#18 Wrap up on Library 2.0

Last exercise in a 9 week journey through a multitude of technological applications. It has been a real life-long-learning experience and it's done lots of things for me, including impressing my 13 year old son with my blog and my knowledge of Flickr, YouTube and Podcasts. It is interesting to know what's out there and to know what library patrons are looking at on the Web. It's also good to have a background knowledge of the applications we have covered. Loved looking at Flickr - it's a great way to share photos, instead of e-mailing them as an attachment to friends and family. YouTube is a fantastic resource for video clips and it's interesting that the site is being used by political parties to get their message across in the 2007 Federal Election. I think Podcasts are useful, especially if you've missed something on the radio or a talk at the Library. I subscribed to 'Book Lounge' to listen to book reviews. RSS feeds are a good idea to keep up to date with subjects of interest. Wikis have their place at the Library also. Some of the Websites that featured in the Web 2.0 Awards were very innovative. Overall, the Library 2.0 experience was a positive one.

Negative aspects were the amount of time spent on the exercises. It was mooted that we would spend about an hour a week on each exercise, but I found that after reading the material suggested and then blogging on my learning experiences, there was a fair bit more time involved. Not sure how the part-timers coped - with desk shifts, deferred enquiries and other projects, there's not a lot of time left for them. Maybe they should have done a scaled-down version.

#17 Library2.0 and Web 2.0

On the homeward trail....
Web 2.0 - The rate of technological change is mind-boggling and the amount of things one can do on the Web are also. Libraries need to keep up and know what is out there and what our patrons want - hence Library 2.0. Looked at Library Labs and went to a session at the Library on the project for federated searching being worked on as part of SLV 21 and it looks good. Some time ago I came to the conclusion that it was a shame that our patrons did not know where to look for anything other than books (and even that not very well) and they certainly didn't understand that there were other catalogues that they could use to find journal articles, pictures, manuscripts, local history, ephemera, etc, etc. In fact sometimes they didn't even realise that the only way any information could be found on their chosen subject was in a journal. It will be terrific to have federated searching in order to get full use out of our very expensive databases and the work that we have put into digitising and cataloguing in the special collections. Clustering facets to help further your research, is a good idea, too.

I've looked at tags added by people using Flickr and Library Thing and many of the tags don't adequately describe the item. Seeking input from library users is good (like the user surveys), however, I wouldn't feel comfortable about patrons adding tags to entries on the computer. I think we still need to keep control of the catalogue.

In conclusion, the way the SLV operates is changing (SLV 21 Projects) and will continue to do so as technology changes over time. It is a given that the SLV will certainly be a very different place to work in the future, ensuring that we will be kept on our toes!

#16 Podcasts

Used Podcast.net to find 'Book Lounge' which contains weekly interviews with authors featuring books from Doubleday Canada, Random House Canada, etc. I subscribed to that podcast via the RSS feed. I listened to a podcast with Mark Haddon, the author of 'The curious incident of the dog in the night-time: a novel', who discussed his new novel 'A spot of bother'. I read the book and didn't think it was a patch on his first novel, in fact, I found the main character, George, somewhat annoying. I suppose it is hard to follow-up a fantastic first novel.

Uses for podcasts in the State Library of Victoria - perhaps a regular podcast on upcoming events, exhibitions, learning programmes or other interesting news.

#15 Video Sharing Websites - YouTube et al

Enjoyed looking at YouTube - looked at some of the 1970s TV commercials - what a hoot!! Things have moved on substantially since then. Library dominos - wouldn't suggest doing that here, but fun to watch. Looked at a couple of interesting music clips and got to hear and see a band that I probably have no hope of seeing in real life. Did a search under "Libraries" and saw a lovely clip entitled 'We love our NJ State Library' with some of the patrons, many African American extolling the virtues of their Library. Why don't we do something like that for the State Library of Victoria? Interview some of our patrons using different parts of the Library and record their experiences and why they are at the Library.

Teacher Tube - I looked at a funny video parodying the Librarian of the past entitled 'The Librarian of 1966' - would have been funnier, but the file must have been very big and it kept cutting out - buffering issues I believe, with bigger files?

Glanced at Science Hack - good to know it's there.



Posted this video clip from YouTube 'John Howard Asleep on Climate Change' as I thought it was particularly clever.

# 14 More Web Tools

Had a look at some of the winners of the Web 2.0 Awards. Again amazing creativity! I liked 'Upcoming' - a site listing upcoming events in terms of music, social and educational events for every State in Australia and some regional areas. There didn't seem to be many events listed, but I expect that will grow as more people become aware of it. I found a reference to the forthcoming ALIA Conference in February next year in the 'Education' section (of course, although sometimes it can be social as well, for networking purposes). Maybe we could have a similar site at the State Library, which features all the meetings on a calendar. Then you could just click on to the site and you would be instantly reminded of your daily meetings or upcoming meetings.

I also liked 'PEERtrainer' - a site that offers dietary and exercise advice and a peer support vehicle for dieting and fitness. Fascinating stuff.

#13 Technology

I love the cartoon - I must admit I was a little bit like that when I did my library course in 1989. I think my hand-eye coordination was not the best, so I can sympathise to a certain extent with people who find the mouse a challenge.

Technology - where would we be without it?

I am very partial to Google and understand it's limitations. Again, don't know where we'd be without such sophisticated search engines. Unfortunately, some people who use Google don't get the results they want, or are happy with substandard results and don't proceed further. Having sat in on AskNow sessions and conducted SLV Chat, I have observed that many people are not au fait with search engines and turn to us to help them. AskNow and SLV Chat are amazing services. I find the idea of instant chat for reference work a very interesting concept. Although, again, many enquirers don't understand the boundaries of this service.

Flickr is amazing - I was particularly taken with a website entitled 'Apartmenttherapy', in which someone has detailed every aspect of her New York apartment, including her shower curtain! The comments on her site were equally as interesting. The first search I conducted on Flickr, was using the search term 'State Library of Victoria' and got over 300 hits - incredible to think that so many people had taken the time to upload their photos of the Library onto Flickr. Some of the images were quite good, too.

#12 Web-based applications (take 2)

Remembered my password and getting good at writing in my blog, though, so must have learnt something from this exercise.