Week 11 & 12: Online Applications & Social Networking

Loved the Online applications...just what I needed to learn about. This can be used at work to share documents in progress ie newsletters. I can use it at home as well especially PDF.
Social networking has changed the way we share information and communicate with one another.
A great marketing tool for libraries, customers can be updated on resources or services from the comfort of their own home or office at their leisure.

Loved my Journey....

I can't believe that I'm finally here...I have finished...it has been a bit of a challenge. I work part-time, have a young family and uni commitments, so it is a good feeling to finally be here. It did take more than the 15 minutes per day and I needed a note book to keep track of all my user names and passwords for various site, but I thoroughly enjoyed very moment of the the journey!

Week 5 : Wiki's

I thought I had finished, but have just looked over my blog and realised that I have not added my thoughts on wiki's. My first introduction into contributing to a wiki and I just loved it.. I have never been game enough to contribute before though. I have used wikipedia before and thought it was very informative and liked it, I use it often for my assignments to get an understand of something that I'm unsure about.
I liked the book lovers wiki, what an interesting concept, this could be quite useful in our library with staff and clients adding to it. I have just contributed for the first time to my uni wiki that has been set up for a study visit. It is fantastic that we can all share our thoughts and photos online. I have been won over... I now love wiki's...

Week 10 : final mashup

I just loved "big huge labs", how creative and it's all online and free...no programs. I like so much on this site and could see plenty of potential for using it with in the library, both online with the displayed through the web site i.e. mosaic's would be a great of displaying past activities/events of the library or used as a tool to help within our role, ie the name badges could be a nice presentation for clubs, i.e. children's summer club, children's reading club or book club.

So I had a good play and could have played a lot longer!!!. I made a calendar of my daughters ballet class, but had trouble finding one of my own photos that would fit into the calendar with out heads being chopped off and decided that a portrait photo was not a good idea as it cropped the photo to much and a landscape style photo worked best.

Mashups

I enjoyed this one as well. especially the Google Maps on London. I would see a huge potential in the local history area. For example: a walk around the local area with historical points of interest, this could not only be of interest to locals but also historians who are researching from around the world...being able to get a visual incite to where or how there ancestors may have lived.

Week 9 : Podcasts

Podcasting- "Content on demand" ... I like it and are waiting desperately for my uni to extend their podcasting to include lectures.

Mmmm I think the opportunities are endless in how a library can use podcasting

• children's story time
• author talks
• book club
• lectures
• library news

Introductions to:

• library services
• library tours

How to:

• use the catalogue
• use the databases
• techniques for using search engines
• tips on evaluating web sites

For staff:

• training
• meetings ( for staff who were unable to attend)
• newsletters

Week 8 : Answer boards

I like the idea of answer boards and think they would work well for HSC students or any student really, especially being able to get instant responses when they need them. And with not having the face to face contact which can sometimes be intimidating, users may be inclined to ask more questions or question that they would other wise not ask freely.

However I was disappointed that the librarians didn't seem to bother to tag their responses...perhaps they found it to time consuming? however if they took the time it would be useful.

Week 7: Technorati

I found different results for each search in both keyword and advance searches. I even managed to find 1 result for nswpln2008.
However I was not successful in leaving a comment on the nswpln2008 blog page. What was doing wrong?

Week 7: Del.icio.us

Interesting... delicious is great, it could work well as a research assistance, finding web sites and online material. A useful tool in libraries, great for helping users to seek the information required, fulfilling their needs. Even good for teachers who want to supply their students or parents with links to useful educational sites.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong but I can't seem to put a link onto my blog for my delicious account.


Ok I think I finally have help.... on Creation's blog I found the following "The way to set up link to my del.icio.us bookmarking account in this post is as follows: go to del.icio.us, sign in your account, go to help and go to a guide to sharing bookmarks, got to Linkrolls , then copy the above HTML code from there and paste in your blog post(in Edit Html window)"

Here is my Link My del.icio.us

Week 6: Videos

Ah, loved this...I've used youtube before but not Google video. This could be useful the library web page with videos of author talks, or even workshops/training to help HSC students with report writing, how to write essays, tips for studying or ways to relieve stress while studying for HSC.
Here goes to see if I can embed a video into my blog. A month or so ago I was unable to do it and just left a link to a video I enjoyed.




I have finally done it....Yahoo...I'm happy with my results

it's been a while

It has been a while since I have posted to my blog, although I have slowly been progressing through the weeks, I had forgotten my password for my blog and was only able to log on from home. But with uni and family commitments that has been rather impossible. I'm hoping to post as must as possible in the next few days...to hopefully catch up!

Page Counter

While playing on the net and visiting other bloggers I noticed a few of them had page counter (not Web 2.0'ers) and thought this was a great way of knowing how many people visit my blog. Adding a page counter is so easy to do.
If you look to the right, below my page counter there is a link "free link". Once you have hit the all you have to do choose the style you want, then add a few details of where you want the link. I opened and signed into my blog then selected customise/page layout/add a page element. This is where I added my title and copied and pasted jargon from "easy hit counters" and saved...and just like magic...it was all done for me.
Have a go and let me know what you think.

Week 4 : RSS

Mmmm. I enjoyed this one... however I did research further using Google to make sure I was well informed. Two web site that I liked and thought the information was easy to understand were software garden and news. This site had a list of RSS feeds that were Australian and easy to subscribe to.

I think it is good that you can keep up-to-date with your favourite sites and latest information or news. Although I'm not sure how much I would use it or if I would have the time, I may be more inclined to use my bookmarks, at least it is one lest thing that I need to log into and remember login or passwords to.
I have subscribed to RSS feeds that I'm interested in and will keep an eye on them in the next few days, helping to decide whether or on rss is for me or not. I tried both ways of subscribing to RSS, by clicking on the little orange icon or by copying and pasting the URL of the site I was interested in into my bloglines feed, both ways I found easy.

Sort Of Dunno Nothin'

You just have to have a look at this….

If you have or had have teenage children you will appreciate this video from youtube... I have two teenage children and just loved this...it is so true...exactly what they sound like! Kids!!!
I was listening to Richard Glover on ABS Sydney when I heard this...the video is on many sites and has been viewed by over 200,000 viewers. It has even been viewed on channel 7, on the morning show.

I’m sure teenagers think it’s silly, however many teachers and parents have phoned into the radio station to say… they love it or can relate to it…

I think it is pretty good… considering Peter Denahy the guy the wrote it and sings it solo…(even the teens part) is not even a parent his self.

Check it out! Sort of Dunno Nothin'

Week 3 :Sparkling in the sunlight...

Although I have titled this sparkling in the sunlight...it is more like moonlight. I would like a web that is sparkling in the sunlight...so will keep trolling through the net...it will all add to the practice of adding photos to my blog. This time I just copied and pasted the web link to the "add photo" pop-up. Next time I will down load the image to my hard rive then upload to the blog from there.

Week 2 : Learning 2.0

This is a new learning curve for me. I have heard several of the terms, bebo, facebook etc, however I must admit that I haven't had much of an understanding of them, or what and how they work. I just thought it was something that the teenagers used!...but I’m learning!

I'm looking forward to learning and understanding what web 2.0 is all about and how I can use it. As well as having an understanding and knowing what the younger generation (my children included) is doing for inter reaction or social entertainment.
I hope that after completing the topics available over the next 12 weeks, I will gain confidence and be able to put what I have learned to use.

Now comes the hard part... posting intelligent, interesting information that others want to read and reply to.