book twitter my face space...

I think there are definitely some great opportunities for library's to use social networking sites to communicate and engage with their community. It just makes sense, that if (nearly) everyone is using these types of sites to interact with one another, then we in library land should be doing the same. If we don't, then we're really missing a great opportunity.

At my library we do have aspirations to "social network" with our community. A teen oriented My Space page and a library blog are two things that we've been wanting to get up and running for a while now. Unfortunately we've been unable to get approval for either of these ventures so far from the powers that be, which has been frustrating. I think we probably had the idea of doing a My Space page way back before most people had even heard of Face Book, and I fear that by the time we eventually do get the go ahead to do it, My Space will be about as groovy as MS DOS and 5 & 1/4 inch floppy discs!

Hopefully though, we will get there, as I really do think that it's important that libraries try to use these opportunities. We all know that we're essentially competing for people's time with other businesses / organisations / pass times, which are already out there using this technology effectively. If we don't, then we seriously run the risk of getting left behind. I remember in the early days of the Internet, public libraries were at the forefront in many ways - we developed/hosted our council's first web pages, we used it in our daily work as a research tool to expand our reference collections and certainly at the library where I was working, we provided many people with their first and only access to the Internet before it became more affordable at home.

The examples linked from the NSW Public Libraries Learning page are great, and it's really inspiring that there are so many libraries out there doing this kind of thing already, and I really hope that the rest of us are able to join them soon.

I've already linked to TwittEarth in a previous blog, and while it is undoubtedly a bit of a time waster, it is interesting to leave it on your browser for a while just to see how much social networking is going on out there... plus the little "twitts" that pop up do look cute!

what's up docs?

I love the concept of free good quality applications on the net! I came across a free online Photo Shop alternative a while back. It worked a bit like Big Huge Labs in that you can upload an image and then manipulate it just about anyway you like, although it was much more technical like Photo Shop rather than quick and fun like Big Huge Labs. Unfortunately I didn't bother to bookmark it and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called (it had a strange quirky name as most of these things seem to do), so it's identity for now will remain a mystery... but I know it's out there somewhere, and I want to believe!!!

Google Docs is great. I knocked up a quick rant about one of my favourite Lee Perry albums as an excuse to have a play around with it. While the formatting options are obviously much more limited than with MS Word, I think it could be a great tool to use for collaborative documents such as grant applications, etc. I don't think you'd really be able to create the final document in Google Docs as the formatting is very limited, but once all the contributors were happy with the basic content you'd be able to cut and paste it into Word for the final layout.

I also had a look at Zoho and was very relieved to find that I could use my Google profile to login, as it's honestly getting to the point where I'm going to go insane if I have to come up with yet another user name and password! I had a bit of a play around with the word processing function and it does seem to have more formatting options than Google Docs. Zoho also has a whole heap of other cool stuff which I'd like to have a closer look at later on.

I think both Zoho and Google Docs are great for collaborative documents, or even for word processing on the run - when you need to do something portable and don't have your memory stick with you (don't you hate it when that happens!).

Mashin'

Wow, when I saw we were doing mash-ups this week I was going to get my dancing shoes ready for some serious booty shaking, but then I realised it wasn't music mash-ups that we were going to be looking at... (one of my personal favourites being the infamous Kylie / New Order mix).

But I digress... I guess I've used quite a few different websites with "mash-up" stuff happening on them, but I wasn't really familiar with the use of the term in that context. I guess those online library catalogues which have links to Amazon book reviews are a good example of library related mash-ups.

I found a good website which has a whole bunch of mash-up apps called Programmable Web. One that caught my eye was a blog value calculator. It works out the value of any blog in US$, by using, and I quote, "the Technorati API to compute and display what your blog is worth using the same link to dollar ratio as done in the AOL-Weblogs Inc. deal". I have to confess that I don't fully understand exactly how it all works, but I do think the idea of calculating the dollar value of a blog is pretty cool, and it even provides you with some html code to display the value on your blog for all to see. I tried it out on this blog and it was valued at $0.00... so I guess that means I still have plenty of room for improvement!

It would be good to have something similar which could calculate the dollar value of a library website, as I think most of them would be worth quite a bit, but this particular app only seems to work with blogs.

I've never come across Big Huge Labs before, but boy could I easily waste a few hours here! I had heaps of fun transforming some of my photos into useful things like fake ID cards and movie posters. I ended up doing a "double mash-up" by transforming a picture of my dog into a Warhol print and then transforming that into a jigsaw. I like the look of the trading card maker as well. I think a range of super librarian trading cards would be really cool... could be a good idea for a Library & Information Week display!

