#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...

The first thing I would like to say is that from the first moment I began work in the library there has been amazing and continuous technological change. We have all embraced these changes and could not imagine working without them.
This program has once again opened my eyes to a huge amount of material, programs and free stuff on the Web.
I think the most useful thing I learned was about RSS feeds. I will use these all the time. I had never heard of them before but the next week at a training course they were mentioned so I felt very smug and knowledgable.
I now have a delicious icon on my PC, I don't know how much I will use it but I do know all about it.
As far as life long learning I think I have always pursued this and this program was organised in such a way to encourage more learning.
Congratulations to the organisers, reading all thos blogs you have my admiration.

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

This is very interesting because we were thinking that downloadable books would be ideal for Outreach clients. As time goes on the people receiving this service will be much more computer savvy that the majority are now. I also think they will be more demanding as they are used to instant access to information at the moment. The list of free items seems extensive. The joining fee to access other tiems seems reasonable but I couldn't find any details of other costs involved.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I had trouble getting anything to play using Yahoo Podcasts and Podcast.net but was able to get some sound from Podcastalley.com. I didn't like the way the searching was organised. Must be the librarian in me. It was very difficult to find anything as a search for book reviews seemed to bring up all sorts of responses. I set up an RSS feed to my Bloglines account for the Science Show from the ABC.

#20 You too can YouTube

OK I can't help myself. James Hird again. At least this is one "thing" that I know about and have used before. Its interesting that the political parties are using Youtube this election to reach a lot of people who might not notice their other political advertising. Lots of rubbish as well, but as time goes on all those little moments will be caught on Youtube. In the library scene something like this could be used instead of a written blog maybe, would need a bit of careful watching though. Maybe would go well in "The Librarians".

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I selected RealTravel. I looked at the other two prize winning sites fo travel but personally felt that this was the best as it provided a lot more useful information that just booking flights. It says it is powered by advice from real travellers and they seem to be using it. There are blogs and forums on all kinds of subjects. The topics are listed as Discover, Learn, Plan, Save and Share.

They have a free trip planner and also travel deals available. I found it easy to move around and it even mentioned Australia. I clicked on the link to Australia under mosted popular blogs and there were lots of photos and blogs from travellers giving valuable information. I don't think it is applicable to libraries apart from Library staff planning their holidays.

#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Once again another thing I have never heard of. I thought you needed the applications loaded on the PC. Lets see how this goes. Does it mean Mr Gates won't be getting all of our money. That would be nice to see. I also looked at some of the templates which seemed good. I tries to publish from Zoho but it came up with a message saying trouble with Blog posting, I will try again. It seemed to have everything you wouls need for writing.

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

I was pleased to be able to add my vote for favourite animal to dogs, and I just had to mention my new grand dog. This was very straight forward and the mystery of a wiki is now solved for me.

#16 So what’s in a wiki?

I think a wiki could be used very successfully in the library by allowing patrons to add comments to the catalogue in the form of reviews and comments. The main content of the catalogue would be maintained as now but by allowing borrowere to add their comments we could create a lot of interest. We have found in the past everyone likes to know what other people are reading.
One of the examples showed the use of a wiki as a share training tool. This would also be useful in the library world and would allow the details to be constantly updated.
Because I didn't know much at all about wikis I found the camping trip organisation really explained it for me. Wikis could also (maybe) be used as a management tool to gain ideas on a topic from the staff allowing the ideas to evolve similar as to what happens when you brainstorm using a white board.

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

I read all the comments about Web 2.0 and I realise that as librarians we need to make sure that we are up to date with all the new ways of accessing information and the way it is manipulated (Therefore doing this course is very timely). I was interested in the article Into a new librarianship which tells us that we need to plan for users to be able to access the library where ever they are. I feel that people are used to immediate access to all kinds of things are the library will need to match this. Maybe through library blogs or using the library as a centre point where the technology and the users meet would also fill the need. As Michael Stephens says I think that by using some of the new tools and creating useful tools in the library, we are then able to connect with the new type of user.

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

I'm not so sure about Technarati. Maybe I don't see much of a point in searching blogs but it certainly does what it says it will do. I know I need to get over this attitude. I couldn't watch the video guides without saving them on my PC and it was going to take 8 minutes so I gave it a miss.
I searched for Learning 2.0 in blog posts, huge number of results over 25,000, tags was 3 and Blog directory was 693.
I looked at the top searches Britney Spears was way up there but also cancer, so people are using this as a sharing information tool. I tought it was funny that the top 2 Blogs were about gadgets. Thats why they are into Technariti.

