Week twelve - Wrap up and social networks

Isn't that map from LeMonde interesting? I wonder why some countries are dominated with particular social networking sites - Russia seems to be the only big user of Live Journal, whereas Australia is 'totally' MySpace, as is the U.S.A. - product marketing I suspect! I thought Australia was more a Facebook user, for no particular reason.

The article referred to by the Powerhouse Museum, looking at how corporations might use social media, gave me the impression that for 'not for profit' service industries it's not a comfortable transition to social networking - to me it feels somewhat forced and awkward as though trying too hard to 'fit in' with the cool kids on the block. Perhaps it's just the next move on from becoming comfortable with using blogs.

The social networking examples have a great cross-section of styles and uses, and a range of possibilities for using social media as part of library practice. My preference is for the more dynamic examples, such as the Animanga Club and Beyond the Hype, which had lots of active content. Similarly, the Rotorua Public Library has heaps of photos and 'friends' which is the type of content that appeals to young people, whereas British Library takes a more conservative approach.
I just can't get enthusiastic about Second Life. It seems a bit creepy to be living another life digitally...but hey, don't let me stop anyone!

It's been a great journey discovering new web 2.0 stuff and becoming more familiar with some of the sites and tools that are now available. It is important for libraries to continue their integration into the online world as it's just another part of the world of information that we can use to help our clients. Not only can we integrate, but looking at the projects and activities that libraries are involved with demonstrates effective implementation of such a range of web 2.0 applications - congratulations to us!

Thanks Ellen and Mylee and the rest of the team for putting together such a fantastic program and providing the opportunity for us to really explore and learn.

Now it's over to the feedback survey...

Week Eleven - Online applications

More new experiences for me this week. I didn't really know anything about Google Docs and it looks quite useful. The idea of having just one document being edited rather than any number of 'rogue' versions is appealing from an efficiency viewpoint when working on a project with multiple people.
I was already aware of Slideshare, but had not heard of Thumbstacks. It describes itself as a new site, "just getting started" and it does have a fairly 'beta' look as yet.
I attempted a Google Docs document and tried to share it, but I'm not sure if it was successful.

I thought Zamzar could be a handy site and when I was going to add it to me Yahoo bookmarks I discovered it was already there.

Week Ten - Mashups

Wow! I didn't realise that mashups could be so easy. I thought that because more than one application was involved it must be difficult so I had avoided mashups entirely as being beyond my scope, but with an assistant like Big Huge Toys it was really easy (sounds like a testimonial for a BHLabs advertisement!?) This was a great discovery and conquering week for Learning 2.0. I don't as yet have many ideas for using mashups in my library. The calandar is good and the mosaic maker could be used for a libraries photo page; Google maps could also have a role. Now I've discovered mashups aren't such a big deal I would like to explore and discover more applications that could be useful in a library environment.

Week Nine - Podcasts and audio

I must be a visual rather than aural person because podcasts don't attract me at all! Podcasts are useful as back-up or repetition of other media, eg. radio stations that have podcast options for listeners to review. I noticed that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation also has vodcasts, from Triple J TV .

The LibVibe site has some good newscasts, with a range of library-related stories that I would not have accessed elsewhere, however I did not discover anything really inspiring. The Denver Public Library podcasts for kids were impressive and could be particularly useful for children with impaired vision - this creates a whole new option for library patrons with special needs and outreach services. The OCLS site lacked something in the presentation and even their children's podcasts were uninspiring - perhaps it is just as necessary to have an attractive visual presence when dealing with aural programs than with visual programs.

The British Library has excellent presentation and a wide range of subject matter to appeal to a variety of clients.I checked the podcasts from 2007, which included the Future of the European Union, saving St Catherine’s monastery library, the Holkham Bible facsimile. All excellent and informative.
Dipping randomly into podcasting libraries listed on Library success wiki: Sunnyvale Public Library podcasts - Audio and Video Broadcasts of Library Programs and Sunnyvale Voices Stories. Attractive presentation with images and good synopses, a range of items covered and regularly updated with fresh material through to March 2008.
Pritzker Military Library. A more series presentation (as one would expect) Clear layout and synopses of podcasts available – a straightforward but not a boring site.
Manchester Library. This appears to be an example of what not to do! The initial screen is uninviting with a grey ladder effect. Two options are presented, viz. Prime Speaks, a podcast about books and Prime's Box Live, a video podcast about books. The home page has not been updated since April 2006 and the most recent content is from January 2007. This looks like a project that probably started with high hopes which lost momentum. A gloomy site with presentation that does not encourage visitors.

Library use of podcasts – using podcasts for delivering information to the visually impaired could be an excellent use of this technology. General material regarding library services could be useful for clients and sites such as Sunnyvale Public Library podcasts provide inspiration for podcast content as well as web presentation. TechEssence.Info. has an article posted January 2007 with some additional ideas. http://techessence.info/podcasting