Library Thing

Again a tool that is easy to use in a basic fashion (see my link to my Library Thing page) and one that would be wonderful for a book club to share. However once again, unless the members are interested and skilled in computer usage the idea falls flat. Library Thing might be wonderful for a Youth Book Club, or for Library staff to maintain a Library Thing page and share their reading lists with patrons (The Library Staff Recommends...) or a school English class perhaps. There is great potential.

We have a webzine Can of Words, built and maintained by our library, which includes a Reviews section. Library Thing could be used in conjuction with that but again I find a lot of readers are not computer literate enough to engage directly with a utility such as this. Maybe this all indicates a need for more IT Skills training in our Library ...again time and staffing...real time people issues are the stumbling points.
BAM

Deliciously ordered

This is definitely something that I need to get on to - organising my bookmarks/favourites. it gives me the horrors knowing I have so many good sites on my work computer, my home computer and my laptop but to have them organised in one place for access from anywhere, is one of the most useful tools we have looked at in this program.



Then looking at the library sites suggested, my mind has been set racing. I immediately want to organise our library's website in a wholly different way with delicious in the background as done on Cleveland Public Library website. The only problem is that users will take a while to get used to the new arrangement and those unfamiliar with Delicious may be put off by what is essentially another layer between our site and the information sites they are seeking. Library patrons are used to reaching trusted and assessed websites directly through library websites, thus saving them time and search energy. Delicious can appear like a ramble of topics that themselves require ploughing through. It is vitally important that the tags are organised as clearly as possible as Sutherland Shire Libraries have. They seem to have used more tools in Delicious ittself than Cleveland Public Library has.



Setting up my own delicious account was not hard but sitting down and sorting through all my bookmarks and assigning tags will be time consuming, although worth it in the end. I have managed to link to my bookmarks from this blog.

Feed the birds....and information seekers

Well in order to keep even more information coming my way effortlessly way I have:-

• added feeds to my iGoogle page including some ABC blogs, ABS 4 L
  ibraries; JOL Blog etc
  
• opened a Bloglines account and added numerous feeds there, including the OPAL Training blog. I also chose some of my own feeds and also used Bloglines Quick Picks to select groups of blogs
• I have also added the ABC Offair blog, SLQ Website news, OPAL Training, ABS 4 Libraries and the JOL Blog to this blog.

I was pleased to finally come to some familiarity with feeds as they had mystified me for some time. I have had another blog for a year or so now and I did sign up to Feedburner to allow readers (if there are any out there) to follow my blog but I wasn't really sure how it worked from the other end, sounds mad I know. I did subscribe to follow my own blog through my iGoogle page and Bloglines and my feed button works so I was please about that.

The best thing about this gadget is that if you stick to one RSS Reader, you can check on all the latest news, opinion, events and innovations of interest to you on one site. The trick is to control yourself I guess and choose well. As I said iGoogle, although not a reader as such also allows you to show your feeds. I might stick with iGoogle as it includes the search facility, gmail and other gadgets I like to see regularly as well as my feeds. Bloglines doesn't look as friendly and it is just another site to check, whislt iGoogle does this and more.

Libraries that have active blogs can encourage patrons to keep track this way with both the library blog and other blogs or sites with feeds that address the information needs of each patron.

Now this has got me thinking...I could imagine Librarians offering an Personalised Online Reference Service(PORS), that is sitting down with individual patrons in a Reference Interview, determining their information needs and helping them set up an RSS reader and select sites and blogs in their area of interest to add to the reader. The patron then leaves the library with an online information service set up for them to follow at home or anywhere they may be. Any feedback on that idea?

BAM

Social Networking

I already use Facebook to keep in touch with friends overseas and family who are traveling but I also have 'friends' who are my children and their friends, much to their horror at times. It is a very easy application to use. 

I wonder how many "friends" a small rural public library could attract if we had a facebook presence. Unless we have people sign up as friends the effort will be wasted. I realise there are lots of young people from our local area who are "fans" of various local icons (eg local pubs, delicatessens, etc) so the library could try that angle on facebook. Many of these "fans" live away much of the year and enjoy staying in touch with their local community in a 'cool' socially acceptable way, even though what probably drives them is nostalgia for the little country town they love to hate. I think a lot of young library patrons and ex-patrons would become 'fans" creating quite a community and a place for promotion etc to the facebook age group.

