My Twenty-Sixth Post

Well Library Week is behind us for 2007 ... phew!! We had a fantastic programme running this year at Bayside Library Service, including Victoria's first Living Library - which was great fun to participate in and very successful too! Other highlights included the launch of the Greek Collection, Bollywood Dancing and fantastic Celtic band playing, Bhan Tre



On the Web 2.0 front, while I was mindlessly Googling my way around the web, I discovered that there will be a Web 2.0 Summit to be held in San Francisco this October. Pretty amazing stuff! Also found a pretty comprehensive reading list of Library 2.0 articles on Squidoo

My Twenty-Fifth Post

So I've discovered that it was much easier to write my blog when I knew what it was that I had to write about (namely, each exercise of the Learning 2.0 program). But now it's a lot more difficult. I'm still really keen to keep the blog going, but finding interesting topics to blog about is so HARD!

I've been having a look around at how other library services make use on the Web 2.0 technology.

Eastern Regional Libraries here in Melbourne has a blog that is used to promote library events, and new resources. http://easternregional.blogspot.com/ Yarra Plenty Library Service, also in Melbourne has developed their blog as a platform between staff and borrowers http://yarraplenty.blogspot.com/

My Twenty-Fourth Post

A revisit to LibraryThing...


Danbury Library, in Conneticut is using tags from LibraryThing in their catalogue. Try a search in their catalogue and then go in to the item record. You will see a tag cloud at the end of the record - click on a link and it will take your to similarly tagged items.

Possibilities?? What are your thoughts?

My Twenty-Third Post (but not my last!)

Well, this is a bittersweet moment - I've completed that last activity in the Learning 2.0 Program. It's been such a fun learning experience!

The last activity I had to do was to investigate E-audio books. This is such a fantastic and innovative resource for the public library, providing 24/7 access at home, at work, even when travelling. They can be read or listened to on portable players such as PDAs or MP3 players. In terms of collection management, content costs between 35-50% less than traditional formats and have no replacement costs as there are no cassettes or discs to be lost or damaged.

I had a look at ACT library which was one of the first public libraries in Australia to have an extensive e-audio book collection.

Harris County Public Library in Texas, have a fantastic catalogue set up to browse their e-audio book collections.

I suppose some issues that a library needs to consider are:

• Will the library be providing the hardware (ie/ Ipods)
• Who will pay for the replacement of a lost or stolen device?
  Most of the devices run on AA batteries-- should a spare battery be provided by the library?
• Where will the needed staff time to load content on to the devices be found? Is this an easy enough task for patrons to do themselves?

Hopefully we will have e-audio books here at Bayside before too long!

So, the last thing I need to consider with this program is how to continue on with my blog - what direction should I take it. So I will ask the readers: How do you think I should continue my blog? Please leave a comment.

While you have a think about that, check out this fantastic blog A Librarian's Guide To Etiquette. Great tips and points to consider when dealing with our borrowers!!!

Phew - I think that was my longest post!

My Twenty-Second Post

Heard on the radio last night about something called a "blook" Naturally being an information professional, I had to know what this was! According to Wikipedia, "A blook can refer to either an object manufactured to imitate a bound book, an online book published via a blog, or a printed book that contains or is based on content from a blog" Interesting..... I guess Web 2.0 really does make everybody a publisher.

Oh, and more updates to my Flickr page here

My Twenty-First Post

Well our Offline period here at Bayside has begun - and so far it has been quite smooth ... with the exception of Rose's RosterRelatedEyeStrain!

Am still really hooked on the whole Learning 2.0 experience, and am getting a bit depressed that I'm fast approaching the end of the program. Luckily I've found Stephen Abrams 43 Things site and will definitely have a go at working through this list next!!

So last night I had a go at Exercise #21 which is all about Pod casting. I didn't think that I would spend to long on this one, but whaddya know?? Three hours later and I was still clicking around Yahoos Pod casts and having a blast. It's great how you get links in the sidebar to explore similar items. I got totally hooked and was listening to interviews with some of my favourite celebrities.

My Twentieth Post

OMG am very excited - I've had my very first comment on the photo's that I uploaded to Flickr (and it was positive... phew!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7235365@N07/459310055/

My Nineteenth Post

Exciting times here at Bayside Library as we prepare for our LMS upgrade. Working offline means no more weeding for the next week - how will I cope?? Guess I'll have more time to work through Learning 2.0

I've had a play around with Exercise #19 which was exploring sites that made the Web 2,0 awards - I didn't even know there was such a thing! Anyway had a lot of fun playing around with some of the cool applications out there. Two that I found really useful were:

http://voo2do.com/ - to try and keep myself organised!

http://campfirenow.com/ - could be really useful here at work where staff are working collaboratively on projects from the various far flung branches

Also, I've updated the photo of myself on the blog - thought I should have something that was more in line with my self proclaimed title of "best dressed librarian", or as Freeloading Phill called me "Mr. Prada"

My Eighteenth Post

I've been a bit quite on the Learning 2.0 front but now I'm back with a vengeance! Knocked over Exercise 18 last night (nothing on TV and too tired to go out). I'd not heard of Zoho Docs before so it was good to have play with that. I had used Google Docs before and I do like being able to share documents and work collaboratively on them.