Summing Up

Librarians are confronted by a smörgåsbord of innovative and/or wacky inventions on the web – all vying for our consideration.

Many concepts are bandied about: social networking, convergence, anything prefixed by the letter “e” or suffixed by “2.0”.

Over the past few weeks we’ve delved into a wide variety of software offerings and through practical experience have come to certain conclusions about their value to our libraries (i.e. our users).

Picture this. Now you do all your searching from home. Type in a subject heading and immediately receive a Library Thing style display of books. Once you’ve judged your book by its cover, click on it for further details. Perhaps there is an Amazon.com style facility to “search inside” so you can check the contents and index pages. Look at reader reviews and ratings.

Tick the boxes for books located in your nearest branch that are on shelf and you’ve got a powerful filtering tool.

Then check out the things other library patrons with similar interests found and you’re well on your way to a well rounded library experience.

The librarians’ challenge is to decide on which Web 2.0 style tools to integrate into the library website and to gain control of our websites, separate from council's I.T. departments.

The other point to make is that every element of our site that solicits contributions from the public, be it a review function in the catalog or a blog, must be moderated to ensure it complies with the current political correctness. This will avoid embarrassment and/or litigation.

We could certainly try podcasting library events. What members of the public would not find attractive the video podcasting of authors’ talks and special events. Who wouldn’t look forward to watching one of the world’s leading exponents of Lebanese cooking prepare tabouleh? After all not everyone can make it to a scheduled session

We may need to assign one staff member to take charge of the library’s digital media activities. Once you start posting content it’s not just a matter of filming, editing, compressing and uploading. Someone needs to manage copyright. Release forms must be filled out.

We could also try adding Rolyo search engines for particular subject areas to our site, online book clubs are also worth investigating

The funny thing is, although a lot of these things we have looked at over the past weeks are new to me, I feel like I’m talking about the past and that 3.0 is already upon us.

Vectorized!

Those Stanford Uni dudes are brilliant. Just send them a picture of yourself and they’ll turn you into a very lifelike cartoon character. I'll certainly never be the same again.

"Hi Yo Silver, Away!"

Downloading Books

It was difficult to assess this site as you needed to pay to get past a superficial search - lot's of Spanish books come up when I searched for interesting Chihuahua books but I'm afraid I'm an English only dog . There are other downloading sites that I looked that seemed much easier to use - items were quite expensive but for younger dogs who use the latest technology and have lots of disposable cash this would be the way to go. For older dogs who may have trouble with their eyes and arthritis in their paws the older style talking books would be far easier to use.

Podcasting

For the dedicated dog owner listening to weekly episodes from DogCastRadio is a must!

You Tube

You Tube if full a fabulous little movies - quite a lot of cute chihuahuas! I thought you might like this little film I made - apologies to Nancy - I hope she has a sense of humour.

Wufoo - my pick from the Web 2.0 Award nominees - it's all in the name!

A silly survey, but seriously this site could actually be useful






Powered by Wufoo

The physical 2.0 Library

Continuing on the themes begun in my post Mobile Library 2.0, one needs to consider the community impact of the physical library space.

I'm excited by the access to information via the library website - i.e. fulltext magazine and newspaper databases, ebooks, directories, etc. - and once I fully get my head around the Web 2.0 elements we have been getting a taste of in the Learning 2.0 project - and then continuing with those things that suit my style - I will have a wonderfully honed desktop. My computer will keep me up to date with all my interests.

Selective Dissemination of Information was never like this in my mother's day, and we don't have to go to library school to become experts. And as everyone knows, Boolean searching no longer requires a professional to construct complicated search strings on a DOS based machine tucked away in a back room.

Librarianship has become something completely different.

The physical library is still the place to be though. The place to actually handle books and DVDs and flip through real magazines. The place to talk to people and obtain recommendations on good stuff, not to mention the sheer pleasure of stumbling across something new and interesting that could be potentially life changing. It is also the place to talk to writers about their work and on a particularly good day watch one of Melbourne's top chefs make tabouleh.

You can't smell or taste the parsley on your PC.

HoHo Zoho

If you did not have access to word processing or spreadsheets these web based one's are OK - watch out Bill! I created a quick spreadsheet to help me keep up with all my social engagements. Check it out here. Oh wait. If you want to find out what I'm up to send me an email and I'll give you access to my calendar.

