Week 12: Social networks and catch up

I have finished the course and enjoyed learning about new things. I will explore further and hope to use what I have learned in the future.

Thankyou to the State Library for organising Library 2.0 Learning.

Week 11: On Line Applications

I knew that there were online document applications but had never explored them. I was amazed by what was available. I think that it is a great idea, it has great flexibility and is easy to use, it cost nothing to use and it can be accessed on any computer that has an internet connection.

Week 10: Mashups

Mashups could possible be used in the library for promotional posters, calendars, Google Maps etc to show people points of interest in the town but I am not sure that we would use Mashups in out library.

Week 9: Podcasts and Audio

This was the first time that I have had a look at Podcasts and I found it interesting. I have an iPod where you can download a variety of things such as music and talking books at a cost.

Podcasts have the potential for use in the Library environment. For customers libraries could develop podcasts for such areas as homework topics, book reviews and library news.

For staff podcasts could be used for staff news, training notes and meeting minutes which could be made available for staff access via an intranet. This would allow those staff unable to attend or in remote locations to access relevant library information.

Podcasts could open up a whole new avenue for libraries to distribute information. They would be of particular benefit in the younger age group and those tech savvy people who prefer 21st century information access.

Week 8: Answer Boards and Social Searching

Answer Boards are probably a good idea for students or someone who may need answers to a very specific question and have a need to discuss the topic they are researching. I am not sure how long it would take for questions to be answered. Some of these questions could sit there for months with no one answering them so the point of it has been defeated. Answer boards depend on people going in and answering questions, there were questions that I could have answered but were only found through a related search.

When I was looking through some of the questions on the Answer boards I noted that, in my opinion, there were a lot of silly and irrelevant questions. I am not sure how reliable some of the answers would be but it could give different views and answers. If questions were answered by a librarian I would feel more reasured that the information is correct and has been researched.

While I was browsing Wikianswers I found a question that I could have answered regarding the repair time of an xbox 360 gaming console that has the Red Ring of Death as my son's xbox had to be sent away with the same problem and was returned in just over a week.

Week 7: Taggin, folksonomies, delicious and Library Thing

I have opened up my own Del.icio.us account, I have not fully explored all it has to offer but on face value it would seem to be a good idea. It would be very useful to be able to access my favourite sites on different computers.
This is the link to my Del.icio.us site http://delicious.com/elrhonda
In searching Technorati I found it very interesting. I did a search on drawing/art blogs and found a great variety of subjects on offer. I discovered blogs that I would not have otherwise have looked at.
I would have liked to have been able to narrow my search on a paticular subject, as I had to do a lot of searching to find things that interested me.

Library Thing is a wonderful site for booklovers, I really enjoyed this site and I am looking forward to using it in the future. I am will be spending many hours adding my favourite books. My library catalogue is http://www.librarything.com/catalog/elrhonda

Week 6: Video Online; Youtube and Google Video

I had a lot of fun looking at video's, I chose this one of a papillion dog as he reminded me of my papillion dog Jake who passed away last year after 16 great years.

Week 5: Wikis

This has really been an interst week and exposed me to a technology that before now I had never really used.

SJCPL Subject Guide wiki - I found the St Joseph County Public Library site very interesting and informative.

The Full Library Success: A best practices wiki - I could have spent hours going through the huge amount of information this site has to offer and it was easy to use, I have also discovered that Learning 2.0 continues with Learning 2.1.

Book Lovers Wiki - which is Princeton Public Library has the bases of being a very good site although there is not a lot of information in it as it was finished in 2006. The link to Read Around the World has much more information.

After looking at the Wookieepedia site, and being a Lord of the Rings fan, I found that there is a wiki for LOTR, this is a site that I may contribute to.

The Book Lovers Wiki would be a good example to use in our own library as patrons could submit their favourite books and series.

Week 4 RRS

For the purpose of this weeks activity I decided to search for my artistic interests in pastels and drawing. I found it a bit difficult to tie down anything relating to this area of interest, but as they say persistence pays off and I managed to find several in the long run.

The feeds I subscribed to were: Abstract Art Pool; The Pastel Journal Blog; The Pastel Pointers Blog; The Pastel Artist Group; Charcoal and Pencil Drawing Blog and The Powerhouse Museum.

While I am sure there are many people who would use Bloglines I don't think at the moment that I am one of those people. Being the first time that I have used this service I think I would need to spend a lot more time using it to feel comfortable. In searching for blogs to subscribe to I found a great deal of rubbish and blogs that were inaccurate and not up to date. This is where the value of blogs is lost because anyone and everyone can have a blog.

I can see the value in it for some people and for libraries who want to keep track of specific feeds that they find important, but at the moment I don't think the value is there for me.

Blogalog :)

Week 3: Sharing Images

I found the photo's very interesting to look at, and I was very easily sidetracked from what I was supposed to be doing. I think it would be very useful for people who want to show their photographs but I don't think I would use it as the photo's are out there for everyone to view.

The photo I chose was of a stormy sky and I liked the feel of it. .
Photo Credits
Nicholas_T's photostream
Date: December 30 2006
Flickr Username: Nicholas_T
Photo URL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nicholas_t/339205777/

First Edition of Blogalog

This is my first entry into my blog for the State Library 2.0 program. I am looking forward to discovering all of these new technologies.