Wrapup; social networks and catchup

Social networks
There are so many of the Web based applications that have a social networking component to them. Blogs, Flickr, Wikis, Tagging, answer boards, etc all have the ability to let people comment on a site, communicate or give feedback.
Social networks and libraries
As mentioned before, blogs can be a great way to get information out there about library services and to get invaluable feedback about services offered and a way to add information to an area such as the local history section. I believe that this is the best type of forum for a structured social networking starting point.
The only reason for going to some of the other more widely used social forums would be to reach a far larger audience and varied clientele.

Online applications and tools

Uses and advantages
To be able to search for any application on the web and just start using it without the expense usually associated with business type, software applications is a very useful discovery. I'm sure there are many people out there that would have a limited requirement for a slide show application for example. This new technology opens the opportunities for using this application up to a much broader audience.
In the library
Our library already has access to the types of software applications that are being provided online by GoogleDocs and Zoho etc. The real use in the library would be in using the collaborative tools where you can share the document.
Compare
Zoho seems much more comprehensive than GoogleDoc. It has all the tools that you could possibly need in a very comprehensive toolbar. GoogleDoc's has to rely on downloads from other applications in some instances. Zoho also seems quite user friendly and gives access to many different types of software applications in the one place.

Mashing it up

Discovering Mashups

Wow! Now we get to put together some of the applications we have learnt about so far. Music with the videos. Photo's and pictures with narratives and captions. Pointers with the maps. It all sounds great. Now I need to find out how user friendly these new applications are.

My Calender
Big huge labs did it all. It was just a matter of clicking on the calender icon, getting a photo from my adobe application and checking the size I wanted and the dates required. When the application was doing the mashing, I noticed it went to the flicr application for the calender.

Library uses

With the regional history material and photo's in particular you could use this type of applications add captions explaining more about the images or you could add a podcast telling about it. Storytime could add the voice and images together from a book, copyright permitting. As mentioned before, tutorials and virtual tours could be mashed up using captions and arrows on maps. Verbal explanations with images of different parts of the library etc.

Podcasts and Audio

Discovery

Podcasts is yet another application within 2.0 that makes the accessibility to otherwise very technical applications much more available to the average person. Looking at the different recommended sites with podcasts gives a good idea of how pod casting can be used in general. I was impressed with the ABC site and being able to look within a subject area and then a broadcast under the topic of interest. I like the ability, when you subscribe to a particular podcast, to continue to get updated RSS feeds.

Going to the Orange County Library Service, I noticed all the different ways to subscribe to the podcasts, eg. through RSS Subscribe, Bloglines, ITunes, my Yahoo, google etc.

Libraries and Podcasts
Looking at the examples, libraries are using podcasts in promoting story time and adding to their client base by making story telling available to the home user, and to make available special speeches and historical talks that have happened within a library. An example of a free down loadable file of a recording - (British Library) , extract from new CD introduced by the Curator of Drama, Steve Cleary called "The spoken word: Evelyn Waugh", with an exclusive clip from the CD of Waugh reading.

Podcasts and promotion
One really good way that my library could utilise this application, would be in promoting services to library clientele and the wider public. I can envisage work shops where staff could work on doing tutorials on the use of under used services like the subscription databases. To make people aware of these services, we could prepare podcasts of purely promotional material for local radio and to go over the loud speaker system in the library at certain times of the day eg. during after school hours, a podcast saying:- having trouble finding the right information for your assignment. Did you know that you can access twenty different databases on the libraries internet computers. We have comprehensive databases on science, health,newspaper articles etc. These promotional podcasts could be as specific or as general to meet the requirements at the time.

Answer boards and social searching

What is the answer
It seems that these two activities within web sites can be very different. One being very social and relying on other peoples experiences and opinions (social searching eg. Taste website) and the other being a place for more informed type of reference queries (Answer boards eg, Yahoo!7Answers). One is just an extension of a web page, your blog being an example. The other is a site built for the soul purpose of being a reference centre. Of course both of these tools have the same function, in that they answer peoples questions.
Promoting reference services by librarians
I liked the idea of slamming the boards once a month by librarians. Whether this is a good way of promoting reference services by librarians would be very hard to gauge. On the other hand I think it would be a fantasic promotional tool to set up a type of social searching option from our web page and blogs. Of course time could be an issue with this type of service.

Let's catagorize

In our element
At last we can begin to make sense of the web. We are able to organize our information into subjects and our books into an organised structure. Of course we have more control over the way we do classify the sites we set up. No adhering to particular classification standards, although I'm sure we would follow what has been tried and tested to a point. Folksonomy - unstructured categorization scheme. Never heard that word before, yet it really does apply to the web tools that we have been looking at this week.
Discoveries
Del.icio.us seems to be a great bookmarking site. Its almost a web, inside a web, where you can tailor make it to suit your own needs. Tagging your sites with the appropriate tags to make your searching, or that of others as easy and effective as possible is the most important task in setting up a del.icio.us site.
Library Thing could have many uses and at a glance seems to be the starting point to creating a fantastic book club or reading group. Could be a lot of fun!
Uses in Libraries
These collaborative online reference tools are still in the early stages of seeing what the possibilities can be, if you consider how many people have really given them a lot of thought and time.
Both the Southerland Shire Library site and that of the Cleveland Public Library show how you can categorise within the site, making the search to other web pages much easier. I think this is just the beginning for this type of reference tool.

Del.icio.us

Click here to access my del.icio.us account.