#13 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

I found Del.icio.us quite fascinating. The Youtube resource really made it all clear. I think this would be very useful as you use PCs at various locations and do not want a huge long list of bookmarks to sift through. I have signed up so now I will see how much I can use it. I have now done some searches and found lots of other people were tagging travel in croatia.

#12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo

Once again this seemed to all work quite simply once you had a good look at the site. I was very pleased to see that the link also worked. I think rollyo would be useful for searching very specific topics and then you would only want info from certain sites, but sometimes in a general search you can gather interesting information from sites you did not know about. The link to my rollyo is below.


http://www.rollyo.com/editroll.html?sid=318078

#11 All about LibraryThing

This was very quick and interesting. It took a bit of reading of the instructions but then i realised it was really doing it all automatically. Maybe it would be good for all those library customers who don't know if they have read a book by a certain author. They could keep a very useful list on their PC or mobile phone. Where will it all end. I like the way you don't have to fill in a big long list of questions to join. That does get very repetitive.

The link to my librarything account.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/julieble

#10 Play around with Image Generators

I have to admit to being obsessed with essendon. I found the image generator quite tricky and had to read the help in blogger to work out how to save my photo. Rattling the grey matter a bit. The Generator Blog had me a bit confused. I was not sure where these links all came from. I suppose because it's a blog, from anyone. That's what I have to get used to. I made this image with Letter James. This seemed quite straight forward
http://www.letterjames.com/start.php?mod=image-personalization

#9 Finding feeds

To start with I have never heard of any of these search tools. I found Feedstar,Topix.net and Google Blog search very easy to use. I typed in Essendon Footbal Club in Feedstar and came up with the club news site immediately which was better than searching through a list of associated sites. Topix.net was great for news as you can easily select the location that interested you. Feedstar was such a simple tool I found more info on Croatia. Google blog search was much the same. I can't believe that I have never seen it before. Technorati was a bit more complex or maybe I was a bit over it by then. So many news feeds, so little time.
My Bloglines account.
http://www.bloglines.com/public/julieb51

#8 Make life really simple with RSS and newsreader

I found this exercise really interesting. There were many areas I would be keen to keep up to date with for my own use. We are planning an overseas holiday soon and I subscribed to a couple of travel blogs for up to date information. Although I suppose that you have to be careful of the veracity of the information. I think it is very convenient to have all the links together in this way. I thought the links to the SLV were very useful as it presents up to date news all the time. It could become addictive which would probably defeat the purpose, you would still have too many things to look through

Exercise 7

Technology Blog
I remember in the early 90s being shown the Internet during a class at Box Hill TAFE. This was the very non user friendly Internet which gave you very little help in navigating. As we were struggling to get through to a library catalogue in th US I remember thinking and later saying that I could not see how this could be realistically used in every day life.
Well I guess I need to eat those words. I don't know how I would manage today.
If it looks like rain I have to look up the Bureau of Met site to make sure about the rain coming.
Instant sports scores from around the world.
Olympic Games school projects used to be the bane of librarians, now they are a breeze with so much information on the web.
How did we organise holidays without the Internet.
But just occasionally I do think, do we have to know everything instantly.

Flickr 6

My creation
Originally uploaded by julie.blewitt

I used the trading card program to produce this card of beautiful Columbus

Flickr 5

I have known about photo sharing before but have never used it. We have usually emailed photos which is very time consuming. I will join up James in London so I can see his photos of the Oktoberfest. Although maybe I don't want to see them after all.

Sheedy and Hirdy farewell banner

No 5 Flickr

James Hird. Champion.

Sheedy and Hirdy farewell banner
Originally uploaded by Gavin Anderson

I went to this game which was the last game James Hird played in Melbourne. We went to a luncheon hosted by the Essendonians and Kevin Sheedy came and gave a short talk to the luncheon. Apart from the result we had a great time
This photo was uploaded by Gavin Anderson. He must be a bomber fan as well.

I am glad to see my Blog has been registered. There was a bit of a delay. Now I just have to pretty it up a bit. I want to get plenty of practice.Maybe a nice picture of James Hird would brighten it up. Oh well there is always next year.

My first post

I have just created by Blog and I am now figuring out what to do next.