Hi
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
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Second Life
Hi all
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!
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
I've had a look at Flickr Services, and the Profile Widget (under fd's Flickr Toys in Flickr Services) is particularly interesting. This "create a customized image that you can paste into your profile page (or any other web page) that will automagically update itself throughout the day. It shows a selection of ten of your photos and some statistics about your Flickr usage." I have to upload at least ten photos and will then try it out.
The Calendar view and the Map search feature are also pretty cool!
The Calendar view and the Map search feature are also pretty cool!
Monday, May 7, 2007
Brief article about use of Second Life by libraries
This article discusses an exhibition of materials from The Belle Brezing Photographic Collection at University of Kentucky which is available in Second Life.
http://news.uky.edu/news/display_article.php?artid=2255
I know we have not looked at Second Life yet, but thought I would post this now!
http://news.uky.edu/news/display_article.php?artid=2255
I know we have not looked at Second Life yet, but thought I would post this now!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Another library blog
Just found another blog - http://www.aliveinbaghdad.org/2007/04/16/an-iraqi-woman-and-her-library/ - which was sent to me via the 'Library Link of the Day' email. It's about a librarian in Bagdhad, and her daily work.
Fun with blogs
Hi all
I've just tried setting up a Bloglines account, and have added 12 feeds / blogs to it. I got a bit carried away with adding these, and I expect that some of them will be removed later, depending on their content.
One that I have been receiving in my email is Lorcan Dempsey's weblog. I can recommend this one (at least I find it good). It is very chatty but has some excellent posts. He works at OCLC, and as far as I can find from his blog, his title is Vice President and Chief Strategist.
I did find that I had to try and add some of the blog / feed links more than once, as it didn't work the first time, so this may be of use to others who experience the same problem.
I've just tried setting up a Bloglines account, and have added 12 feeds / blogs to it. I got a bit carried away with adding these, and I expect that some of them will be removed later, depending on their content.
One that I have been receiving in my email is Lorcan Dempsey's weblog. I can recommend this one (at least I find it good). It is very chatty but has some excellent posts. He works at OCLC, and as far as I can find from his blog, his title is Vice President and Chief Strategist.
I did find that I had to try and add some of the blog / feed links more than once, as it didn't work the first time, so this may be of use to others who experience the same problem.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Personalised Google page
Hi
I have also set up a personalised Google page (go to www.google.com.au, and click the link in the top right corner to set up).
Once set up, you can add news feeds, Post-It notes (electronic), to do lists and more.
You can also add several tabs - e.g. one for general ECU business, one for article feeds,... I downloaded the Google toolbar for extra functionality.
Cheers
Lisa
I have also set up a personalised Google page (go to www.google.com.au, and click the link in the top right corner to set up).
Once set up, you can add news feeds, Post-It notes (electronic), to do lists and more.
You can also add several tabs - e.g. one for general ECU business, one for article feeds,... I downloaded the Google toolbar for extra functionality.
Cheers
Lisa
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