Facebook like Twitter doesn't encourage lengthy posts but it does allow it if necessary as well as quick updates and announcements. Facebook also allows for messages direct to particular "friends" and hidden from others, which may suit to answer particular questions. Twitter is probably too limiting for Libraries. "What are you doing?" is just a nice warm and fuzzy way to stay in touch. 

BAM

Wikipedia editing

I have edited the "Shire of Hinchinbrook" and the "Ingham, Queensland" wikipedia pages. See the "libraries" entries, they are mine. I found it quite straight forward but from the tutorials etc there are numerous tools that need much further investigation. Also Wikipedia wants primarily informative articles as in encyclopedia type entries, so using wikis for Library Policies and Procedures would only be suitable if the library staff build one themselves using one of the applications like Wetpaint or PBWiki. The wiki makes policies and procedures easily disseminated throughout the organisation and easily updated.

The Booklovers wiki is an excellent book review wiki but I would think a blog is a more appropriate tool for book clubs/reviews and as Princeton found the new Library Management Systems also allow for book reviews directly on the library catalogue. 

Library Success is more suited to a wiki as it is an information service sharing and updating practical information rather than opinion.

The use of the wiki for local history is the other great avenue for Wikis in Public Libraries, as discussed earlier.

BAM 

Wikis in the public library

Since the advent of the wiki I have been keen to utilise the tool in the Local History area. To this end I have done little more than think and dream. However now I see from the Montana History Wiki that it is indeed possible and how it might be designed.

Thinking about it, it is not so much the technology that stops us initiating this project but the practicality of engaging our community. I have one serious hesitation in the local application of this technology and that is that most people with historical contributions will be of an age where they are hesitant or even down right terrified and incapable of contributing online. I guess one solution could be to line up several computer savvy volunteers who might transcribe the additions or corrections or whole entries for those unable to contribute for themselves.

Looking at the Montana wiki again this seems to be an issue for them as there are very few areas of the wiki that have been edited recently giving one the feeling that it is a staff created venture. Now this is a fine format for historical information to be presented online although a website is perfectly functional for this as well. if we do not engage the community enthusiastically to contribute we may as well save ourselves the trouble of delving into the new format.

Great potential but without great marketing and people power to enable contributions and the review of contributions, it remains a tool of great potential.

BAM

How to break a Librarians heart

This comes courtesy of my loving son number 1. Enjoy... but it does make me cringe a bit too .....
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/librarians.png

Change of image due to template restrictions - Help wanted!

There has been a change of image in the blogosphere for me as the previous template I had selected did not fit my cartoon in (see link in post above). I pasted the image in and it didn't fit the template, thus the change of template. I saved the cartoon as an image and inserted it into the post but the saved image didn't appear large enough to read clearly. I gave up and used the hyperlink. Right now I am more interested to know how I might have changed the template or designed my own to fit the cartoon in. Any help would be appreciated. Ta very much

BAM

Tasman Cliffs

Sea Cliff
Originally uploaded by Gomerama

The image on the right is one I found on Flickr that may help explain some of the inspiration behind a painting I recently completed (above). On a very wet and wild day touring around the Tasman Peninsula I was awe-struck by the colour and shapes of the rugged cliffs which surrounded us. My attempt at representing this structural beauty reflects the light on the day, bright yet wet, and the dark, wild crevices we found ourselves in. The photo of the painting is not great quality but it does the job.

Audience focused blogging in libraries

How about blogging for a client audience? Well I as with any service the more it is tailored to the needs of the consumer the more successful it will be. Looking at the ACT Public Library Blog show how the use of the tags in a blog allows visitors to select which blog posts suit them the most. However you have the whole library blogger community reading the posts and comments of all the various categories of users and the list of categories becomes very long and disconcerting.

Teen blogs I guess are the most obvious audience focused blogs to make as young people are among the heaviest technology users. Look at Wired 4 Teens @ Mosman Library- nice and clear ad clean yet funky. There are quite a few categories of posts but not too many to be useful.

I suppose there is scope to determine which categories of users are interested in a service tailored to their needs - it could be a ScFi Book blog for example for ScFi updates generally and in the library. It is kind of like a Alert Service via blogs. Ummm could be interesting.