#20 The last hurrah!

It has certainly been a fascinating journey of discovery. Just looking at all the listings in the Web 2.0 Awards is mind boggling. I decided to compare Microsoft's Live Search maps and Google maps and found Google maps much better. I don't know if I was doing something wrong, but I could not get a map for any Australian addresses in Live Search. I find the constant competetiveness of these 2 companies fascinating - each trying to break into the other's market (eg Google docs to compete with Microsoft Office products and Live Search to compete with Google search).

Thanks for the journey. But just a suggestion for the future - a few more hints on how to navigate and use some of these websites would have been extremely useful.

#19 Flowcharts and Mind Maps

I was very excited about the possibility of doing flow charts for various library procedures. I write up a lot of procedures and thought that a flow chart might make the procedure clearer to follow. I decided to register with Flowchart.com. However, when it came time to use it I found it extremely difficult. I couldn't work out how to navigate my way around it. I managed to add some wording to one of the bubbles, but couldn't get rid of the wording already there. And I couldn't find any instructions. After several frustrating attempts I gave it away and decided to try Gliffy.com. Once again I struck problems as I was unable to open the page to register. All I got was a blank page. Thinking it might be our network I tried on a stand alone PC and still could not get the 'registering' page to open. So I moved on to mind maps - and gave Bubble a go. This was certainly much easier to use, but was really just a forum to clarify my thoughts on a procedure rather than helpful in actually setting up a procedure.

#18 Letterpop

I have created a 3 page newsletter on our travels in the USA so far, and even uploaded some pictures, but can't work out how I can publish this on my blog - is there a way to do this? It seems that you can either keep it private and create a directory of people to e-mail the newsletter to, or you can make it public for the whole world to see.

I can see the usefulness of Letterpop for our library. It would be a good way of keeping patrons informed of what is going on in the library and we could make it look interesting with photos, etc.. However, it would be good to be able to publish it on our intranet page.

#17 E-books

Isn't the internet fantastic - here I am in sunny Seattle (whilst all of you are freezing in Melbourne) and doing my homework on e-books.

Project Gutenberg looks very interesting and I have no qualms about accessing the full text of books online provided there are no copyright issues. I had a look at the library of Dr Widger and found the books of John Galsworthy, including the Forsyte Saga, but I'm not sure if reading books online suits me (I prefer to sit on the couch with my feet up or maybe in bed at the end of the day). I read about Project Gutenberg and how it favours plain text because of its longevity (text is available on all computers and text is insurance against future obsolesence).
I also had a look at World Public Library, but it required a membership to access the full text - though at a modest price of $8.95 per year.

The main winners of e-books would be academic libraries - instead of having to queue for limited copies of set texts, students could read the texts on line. I had a look at what Springer have to offer, and they can provide unlimited access, archiving rights, book level chapter searches, etc. However - price is by negotiation! There may be opportunities for e-books in our library, if certain texts are set as reading for those in training.

#16 YouTube

I am not unfamiliar with YouTube as family members will often upload their videos to YouTube and this is better than e-mailing large files to everyone. However, I am not convinced that it can play a large part in our library community. I cannot see the advantage of uploading a video to YouTube over just placing it on the library website. This is what we have done with a marketing video of the library - and those interested in seeing it can go to the library's webpage rather than trying to find it on YouTube. I can see that there could be advantages of having the sessions of a conference, for example, placed on YouTube, where there is no permanent website.

I certainly enjoyed "Introducing the book" - it was very funny and relevant as the monk moves from scroll to book. Just like the problems we have all had moving from printed material to electronic material.

There is probably lots of similar material on YouTube but I would never have the time to find it!

#15 Podcasts

I've heard a lot about podcasting but never had the time to explore them, particularly as I don't have an mp3 player. I can see lots of useful applications for podcasting in the library environment - particularly public libraries where you could have podcasts of film reviews, book reviews, cooking shows, etc. They would be most useful on an mp3 player as you could listen to them whilst driving, sitting in the train, or even whilst preparing the dinner!

I added a few podcasts to my Google Reader - some film reviews and some walking tours of Melbourne from the ABC. The film reviews worked fine, but I could not get the walking tours to play. I 'googled' for some podcasts of book reviews and selected a couple - one from Curtin University and the other called 'Nancy Pearl book reviews'. Again I could not get the Curtin University podcast to play but had no trouble with the Nancy Pearl podcasts.

