Google docs

Google docs is like using word collaboratively.
Working on a library brochure or newsletter together would save a lot of email drafts going back and forward.
I typed up a document on the site and sent a sharing link to the course trainers.
They can then add comments and so on.
This is good for teamwork especially when there is not time to meet and librarians are working across large amalgamated council areas.
There is a size limit on files uploaded eg.

Presentations

• Presentations in both .ppt and .pps file formats from your local computer can be up to 10MB in size or 200 slides.
• By entering the URL of a file on the Web, you can upload presentations up to 2MB.
• By emailing in your files, you can upload presentations up to 500K.
• You have a combined limit of 5000 documents and presentations and 5000 images.

So my dad's 70 Mb Powerpoint presentation cannot be uploaded to Googledocs.
So I'm going to take another look as slideshare:
Check out some popular content at http://www.slideshare.net/most-favorited.

You can upload your own presentations and documents. SlideShare hosts them for free. You can make it private or make it public and get lots of traffic.
Yes, it uploaded my powerpoint about my dad! I can share this or further develop it using uploaded mp3 Music as a background, to make a slidecast. I think I'll stick with no music for now.
So, how to share a Powerpoint presentation - as I'm fairly new at all this, I use one of slideshare's own explanations to learn how. http://www.slideshare.net/dswaters/how-to-share-a-powerpoint-presentation-using-slideshare
Now to sit back and learn.
Hmm, i made an animation some years ago, that I'd love to add music to - that will be my next learning experience.
PS. And my dad? Well I'll post the link as soon as slideshare has processed it for public viewing.
PPS. And here's the link all ready to view - how quick was that?http://www.slideshare.net/goannagoanna08/peter-stephenson-artist-and-illustrator-2160732

File conversion and online tools

Recently I made a slideshow for my father's 80th birthday, celebrating his life as an artist working for the Courier Mail in the days when press artists did page composition, retouched photos and maps, did pen and ink illustration and colour illustrations for the cover of the Sunday Mail colour magazine. This was just before the days of digital photography and Photoshop. My dad retired as computers began to make inroads into the work of a commercial artist.

Anyway, on the day of the party, my brother brought his laptop along, but he had a different program for slideshows, he uses Ubuntu software as an alternative to Microsoft. My slideshow wouldn't work on the day.

Uploading it to Google Docs also seems to need a change of format, so I apply my SLQ Licence 2 Testdrive part B lesson one - I use Zamzar, an online tool to change a file format. It's a big file, but Zamzar will take up to a 1Gb file so stay tuned for the result, which will be emailed to me - stay tuned.
PS. I'm doing this at nearly midnight, showing how people can learn with this sort of online training, at their own pace, and in the timeslot that suits them best.
PPS.

Success- I had a 79 MbPowerpoint presentation changed from pptx to ppt promptly and accurately. The zamzar site only stores and allows downloading/sharing of the file for 24 hours, so you need to pay for their advanced service, but for what I want it is an excellent service. McAfee siteadviser doesn't like the popup ads but I can live with them just fine.

October 7, 2009 12:41 AM

Library Thing

LibraryThing sounds interesting but it would take me ages to add all the books in my house, and I wonder what real use it would be in the long run.
Would it be proof for insurance purposes in the event that my house burnt down??
Could I use it as a sort of informal list of rare or out of print books I have that others might like to buy?
Can anyone tell me what they use this site for?

delicious links

Well, this final lesson of the Licence 2 Test Drive series is the most familiar to me, having done a course in social bookmarking through OPAL a year ago.

1. The immediate advantage came from the fact I could access my bookmarks on any computer. At work and home I use several different computers and it would take ages to save the same set of favourite and useful sites on all of them.
2. The second advantage came when I was doing research for library policy and procedures, and on workplace health and safety in libraries. I could store the links on my delicious account, and share these with colleagues by directing them to my bookmarking page. If you click on the title of this blog post, "delicious links", you will find the link to my delicious bookmarks embedded in it.
   
3. The tags are a handy way of organising the growing list of sites bookmarked
4. Others can benefit from my research which saves them time
5. Rather than printing out a list of links, or several copies of the articles found, the others who would like to read these researched articles can do so by following the bookmarked links
6. I can benefit from the links saved on similar subjects by others. When following the links and seeing what others have bookmarked, I came across a link to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and this reminded me that having seen the recent exhibition from the Met at the Qld Art Gallery, I should add this link to my own bookmarks, which is quickly and easily done.
7. The ability to add a button to my Firefox page means I can quickly add bookmarks from my internet browser as I discover new sites.

RSS feeds yay

RSS feeds? Now this I can see an immediate use for. When I think of all the sites I bookmark and regularly visit, this takes up a lot of time to check them all.

If I can add the RSS feeds to my google homepage or to my Gmail, then I need only check them to find recent updates that I may then choose to read or ignore. In fact, I've decided to add my gmail inbox to my google homepage. I also ask for google alerts from blogs or other places when researching a topic, and google sends me the results.

It's like having a personal research secretary collect new information in my interest areas. So I've added feeds to book review sites, art sites and the like to gather it all quickly in one place.

Now say I was covering Religion, Literature and the Arts as subject areas for collection development and library programming, I could subscribe to relevant RSS feeds and collect data easily to support my area of work. This would save me a lot of time at work.

While our library does some programming, it is mostly not promoted online at this stage.
As our library doesn't have a blog or an online newsletter,
I wonder can library related feeds be added to a library site webpage dedicated to RSS feeds?

Of course, not all useful sites offer feeds - it seems they are from blogs and news sites mostly. So when I checked for RSS feeds from Flying Arts and Dept of Creative Industries, neither site currently offer RSS feeds and not all blogs offer feeds - I decided not to offer feeds from my own blog for instance until I am committed to updating it past the SLQ Licence to Test Drive program.

My google homepage now recieves feeds from our local paper with emphasis on local news, entertainment and the arts, and the ABC's blog Articulate which sends out a daily take on arts news and events. This is information I may not have seen in the past, or missed checking for lack of time.

Thanks, RSS!

Twittering

I read in the Courier Mail recently that the retention rate for Twitter is low - I imagine that Twittering would be quick but also require persistence on the part of both writer and reader.
Do people who follow blogs lose interest?
How do libraries ensure that where they post is useful and followed?

I guess promotion of the blog itself as well as the library service.
And time for the staff to develop great informative content.

Programs that are already being developed can be marketed in a number of ways - word of mouth, paper flyers, newspaper and internet site. Once you have one flyer, the content is easily transferable to another media. So the work done is spread in several directions to make sure the public get to know what is being offered.

I found an interesting blog on colour print production recently and left a question about a problem I have printing digital art. I am eagerly hoping the blog owner will be kind enough to help me.......Hmm, a live reference service that is available over the internet - have any of us got one up and running and how is it best run?

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. :-))