Little ducks

Videos online

Using Online video
Both You Tube and Google video are quite easy to use as far as searching for particular subjects are concerned. At first I thought that both search areas brought up the same videos, but found later that there are some differences. An example of this is, the Mosman Library videos only came up with the Google video search engine.
Time and quantity
Again I find that the amount of time looking through videos can be excessive. The quantity of videos is enormous and so one really needs to be very selective in what you choose, not to waste time. If you are just looking for something in particular, hopefully this wouldn't be a problem, although you could still find that you have to choose from a number of videos.
Library Use
After looking at many of the library sights mentioned and some others, the video online tools can be very useful in libraries. It is evident that they can work well as a general promotional tool in promoting libraries, and their services.
An invaluable way of using these tools could be in offering Tutorials online. Just imagine the help it could be to library patrons in learning how to use the many online resources and data bases, while saving precious staff time. There could be tutorials on how to go about researching family history and the types of resources available in the library on local history etc. Online library tours could be created to show new patrons the areas where different resources are held as well as showcasing the services that a library has to offer.
All of the above are done now, but in written form, or staff members translate the information. Yet we have to remember that we are now, more than ever before living in a computer and video world. The up and coming generations are used to being given a visual picture and so it is important for libraries to cater to these needs.

The wiki discovery

Discover
After looking at a number of wiki's, it appears that they can be set up in many different ways. Not unlike blogs and other web pages, depending on the purpose of the site. I went to the SJCPL Subject Guides wiki, Wisconsin Heritage Wiki, the full Library Success: Best Practices Wiki, Book Lovers Wiki at the Princeton Public Library and the Wookieepedia Wiki.
Findings
I was definitely the most impressed with the SJCPL Subject Guides wiki. What an absolutely wonderful tool this is for any library. The ease of which anyone could use this site as a reference finding resource is simply brilliant. Whether this is because of the fact that it is a wiki and the level of contribution has made the difference, I don't know, but it is very impressive. I also noticed that you need to have a log in to edit any of the information. This brings up the question to who would have the rights to do so. My guess, is only a select group of professionals in this case. Other sites also have logins to edit, but in some cases it is a matter of being a financial member and my guess is with others, you would have to prove your interest etc.
The Library Industry
There obviously is a use for wiki's in the library industry, as there are some very worth while sites already available. The main uses so far have been for Subject Guides, Reading Advisory Services, History forums and industry best practice sites.
Reference wiki's such as wikipedia has revolutionised the online encyclopedia and if the recent survey by Stern is a true indication, the information can be quite accurate. Albeit this site employs staff who will freeze a topic if there are non genuine entries reported by readers. What wiki's such as wikipedia means to libraries and the future of reference quieries could be interesting.

RSS (Real simple syndication)

Setup

Once I set up my account with Bloglines and included a few RSS feeds, I could see how this services would be useful in sorting out the information you choose to read. The trick in the first instance is where to look for the feeds you want and how to go about finding them. I found the

Google blog search tool quite useful. Initially the process can be time consuming, but in the long run, your information needs are met more quickly.

Useful

Where I see this program being of the most use is where information is only updated periodically. You can have the feeds set up and be sure you will get the notification of the updates when they happen.

Time saver or time waster

For straight out news feeds, what is the difference with having a blog in your favorites, or having it in your RSS tool. For people that are at their computer all day, this maybe of benefit, but surely it would be a bigger waste of time having to stop what your doing every five seconds to go and see what the new news feed is. For the best time management, surely it would be better to check out your new feeds or news, when you choose, to be the best time.

The argument for RSS feeds is that you are aware of how many new feeds have happened since last time you went to the blog site. You don't have to go in each time new feeds come in, although the temptation would be there. Also if you only have a site in your favourites you may not remember to visit them. Of course some blogs give the option of an e-mail alert.

Library and RSS

In the library industry, RSS feeds can help in providing the most up to date information on libraries and their services and what is happening in the industry.

Early morning mist

Early morning mist, originally uploaded by DTAILS1.

Another lovely country scene to fit in with my country theme. This one I found by doing a search in flickr, under country scenes NSW. You can almost smell the fresh air.
It has been like going through an extensive art (photo) gallery, exploring flickr this week. There are some very creative people out there.

Learning about blogs

A moment in time. Like a single frame in a reel to reel movie, there for everyone to see and just a small part of the big picture.

What a Blog looks Like
Looking at the different blogs in doing this exercise has shown me that they can take on different forms. Some of those forms are:-

• A "traditional" Web page, well thought out and prepared information and presentation


• A personal diary or account


• A place to air personal views


• An advertisement on events etc &


• A news item or article

What a Blog can contain

As vast and varied as knowledge is and as vast and varied as people are, that is the limitation of what a blog could contain. Some of the more common contents so far are:-

• Personal experiences and information about anything and everything


• Events calenders


• Biographical information


• Learning forums

Communication

Unlike the traditional Web page, and one of the most significant aspects of a Blog is for the reader to have the ability to communicate with the blogger and the advantage for the blogger in being able to get feedback from the reader or visitor, a two way medium.

A Blog can continually be changing because of the ability for the blogger to easily post new information on the site. This is a useful tool when there is interaction between parties or when information changes or needs to be updated and added to.

Making a Blog count

In the UTube video Blogs in plain English the presenter tells us that there has been 70 million Blogs created since 2003.

Some important points to keep in mind when selecting a name for a blog is who you want to find it. For example, if you have created a blog on the up and coming events in a library the blog would be best to reach it's audience if it includes the name of the library and "events" in the blog title.

Blogs and Libraries

Blogs are already being used in libraries for advertising events and promoting collections. There has to be room for this to be taken further, with more client inter-action. In the areas of acquisitions, there could be a special blog for suggestions of purchase. Maybe in the events blog there could be a place for feedback, after the event has happened. Blogs could be created where clients could share useful websites for homework groups, etc.

This forum has already shown that blogging will become so accessible for all library staff, not to mention our clients, that we all need to be really thinking about the best way forward in how libraries can use this technology, made simple.