Social networking

Ok, so we could all use some more friends, but I must admit now to a bit of site overload.

How many different sorts of sites can a library keep up given limited time for staff to spend on these tasks?

And which is the most effective tool to spread publicity? Say if you put out an online email opt-in newsletter? And one on paper. Then this same content could be added to the library blog as well.

So as I said how many ways should we spread ourselves out the on the web?
We have to decide which is the best way to share digital resources?
And which is the best way to allow client reviews of books and other interactions?

Are there any privacy concerns of putting information out there even from a corporate point of view? What should you make sure you don't say online? It looks safe enough for Libraries to share on an impersonal library social networking site whereas many library staff would not share their own personal details on Facebook or anywhere else online. I remember being shocked once googling my own name (as you do) and finding that my home phone number popped up from a school online newsletter.

Also there is that little problem that some library filters filter out access to social networking sites from its staff and public internet computers...

Sorry to confused ....the main keywords here are myriad choices and time poor... I'm very open to the best way to embrace new technology but which one? I'm open to comments on this one... Come on, convince me with your preferences!

I know that Gen Y can be socialising with friends and interacting on their Iphone on the internet at the same time, sharing photos and videos and games on them with their friends around the restaurant table.

Whereas I am a bit zen in that being in the moment sense and a bit time poor at work due to real life enquiries from the public and public on the phone. The reference enquiry can be 'virtual' or 'in person' but during that time that one person is the most important person to be listening to and finding the information for. I cannot have a cuppa with one friend and be texting another at the same time. I must admit to being the sort of person who often deliberately leaves the mobile phone at home. :-))

Wikis

After the video explanation I thought yes wikis are useful for collaboration when you cannot physically meet. Email traffic with "reply all" is the current norm but can become a bit tedious if there is a lot to discuss.

I imagine wikis very work well with factual entries rather than opinions.

Question 1. Are wiki entries trackable or given the same legal staus as emails?
Question 2. Do organisations allow their staff to use wikis as an alternative to email?
Question 3. How do you ensure that content that you want to stay 'as is' is not edited away by someone else?

I would be happy to hear your answers to these.

After looking at the wikis, I chose to bookmark Library Success and Book Lovers and Blogging Libraries Wikis for a closer look later.

Say if a librarian was interested in finding out what works and doesn't work with layout floor plan when a library is in a shopping centre, I guess that a wiki of librarians would be very helpful to garner feedback on their own experiences with layout successes and failures. This might forestall some otherwise unforeseen problems.

Informal friendly professional sharing is always welcome, and tapping into a large wiki community may be very helpful when needing advice.

Blogging

Hmm, so who reads other people's blogs?
And more specifically, now that there are so many bloggers, how do you find blogs that would interest you?
This is where a specialist search engine such as technorati comes in.

I know google also have an advanced blog search, but using technorati I quickly came across a blog of interest to me as an artist. After submitting the rather general term 'art', technorati suggested I try the Lifestyle channel tab in the top bar for better results.
Using the keyword 'artist' I came across a blog called booooooom which serves up a daily dose of creativity. (I guess the 7 Os are for 7 days a week?)

I also found lines and colors, a blog about drawing, sketching, painting, comics, cartoons, webcomics, illustration, digital art, concept art, gallery art, artist tools and techniques, motion graphics, animation, sci-fi and fantasy illustration, paleo art, storyboards, matte painting, and 3d graphics.

Using the term 'digital painting', I then found at the top of the results list a bar of suggested tags that others use, and zeroed in on 'Photoshop painting'. The listed included videos about digital painting as well as blogs. The "Authority" rating helped sort out the more professional blogs, which led me to graphicmania's blog, featuring stunning digital paintings and links to walkthrough tutorials and free resources for digital artists.

Tip: Bookmark your discoveries, or subscribe to the blog, as the internet is truly a huge place to navigate, and it took a while to find these gems.


At this stage my teenagers are dancing around behind the computer desk in a vain effort to attract attention back onto them, so it must be time to sign off and cook.

While I think a library blog would be useful, and attract a lot of library customers wanting to keep up with library offerings, I wonder would a personal blog suit me for long. As a mother I suspect I'm not even going to be a Twitterer. ;-))

Past and present - computers, internet, libraries

Ok, a little reminescing:

• Typing up each catalogue entry according to a careful format and layout
• Filing catalogue cards above the rod for someone else to doublecheck before the drawer is put back into the card catalogue
  

• First job as a librarian
• Having no computer on my desk, just the Dewey numbers in my brain and the catalogue folders of computer printout paper updated each month
• Slideshows were produced by taping a cassette with music and commentary, making own slides, and feeding them into a circular dispenser on top of a carousel slide projector.
  

• Computers were for the circulation staff and the program was verry simple - little more than a flashing cursor and a blank screen to which you would type in data
  
• Book orders written up in carbon paper order books
  
• The booksellers showed you boxes of books in the back room or even better took you to the warehouse and out to lunch as well.
  