Here's an interesting site that uses a mash-up approach... it's basically pretty useless, but it looks cute!

iPod, therefore I am!

Although I don't actually have an iPod (or any other portable listening device for that matter) I have been getting into podcasts for quite a while now. I just usually download them onto my PC and then play them from that. I've mostly used music podcasts which are from overseas radio stations or just put together by music fanatics like myself using their own PCs at home. It's amazing just how much good quality stuff there is out there. Never again do my listening needs have to be limited by Sydney's mind numbingly dire radio programming (FBI & 2SER excepted) - I can just grab one of the thousands of specialist music podcasts out there and groove away!

I would love to be able to use this technology at my workplace - it's inspiring that there are so many libraries already out there doing it. I can think of quite a few things that we could look at podcasting:

• Preschool storytimes
• Author Talks
• Music performances from our cultural celebrations
• Library info - overview of services/facilities, how to join, etc.
  
• Book reviews by staff and library users
• Book discussion groups
• Highlights from our Book Week performances
  

Most of these things we are already doing, so it would just be a case of getting the technical know-how together, jumping a few red-tape hurdles and then of course finding the time!

I have used the Yahoo podcast search, but usually tend to use good old Google to find what I'm looking for by doing a keyword search (eg: "podcast" & "dub", or "podcast" and "folk", etc.). I've also found some good things using Podcast.com. There's just so much out there - that it's hard to be selective sometimes.

Here are some cool music podcasts:

Groove Therapy - funk, hiphop & disco show from 2SER FM

Sacred Dub - contemporary dub & ambient music

Electronic Explorations - dubstep, minimal, glitch, IDM, techno & advanced electronica

Druidcast - pagan folk music & interviews

How can I write a blog post about social searching??? Please Help!

I've used a few answer board type sites over the years to get answers on technical stuff that I don't know much about or to get recommendations/reviews for music, movies and books. I've generally found them to be pretty useful when I've used them and don't think I've ever come away empty handed. I think it's great that there are so many people out there who are willing (and able) to share their knowledge and expertise with others. Whether their motivation is ego driven or due to a genuine desire to help out others (or a bit of both), I think it's a great thing!

I do kind of like the idea of a squad of librarians "slammin the boards" in a coordinated campaign of information professionalism, but ultimately I'm not really sure how successful it will be in embedding the greatness of the library profession into the minds of the online masses. Certainly some of the "exemplary answers" examples on wetpaint were pretty good detailed answers, but I think there are so many other (non-librarian) people out there also giving out good detailed answers in their areas of expertise, that it will be hard to make that much of a splash!

I do like the idea of users being able to somehow rate library services or collections. I would really like to be able to enable our users to review and rate items in our collection along the lines of sites such as Amazon, etc., and also for them to recommend other similar items. Our library will be getting a new LMS within the next year, so it would be great for it to be able to provide this level of interactivity.

I found this website which specialises in music related advice. I've had a bit of a look around and it seems pretty comprehensive although I did come across a few dead links.

Do the Library Thing!

OK, I do read books, but I'm a bit of a slowish reader so I tend not to get through that many in a year. I know there are people who read a whole pile of books each month (like a friend of mine who often knocks over a novel in an afternoon)... but I'm not one of them. I therefore doubt that I will ever be a Library Thing "power user", although I did have fun adding titles to my LT account.

I think LT is a great readers advisory tool and I can definitely see the value of it for those "extreme book readers" like my friend. I do also think the recommendations feature is pretty cool. I tried this with my somewhat meager list of only 10 books and still found some great looking stuff in my recommended readings list. I will play around with this a bit more as I do sometimes find myself in a "what shall I read now" situation.

Reasonably tasty, but not really delicious...

I've been aware of Del.icio.us for a while now but have never really been inspired enough to actually have a good look at it. After now having had a bit of a dig around the site I've got a better understanding of how it works, and can definitely see some potential for its use in libraries as a research aid. The example of how it's been used by Sutherland Library was pretty impressive. I can see how this same approach could also be used at my own library to manage all the various subject area links that we currently have.

I still don't really think it's something that I'm likely to use for my own personal use though, it just doesn't seem to be something that I really have a need for at the moment. I set up my own account as suggested in our "Explore" activity, but I have to say I'm still a bit uninspired about using it for anything outside of the work related example mentioned above. I'll continue to have a play around with it over the next few weeks and see if my opinion changes as I maybe become more familiar with it.

Libraries are fun!

I recently took the plunge and finally got broadband connected at home, which means for the last couple of months I've been able to check out the amazing range of videos on websites like youtube and google videos.

