#16 Wikis

I think I like Wikis! I started off thinking a bit on the cynical side but after investigating a lot of the library-oriented wikis, have changed my mind as to how useful they would be to us in our library. I was particularly interested to see the training type wikis that were shared between library staff in America. eg. the PLCMC Core Competencies Wiki. A knowledge base/training wiki would be a good idea for our region, I think. It would cut training costs and as we are a big region, travel costs. As we are also a bit isolated from training venues, it would open up the training opportunities available to us and to more staff as well! I liked the idea of the Community wiki, hosted by the library. That would work well here. The subject guides wikis produced by some libraries are a good idea, too. I also think the libraries who are opening their online catalogues to annotation by both staff and library users, are being very innovative (and a bit brave!) It was reassuring that there are some controls put on some of the wikis by library staff to control the content- making sure some stuff can't be deleted! Good idea! The Library Success wiki had some great stuff- have a look!
http://www.libsuccess.org
Learnerplater

#15 Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

It was very interesting to read the articles on Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. I think I am starting to think a bit more positively about the way Web 2.0 is changing the way we work and I was interested to read how some people think it will affect Library services to our users. It's a different way of providing information access and interaction. I don't know how we will fit in trying to keep ahead of our users as far as trends and technology, etc will go. There are days when we are flat out getting shelving done and have no time for researching or reading but maybe if the type of information changes, shelving won't be as big a task anyway! I can see a lot of changes ahead...
Learnerplater

#14 Technorati

I've had a look around Technorati and did find a difference in the results that came up, when using the different search options. The Popular tags were interesting to skim over- people really discuss a lot of topics!
One interesting thing I read (in the Help section of Technorati) was...

"With an increasing number of people reading, writing, and commenting on blogs, the way we use the Web is shifting in a fundamental way. Instead of primarily being passive consumers of information, more and more Internet users are becoming active participants. Weblogs allow everyone to have a voice. "

I suppose it helps me to understand a bit more, why people are blogging and tracking blogs. I can see that blogs can be powerful and persuasive tools as well as promoting efficient distribution of information.
Learnerplater

#13 Tagging

Well, I feel like my mind has been stretched this afternoon. I have just learnt about tagging at Del.icio.us and it is very interesting!

I really like the video we had to watch from the 2.0 page, Social Bookmarking in Plain English: Another Commoncraft Youtube video. That guy makes the best videos- they are so easy to understand!

I think it would be a very useful tool for me because I could access a list of my favourites from both home and work. I like the idea of coordinating. I'm still not sure about the sharing part- does anyone ever have time to look at what everyone else has tagged their website as? I concede that it would be good for researching something, by using other people's tags.

I was looking around the PLCMCL2's bookmarks and was impressed by the recipes one I found. What a good idea, to keep all the recipes together- that's when it really clicked and the concept made sense. Much better than all those squirty little bits of paper shoved into a drawer! Some people really get organised, don't they? I thought I was an organised person but from what I 've seen today and on Library thing the other day, I have a long way to go....Learnerplater

#12 Knitwit search roll from Rollyo

This is an interesting concept and will make looking for things easier by narrowing the searching. It would be great to have a Reference searchroll to use at work. The knitting one I have made up will be useful for my hobby...Learnerplater

P.S. The instructions for adding the search roll to your blog (from the 2.0 discovery exercise) are missing a step. In Step 8, go to the dashboard and then click on the Layout tab to find the Template

#11 LibraryThing

The web address that follows is the link to my LibraryThing bookshelf. Hopefully when you click on it, you see a random selection of books on the shelf in my library. Mostly old favourites, some newer titles. I really like this LibraryThing and if only I had the time, could organize all the books in my library (house) very efficiently! Learnerplater

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/learnerplater

#10 Image generators

This is a favourite holiday destination for librarians!
Where is my camel? I'm off to Paris....

Powerd by Portrait Illustration Maker


Seriously, this picture was made up by me at the following image generator,
Portrait Illustrator Maker,
http://illustmaker.abi-station.com/index_en.shtml
It was a bit of fun! And one day I will get to Egypt...Learnerplater

Subscribing to some colleague blogs

I have just subscribed to a couple of colleague's blogs and look forward to hearing about their 2.0 experiences on my newsreader.
I am having trouble understanding why people want to spend so much time making and keeping blogs and reading a stranger's blogs! I can see it's usefulness if you were travelling overseas or had friends or family living overseas or interstate and wanted to share information and photos quickly and easily to a select group of people.
I wonder what sort of "social beings" this type of impersonal communication will produce in the long term....Learnerplater

#8 RSS feeds

Well, I think I am getting my head around RSS feeds. The tutorials provided in the 2.0 page were great and made it very easy to understand how RSS feeds work. It was a bit harder to find sites with RSS feeds that interested me enough to want to look at them every day. I think I have managed to create a link to my current feeds (a few I will trial for a while to see whether they are worth the effort!) and you can look at it at the following link if you want to see what I am keeping up with: http://www.bloglines.com/public/Learnerplater
I'm having a good time with 2.0 but it is very time consuming!! Nighty-night....Learnerplater

#6 More Flickr fun

I have been intrigued by the way some people organize their photos and particularly like the Colour picker one at http://www.krazydad.com/colrpickr/, where photos are arranged according to their most predominant colour. There are some truly amazing photos and they seem to be more dramatic, when viewed with similar colours and hues. I think I will be back on that site, when I'm thinking about the next patchwork quilt to make, for some inspiration! Learnerplater

I thought my face was going to melt off.

I thought my face was going to melt off.
Originally uploaded by pixietart

This is the next experiment on using Flickr- adding aphoto to my blog. I had a wonderful time, looking at all the photos on Flickr, saw some amazing stuff. I decided on this spectacular one. Love the title! I have a thing for firies....Learnerplater

#5 Flickr fun

Well, tonight I've been exploring Flickr and have seen some magnificent photos. The ways of organizing the photos is pretty nifty and I can see how handy it would be for sharing photos with family and friends interstate. I have put a sample photo on Flickr, from the computer and the next step will be to try blogging a photo from Flickr-ie getting a Flickr photo onto my blog. Have had enough for today though, so it can wait until tomorrow....a tired learnerplater

The big piccie

I have just worked out how to add a photo of myself to the blog. Aren't I just lovely...a lovely library lady.

day 2- blogging away

Ok, day 2 and blogging away happily, wondering what I could write that is worth reading. I have checked the participant's blogs and I am still not on the list. Hope I turn up soon. Meanwhile, I hae re-registered in case I made a mistake last night. It was getting late, I was getting tired. 15 minutes a day- what a joke! Learnerplater

registering my blog

OK. I have just registered my blog. Practice makes perfect, so I had better start!
Learnerplater

here goes

Well, here I am. I'm not sure about this blogging thing. Who wants to read it? How public is it? Is it just UMRL people or learning 2.0 participants? No doubt, I'll find out from someone...
somewhere along the line in the next few weeks.
Learnerplater