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Thursday, June 28, 2007
Pictures of Innovative Users Group conference 2007
Monday, June 18, 2007
Lulu - publishing site - web 2.0 award winner
I've chosen Lulu from the list of web 2.0 winners. It won 1st place in the books category, and allows authors to publish as many copies as are required. I had heard about his site previously, but have never visited it. There is no minimum order, and the author sets their own price.
A drop down list allows the user to search for books, music, etc. or everything. Users can also search for works that can be copied and distributed, used for commercial purposes, or even adapted and modified.I searched for 'nutrition' and got 251 hits. Searchers can read reviews, authors descriptions, product details, sales rank and ISBN as well as other details. There are also a list of keywords, allowing the user to see other similar books.
Books also have a rating, e.g., everyone. I couldn't get on to the page that explained the ratings, so don't know what else is there.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Thoughts about the Learning 2.0 program
I've now completed all the weeks exercises in this programme.
What have you personally learned from this program?
I've had a chance to explore and use many technologies that I hadn't used before, and consider how they could be used in the library. Specifically, reading other people's blogs, wikis and looking at the variety of videos on YouTube gave some ideas as follows:-
blogs - could be used for 'news' in a particular subject area, or alternatively general library news of interest to all library users. Of course there are already several blogs of interest to library staff - I subscribe to the Shifted Librarian.
RSS feeds - these could be used for information on the latest new items in the library, library notices to an individual, preset subject searches in the catalogue, library courses, library news, or new articles added to journal databases (as currently available).
Wikis - could be used for library FAQs (in a similar fashion to wikipedia), discussions between subject librarians and their students, discussions between library staff on a specific topic (much like we used it to discuss the 'Welcome to the library' brochure). I'm not yet convinced that it could replace the library's website, but this may change with technology advances.
Flickr - I can't think of any direct applications of this in the library, except that we could have a 'group' on Flickr to show pictures of the library, and thus have a presence in Flickr.
Second Life - We could have a presence on Second Life. As stated in a previous post, some research has shown that due to 'everyone being equal' in Second Life, some students may feel happier about approaching a virtual librarian for help. In addition, it is another method of 'meeting the students where they already are in cyberspace'. If our users are already using Second Life, then we should have a virtual library there. There are issues if access, though, as it is difficult to use with a dial up connection.
Del.icio.us - This could be used as an addition to our lists of reviewed websites. We could set up a list of bookmarks, and students studying a specific subject area could use these as a reference set of bookmarks.
Podcasting - We've already started to use these in the Library for tours and quick guides to a specific issue. I believe that they are great for instruction, as users can choose the specific topic on which they want help (e.g. types of journals). and don't have to listen to (or read) a lot of extra irrelevant information.
YouTube etc. - these sites could also be used in a similar manner. When I searched YouTube, I found several small videos on "library instruction". We could do something similar. However, I think that the videos would need to be run on technology within the library as well, e.g., our information screens. Thus students in the Library would see the videos on the screens, and remote students could watch the video on YouTube. In this case, the videos would need to be relevant to remote students (e.g. how to use electronic resources).
What have you learned about yourself, others and the organisation in which you work?
I have found that using blogs is a great way to communicate, and that my colleagues are always willing to help (although I knew that already). It has been an interesting experience supporting each other through the programme.
What was the most important skill you have learned and why?
I would agree with Klickety and JMCG that blogging was very important. Other than that, I've enjoyed using all the applications, and can see library uses for almost all of them. I will certainly use Del.icio.us, Flickr, wikis and RSS feeds further for work and also outside of work.
What action will you now take if any?
I'll keep my skills and knowledge of these resources, and try to learn more about them. In my role I'm already using wikis to communicate with colleagues in toher libraries. Many may also be included in the library website - this can be progressed in the Web Advisory Group (or elsewhere)
Would students use these technologies as part of the library’s online environment?
I think they would use most of them, as described above.
Is there some specific technology that you would like to see the library adopt ?
RSS feeds are available in the webOPAC, and we can include external RSS feeds for free. We can add other (chargeable) modules which will allow us to send advisory messages to users (e.g. laons are due to expire, or items available for pickup) as well as creating RSS feeds from predesigned searches and new items receied in the library. These can be put in any webpage. Many databases also include RSS feeds.
I would also like to see Del.icio.us and YouTube used as above.
I have really enjoyed this programme and would like to thank Elle and JMCG for putting it together.
Yahoo and YouTube videos
However, I've also had a look at YouTube, and found this video about 'Taking on a Second Life'. It shows the Info Island, but has no speech, just background music.
I also found a short video that defends the Dewey Decimal system (humourous)
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Thoughts on Del.icio.us
Just finished looking at this site, and I'm impressed with how easy it is to use. I've imported my bookmarks from both Internet Explorer and Firefox, and also added a few webpages directly.
I agree with JMCG that this may be of most use to us for research assistance - it could replace the list of useful websites for each Faculty that are currently on our website. I'm also going to use it on a personal basis, as it seems very useful for accessing bookmarks from any computer.
Lisa
Article on social networking use in libraries
Those of you who get 'Library Link of the Day' will have seen the article "Libraries woo patrons on the Web - Plug in to social networking sites". It discusses Amanda Werhane from the University of Wisconsin Wendt Library.
The article states "Amanda Werhane, liaison librarian and marketing coordinator at Wendt, runs the library's blog (wendt-library.blogspot.com), which features a collection of links and notes about useful research tools and journals. She's also set up a Wendt Library page on Facebook, MySpace and Friendster and posted library pictures on Flickr, the photo-sharing Web site." They use instant messaging and chat reference to answer questions.
You can read the complete article at http://www.madison.com/tct/news/stories/index.php?ntid=168453
Cheers
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Second Life
I'm several weeks behind on this project due to pressure of work.
However, I've just had a look at the Second Life information on the ABC site. I did see this program when it was broadcast, and wondered at the time how it could be incorporated into library services.
It reminded me a bit of a previous employer's intranet, where they had created a moving image of a librarian who could answer questions. She was sitting within a virtual library, and one clicked on reference books to see a list of the available references, computer screen to search the catalogue, etc.
However, Second Life is very much more sophisticated than this. I was interested in the link to a list of educational institutions using Second Life http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Institutions_and_Organizations_in_SL, but couldn't get this to work. I'll try again later.
In the article "Second-Guessing Second Life: Is this Virtual Playground Worth Your Marketing Dollars?" http://www.adotas.com/2007/03/second-guessing-second-life-is-this-virtual-playground-worth-your-marketing-dollars/ it states that "Second Life jives heavily with the Web 2.0 mentality. It’s community-based and gives users control of just about everything. " This may be what makes a virtual library a success - that many of our users will like to interact in this manner. It seems an extension of 'meeting the users where they are'. Of course, some will not, and will still prefer to phone, email or visit us. The article "The Online Disinhibition Effect"
http://www.rider.edu/~suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html also states that in cyberspace we are all equals. This could encourage some students to approach a library avatar for help where they may not approach a Reference Librarian in the library. However, I think we are fairly approachable.
Second Life MAY be one way to offer a reference service without staffing a Reference Desk, but we would need to also have a method of helping users who physically visit the library, not just tell them to log onto SL!
Lastly, the San Jose University video on YouTube was interesting - we could see the Reference Librarian typing the answer to a query!
Flickr - interesting features
The Calendar view and the Map search feature are also pretty cool!