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