finished

i enjoyed this program, i didn't really learn a heap of new things, rollyo i haven't seen before but that was pretty much it. it did introduce me to some ways in which libraries were utilising the technologies, which is rather different from the way i have personally used them in the past.

i would def recommend to people unfamiliar with web2 technologies that they give this program ago - it gives a good introduction

thanks lynette and leslie!

Audiobooks and ebooks

I like how the ebooks from Project Gutenberg avoid having to comply too strictly with copyright by putting the onus on the user downloading the file. "Not copyrighted in the United States. If you live elsewhere check the laws of your country before downloading this ebook." Downloading the files was very easy, i did find the search functionality fairly clunky though.

I must say that I am not a big fan of fiction in ebook format. I don't like reading from the screen for so long. I do like non-fiction books as ebooks though - makes scanning the book for the piece of information you need much easier - i.e. you use the search. I wonder if for this reason ebooks may be taken up more in an academic setting than in public libraries?

Audio books are great. The State Library of Tasmania is currently looking into the available options in regards to audio books - i have been involved in the research and have learnt a far bit about the issues surrounding proving a digital audio book service, I am convinced that it is something we must offer.

Second Life

Second Life seems to be very popular in library world at the moment. There are people talking about it at conferences, papers written about reaching people using Info Island and the like.

I must say that from my (relatively limited) experience, not a huge amount of people in Australia are active Second Life users. I personally don't know any. I am one of those people who signed up, created an avatar (name: Apostrophe Gustav), logged in once and couldn't see the attraction. I did have a lot of problems with lag and had to lower the graphics quality a great deal in order to move around, which took away from the experience. I was using a fairly powerful computer and a good connection, so i do wonder if many people have the same experience as me. It surprised me, as i can play WoW and have good graphic quality with no problems at all.

I liked how Murdoch Uni are teaching people to use it, rather than trying to offer services through it.

Maybe when having a powerful computer and a very high speed connection is common, things like Second Life will take off and become useful in a educational setting, however i can't see it happening in the near future.

Podcasts and YouTube

I have decided that there are a lot of strange podcasts out there. I tend to like the ones such as those available on abc.net and similar. I am also a fan of the vodcasts available from the ABC, snippets of tv programs, and even entire episodes or series. I do wonder if downloads of the vodcasts are included into their ratings though, for example i know that when Summer Heights High was on, a few people i know couldn't watch it, but would download it every week the next day to watch on their ipod (which is how i ended up watching it too)
I have been involved to a small degree with podcasting at work, and it is very large amount of work to get one short podcast sounding good.

I really like YouTube. Like the instructions say there is a lot of stuff on there not worth looking at, but some great stuff too.
I am currently involved in a reader development promotion at work, and we are using YouTube anime trailers as previews for graphic novels in the collection.

Wikis & Rollyo

Wikis

I had a look at a lot of wikis, and it is interesting to see how different organisations are using them. Some use them as just another web site - they seem to be very locked down, with limited amounts of users being able to edit and add content, and provide static information. Other organisations are using them very collaboratively. I especially liked how some schools are using them as tools for assessment - providing instructions, the students create wiki pages, and results are also available on the wiki.

Rollyo

Rollyo is cool. Really good for if you are looking for authoritative information from big websites, or just want to cut out a whole lot of commercial sites etc.

del.icio.us and Library 2.0

del.icio.us

I hadn't actively used del.icio.us before, but i'd seen people using it and i know parts of the functionality of the SLT's webpage uses it. It's pretty hand i must say, and easy to use. Because of the admin lock down on the work pcs i couldn't download the buttons, but the links work nicely. Of course the best thing is that you can move from pc to pc, or OS to OS if you have an install like my home computer, etc and still have the same favourites availale.

Library 2.0

I have mixed feelings about Library 2.0. Whilst i think it is good that libraries are doing their best to stay up to date, I think sometimes the emphasis is placed too much on the concept of web 2.0 technologies and not the use of the technologies themselves. Libraries should be using all technologies available to provide the best service, and not worrying if it's 'web 2.0' or not.

iGoogle

I use netvibes (www.netvibes.com) which has very similar functionality to iGoogle. I added a fair few gadgets and found that some worked and others didn't. It offers lots of different gadgets, i especially liked the convert to PDF, and other random things like that.

I have read lots about working at Google before, and as always it sounds awesome. I imagine you'd have to be very brainy to get a job there though. Any place that gets 1300 job applications a day would only take the very best...

Google Books

I was able to get into Google Books today. I like it, although it obviously has a US focus.
The next TALISPlus upgrade is going to include links to Google Books where available which will be good.
I quite often come across Google Books pages when i am searching the web for information on a particular topic - it's really good when you can actually see the pages of the book, i always wish i could see the whole lot.

Google Tools

Google Docs

I do some volunteer work for a sporting organisation, and we use google docs sometimes to share things like rosters etc when we are working on them before the season starts. They're pretty handy when you're geographically dispersed.

Google Maps

I love Google Maps. I use them to find out how to get places, to look at the top of my house, estimate driving times - very handy they are.

Google Book Search is down as i write this post. It is the only one of the three i haven't really used much, as such i will investigate at a later date.

MySpace & Facebook

I found looking around the library MySpace pages quite interesting. Most libraries seem to be using it as a tool to reach their teenage and young adult clients, with differring levels of success. I did notice that the libraries with the most friends (friends that weren't other libraries or library professionals) and comments were those who were providing other impressive library services for these same client groups.
I do like the way the National Library of New Zealand is using MySpace as a legal deposit tool -pretty cool http://www.myspace.com/beheardforever

As for Facebook, I am already a convert. I'm one of those who uses it to keep in touch with friends, share photos, organise events, etc etc, oh and of course play scrabulous ;)

RSS and feedreaders

I'm a big fan of the RSS feed. I like getting things like abc offbeat news and stuff like that. Thing I don't like about it is that feeds are often very text based - i like having feeds that include images - captures my interest.

I like how the SLT uses ABC RSS on the newspaper section of the website.

I had a look at the recommended readers, but I prefer my netvibes (www.netvibes.com) where I can display my feeds nicely, also integrating my facebook, gmail, flickr, etc. I have added a few RSS feeds to my blog too.

Gingerbread

I embedded this straight from http://www.imagechef.com/ , which was good, but didn't allow me to write something at the same time. Thought it was a fitting image as the address of this blog is crunchygingerbread.

Whilst looking around Flickr, I found a very nice shot taken in Mt William National Park where I went camping over easter this year.

This image can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kahkityoong/874530659/

After leaving Mt William National Park we headed to Coles Bay for a few days and saw this view every morning. Can't complain too much about that ;)

Both these images are by the same guy - Kah Kit Yoong - seems we have been visiting the same places.

This image can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kahkityoong/542409007/

Tuesday morning

Well, as is obvious from the title, it's Tuesday morning.
Fairly standard really, thought i'd create this blog for the Learning 2.0 program, and interestingly it still had my profile pic and stuff when i created a blog for SRS a few months ago. Shouldn't be surprised really... google is pretty good...