Here at last!

I have looked forward to researching social networks because so many patrons (and my own teenage son) seem to be obsessed with keeping in touch with their "friends" both old and new. Bebo and Facebook are probably the most-used websites in our library, where once email was the most popular.

I think we have to utilise these sites for our benefit so we are not looked upon as out of touch and boring. Instead of (or as well as?) a library website, we could use Bebo or Facebook etc to share ideas with other libraries, clients, new friends. I particularly liked Rotorua Public Library's Bebo page, it looked colourful and inviting. With a similar set-up, we could inspire one another, share information, solve problems, discuss events. We could market our facilities, promote our services and use it as a publicity tool. I don't think we can have too much self-promotion. Using social-networking to expand our clientele, promote our services and raise our profile is excellent marketing.

Some focusses of our library include Book Groups and genealogy enthusiasts. Patrons could use the site to discuss their book reviews, share thoughts and information with other patrons and groups from other libraries. I can see the younger patrons having a great time doing their own reviews and chatting to other keen library users. These sites give people a "voice" and if they are talking to us or about us or just being with us in a technical way then it would be a great improvement which would keep us up-to-date and COOL which I think would greatly improve our image.

Well, that's it from me and my thoughts but the journey is not over. My thanks to all the Team for your support and encouragement. I hope to re-trace my steps and look into every week's info again so it all really sinks in. It has been mostly fun and definitely enlightening. I really do think I could be a techo hero after all, albeit still a little reluctantly...

Week 11 - Heaven!

Only one more week to go! I am very pumped to get this finished by the deadline. Well, I love a challenge. Week 11 was really interesting. I never realised there were so many free software applications available. I would never have known what to do with them anyway! Now I do and it is a great feeling, that "knowledge is power" thing....

What could we do with Google Docs etc at our library? Well, I think it would be useful for our newsletters for example. We sometimes send an email around asking for items for the coming month's issue or if we see each other we ask face to face. That is the trouble, we all work varying times/days and it would be great to create a Google doc to share our input and edit/update etc. I can see that it would also be good for adding suggestions to our staff meeting agenda. This one's a goer!

Mashups Work For Me!

I could not quite believe I had been successful doing mashups because it did not seem too difficult to create the map. It is probably because of my relunctance, or more likely, lack of confidence that made me doubt that I had done the right thing.

With determination, I set out to do what I had initially intended and that was to create a jigsaw puzzle from a photo on my desktop. I then saved the jigsaw to the desktop and uploaded on to my blog from there. I must have started it with a clear head and no stress because it worked for me this time! Woo-hoo, I am so chuffed at this moment!!!

I have never had the skills before to create some really good designs for displays but I am feeling very confident that I will be able to contribute in a new way in the future.

Searching My Oyster

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

I am not sure I have completed what is called a mashup; it did not seem to be as difficult as I expected. I went in to the map site at BigHugeLabs.com and ticked off all the places in the world where I have been and voila there it was and it was easy to upload it on to my blog. I was not convinced I had done the right thing so I tried to turn a photo on my desktop into a jigsaw puzzle but it would not let me retrieve the picture from my desktop, saying it was not there! (YES it WAS there, I was just looking at it, fume!!!!)

Podcast Possibilities (OR If I had more time...)

In our ideal library world the possiblities for using this kind of technology are many. For example, podcasting could be useful for recording our Book Group discussions - our patrons hate missing them and would enjoy catching up if they were available as a podcast. I can see our keener library patrons (probably our techno-savvy younger/teen readers) doing book-reviews. I could also see us recording special events, recording monthly newsletters, creating training podcasts . I wonder how easy it is to do. It looks like it should be fairly straight forward...

Relief at week 8!

After week 7, I have been relieved to discover social searching etc at a much easier pace. I enjoyed these particular websites. I even found an answer to a question I was thinking of asking which someone had posted a couple of hours prior to my searching and it had been answered already. Amazing. I think "slamming the boards" is a great idea, one that will put librarians' knowledge to the test. I am not sure many patrons here would be inclined to participate in reviewing our services/rating our collection etc online as the vast majority of our computer users are more into Bebo but hey, perhaps it is something for the near future. Our problem, as always, is lack of time but also now we are very short-staffed. That is a wicked combo.....

I loved the Taste website and have registered and can't wait to browse more at home, yum!!

Del.icio.us, I'm hungry for more...

Deli.cio.us - large selection of bookmarked sites useful for doing research to be shared and searched by a larger audience - evaluated by professional librarians. Things bookmarked will then not be lost but can be shared and added to continually for research and accessible from anywhere. Wow.

Learning about this site put a few things into place for me! I always wondered how sites like YourTutor and AskNow could deliver answers to students in a short time (my teenage son uses AskNow and YourTutor for help with HSC Legal Studies etc.) and of course they find relevant websites and online resources quickly using the bookmarked sites. That is so useful to us in the library with a lot of the work already done for us. Example - AskNow's deli.cio.us webpage
http://del.icio.us/usefulresources
Okay, phew, what's next? (Is it me or is this the never-ending week?!!!)