Wrap Up

Library and Social Networking, is it not a social network now? A place with all different types of people mixing and joining different activites in libraries, suggesting different ideas, giving feed back. Now we have virtual libraries. Is it as much fun? Does it feel as reel as walking into a actual library, does it have the same atmosphere?
I don't know about sitting behind a computer screen in a room by myself and social netwoking - It doesn't seem very social to me, I would much rather face to face networking!!
BUT I am old school and must get with the reality of what is to come. If we need to go the way of internet socialising then we must.BUT which one do we use? They are all different and appeal to different audiences so do you need to have something posted on all of them to get to all the ages and different clientel?
It is also about staff time to keep everying posted up to date and read all the feedback and comments that would come in a social networking site and then act on it.
The course itself has been both frustrating and enjoyable. IT departments make it frustrating in that somedays you have not trouble visitng various sites than others you cannot get into. What should take you 15 min sometimes takes an hour.
I have gained a lot of knowledge out of the course and now understand what 'Internet People" are talking about. I most likely will not be using many sites but than again I will be using more because I now know about them.

Document Creators

Wow, there are a lot out there. Google Docs was just like using a word on a PC only others can add to the document. We do this through a central "dataworks" at council, but these could be used for other purposes. Perhaps the central branch is doing up a newsletter, with these shared docos all the braches could put their bits in on the web, doing away with email attachments and such.
Slide shows could be very good for presentations especially if you are doing workshops.

mashups

I found masups entertaining. The big huge lab is very easy to use and could be used for a number of things, to create posters and flyers for promotional material for the library perhaps. Use it to design activities for kids or get kids to use them in a workshop for a school holiday activity. The star viewer was great, and would be a hit kids interested in astronomy.

I downloaded a picture from flickr and put it in a calendar. I t was very easy.

http://destabilizer.org/

I visited the above site and found it very interesting as a mashup. It has news and everything else you could imagine. I watched a YouTube video clip about men trying to pull a palm tree out of thier yard. You could see what was going to happen ( why couldn't they). This site has photos, video clips, music clips and news items. I don't know about using it for work!! Perhaps visit it in my break to relieve stress!!

podcasts

Well this was a frustrating topic for me as our IT has restricted many forms of podcasts. I have been able to view a few so can work around these.
Stories on pod casts form Denver Library seems a really good idea for grandmothers baby sitting. Just put child in front of screen ( make sure it is a large flat screen) and go!!
There are a lot of subjects out there with podcasts. ABC would be good for all those radio national fans to get a repeat of what they have heard or catch up with something they have missed. Good for the man on the land for all the rural sessions.
Its interesting that some are just for listening and some for viewing. Red Symonds commentary is good (if you like his brand of humour).
In a library situation you could use it for an education tool - find a podcast that shows seniors how to use podcasts from one the education sites perhaps.
I googled "gardening podcasts" and came up with a lot of sites - amazing what is out there if you have the time to search.
Sorry I would rather be in my garden!!

Answer boards

This is just one more way of answering reference questions. I think the librarians give "exemplary answers" because this is what they are trained to do. Just like the American libraries that have a "late night book service" to answer questions via the web for night owls.
It would be a great way to get to the teenages with what is available in the library and answer questions they pose. Also a good forum for feedback.
It seems like a good idea in theory but it is always the monster TIME that prevents us from following through these inovations.
Pehaps this will be the way of the furture because teenages want information NOW without too much effort on their part.
It would be sad if this happens as the libraries then become only recreational centers. All other information will be web based, and the need to come into a library will not be necessary.
Will we be than, siting behind a computer screen all day and not face to face with our customers?
Sound very boring to me!!
I have put a question on Yahoo!7 Answers and I am eagerly waiting for the answer, but sorry it was not a library question!
Just cheked my question - no answers yet!!

Del.icio.us and others

https://secure.del.icio.us/settings/maureenm56/index


As far as I can see libraries use del.icio.us to list sights for further research and interests.
I must admit I like Cleavelands site better than Sutherland as it it easier to read. I must like lists because I don't like the CLOUD view.
Perhaps the library could make use of this in a library blog for HSC students. We could add sites that would help the students with further study, sites for coping with stress etc.
It also could benefit staff, as everyone could add their bookmarks of sites that may help for eg. readers advisery.
del.icio.us is easy to log onto and use, the instructions we were given were a great help.
searching "bookmobile" and searching bookmobile as an exact phrase in the advance search brought up the same results.
I had trouble finding nswpln2008. I put it in as a blog search in advance search and found it where as I couldn't under ordinary search.
The LibraryThing looks great, I will have to find more time to have a good look around. It would be a great help in finding books to read that are of similar interest, series and all books by authors.

Videos online

This video clip shows you what intersection to avoid in St Petersberg.

I found that YouTube and Google video can be very addictive. Many funny and serious videos. Searching both youtube and google gives you different subject matter on the same theme. I loved the young boy interviewing for NJ libraries, I thought it was brilliant, also the video clip to get information online all night ( must help the due next day project).

The oral histories I thought was a great idea and one that could be taken up in our library. Just imagine if once a month you asked one of your older borrowers to give a brief history of what it is was like growing up in their town or farm and how it has changed. Kids also would love the oportunity to give thier view of the world. This would be a great local history project and perhaps get more teenages involved in the library through giving their views on things and putting them in a library blog site.

This would be a great way of sending videos & keeping contact with family and friends that you don't get to see, eg interstate & overseas. You would of course have to watch the content for security reasons.

Embedding a video was very easy once I found the instructions in the blog help. I have found the blog help very useful and simple to follow, I have used on numerous occasions!!