youtube and video

Library thing

This is a widget:  See above.
I think that actually worked!

I have been to Library thing before, but couldn't see any particular use for me.  I am not interested in cataloguing all my books - I enjoy cataloguing, but really! and I do  have an awful LOT of books.  That is really the only reason I have a house.  What I have attempted to do in Library thing is to create (always more fun) a core library of the "if you were stuck on a desert island and could only take a handful of books with you which ones would you choose?" variety.  I don't actually own all these books, and certainly not these editions (my copies are much older and tattier- something I consider a mark of great respect for a book). 

I also have little interest in all the sharing and social aspect of web 2.0.  I am not a very sharing person.  Some aspects of social networking can be useful for example in reader advisory services, those websites which list books others have also listed who have visited the book you are visiting are very useful.  However I an more of the voyeur than the exhibitionist and much prefer to view these sites that to contribute to them.  Call me selfish... Call me irresponsible... (hm..., isn't that a song?)

Also I had a spot of bother in that I had entered 5 books in to my library, but can only see 4 of them in this view.  I did change the order to alphabetical and also set the parameters to 5 books.  Unfortunately the Harry Potter series dropped off the end.  I felt it added a little much needed levity to the collection, which is all a bit dark with out it.   

So Library thing visited - check
account created - check
library created - check (but could stand to be perfected)
And I have commented on blogs before doing the widget thing - check

XXX
Harry

delicious

I feel a bit foggy what with delicious and clouds,  and creating g mail accounts.  I feel a bit confused with the plethora of user names, passwords and URLs...

On the positive side I found a very interesting site on delicious and I believe I may have tagged it, so hopefully will be able to find it again when I move to another computer terminal.  It is a list of the "100 best science fiction and fantasy novels".  Not sure how this is determined, but presumably the opinion of the "author"  I put this in inverted comma's as by this logic I am an author too as is every pimply kid with a keyboard who manages to put something, however literate or otherwise on twitter.  This is a scary thought - most particularly the idea of being an author myself!  However I found the list  very interesting and am keen to get back to it later.  It contains many old friends who actually live on my bookshelf and also a bunch I have never met - and I am salivating.

I strangely found delicious more difficult to use than I remember, possibly because of the need to create a yahoo account and all the guff that went with that.  I'm really not keen on the conditions.  I normally would print out any contract and go through it with a fine tooth comb.  It all seems a little different on computers - and a bit scary.

I am of course aware of the irony of being a troglodyte who enjoys sci fi!

The other thought I have is that it is amazing that libraries manage to at the same time be so fascinating and also so dry and boring.  I absolutely love working in libraries.  I love books and all the other resources we lend.  I love dealing with the general public an the things that we do such as story time and delivering to home bound borrowers.  And yet I often find studying things to do with libraries deadly dull.  This is fascinating to me because in the past my studies have led to jobs because I was interested in the subject and now I find the reverse is true.  I study things about libraries because I love working in libraries, but find the studies quite dull (with some bright highlights).  As a learning junkie I find this absolutely weird!

XXX
Harry

wikis

Well I'm a bit of a fan of wikis too (as well as RSS feeds).  And rather excitingly (well for me anyway as a non techno person) I have created a RSS feed to one of the wikis that was suggestedi.e. the library best practice one, and actually done it in my work e mail - so now I am officially using web 2.0 technology in my work capacity!  

Wikis, How can we use them?  Well I see them as a bit like the documents we have on the common drive e.g. the way we all add in our stats.  Of course having them on the common drive works, so we wouldn't need to do that, but it is really more of a parallel for me.  One way we could actually use wikis is on our web page where we put book reviews.  We could actually open that up to the general public and allow them to put book reviews in as well so that we are not limited by library staff selections and views.... Maybe.  Also not sure how that would be done technically.

I'm actually more of a user of wikis rather than a contributor.  I do actually like and use wikipaedia  - I actually find it a lot more reliable that I would expect and is often a good initial source of information.