#14 Rollyo

Rollyo seems to be a pretty good tool by allowing searching across a number of web sites - how many times have I had to visit a number of different web sites repeating a search in order to find information. My only criticism is that the search function is very limited - by default, Rollyo searches for any of the words typed in the search box. To limit to a phrase it is necessary to add quotation marks around the words. But beyond that, there is no ability to add proximity limiters, Boulean searching, etc.

I also thought I would try using Rollyo as a substitute federated search engine. I added a number of different library catalogue URLs - such as the AIC library catalogue, the Victoria Police library catalogue, and the EMA library catalogue. But when I searched for a subject, it did not search the catalogues, only the parent website. What a disappointment!

#13 Wikis

I can see that wikis are a great way to get feedback and input on issues that affect the library community. For example, library policies could be put into a wiki and then patrons could be asked to add their comments on each policy before a final policy is endorsed. It would also be a great way for the library staff to edit library policies, procedures, etc. in the one place and staff could see what comments other staff have made.

I can also see a great use for it with getting feedback on what books the library should purchase. Library staff could post details of new books with links to reviews or other information about the book. And library patrons could also post suggested purchases.

But how do we go about creating a wiki? - do we need particular software? - I couldn't find any information on this in our instructions for this activity.

#12 Delicious

Due to our network constraints I was unable to load the application to our IE toolbar, so was unable to complete this task. I have done a bit of reading about Delicious and talked to some IT savvy younger people about it, but I am not sure that it has relevance to my library world. As I mainly search the internet for reports, agencies, etc. the relevance of being able to see how many other people have bookmarked a particular page or what tags they have given it seem irrelevant. I suppose if I was looking for more general information, such as 'how to sew', French recipes or accommodation in a particular country, then these attributes might be useful. But just because a website is visited many times doesn't necessarily mean that it is a good website!

I have also been thinking about the ability to add a whole number of tags to a bookmarked page, rather than just bookmark it to a particular folder. This has some use - but if I find a website that covers several topics, then I just bookmark it to several folders so that I can find it under whatever subject folders I have.

I have some other queries about its usefulness, but until I can see how it operates I will hold my comments. However, I can see its usefulness when travelling or using other people's computers in being able to access one's favourites.

#11 iGoogle

I have had fun setting up my iGoogle page - I deleted some of the default features and added others. I now have WorldCat search, Google docs, Google books, Google Reader, Google Maps (showing Fairhaven as the default map), World Clocks (where I have added the time in Seattle and California where my 2 sons live) and World weather (where I have added the weather for Seattle and Santa Clara in California), and ABC news. I dragged some of the gadgets around to have the important stuff at the top. It is certainly easy to use once you get the hang of it.

It could be useful for a library application as I could have links to our docs, RSS feeds, etc all in the one place. However, I'm not sure about its usefulness to the library in general, unless an iGoogle page could be set up so that all users logged in to our network could access it to look at the latest feeds, WorldCat search, etc.

Would I like to work at Google? - well, I have a son who works for Google and it is a great place to work - apart from a wonderful work environment they have excellent free meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner and not just a small selection of food, but a whole range of cuisine from steaks to vegetarian to Mexican to Asian, etc. At lunch time you can sit outside and enjoy the beautiful gardens and employees can bring the family too (even for dinner) - check out the photo below of me and the grandchildren playing at one of the outdoor eating areas at Google. Note the colours of the umbrellas - the Google colours! Also, free snacks and drinks are freely available around the offices. As Google is now a series of building complexes, bicycles are provided free to cycle from one building to the next. It seems to be a great place to work - but would they ever need a librarian?

#10 Google Book Search

This is a very ambitious program from Google and I'm not sure how I feel about it. For the obvious reason of copyright, there is very little that is available full text. Most of the current books had either No preview available or Snippet view (which gave a bit of a summary and maybe table of contents). I did find some books that had Limited preview, which consisted of scanned pages of the book, with certain pages not included. The only book I could think of to find that had Full view was Hamlet, by Shakespeare.


I don't think that I would choose Google Book Search as the first port of call when looking for a book - I would use Libraries Australia or Library of Congress or the British Library.

#9 I love Google maps

I think that Google maps is one of the best free services Google offer. It is great when planning a trip overseas - you can type in the location of hotels, etc. to find out if it is near a highway, close to the attractions, public transport, etc. And if you plan ahead, you can print out directions on how to get to the airport, train station, your accommodation, etc.

