your employer, is more than just chatting online and adding a couple of links. It can obviously be done as some libraries are doing it, I can only assume that they have flexible IT policies and some dedicated people doing the monitoring. My impressions this week haven't been purely negative, so I don't want to give that impression. What I have felt though, is that while popping up a blog for your library may be easy, it isn't simple.

A bit overwhelmed - RSS feeds.

Is it just because it is Friday afternoon? I have been looking at the RSS feed module this afternoon, and must admit to feeling a little overwhelmed. Not by the lesson as such, in fact as I progress through this learning program I have been surprised at how simple most of the elements have been. I am understanding terminology and context - great! What is overwhelming me a bit is the shear bulk of material on the internet. I don't want to call it information, because much of it isn't. It is opinion, thought, sound and vision. It is challenging my ideas about what is useful for libraries, but also, what is going to be accceptable in the corporate context. I don't actually have an answer for that, just lots of questions.
As a tool, RSS readers provide a way to knock out what you aren't interested in. That is, for example you can choose to connect to blogs about public libraries, but not university libraries. You can go large or go specific. Personally, apart from my library listings, I also get a feed from Dilbert, but that's a mental health necessity. I will explore some more over the weekend.

Exploring Flickr

I have just had a look for one of my favourite images - spiderwebs, and found that Flickr lists more than 63 thousand! How to choose? This link http://www.flickr.com/photos/alliec2007/2254461060/ is a fabulous closeup. My interest in spider webs does not extend to spiders themselves however, so I prefer pictures without the actual critters.
This one really appealed because it is such a great macro shot.

Mosmanlibrary @ Flickr

I just had a great time looking at all the photos posted by Mosman Library on Flickr. Firstly, I was extremely jealous of all the great visiting authors :), but I also thought it is a great way for Mosman to share their activities with others. Sometimes you just draw a blank when it comes to programming, but having photos by other libraries posted and shared, means that ideas are being shared as well. As a marketing tool it also shows the library to people who may not walk in the door. We have heaps of great photo albums at our library of displays, shows and great programmes, I am really keen now on getting them up onto a Flickr page.