I found a library related video to include in my blog. It's a clip by an Australian electronic musician called Artificial (Real name Nicole Skeltys. Nicole was one half of legendary electro-femme duo b(if)tek). This track is from her second Artificial album called "Libraries are Fun". The album was actually launched with a live performance in a public library somewhere in Melbourne (not sure which one though).

I like the idea of libraries using online video. At the library where I work we conduct a lot of activities and events (author talks, cultural celebrations, law talks, HSC lectures, etc), it would be great to record some of these and make them available on the library's website via youtube or something similar in the same way that Mosman Library has done with their author talks.

Other good uses for video could be clips giving demos on how to conduct advanced catalogue searches and also library information presented in different languages. I think there are definitely some good things that we could do with online video at my library. Unfortunately, at the moment our IT department considers youtube to be the root of all evil and so I think we'd have a few hurdles to get over before we could start doing something like this, but I like to remain hopeful.

Ok, here's a completely non-library related clip of one of my all time favourite bands, "Mark Stewart & the Maffia" performing live in some dingy club.

I admit it... I'm a big wikipedia fan

I know about all the arguments against it saying that it's unreliable because anyone can contribute info to it, but I think it's good practise to be somewhat cautious with any information you read anyway, whether it's "official" or otherwise.

One of the linked articles (can't remember which one) argued that wikipedia's popularity was largely due to the fact that it was quick, easy and convenient to use... and I tend to agree. If I want to find out what's going on in the latest episode of Torchwood just screened in the UK, I go to wikipedia. If I want to get some more background info on why Joss Whedon's "Firefly" was axed by FOX, I go to wikipedia. If I want to get the lowdown on how to boil an egg, I go to wikipedia. I'm not claiming that wikipedia is the "be all and end all" of recorded human knowledge, but it's a good place to start looking.

I had a look at some of the wikis in the discover task:

Book Lovers Wiki
I think this is a great idea, but I was a bit disappointed with it. The handful of books which I looked at only had single reviews attached to them and they were generally pretty brief. I think it would have been much better if they had multiple reviews providing different opinions of the book - a bit of an online discussion group.

Wookieepedia
Considering Star Wars is one of the greatest film series ever, I thought I'd have a look at this. I know that Star Wars fans can be a bit "particular" so I'm pretty confident that all the facts in this wiki have been meticulously researched and debated! I discovered a new character I'd never heard of, Jaina Solo - Han and Leia's Jedi Knight daughter... amazing stuff.

Library Success Stories
This looks like a great wiki. I had a bit of a look at the marketing section and there seems to be some useful links here. This is a great example of knowledge sharing. I hadn't looked at this wiki before now... but I'll be back!

So how could my library use wikis? I really like the idea of a wiki procedures manual along the lines of the one used by Antioch Uni. At the moment our procedures are all "out there" somewhere, but I think this would be a great way organise and centralise them, and make them more accessible. I also think a book discussion group wiki could be a good way to get some two-way interactivity going with our library patrons. Linking these reviews or discussions to the actual items on the library catalog would be a great feature.

Finally, some other interesting wikis I've come across:

Doctor Who Wiki
This is the place to go for all Dr Who related info. As with Star Wars fans, DW fans tend to be very "particular" as well so this site is pretty comprehensive.

James Bond Wiki
Who was the bond girl in "Goldfinger"? What was the first Bond car? Who sang the theme song to "You Only Live Twice"? It's all here!

Webtender Wiki
More cocktail recipes here than you could point a muddler at. Make mine a martini... easy on the vermouth!

Dub Wiki
Dedicated to the glorious sounds of dub music, although obviously still in an early developmental stage. King Tubby is a legend!

Addendum...
I did the "explore" exercise last night and contibuted to the NSW Learning 2.0 wiki. I watched the PB Wiki video tour first as suggested and then thought I'd give it a go. It was pretty easy to do and quite fun. I like these wiki things!

Feed me Seymour... Feed Me!!!

Ok, RSS feeds... I quite like them! At the previous library where I worked I had a lot to do with setting up the library's website and we had quite a few RSS feeds in the "ready reference" section. There were a few different news links - Aust news, Euro news, Asia news, etc., plus I think we had sports news and a couple of others. My favourite was a "quirky news" feed which had offbeat news items from around the world and was usually a good laugh. We kept stats of the number of hits to these RSS feeds and I seem to remember that they used to get a reasonably healthy number of clicks each month. If used in the right way, I think RSS feeds can definitely add value to a library website and hopefully encourage return visitors.

I've had a Bloglines account for a while now. I was inspired to get one after the Helen Blowers seminar held at the State Library last year. I probably don't look at it as often as I should, but I aim to make a concerted effort to check it more often from now on.