I am looking forward to the virtual street tour that Google are trialling - you could then see exactly what the street is like where you might be staying. How often does the reality of the hotel not match the description!

I have added an aerial shot of Fairhaven which I mentioned earlier in my blog. The only think I can't seem to do is get rid of the text box. I went to 'Customise and preview embedded map' and got rid of the text, but it still appears on my page - any suggestions?

#8 Google Docs

I like the idea behind Google Docs, but I am finding it frustrating to use - maybe because of the slowness of our network. I was unable to load a power point presentation - it just kept freezing and I had to use Ctrl Alt Delte to close it down. In the end I was able to get 1 slide from the presentation loaded, but the loading of the rest just took too long and I had to exit the program. I also had problems with one of my Excel spreadsheets - I could only get one page to load with no options to look at the other sheets. This spreadsheet had coloured cells, so maybe this was causing a problem - I had no problem with a simpler spreadsheet.

In general, the idea of being able to share documents with people who are not on the same network is an excellent idea. It is not particularly useful for our internal use as we all have access to documents on the network. But it could be useful for network groups we belong to, as a place to post minutes of meetings, etc.

The file size for word documents is also limiting. I had hoped to be able to upload a family history document to Google Docs, and this could then be viewed by family members overseas. However, the document is large as it includes pictures, and the file limit of 500kb is too small for this sort of thing.

Having now written this, I am trying to find if I can post it straight to my blog.

Success! - I posted it successfully - though without the information in our instruction sheet that it could be posted straight to a blog I would not have know about this feature. And I had to search the help menu to find out how to do it - which is not straightforward or intuitive.

#7 Facebook

I had a look at Facebook but have no interest in registering and so did not complete any of the tasks. Because of this it was very difficult to judge Facebook, but from what I have read it does not appear that it would be suitable for our library. I think that MySpace would be a more useful networking tool.

#6 MySpace

I can see some benefits of MySpace for special libraries, but it appears to be more useful for Public Libraries, which are using it for connecting to the youth in their area. Some of the topics I saw covered were upcoming music events, fashion events, comments on books, etc. The most useful appeared to be the UCF's Ask a Librarian, which had a Popular Resources area with links to their databases and other useful resources. I also thought that the Forums area could be good for library networks (such as ViGLA) where comments on topics could be posted and discussed.

#5 RSS feeds

I have experimented with RSS feeds before and believe they would be a good way to keep library users informed about new items of interest. Unfortunately not very many government related website that we use (such as the UK Home Office) seem to have RSS feeds. I also think that one could become overwhelmed with information resulting from the feeds.

I used Google reader and like the way you can create subject folders for the various RSS feeds. I couldn't find out how to easily add an RSS feed from a website I have just visited to my Reader account. I just copied the URL and then logged in to Google Reader and pasted it in. But is there an easier way? - this way seemed a bit cumbersome.

#4 LibraryThing

I have added a list of 5 books on criminology which the library has recently purchased. I am hoping that this might be a way of getting feedback on books that the library could purchase.

#3 Image generator

This task wasa bit tricky as there were no instructions on what to do - I think it was assumed that people who use image generators are internet savvy. I generated this image using Image Chef: http://www.imagechef.com/ - it is not a very exciting image but expresses my feelings for having completed the task.

# 2 Flickr

This would have been a great website to have access to when travelling through Europe in 1972 for 9 months. At that time we used slide film and then sent them back to Australia for processing and forwarding to an Australian address. We never got to see our photos for about a year. If doing the trip today, we could have just uploaded our photos to Flickr and not worried about losing them.

I was cruising around Flickr, wondering what sort of photos to search for, and decided I would look for photos of Fairhaven in Victoria where we spend our summer holidays. I came across a whole heap of photos that were taken by our neighbour's children and have included one which is in memory of their grandfather and which is the path we take to the beach.

Here is a link to other photos of Fairhaven from Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cowgrrl/sets/1402597/

#1 posting a blog

Although I am familiar with reading blogs I have not created one myself until now. My biggest problem is knowing what to call it, so I have been very unimaginative with the name of my blog.

I have had problems viewing some of the video clips as our network is very slow. I also thought that the slide show "Finding time to learn about emerging technologies" was a good example of how not to create a slide show - too many images/graphics, lack of content and as a result it too long to load each slide. Does anyone agree?