Mobile Library 2.0

They used to look something like this:

Then something like this, which some of you just might recognize:

Now there's no need for a heavy vehicle licence, but not only that: Where's the librarian? Where are the other borrowers? And where's that oh so useful oversized hubcap?

This little piece of junk apparently connects me to the world, but it sure ain't the type of world I'm interested in. Nothing on this crap mobile looks like it dispenses liver treats. That cute librarian always had something going on the side. That's what made it fun!

My Wiki Wiki Ways 2 (Ghost written by Anon.)

Wikipedia has become an opportunity lost.

Originally it was full of fascinating articles infused with freshness and daring, but the editors' push for recognition of their product as "authoritative" has turned Wikipedia into just another online encyclopedia.

Just try to make amendments these days. Gatekeeping stooges will eliminate your anxiously sweated over contribution within 24 hours, citing trivial and inane excuses to justify their conservatism and subservience to the orthodoxy.

Luckily for those who think outside the square (aka the pet loo), the self same wiki technology is available for all. This means I've been shafted by Wikipedia's faceless men for the last time.

Adieu Wikipedia! And watch out for the iceberg fellas!

P.S. The key is - don't take it to heart. They aren't out to crush your ideas, they're only interested in secondhand knowledge.

My Wiki Wiki Ways

I wandered willy-nilly round some wikis with my wage-earner and found a wonderland of worthwhile words. I wondered if I could work on a wee wiki of my own. Woe is me! I am not wise, it was not a walkover more like a wreck

This isn't a Boo Boo

Standing just four inches tall, Boo Boo wouldn’t be much use fetching the newspaper. But the special dog from Raceland, Kentucky now has the big title of the world’s smallest dog.

The longhaired Chihuahua was entered into The Guinness Book of World Records in September. Boo Boo snatched the title of smallest dog from a fellow American Chihuahua called Ducky who measured 4.9 inches.

Owner Lana Elswick has bred Chihuahuas for 19 years and said she always knew her one-year-old pooch was special. Boo Boo was only about the size of a thumb when she was born; so small, in fact, that she had to be fed with an eye dropper every two hours before she could eventually nurse a bottle.

I found this info on a blog by searching Technorati.

Generating an image

Yum Yum Delicious

Many things are delicious, toes, shoe laces, mince meat and especially chicken wings. But I don't think del.icio.us is much use to me. However I did find this cute picture by searching the tag Chihuahua

Rolling around

As a dog I love to roll around in certain things - the smellier the better - you know what I mean. So I quite enjoyed rolling up a lot of interesting dog websites into one simple search engine I called "I, Chihuahua". It was so simple but not quite as fulfilling as rolling in the real thing - anyway now my my mistress does not have to spend hours looking at lots of sights - just the one stop shop of "I, Chihuahua" for all things

Go Cats?!!!

I know it sounds weird to barrack for The Cats rather than The Doggies, but there you have it. We didn't bother trying to get tickets because they wouldn't have let me through the turnstile. It's that same ol' discrimination I am subjected to all over the place.

Watching the game in high def on the big screen was fantastic... and it got better by the minute!

The following day I went to visit a Richmond supporter who just happened to be in a world of his own. His season had finished months ago.

Really Simple Stuff

I like to think of myself as a well informed dog and now I can easily keep up with the latest via Bloglines. I have subscribed to a great magazine called Dog World - where I discovered this interesting little snippet <<<
I'm also able to keep up with all my canine friend's blogs.
My owner has a few interests outside of me and has subscribed to ABC news and some library things

My owner's avatar

If my owner thinks she looks like this, she is gravely mistaken, I don't see me on her knee so it cannot be. However don't you think I look better than Marilyn?

Postcards from the edge

The pressure is on, so I hope you like my postcard ...........and they call it puppy love

I'm learning so much

Now I'm having fun! I've been reading up on Library 2.0 and finding out about Blogs and Flickr and Podcasts and Gaming ....... all sorts of things. I'm quite excited. I tried a portrait of myself in the Pop Art style of Andy Warhol (Flickr) but it didn't look too good. I'm vain so I won't put it on my Blog. Anyway have to go I think I hear dinner

Why aren't dogs allowed in the library?

At home I can browse the shelves till the cows come home, so why aren't I allowed to further my education in a public library? Surely life long learning isn't limited to two legged beasts. No wonder they say you can't teach an old dog new tricks. You humans have made it happen by cutting off our educational opportunities.