RSS

This has been a fascinating lesson--to see so many blogs out there and to see how few subscribers most have, for obvious reasons. After reading a few, I recognised the democracy of it, and the similarity from one to the next. We are truely talking quantity here, not necessarily quality.

(When I finish this course, I will do my best to make a 'knock their socks off blog' aiming to put new interpretations to information rather than simply reporting what interests me, which most seem to do. )

I spent some time viewing sites on reading, book awards, publishing and bookselling before moving to those suggested in the lesson. I found scattered information everywhere and a limited number of blogs that attempt to analyse or synthesize information to any purpose. The antithesis, really, of all the training given to librarians.

I ended up selecting five sites related to reading, libraries, cataloguing, libraries 2.0 (Lighthouse) as well as the PHM's picture of the day, Susan Wyndham's 'undercover' from the SMH and Librarybytes. These look like they will be useful and carry a limited amount of dross. I will be very busy just reading these let alone sharing or tagging...my biggest question is how to delete those that are irrelvant or that I no longer need to keep!

I will use the posts to keep abreast of current developments in the same way I now use Library link, e-mail and published material. Obviously there will need to be some reprioritising! The advantage is that I will not have to copy and handwrite notes on paper articles to share these as I do now, but will use an online approach to sharing. It will save a few trees too.

A benefit for those of us at the Library will be that we can share more easily with one another to build on 'invisible colleges' relating to shared interests which will be really useful as we work our way through the redevelopment of the Library's service delivery platform. We can also use the facility is to easily create or develop communities of interest with our colleagues in other libraries, particularly in the public library network; stakeholders and clients.

Wikis

The lesson on wikis has given me alot of ideas for things we could do at the State library of New South Wales. Looking at next generation catalogues was a way to see how others were using this technology. One that stood out for me was the Hennepin County Library 'Bookspace'. The wiki on book clubs is something we could do right now including links to book clubs linked to public libraries for example. This would be a place where members could share ideas for books, running meetings, questions and to see what others are doing.

Hennepin put their e-resources and websites into context nicely and then linked browsers to the place to sign in--very well done, I thought.

Another application for libraries would be procedure manuals. Easy and quick to update and very accessible.

I have used a wiki to plan collaboratively for shared projects. This would be a useful way to work on projects across the Library. We could use wikis to carry out a dialogue with our clients about our services and developing services or to provide information to clients as in some of the university sites.

I am going off to verify some facts about my LGA before adding to the Wikipedia entry which is rather sparse!

It has been an eye opener to see how some libraries are using pictures. I still think PictureAustralia is right up there. While I have seen some terrific photos in this lesson, the best come (predictably) from sites like libraries and museums where collections are selected for inclusion. Flickr has the entire range from the snapshot to the institutional archive, so its uneven and unpredictable content is interesting. You could waste alot of time looking without knowing what you are looking at!

I chose a terrific photo from Flickr to put up to demonstrate the value of teamwork. It is a couple carrying and sharing the weight of a bag. Teamwork is essential in all we do as we can lock into the strengths of others and collaborate to obtain a better outcome. That is at the basis of the Learning 2.0--including others in what we are doing instead of setting up barriers between us.

I hope I can manage to add that photo when I finish this post! (Thanks so much to Anie for her help today if she sees this.) (Unfortunately I could not find the photo again on Flickr, so even though I had saved it successfully I could not use it--I had not managed to also save the details about it so I could credit the photographer. Therefore I have put up another picture demonstrating teamwork--a good one too, I think.)

From a service perspective I think it would be interesting to host discussion groups concerning images from historical periods, places or for example of subjects like architecture around Mt Wilson or Garden history or similar. People could be encouraged to put images fitting the subject onto a notice board or ? for discussion, dating and to obtain information from others. This could be carried out at amateur or expert level or for enthusiasts of any level.

Railway history buffs would find such a discussion group fascinating, for example. Another interesting idea would be a for book groups to do research and find images from the period, place, topic or people they find their featured book--it could be a way to add depth and meaning to their discussion.

This has been a very interesting segment of the course. I have used a number of the Library 2.0 elements, but working through the material systematically is giving me a framework and putting things into a different context. I really enjoyed looking at the examples of blogs - particularly LC and Sydney Observatory.

This has given me great ideas about how we could use blogs internally as a communication strategy, to share information and to support collaborative projects. Much better than e-mails that need to be copied, etc.

For our clients, it would be wonderful to be able to tell them new information about our remotely available electronic resources and for them to respond about how they are using them, what else they would like us to purchase for their use and so on. We could also let them know when INFORMIT, for example will be down or when new interfaces will be introduced and provide training tips.

It is great to do this learning at work. It is already contributing to my skill set. I hope everyone will get stuck into it.

There, that wasn't so hard. The page looks like gelato. Stronger, bolder colours next time.