Librarian's guide to the galaxy

Thing 23

2008-07-04T14:16:00.005+10:00

Wow.. I've reached the end of my '23 things' journey - what an amazing trip! :o) Thanks Jason for the wonderful program you put together for us. It was defintely worth the effort...

Now to the 'nitty grittty' of what I thought about the technologies... I will group them in to two categories - what I will continue to use personally and what is useful for the library & librarians to use professionally.

Personally - I love......
Blogger - might create my own personal blog in the future...
iGoogle
Google tools - maps, earth, sky, docs
RSS feeds - library & personal interest info
YouTube
Browser extensions
Image generators & Flickr

Professionally - It would be beneficial to use the following:
Library blog/s - Liaison areas and general promotional activities
Library wiki/s - for Subject links or LINs
Library podcasts/vodcasts - then add vodcasts to YouTube?
Delicious - organising bookmarks across campuses
Image generators for blog / wiki - to make it interesting and fun!
YouTube - use videos for classes?
RSS feeds - to use on online subject resource guide - i.e: updates of articles/information in databases on related subjects.
Flickr - to add promotional photos of library

In concluding this post, I would like to say that I really enjoyed the format of this training program. The fact that we could play around with different technologies at our own pace was a rewarding experience. I don't know how many times in the past I've bothered a colleague to help me with this type of stuff - now I can do it all by myself!! Yeah! Infact, if another program (similar to this) was developed I'd give it a go!! :o)

Over and out...... 5,4,3,2,1 Blast off!

Thing 22

2008-07-04T09:49:00.000+10:00

Essentially, Library 2.0 to me is about making use of modern tools (i.e Web 2.0 technologies) to provide current, timely and accurate information to our clientele. It's also about constantly reviewing our skills and researching for new technologies to best meet the information needs of our clients. I believe librarians have always put the needs of their clients first, but I think technology allows for more interaction and feedback between both the client and information specialist.

I think 'Library 2.0' is just a snazzy term for meeting the information needs of our clientele in the modern era using various online technologies..... That's why it's important to get involved in professional development activities such as this one!!! :o)

Thing 21

2008-07-03T15:03:00.004+10:00

iGoogle - I believe it's a wonderful portal which brings all my google tools together such as YouTube, Blogger, Maps, Docs & Reader. I only have to log in once and hey presto - it's all there in front of me! :o) I've also added the local time, weather, a currency converter and both Wikipedia and eBay search boxes to personalise it for me. The theme I have chosen for my account is 'Solar System' by Google. Here it is:

I'm definelty going to use this tool from now on!

Things 18, 19 & 20

2008-07-03T13:53:00.005+10:00

You just gotta love Google…. :o)

Google maps – I’ve been using Google maps for some time now… It's a great navigation tool… I think our organisation should jump on board with this service and add some details/photos about our campuses to it! I must say, Google Earth and Google Sky are fantastic products too!

Google docs – What a clever program… I created a test document and spreadsheet to obtain greater understanding of its value. Now that I’m aware of this product, I’m sure I will use it a lot more in the future.. As for the competition between Google and Microsoft – I think it’s great! As they continue to ‘up the ante’ and create superior products we win out, don’t we?

Google Book Search - I like the fact you can peruse so many books but I can understand authors concerns over possible copyright infringements. I don't know if I will use it very often....

Thing 17

2008-07-02T15:27:00.005+10:00

Hmmmm.... Social networking sites - been there, done that... Personally, I don't like them but for professional use - the library could take advantage of these tools to provide services and information to the 15-19 yr old demographic.

Thing 16

2008-07-02T14:36:00.005+10:00

I just cannot get enough of YouTube... I love it - especially for retro ads and music! Eventhough there is a lot of questionable stuff on YouTube, there is also plenty of great footage too. Here is a clip that I found interesting.... It's called 'NASA - IBEX : Exploring The Edge Of Our Solar System'. Added: June 06, 2008 by NASAexplorer.

