Addition of RSS feeds to library homepage

We have just added an RSS feed from our library blog to the library homepage, http://www.ecu.edu.au/library/

Podcamp Perth07 - notes

This was an unconference held over 27 - 28 October 2007 in Central TAFE, Perth. I attended on Saturday 27th only, along with Nikki Haseldine, Julia Gross, Lutie Sheridan, Trevor Bennett, Rivka Niesten, and Mike Nodding from ECU. There were also a few other ECU lecturers and students.

The first session I attended was Podcasting in education, led by Tama Leaver (UWA) and Sue Waters (Challenger TAFE). It concentrated both on using podcasting as a method of delivery instead of common teaching methods, but also how to use podcasting and techology to engage students in a practical way. Tama uses blogs to supplement (replace?) face to face seminars. Examples of students' work were a play and a radio show. Tama made the point that the quality of work was good, as the students knew the work would be viewed by their colleagues. Tama uses Lectopia and Audacity whereas Sue uses her video iPod with recorder, and uses Belkin Tunetalk, Windows Moviemaker, Facebook, her PDA (using high quality sound 44100 Hz or multiple of 11,025), Skype and a quality recording. Sue advised us to think carefully before creating a podcast as it takes a lot of time - the podcast may already exist. However, if you are going to do it, then do it without too much worry! She used her presentation to show (with audio) what students thought and knew of podcasting. Not all young students were expert users! She also advised not to stray from the default settings nor buy expensive equipment unless knowledgeable about podcasting. She uses podomatic as a home for her podcasts. Think about background noise when recording, and be interesting.

I then attended the 'podcasting production campfire' led by Kerry Johnston. She uses Moodle and records podcasts, interviews, records events and meetings using relatively simple equipment. Her tips to working with a micorphone are to work close with volume down to decrease reflected sound, to speak up, to imagine you are speaking to a real person, to pad your space with cushions, egg cartons, foam rubber, to put the mike stand on some foam rubber to muffle sound, to use a speaker phone with a mike, to use a pop filter, or to use iRiver for recording.

I then attended the 'rant' session where we discussed the problems of training people at differnet levels and how to sell the technology to late adopters by equating it to webpage feeds.

I then attended a hands on session on podcasting using Garageband.

My final session was 'The social network in your pocket' by Nick Cowie. Here Nick stated that 50% of all mobile phones being sold now are internet compatible. By 2010, traditional internet usage is predicted to be dwarfed by mobile phone internet usage. He used some 'typical users' to describe various patterns of use of the internet and digital media. He said that users are now familiar with Facebook, MySpace, crikey.com, iPhones, Javascript and RIA, RSS bloglines, podcasts, Twitter (in US and Oz), Jaiku (in UK and Europe), mobilicio.us, wapedia, wink. Disadvantanges of mobile devices include the screen size and input methods, various OSs, Javascript and RIA, data cost and speed. He suggested that twitter feeds could be used for closed reserve, with users using SMS to get details of items, although we need permission from the student to send SMS messages. he also discussed the learnscope site, redcoal software for SMS which works through email and also keeps a copy of the message. Nick suggested that open APIs and mobile specific views are required for proper use.

University College, Dublin starts a presence in Second Life.

Hi all

Here is a link to an article about University College, Dublin, which has just started a presence in Second Life.

http://www.ucd.ie/news/june07/062707_second_life.html

Pictures of Innovative Users Group conference 2007

I have uploaded some pictures of this conference and the surrounding San Jose area to Flickr.

This is a picture of the San Jose Civic Centre, where we had our keynote address.

Search for iug2007 tag to see the other photos from several participants.

Lulu - publishing site - web 2.0 award winner

Hi all

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.

Thoughts about the Learning 2.0 program

Hi all

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

I've had a look around the Yahoo video site, and there are a lot of library instructional videos listed there. Unfortunately, when I clicked on them many were no longer available.

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)