My Bloglines currently has the following feeds:

Bloglines News
Comes as a default feed and gives updates on what's happening with Bloglines. I haven't really looked at this much to be honest.

Powerhouse Museum: Photo of the Day
I added this the other day as per our "Discover" task. The first image it sent was "Mandala" which I quite liked, but none of the others since have really grabbed me.

Learning 2.1
This is pretty cool. I've found links to a few good websites here that I'd never heard of before.

TechCrunch
Again, there are links here to some really interesting looking websites.

Wired: Top Stories
You can get some interesting news stories here. Keeps you up to date with developments in the online world.

ABC News: Just In
I like to try and keep up to date with what's going on in the real world too.

The Shifted Librarian
This was one of the first librarian blogs I came across. Again I've found some interesting websites and news articles here.

Unshelved
I like to catch my daily dose of life at the Mallville Public Library.

City of Canterbury: Library Events
Keep up to date with what's happening at one of the busiest library services in Sydney.

BBC Dr Who News
Best place to get all the official news of what's happening with the world's greatest TV show.

Outpost Gallifrey: Dr Who News
Best place for all the unofficial news including gossip and rumours about the new season, plus updates on Torchwood and the Sarah Jane Adventures.

I've also added a couple of feeds to my blog.
They're just up there to the right...

Cyclic Defrost
"Australia’s only specialist electronic music magazine. We cover independent electronic music, avant-rock, experimental sound art and leftfield hip hop. We have no interest in fashion spreads, alcohol or clothing advertising, nor do we accept advertising in the guise of editorial." - so no Delta Goodrem here folks!

BBC Dr Who News
You can get never have too much Dr Who in your life.

It was one of those perfect Sydney Summer evenings by the harbour....

We were sitting on the steps of the Opera House clutching onto our lukewarm cans of VB, surrounded by thousands of other people all buzzing with excitement, and waiting for her to come on stage. There seemed to be a genuine "good vibe" amongst all of the 5,000 or so people who were there. Even when two of us were waiting in the hour long beer queue I didn't notice anyone frowning or getting aggro (as you would normally expect in an hour long beer queue) - it seemed like everyone was just happy to be there.

By the time we made it back to the rest of our group who had successfully managed to hang onto our spots, it had transformed from day to night and a full moon was blazing overhead. Then moments later everyone screamed as Bjork and her band paraded out onto the stage, their faces coloured with tribal patterns, like part of some mystical pageant, and the sound of "Earth Intruders" boomed out into the Opera House forecourt.

The music was amazing! Bjork's vocals were a bit lost in the mix to start with but then the person on the mixing desk dragged them out clearly to front where they should be - she really does have a voice like no other. The other musicians were also impressive, particularly the all female brass section and the guy who created some amazing electronic effects using a "reacTable".

As I sat there with my friends, taking in these amazing sounds, watching the ferries drift along into the quay, with the Sydney skyline in the background, I honestly couldn't think of anywhere else I would have rather been at that particular moment. I'm a self confessed music junkie and I would have lost count of the number of gigs I've seen over the years, but there are always a few special ones which will always stand out... and Bjork at the Sydney Opera House is now definitely one of them.

I searched flickr for some photos of the Bjork concert. Despite Bjork's request that no photos be taken, there are quite a few on there, although most are pretty shaky and taken from a long distance.

I tried to find a photo that captured the feel of the evening, but nothing really did. Then I came across this photo. Sure, it's fuzzy looking and you probably wouldn't be able to tell that it was Bjork if you didn't know that already, but it seemed, to me anyway, to capture the mood better than any of the others. Bjork looks like some strange mystical being hovering in the blackness, her wings outstretched, as she screams out her hypnotic chant. Maybe it was partly due to the beer... but I think this is a fitting way to remember the night!

(PS. After about 15 hours stuffing around trying to link to the image by setting up a flickr account, yahoo account, reading numerous FAQ's, etc, etc. I ended up just doing a good old fashioned cut and paste.)

We have lift off!!!

It took me a while, but I finally made it here to blogland!

I've read quite a few blogs before on various things that I'm interested in (eg. libraries, music and dodgy b-grade movies), but I've never really had the urge to create my own. Having said that I can definitely see a use for blogs in the library world and think it could be a great way of presenting library news and update to your users.

I'm looking forward to doing the learning 2.0 course, it should be a lot of fun. The Stephen Fry video was good (anything with Mr Fry in it is definitely worth a look) and it was interesting to know that we like to use some of the same websites. The other video was cool as well... nice music, a bit Kraftwerk-ish. Speaking of which their website's pretty good if you want to kill some time making noises (http://www.kraftwerk.com/).