Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Thoughts on Wikis & Blogs

Over the last week or so I have been dabbling in and out of the 23 things related to Wikis & Blogs. I listened to the podcast by Meredith Farkas explaining the difference between them. She says wikis are always a work in progress while blogs are good for promoting something. The wiki she helped organise for the ALA conference in 2006 was a cool thing to do. The whole wiki principle of the community contributing to the information and the self policing aspect is an amazing phenomena. I also read the Wikipedia entry on Library 2.0 and the links within that were interesting to follow up on. Never enough hours in the day to investigate all the resources etc.! I could see how we could introduce things to our own library blog - such as staff & students discussing useful resources, book reviews, although some of this is more public library activities. We could get users to comment on the library service via the blog. Maybe Wanganui could use a blog to promote the new library and receive comment from users as to how they are finding the new building and services. We could place progress photos on the shift and setup on the library blog.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Thoughts on Web 2.0 & Library 2.0

It was very interesting reading the views from OCLC Open Space newsletter and what is being said and thought about the the future of libraries and information resources. UCOL Library is doing well exposing it's staff to new technologies and challenging the long-held ideas. I particularly liked one persons comments that included Library 3D and Library 4.0! It is mind blowing where things are heading. Imagine in 2, 5, 10, 20 years.. maybe the time will come when virtual All Blacks will be sent to do battle in the world cup - and it won't matter if Dan Carter is injured!

Sunday, October 14, 2007

Useful article...?

I was reading a Library-link-of-the-day and followed through on some other links and found this article. Tags help make libraries del.icio.us. It discussed ways libraries use del.icio.us and tagging. I found it helpful to see how libraries were applying some of the "23 things" tools.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Just an observation...

I've been thinking... over the past few weeks as I travel on this exciting (sometimes scary) technology journey I have started to use lots of new words, or found new uses for old words, in my conversation with colleagues, family and friends... here's a few "fellow 23 thingers" may recognise - I've blogged, I am blogger and I have been blogging, I've skyped, pinged, nudged, winked and submitted so many times I am quite dizzy sometimes! I have engaged with widgets, applied tags and can be called a tagger! I use words like blogosphere, technorati and del.icio.us! The latter I always have to spell and clarify for friends and family! I have googled for years but now I also check out netvibes and more recently I have dabbled in moodle! I still have lots to look forward to as I continue to traverse through 23 things! I can't wait to see what words/concepts/technology I'll encounter...wooohoooo

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

More on Technorati

Just been doing more of the discovery exercises associated with Technorati and it is interesting to see the differenct results when searching for Learning 2.0 in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory! Even found a blog associated with Second life I thought Angela might be interested in but she possibly already knows about it.
Hmmm.. amazing how the time flys by when one is engrossed in 23 things...

Monday, October 8, 2007

Del.icio.us & Technorati

Started playing with & learning about del.icio.us last week and have only just got back to using it and getting to grips with it. I had heard from other librarian's how useful it was for saving favourites and I can see why. It means I can access my favourites wherever I like and it also means if I get run over by a bus (heaven forbid) my colleagues can look at my del.icio.us page and see what they might want to use with students etc.

Now Technorati is an interesting lil' place to delve about in. I searched all sorts of weird & wonderful things to see what people are writing about in their blogs - Benalla, Bette Midler, Cross-Slot, UCOL, Grand Canyon, Ground Zero, Smiths crisps, Wagon wheels... Ha! It was amazing, hilarious, scary (to see what people blog about), fascinating and strangely addictive. I began to feel a little voyeuristic but then these people have put it out in the blogsphere! I thought I could use it to check what people are blogging about in relation to more work related topics - information literacy, Moodle, 23 things and the like!

Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Skyped at last!

A friend has been using skype for ages and keeps saying we should be doing this...Well, finally I can tell him I am skype ready!! Also I have a relative in Australia who has been suggesting we get ourselves organised with skype! I have personalised my skype page, I have added contacts - thanks Ang & Margaret. I searched for other contacts but will need to check what their actual skype name is! I looked at making a "kronie" but didn't really like any of the ones available and then the one I did select I needed to BUY!!! I don't think so! So of course I am the cool schnauzer with the sunnies!