The wonderful world of Wikis

I know I should have resisted the temptation to write a cliche masthead, but didn't.
This is my second try as my previous posting vanished in the colour and movement I've had with the You-Tube posting! Wikis would be a very logical application in the public libraery environment, especially for Book groups, a la the Princeton Public Library example in the listing on the 2.0 training pages. I've had limited experience with such groups but the occassions on which I have moderated our local Book Chat group have been most enjoyable working hours with a group of very interesting people such as the lady who had encountered Francis De Groot of Harbour Bridge Opening fame or the Italian gentleman with vivid memories as a child of the Nazi occupation of Rome. A Wiki would enormously extend the opportunities for sharing that such a group offers, and provided everyone involved was happy to "go public" , would be a most entertaining, enlightening and interesting feature on any library's webpage. Local studies is the other area which could be interesting as in the examples from Montana and Wisconsin. I guess the only risk would be what people might say (some of our Book Chat people can be very passionate),but I guess it can be edited and there's no point ,it seems to me, to have a wiki that people can't directly contribute to, you might as well leave it as webpages.

Swimming the Amazon

http://www.searchforvideo.com/watchclip.php?title=Ma...

Well, another non-success story.This was supposed to be YouTube video about the fellow who swam the length of the Amazon a year or so ago, the book about the swim " The Man who Swam the Amazon" being my current reading this week. I'll try again later perhaps.

RSS Feeds

This should be a very useful application for libraries, both to let people know what we're doing, and in reference work , since RSS feeds are referernce resources that we could find and suggest to people like any other, I guess. Unfortunately time is a bit tight at the moment, but I did manage to get a number of book review type feeds ( all US) ,the Powerhouse Picture of the Day, and the latest Dilbert cartoon. No luck with my attempt at setting up a feed to this blog, however. As an opera fan I found a feed from some opera buff in the United States which was quite amusing since he reviews not only the production but also the audience and the house, and I did find out about an opera I've never heard off, called Dr Atomic, which is about Robert Oppenheimer and has just been given at the Lyric Opera in Chicago. However,no joy, Bloglines simply won't recognise the url, so thats that, I guess. I'll try something else some other time perhaps.

OAMARU, night scene per FLICKR

IMG_9088.JPG
Originally uploaded by jaminneb

This is a photo , per Flickr, from a favourite place, Oamaru (Janet Frame's home town) which is in the South Island of New Zealand, on the east coast between Dunedin (another favourite city) and Christchurch , which I have to confess I am yet to visit. At one stage in the late 19th century it was the same size (contemporaneously) as Los Angeles, but fell on hard times, and as a consequence now has the most wonderful and large historic precinct of Victorian architecture, a taste for which I share with Evelyn Waugh ,and quite a lot of other people these days. The building on the right is the Forrester Art Gallery, a very fine venue which I have never known not to have a good showing, but worth visiting for the interior alone. It was built in 1884 as the local Bank of New South Wales and the architect was Robert Lawson, originally from Melbourne, who also built what is to me the loveliest church I know, First Church in Dunedin (1873). Lawson could never deserve the mock epitaph on Sir John Vanbrugh "Lay heavy on him ,earth, for he laid many heavy burderns on thee."Ethereal is the word, even for a bank! The particular feature of Oamaru that makes it so striking is the use of that wonderful whitestone, always noticeable in contrast to our own beautiful sandstone here in Sydney. At times, in the historic precinct it's like being in a De Chirico. Well worth the visiting for anyone into historic townscapes.