Week 12: Wrap up and Social Networking

The final week has arrived and I completed it with a look at social networking sites. There are applications suitable for libraries and this is evident from the number of libraries using blogs and Twitter to disseminate information about the library, its services and events. My own library has several blogs and has now joined Twitter as well. I'm sure that there will be future developments in the not-too-distant bfuture and a similar course to this one will be of benefit in finding out more about them, coming to grips wuith them and being able to apply them.

Week 11 Online Applications and Tools

This week I've had a look at free online programs. I've used Googlle documents to create a document that can then be shared with people or sent to other people. These online programs and documents are a great way of being able to share with others work and allow others to update them. Using them in group work is a great possibility.

These free programs also make using computers a lot more economical for those who find it difficult to afford the commercial software when all that is required is fairly basic documents.

Week 10 Mashups

Today we learnt about mashups and I have created a calendar using hugelabs. I am adding this very useful item to the blog. I have been given this photo of "Dewey Decimator" which sounds cataloguing related.

Week 9: Podcasts and Audio

Podcasts were quite interesting. From a library perspective I can see possible uses in oral history as part of the Local Studies Collection, speeeches or talks given by guests such as authors, public poetry readings given at the library, recordings of important information meetings given by persons such as the Library Manager or Council General Manager. Also a Library Tour podcast could be created or just as is done in art galleries a podcast could be created for any major exhibitions or displays held in the library to provide a better viewing and understanding of it eg. the library's current displays for "Year of the Tiger" and "Sesame Street".

Week 8: Answer Boards and Social Searching

Answer boards were an interesting concept but I don't think there was much for us as a public library to become involved with. I can see libraries using the answerboard concept to aid them in their tasks but not as a provider answering the questions. Realtime answering would be a problem and we already offer a facility for people to send emails with questions. Perhaps the larger services at a State and National Level could involve themselves with this but we do not have the staff numbers to adequately provide and monitor this type of service.

Week 7: Tagging, Delicious, Library Thing

This week had a look at social bookmarking sites Delicious and LibraryThing and investigated how places such as Sutherland Shire Libraries had used them.The amount of information available and the number of cross-links is quite staggering. LibraryThing appeared to have many useful applications especially for those who wanted to catalogue their personal library. It could be private or public which would suit a lot of users.

Week 6 - YouTube

Learnt about YouTube today. Had a great time looking at other peoples videos. Couldn't find a decent one on dinosaurs so I am going to try and put a YouTube clip that is sort of dinosaur related.