IM

The only trouble I have with IM is that my brain works faster than my fingers!! Of course the only other limitation is that you both have to be online at the same time.

Google Docs

We had set up a Google doc between us and another library to work on a project, which seemed great at the time, but due to circumstances found that we were the only ones working on the document and therefore ceased using Google Docs. In theory it worked well - practice needs a little working on. Usually when working on a document it is inhouse and we use our Council's content mangement system to store them. So at the moment we do not seen a need for this.
Could not open the file of 100 great hints.

iGoogle and other tools

Had an explore around iGoogle and liked it. There now seems to be the realisation that we use a lot of different tools and need one place to park them all.
Ping looks interesting although I did not go into and play, being able to update multiple networking sites at once is a great idea. Libraries are now subscribing to mutiple tools need to use staff time efficiently and this application would definitely be worth investigating.

RSS revisitied

 I use Bloglines for both at work and home and have found it very useful. I visit the site regularly and have being able to keep up-to-date with issues easily. I feel that this has been one of the most useful things I learnt from the first round of training. I do not feel that I need to filter out my feeds as I am managing with the number of feeds. At work I have 13 feeds and I am following about 7 at home.

Slideshows, screencasting and digital storytelling

I have viewed many slideshare presentations and have mixed opinion on their usefulness, it all depends if the slides have been written in a way to be understanable without the presentation. The slides may not contain any useful information. On the other hand it is a great way of sharing what has been presented as it is in that file type and does not have to be reformatted.
At first I thought screencasting was a great idea, but then I thought if you need to explain how to use a website or function initially that perhjaps it is not user friendly to begin with!! I see screen casting would be great for users who want to delve deeper into the functions of a website.
Digital storytelling - getting people to tell their stories - an important part of engaging people. I can definitely see a use for this and we have been throwing some ideas around  about how to do this and what subjects to cover, so I will add this as an option to my list.

Nings

There is certainly a lot of information packed into the pages. I have come across a Ning in my "other" life as a crazed scrapbooker and liked the format. It was not as busy as the ones listed in this blog post. But they certainly able to link up a lot of tools into a place that looks so much like a website that everyone is familar with - an option worth exploring particularly for a staff info page.

Evaluation

Evaluation is a great idea and one that I admit not doing enough of. I have found the hardest thing with the evaluation tools is to understand what each term refers to and then which of these items evaluates usage the best.
I have jooined up to Google alerts so it will be interesting to see what results come in. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised - but I have the feeling I will not get much results. Will keep you posted.

Delicious

I find delicious a good way to display a list of websites - Wagga City Library has used this method - it is more visually appealing than a huge list of website addresses. I found the hints useful and have passed them onto colleagues, particularly about organising the tag cloud.
Connections between the various social media is certainly increasing.

Twitter

Just tried to have a look at Twitter and could not as it had reached maximum capacity, come back and try again later. I guess this just shows how popular this has become. From the Tweets that I have read in the past this form of communication has not appealed to me. I can see how addictive this con become particularly when used with a mobile phone.
Tweeting seems to be a very interactive medium. We can tweet, but to also find out what other people tweet about you or add to their conversation.

Refresh

 I have found it fun to update the look of my blog, providing a bit of freshness. Amazing what a new look can do - even playing with the different colours.

The next stage

Technology is certainly changing and just when I think I have a handle on one thing another pops up that has great potential. This certainly come under the category of lifelong learning.
Knowing about a technology is one thing - I have found that the best way to learn is to actually participate and use the technology. When I went away on long service leave I created a blog so people at home could follow my adventure and I could even download a photo or two - gone are the days of just sending a postcard. The laptop is now almost a required travel accessory. I found the blog to be very useful for this and had positive comments from friends.
Unfortunately the blog I created for work did not have the same success - and in redeveloping our website we are even ditching the blog for other technologies. We will have to wait and see how this all develops.

The End

This course has come at the right time for me - as I will need to utlitise some of these functions into a new position that I will be taking up. It has given me a good overall picture of what is available and I particularly liked the short videos that introduced each topic. The next step will be to investigate further how to use these tools best - not just have them because everyone else has - they need to serve a purpose and have value to our library system. The journey has only just begun! I have also come to the conclusion that these tools will only be useful if people (staff or patrons) have an interest and interact within the communities set up - there is nothing worse than having a blog that is not updated or people are commenting on. I think that is the biggest challenge to libraries.
Thanks to State Library for producing this course.

Online applications and tools

It seems that the internet can help in so many ways - I like the idea of being able to work on documents together without e-mailing each other all the time. I have just gone through this process and it is so easy to delete an e-mail or forget to save the document - should of done this module a few weeks earlier!! Will definitely have to keep all these applications in mind.

Mashups

Not quite sure if I completely understand this application - but I did have fun on Big Huge Labs.

Podcasts

I am beginning to learn that all this technology is dependant on the user having a great internet connection - the podcasts took a long time to download onto my computer - a bit frustrating. I like the idea of using podcasts to introduce new books and services to the library. But then again would I have the time to create them ??? For the beginning it may be the option of choosing one application of Web 2.0 and roll with that for a while. So many choices........

Social searching

Rating items and services in the library - sounds like customer feedback! We have not been all that successful in formal lines of customer feedback - though we are now beginning that process. These may be added to the list of arsenal of surveys that libraries use as this media becomes the normal way of communication. Customers can begin to feel that they can contribute to the library community as they do within their own social network.

ARROW discovery service - new interface

ARROW discovery service - new interface

Just completed the lesson on social networking and then checked my Bloglines feeds and discovered this - a network search using tag clouds.
This seems to be becoming more popular in searching. Amazing how some things fall into place!
Our library catalogue displays previous searches as tag clouds.
People using their own langugae to tag things instead of using American subject headings - does have it advantages in libraries.
This may be the way of catalogues of the future - it will be interesting to see how it all develops.

The You Tube experience

I can see why this is such a popular medium and what potential it has. By searching libraries it is very obvious that it is being used widely already. Maybe what we need is a public libraries section where we can share videos. Covering topics as What is Dewey, how to look up an OPAC, what services are available, maybe even storytelling sessions - these would be such great promotional tools.

This is a favourite of mine. Is this a person's typical experience of a libray? Where were the library staff? Enjoy.
http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=efYZRUsVK5U

Another joke book catalogued

From; A joke a day.

Why couldn't the butterfly go to the dance?
It was a mothball.

Why did the lion lose at poker?
Because he was playing a cheetah.

Week of Wiki

After a short Easter break I am back to it.
Wikis have great potential - they seem to be better presented than blogs and are able to connect readers a lot better. Being able to easily link items within the wiki and outside would mean that a lot of information can be contained in a wiki. A blog is more or less written by one person and it is up to that person to maintain whereas a wiki is set up more colabrative and encourages people to be involved in the exercise.
I loved the Book lovers wiki with links back into the catalogue.
I can see a need for a staff wiki, where communication has been a problem in the past, where all relevant information e.g. donation offers, branch visit calendar, programs and promotions can be in the one spot. I feel this is something I will have to delve into much more.