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.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Saturday, April 12, 2008
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.
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.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Monday, April 7, 2008
Saturday, April 5, 2008
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.
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.
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