• Photocopiers arrive and out goes the old inky press
  

• Son longs for a home computer
• We discover the Internet
  
• We get one, 2, 3, laptop

• Library catalogue online
• Librarians use computers to fetch online content as well as books
• Learn how to write a website and publish it to the internet
• Digital cameras and scanners expand ways to use photos
• Computers make library tasks easier, such as copy cataloguing and ordering books online
  

• Web 2.0 expands the things individuals can share online
  
• Libraries catch on, using scanning and publishing tools to share via the official library blog their local studies or genealogy research information, historical photos, online library newsletters, book reviews, and publicity for coming events
• Library sites allow customers to add content such as feedback, book reviews, and comments on what they like about the library
• Displays and presentations can be recorded for viewing on the internet
• Staff can be trained using online training presentations and produce their own slideshows or film to share the same way

See how far we've come since the 70s?
And most of it in the last 10 years.
Thankyou computers and internet!
I miss the thrill of handling the books before buying them though....even the smell of the new paper ... an online bookseller's catalogue is not quite the same.

Image uploading

I'ts easy to share your images on blogs and photo sharing sites. But what about a little dabble in online business?

It's possible to sell your photos and art online, by uploading it to sites like deviantart, cafepress, Redbubble and zazzle. Your art can be sold as prints or appear on greeting cards, Tshirts, mugs, stickers, magnets, buttons, mousepads, aprons, bags, caps and even US stamps.

The site owners collect the money, print the product and mail it out to customers anywhere in the world, and then send you an agreed percentage of the sale price as your earnings using money services such as Paypal.

Instead of trying to sell locally and make a living, with the help of these sites anyone online becomes your potential customer. You also have a lot of fun being part of an online community of artists who can comment, follow, favourite your work, and share the joys of being an artist.

That really good photo you took with your digital camera could end up making you money. Worth a try....

Web 2.0

So, what is this Web 2.0?
A fancy new term for the latest internet fad?
Well, yes and no....like all terms the definition has grown from practical usage.

My understanding is that it is web-based program sites that allow anyone to interact with others over the internet. You don't have to buy or download the program for the delicious link sharing site, and flickr similarly allows you to share photos quickly and easily with others. You can upload to the site, and view what others have contributed and then add your comments to their contributions, and save your favourites to a place where you can view them again later.

So, in essence, it provides web-based social networking and sharing for members and viewers of those sites, with viewing privacy/permissions set by the authors of the content or by the moderators of the site.

The purpose of the site may be dating or informal training, advertising coming events for an organisation or sharing history and photos. It may be sharing of films or Powerpoint slideshows or photos or opinions. You may find that the comments shared do not agree and sometimes have to be deleted as inflammatory, but in essence it is democracy at work.


I found another coverage of 2.0 at Wikipedia (another instance of user - supplied shared information) and at http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html which makes the points
that Web 2.0 began as a vague term about web-based applications but has become defined in practice also by

• web based software applications all can use without needing to be an IT guru eg. Javascript
  
• democracy
• all can view for free, uploaders need to register but usually it is still free of charges
  
• people can describe and find content using tags which can be searched for by the users interested in a subject, much as they can google (try looking for library on Youtube)
  
• sites can offer business options such as printing your photos in a variety of formats or selling them to others
  

If you have heard of and tried using googlemaps, then you will have used an excellent example of Web 2.0 in action. You can use the site to create your own maps to advertise your business or create tourist information with uploaded photos of your travels.

Tip 1. : when faced with slow download speed (blame the teenagers who have used up our broadband for the month) I opted to see the text version(look for the icon under the film window) of Stephen Fry's explanation of web 2.0
Of course, http://www.videojug.com/ the site this film is on, is itself a web 2.0 site like Youtube in that anyone can upload short films to explain anything from 'how to make a lemon tart' to 'what is respiratory failure'.

Tip 2. : It took me a while to find out how to add hyperlinks to this blog, but if you look to the top of the window when typing a post, you will see the icon to the right of the text colouring option. Just highlight the words you want to add a link to, then click on the link icon, and a new pop-up window will allow you to add the website address.

Tip3. : When adding text to your blog, the icons at the top of the creation window also contain options which allow you to add images, video and very importantly, spellcheck before you publish your post.

Tip 4 : Edit means just that, and if you open your blog in a new window, you can view and proofread the result and then change, fix typos, add more words, or even hit delete post!

Sharing a photo

It's great to be able to share photos on email.
I remember the first photos people sent me tended to be huge, and took forever to download. In one I could see every fleck on the baby's nappy!

An easy way to share photos with friends and family, colleagues or even the whole internet world is to use a photosharing site such as flickr.com

When our new library was about to open, I used this site to share a sneak peek with colleagues.
I can share family photos privately with other family members who join this site.
I can share an interesting fantasy holiday location photo with the world.

The first 200 photos are free with a standard membership, but you can upload more for $2 a month.

It's worth checking this site out if you like sharing photos but don't want to have fiddle with them to resize them for email.

Here's a recent snap which I took of our new library to give you an idea of what you can find about libraries on this site.

There are library photo sharing groups on the site worth a look.

Why not try looking up your town and see what you can find?

You can also upload photos and film to this blog, as I have done above.

Linking in for lifelong learning

So many websites, so little time!
Getting around the internet can be a case of information overload.
Remembering where you have been can lead to a swagload of bookmarks which are only stored on one computer.

Thanks to a SLQ Social Bookmarks training course in Gladstone last year, I was introduced to a tool that has come in very handy for me as a librarian. -http ://delicious.com/ - a site which will store my bookmarks online so that I can access them from home or work or any other computer as needed.

Any research I do can be linked to from there, and the useful links I gather can also be shared with others.
If you would like to check my links, try this link http://delicious.com/goannagoanna

Never keen to have my brain stagnate, I am now embarking on an online training package Licence 2 Test Drive which is great for librarians to upgrade their skills in their own time and at their own pace. Great idea, SLQ!