I think our library could use YouTube for library promotions, Information Literacy sessions and more...

Thing 15

2008-07-01T15:27:00.006+10:00

I just love Flickr.... you can spend hours on this site going through photos.....

Here's a link to a photo that I think is great.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/thelastname/323005921/

It's called 'Star trails' and it was uploaded by 'thelastname' on December 15, 2006. It was taken in Western Victoria, Australia.

I think our library could use Flickr to post promotional photos of our campus libraries and services.

Things 13 & 14

2008-07-01T11:31:00.006+10:00

Greetings earthlings…

On my '23 things' journey again… after a short pit stop to refuel the mind and shuttle! While Delicious was an interesting place to explore, I only had a short stay in Technorati land.

I think Delicious is a great bookmarking service that can be used to share bookmarks with my liaison buddies across campuses.

As for Technorati, it's a valuable tool if you want your blog to be seriously ‘out there’… It could be useful if we decide to have a library blog!

Over and out…

Thing 12

2008-06-13T11:51:00.003+10:00

I've created a LibraryThing catalogue. This can be located at: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/LibrarianLD

Not sure how useful this service is for our library.... But, I think it's great for obtaining title recommendations by genre.

Thing 11

2008-05-16T11:31:00.003+10:00

I've had a little play around with image generators. Here is one I prepared earlier...

Things 9 & 10

2008-05-14T12:39:00.002+10:00

I explored the list of Library wikis that Jason recommended….and really liked the “Book Lovers Wiki” developed by the Princeton Public Library.

For our library – I think we could use a wiki for our Internet subject links. The page would have to be moderated by us to keep its educational integrity. Food for thought!!!

I enjoyed adding (much needed..) colour to our chislib23t wiki. I also added a link to this blog on the “Favourite blog” page and created a new page “Favourite music” where I added my favourite music artists. Long live the ABBA phenomenon!

Thing 8

2008-05-07T16:16:00.003+10:00

I've subscribed to several NASA podcast and vodcast feeds this week. Gee, they are so interesting to peruse... I've added one of their podcast feeds to this blog for your enjoyment!

Podcasts and vodcasts could be used on our library website to provide news, library promotions, collection information and more.... The mind bloggles... hehe!

Things 4,5,6 & 7

2008-05-06T11:05:00.004+10:00

As you can see - I've registered my ‘galactic’ blog… and had entirely too much fun personalising it. I’ve also gazed upon other blogs and made a comment or two...

Using Google reader I’ve subscribed to quite a number of RSS feeds (including those Jason suggested to import). I quickly deleted the ABC breaking news feeds as they were driving me crazy... As soon as I finished reading the list there were more waiting!!! Moral of the story – be very shrewd when selecting feeds….

RSS feeds are very useful though… especially in our line of work. They’re great for keeping up with relevant topics (aka subject specialist areas) in online databases and web sites. I’ve added an interesting NASA feed to this blog for one to peruse.

Things 1,2 & 3

2008-05-01T15:49:00.002+10:00

I’ve had a good squiz through the details of the program and using a little imagination this training should be lots of fun…

I really enjoyed learning about search plug-ins and adding them to my browser. I currently have ten available for use. They are: eBay, Wikipedia, Google, Amazon, our Library catalogue and journal search, YouTube, Yahoo, Live search and News Corp. Online.

In a nutshell - plug-ins make life easier for us library folk…

Being an IE girl (to the disgust of some…) I found adding the ‘add-ons’ to my browser a little challenging but I got there in the end. Some tried to convince me to use Firefox for this task but naturally I wanted to develop the browser I use most. Inlinesearch is a good add-on tool when searching in IE.

Greetings..

2008-05-01T14:39:00.000+10:00

Hello Universe!

I’m really looking forward to trekkin’ through the ‘23 things program’ with my library colleagues. I’m sure that I’ll acquire some great skills along this journey.

5,4,3,2,1………. Blast off!