Sunday, December 16, 2007

Netlibrary and Final thoughts

The ebooks I thought I might like to read were the ones about the Berenstain Bears (I have a 20mth old neice who might like them!) and one on researching family history which is an interest of mine.
At this stage I still prefer reading books in hardcopy rather than online as I can't get as comfortable in front of a computer as I can in a chair or in bed.


The program has tested me - I thought I could work my way round websites quite well - with new technology and pushing my boundaries. I have enjoyed doing web 2.0 and some things I will definitely go back to in order to remember what to do. It has enabled me to see what all the fuss is about when people join YouTube and Bebo. I am still not a total web 2.0 person I think I fall half way between the web and paper book formats.
I now just have to keep using these resources so that I can keep up with all the kids in the Library.
Congratulations team on all the hard work you have put into reading everyones blogs and answering questions.

Podcasts

Podcasts could be used when we have special author talks in the library. You could have a librarian talking about the requirements for membership or other library activities. Podcast.net is good- I have put the rss into my bloglines account for Sunnyvale Public Library but have not been able to listen to a podcast yet.
Will do some more playing later in this area.
On to the NetLibrary!

Youtube

What to say about youtube.....It is a good site if you just want to play around. I don't think you should post anything that becomes evidence in a court case - how could a person get a fair trial if the entire world has already seen the evidence. There are some videos which are just dangerous because people will try and imitate what has happened, other videos have the cute factor and yet others that will be informative.


I chose this video because I love tigers and this is showing how interest could be raised for conservation.

Web 2.0 tools

Biblio.com is a hard to find booklovers dream! Being able to find those out of print books in nz and being able to order them is great. You can also search the world - it does give money in nz dollars as well as the original site. Customers borrow books from the library and then want their own copy - they ask us where they can find info. Being able to give customers another place to source those hard to find books plus the contact details in nz gives another string to our bow.
The fact that you can get the site to let you know when the book comes in is good. , you can search for specifics or just browse.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Zoho writer
If only everyone knew the world of Zoho writer. All those customers who come into the library and can't open their documents or have been sent something they can't open. It would be bliss
The ability to save this in different versions would be great - I'm not sure I'm quite ready to publish HTML files but now I know this exists I will definitely have fun playing.

Pity that I can't publish the above straight to my blog - unfortunately I've run out of time. In it's original form its looks so pretty!

Wikis

The Library wikis look good. We could use wikis to get customer feedback on new databases, get the top 50 books suggested by customers, websites that link to authors.

I like being able to connect to other sites with booklists - it helps not having to reinvent the wheel!

Customers could also let us know where that really special bit of local history is. You could put pictures up and ask who,what ,when about it. People could have discussions about who those people are in a picture - people could add their 2 cents worth.

For some information we would need to know who the authority is - for other stuff anyone could have access. I think it needs to be thought through to make sure that people do not take as gospel information that we provide access to.

I added my blog to favourite blogs on pbwiki http://acllearn.pbwiki.com/Favourite-blogs

Wikis got the once over lightly treatment but it will be good to go back when I have more time to play.

http://acllearn.pbwiki.com/Favourite-blogs

Web 2 .0 and Librarian 2.0

I find myself agreeing with Rick Anderson, University of Nevada,Reno Libraries that people do not need to physically enter a library to have access to its resources. We have found this with the upgrades in ACL's website that more and more people are using resources online eg databases, reserving books. They are time starved and anything they can do when they want is a bonus. the Library has become "virtual" and is now open 24 hours.

I am half way to becoming what Michael Stephens calls a Librarian 2.0 - I still prefer using book and electronic resources but know that others prefer just electronic. I am neither a baby boomer or a gen y.