Week 6 #15 Web 2.0 Library 2.0 and the future of libraries

The articles I have read on this build on a very inspiring paper I attended at this year's LIANZA conference. Roy Tennant from OCLC which is embracing Library 2.0 talked about the importance of presenting infomation and enabling our customers to source information in ways that they use on the web.
We need to acknowledge and quickly embrace Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 and its successors if we are to remain relevant to our customers. Young librarians have a lot to teach not so tehno savvy librarians. Small and often non-urban based libraries are able to offer access to a wider range of information with library 2.0 but are going to need a big hand up to do this. User education which provides a human front to information is where libraries can continue to grow. I look forward to a wonderful ongoing future for libraries.

Week 6 #14 Getting not so technical with Technorati

Technorati was interesting and built on my knowledge from the previous exercise. The search exercise for learning 2.0 produced no surprises for me. The blogs search came up with the greatest number of hits (6,319) but when used as a phrase "learning 2.0" the results showed entire post (518), and tags only (104). It shows the importance of knowing how and what to search, a skill that reference librarians but not all web users have.
I wasn't at all surprised to see the list under popular blog - everything I have become more familiar with since starting our on the web 2.0 training. Nice to see that Facebook is up for google challenges.

Week 56 #14 Tagging, folksomonies, and social bookmarking in del.icio.us

Tagging is a great concept and one well-used by library customers searching on the web as it means they are no confined to a strict vocabulary and can find all kinds of information. However, uncontrolled tabs do mean you can also miss things. I like the concept of being able to bookmark a webpage and add my own tags. I ended up at the New Zealand foodlovers website - yummy.
It is also interesting to see that libraries are incorporating RSS feeds from their catalogues. Mainly US at this stage, no doubt we will do so too.

Week 5 #11 Librarything

I like librarything and can see why it has wide appeal. It is a great way to see what others who read similar books to me also like. After taking the tour, I signed up and added 5 books to my library, a combination of fiction, travel and favourites from my childhood. One of them I entered manually as it is a New Zealand title and I also wanted to learn how to do it, including adding comments. It's dead easy. Cataloguers are going to be out of a job, but having said that this site does not have a thesaurus and so tags are extremely variable. This is a very American site at this stage but could well change. There are no links to NZ sources.

My librarything catalog is below. I will be back again to Librarything.



http://www.librarything.com/catalog/atramper

Week 5 #10 Rollyo

I have not taken to Rollyo. It is full of really annoying rubbish. It may well appeal to others but not to me. I found each Rollyo I tried ended up linking back to the same Rollyos. Having said that I have added a travel Rollyo to my blog. It was a useful exercise doing this as I learned more about different aspects of blogs. Who knows, I may even use my Rollyo.

Week 5 #10 Image generators

This is much more fun. I have chocolate online and a cappuccino which I will never drink. I have made a glitter picture, which sadly I lost. I will be back to visit the photo album features on Letter James. I liked the Christmas card making generator - give it a go for fun.

http://www.electricdecember.org/02/content/06/present.htm

FD toys has some good poster making functions but look out for all the annoying marketing links as you do them.

Week 4 RSS feeds

This week's learning has been the most challenging so far. I knew what I wanted to do but the instructions were quite complex and I got lost. Thank goodness for my wonderful team member who walked me through the process. It was much easier with her help. I am now linked to some news sites plus a blog for someone I know who is spending 3 months in Tanzania teaching art. I have also added to some other newsfeeds from my colleagues blogs.

http://cats.about.com/
http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss
http://newzealandherald.co.nz/
http://artinafrica.blogspot.com/

Week 3 Flickr

I love Flickr and could easily waste hours exploring everything it has to offer. I will certainly be making more use of this website. I like not only the fantastic range of photos on the site but also the ability to map them. Playing around with the tags bought up some interesting and sometimes odd indexing results but did enable me to drill down to what I was after in most cases. The results of some of my searches are in the photo links below.

I had the pleasure of living in Mauritius some years ago and have attached some photos from Flickr of this beautiful island. I found the advanced search function userful for this. I have purposely found photos of the real Mauritius, not the touristy Mauritius.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/reduit/169917041/ - Grande Gaube beach with the typical casuarina trees shading the beach

http://www.flickr.com/photos/84951145@N00/64836453/ - sugar cane is traditionally planted and harvested by hand.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/laiv/349463427/ Port Louis market, a great place for fresh food delivered daily. Very little of it has ever seen a chemical or a modern agricultural machine.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anupnarayanan/1474266491/ the local supermarket in Quatre Bornes where I shopped for groceries. It hasn't changed a bit!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7500443@N02/434939913/ - a beautiful Hindu temple in Port Louis

The flickr 3rd party tools are something I will return to after my brief look at them. Color Pickr is fun and I found all sorts of photos. I object to the advertising links on this webpage. I had a few problems with montagr.

I enjoy lansdcape photography and after enjoying various SLR cameras for several years have reluctantly put my camera aside. I have purchased a quality digital camera and am delighted with it. It has several SLR features but is much more versatile. I like the ability to view what I have just taken and delete what I don't want. Now that I have got the hang of the software I can now store images in a logical way.
Some already feature on my blog.

I am also following the development of blogs by my team and posting comments.