As a private person I do use the net for information.  Being old fashioned I g to books first but if I can't find a book on the subject or more often if I need recent information or something highly specific I find the net quite useful and will often look at wikipaedia in the first instance.  I also look for websites which are .net or .org rather than .com.  I especially like government websites and websites of non government organisations.  - a bit off topic there...

By the way I looked at wookipedia as well at the Twilight saga one and also the readers advisory one.

Am posting now as I have to go off and do something, so a bit hurried this post.
XXX
Harry

RSS feeds

I actually think that RSS feeds are one of the aspects of web 2.0 which have the most direct application to libraries.  I have noticed this since doing the feeds and plan to actually subscribe to some in my normal working role.   Not sure which yet.  I actually subscribed to one before I noticed that there was a cost involved and quickly un subscribed again.  This is one of the things about the net which I am not so comfortable with.

I think I will discover the feeds I want as I trawl through the net looking for things for my work, although I don't tend to surf so much as search the net. 

The other thing that I have discovered is that not all interesting sites have feeds and I have actually ended up putting a lot more sites in my favorites to go back and look at.  So now I have to figure out a way to manage my favorites file!  Learning never ends

So what have I subscribed to you ask?  I have had a look at a few of my hobby's and subscribed to those as well as to the training one and some of the sites of my fellow students (of web 2.0).  I am not subscribing to all the blogs, just the ones I am particularly interested in as I am going to eventually look through all of the blogs of the participants. I have also included a couple of library sites including state library and the movember site of one of my colleagues.  I had a bit of a mental blank when looking for feeds - as usually happens. 

I must confess to finding other library blogs a bit dry.  I think the best example I have  seen so far is the book club site from my fellow students blogs - so onya to you :)

XXX
Harry

Image of the kids space station from our school holidays at Altone Library

Hello all
Well, with much help this image has been added to my blog. 

Over the last school holidays, we got the kids to make space ships, which we put in to this "space station".  Some of these space ships were very creative and this is the overall shot.

In the mean time I have learned everything from how to point an shoot a digital camera (I had done that before - honest), to how to upload the image on to the computer to adding the image on to the blog!  I missed some really obvious steps and needed help to get through them - thanks to those involved - you know who you are. 

So what is the use of this technology in the library system?  Well we can put photos of events and show our libraries on our blogs so that people can see what they look like.  We can also share with other libraries.  I once saw fabulous photos of a library returns chute which was designed to look like Dr Who's Tardis.  I forget which school had this, but the woodwork kids had actually made it. 

On the dark side, I have concerns re the taking of photos in libraries in terms of privacy of members (and of staff!).   We need to ensure that we comply with guidelines requiring written permission from anyone in photo's.

Technology exists.  It is neither a force for good or for evil, but can be used for either (or for both).  It is up to us how we use it.

On another note.  This was supposed to take about an hour to accomplish.  It has taken me half a day and I have a headache again (as I usually do when trying to get the computer to do things which I know it can do, I just don't know how.  Hopefully it will all start becoming a little easier - which is one of the objectives of this exercise.  In fact that is already happening.  Ironically I have been helping other people so sort out how to do things on their computer, so am becoming a participatory member in this community of computer users and not just a student (although I think I will always have the student role).

XXX
Harry

Troubles with technology 2

Whoops - just lost my blog.  Is there a save button on this thing?  I was just trying to spellcheck what I had written and it disappeared and froze.  I am going to forge on in the hope that it is somewhere in Blog purgatory waiting to be reborn as the first blog.

Wow - saved that bit - so hopefully won't loose my blog again.  It is soooo boring to redo something you have already done! 

Now I also need to find out if there is a word counter on this thing...Nope - doesn't look like it.  Back to spellcheck.  Lets see if I can work that again without loosing everything... Yup that worked. Ah... now the first blog has been retrieved.

Does anyone else out there relate to technology in this way?

XXX
Harry