Social networking etc.

Unfortunately at the time when I had to do this final part of the course the only site I could get to open ( not yet full moon?, something to do with our IT?, sunspots? passing aliens?) of the social networking variety was the Roturua site, and this definitely evoked "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto" feelings. I also remember a comment made by one of the presenters at the Library Web 2.0 colloquium in Brisbane earlier this year that in regard to the students of the uni. where she worked "they don't want us in their space",and the mere suggestion had invoked the response "creepy". It was noticeable that she herself was definitely of the 2.0 generation.
However, I'll leave it as a generational thing and in pusuit of that thought close with a quote from that delightful book I wrote about on my Google.doc, Scott Douglas's Quiet Please: Dispatches from a Public Librarian, Philadelphia , De Capo/Perseus, 2008. Even though Douglas graduated in 2001 he does say"MySpace is a great tool. Just not in the library" but he does go on to say "What I learned from it was there was an entire world of librarians my age and even younger...We talked about random things, from best film to feature a librarian to should food be allowed in the library? We encouraged each other becuse we knew we were the future. We were the ones who had to come up with the ideas to take the library to the next level."p.209.

Online applications and tools

I guess the internal office applications of something like Google.docs is fairly apparent, and would ease the production of library documents that need the collaboration of several staff, like newsletters etc. I imagine you might also be able to use Google.docs to do collaborative work with special interest groups such as local history societies, with members able to contribute to a common document which could then be put on the library's website. At one of our branches we have a collection of manuscripts and typescripts produced by a local heritage group on the history of the area which are invaluable ( I used one for a university assignment on war memorials to good effect) and it is conceivable that some sort of online collaborative document detailing the group's historic memories could be created using Google.docs.

Mashups

This is a mashup which is a quite extensive reference library of online resources , and with
an obvious library application.

www.librarianchick.com/

I have myself been trying to download a soundbite to a Google image, but have decided life is too short after many attempts. However, for the technically proficient, mashups would be a marvellous resources for adding commentary to local history photographs online, for one example, or to produce promotional audio visuals which would have considerable impact online or screened in the library during , say, Library Week. As librarychick shows, time permitting, a library could create customised reference tools for its individual community.

Podcasts

Poor Evelyn Waugh seems to be under pursuit throughout this particular 2.0 training program! I couldn't resist listening to his 1947 broadcast per the BBC podcast , as it is always interesting to hear someone's voice or see them, and see or hear if they match your image of them. Interesting that his voice was somewhat different to what I expected (less fruity, less orotund and dogmatic) and that he was discussing Forest Lawn, I place I have also visited and enjoyed as I enjoyed The Loved One , was an added bonus. I guess the uses of podcasting in a library could be manifold, as they are on the Library Success wiki, and the library websites, book talks, visiting authors and artists, instructional material on how to use the library's services and facilities, library news etc, etc. You would always have to have the agreement of members of staff and the public attending events to be able to podcast as a matter of privacy and ettiquette.
Perhaps at the moment this application might have the greatest appeal to the youth segment?

Answer Boards and Social Searching

So appalling is the quality of some of the answers to the Australian History questions on Yahoo! Seven Answers that perhaps we have a duty to participate and bring our expertise to bear on the answers boards, something I have to confess I haven't had much to do with despite the RISG initiative. As they stand, you could use those answers on Yahoo in support of the the the thesis in Andrew Keen's book, The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing Our Culture and
Assaulting Our Economy, London/Boston,Nicholas Brealey,2007. One thing, the answer boards idea of enabling rating of the quality of the answers, if used by libraries, would be a way of getting immediate feedback on the quality of online reference service, at least, rather than having to rely on occassional user surveys.

Folk taxsonomies, Library Thing, Technorati etc, etc

del.icio.us / isloggett /

I have put just a few items initially to my new del.cio.us account, including a witty article on a author I love to hate, Evelyn Waugh (such a snob, such a boor, then, suddenly, such spiritual insight, Lord Marchmain's deathbed in Brideshead etc etc) a couple of favourite architectural specimens in LA and that strange little Grande Guignol horror story by Lovecraft. I guess the big advantage of del.icio.us is that you can have flexible , easily done, in house "catalogueing" (or certainly retrieval) that is available to staff and public and can suit particular needs your library service might have. I did recently retrieve that Lovecraft story for an HSC student who was needing extra text on the "Outsider" theme and they decided to use it, I believe. You could, for example, put the story into de.icio.us as an extra HSC resource, or tag the Capitol Records building as an example of fantasy architecture or 1950's style.

I showed Library Thing to our Bookchat group today, it being one of my days to chair, and they were quite impressed. The entries in my catalogue are all books I bought over the last couple of months for myself, except the Slessor, which was an example that came from one of our Bookchat members, although I do own copies of his poetry, and as a poet I sincerely think he deserves a 5 rating!

www.librarything.com/catalog/ISloggett

VIDEO ONLINE

Well, here goes another try at embedding a video


I added this clip because I have fond memories of attending a performance in the SemperOperin Dresden, which of couse was restored as late as 1985 after the fire raid in 1945, about which I have ambivalent feelings, but that's another argument!
As to videos and library promotions, yes, embedded videos could be quite a good way of promoting library events and news, , but you would still need to make sure people knew they could look on YouTube etc to find the promotion?

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.

Let the games begin!

Hello world (As someone used to say)

At last I've made it into the blogosphere,like Alice down the rabbit hole, ready to look around and ask what's next? Blogging seems to me the 2.0 application that seems most readily and immediately applicable to a public library's situation, although I'm mindful of something I heard quoted at the recent "Beyond the Hype" symposium in Brisbane:"If your library doesn't need a blog, don't have a blog". The only way I can think of, however, of finding out if your library needs a blog is to actually try one and see?