Social Networking

I know our customers use social networking tools, I have been asked to lend assistance with users of Facebook and Bebo and was asked by one client if she could 'talk' to others in the library online. I know many locals that use MySpace for networking purposes but I am not totally sure of the best way to use these tools for libraries. I think it may be a lot of trial and error.

We use blogging so staff can be kept informed of what's going on, as an example we post the minutes of our meetings on our staff blog; and I believe we have a book review blog starting on our website but I am not sure how Facebook or MySpace would work unless as a general way of getting noticed by the community. It has been said by some customers that some of their friends have no idea what goes on at the library or the services offered.

I like the idea of using Youtube for promoting or showing events. I think if we taped our author talks (either podcast or Youtube video) we may generate more interest. Sometimes that is all people need to take that first step to go to something they haven't been to before.

I think anything that generates interaction with our clients would be a good thing, anything that make them feel a part of the library and gives them a sense of community.

Editing Wiki

I have finally added my contribution to the nswpln web2.0 wiki so I have now completed that part of the web 2 training.

Online documents

I have come across Google docs in the workplace before. Where I work we were using Google spreadsheets as a tracking log. Last year while undertaking work experience at another library I found they used Google calendar to keep track of staff movements across the state. Although they belonged to the one organisation they used different mail systems so weren't able to use an internal calendar.

I personally would still have concerns about privacy and security using online documents in this way.

Wikis

On reviewing my notes I realised that I haven't blogged about Wikis. That might be because I am still waiting on my invite key to be able to edit.

Meanwhile, about Wikis. A few years back I was in that exact position (described on the learning video) where I was part of a group of external students studying library technology at university. We were required to work on a project together. We were located all over the country, possibly overseas, and worked on our section of the project at different times. We posted our various contributions to the project to the discussion board via attached word docs, and towards the end we had about 20 different documents floating around without any one containing all of the information. We were able to work our way around this but this was a scenario where a wiki would have been extremely welcome. Thankfully the university now has them in place as part of our study tools.

I think wikis are ideal for book reviews. I favour them over blogs. Blogs work in chronological order and I think wikis have the advantage in that they are more flexible in layout and arrangement and are easier to use. They also (as in the above scenario) would be ideal for staff working on projects together.

It's interesting that although Wikipedia can be edited by anyone it still has a high accuracy rating.

Using Mashups at our library

I think mashups are just a fun way of presenting or advertising services and products of the library. If we were to have author talks then the advertising could be done in a fun way, best book reviews could be presented as a calendar etc. I think it would be a fun way of presenting things.

My Mashup

I am a huge whodunnit fan so couldn't resist setting my library photo up as a movie poster. Of course it also matches the name of the blog!

Podcasts

I enjoyed listening to the Curtin university library podcasts. They certainly have given me some ideas on how podcasts could be used in libraries. They could be used for information purposes on letting clients know about the facilities and services on offer and how to use these services. I also like the book reviews they had and find myself comparing written book reviews to podcast reviews, I think there is room for both but I personally enjoy listening to the podcasts and my own view is that this particular medium would generate more interest amongst our borrowers. I know with some podcasts you can record how often they have been listened to and they can be rated similar to the written book reviews. I personally hope our library will make use of podcasts.

Social Searching and Answerboards

Of all the social network tools that I have investigated, MySpace, Facebook, chat rooms etc I think the answerboard is the one that I have enjoyed the most and that I would personally use outside of work. I think it must have something to do with an ingrained habit/desire in those who work in libraries to want to help people answer their questions.

As for 'slamming the boards' would this be any different from 'Ask a librarian' or 'Information Request'. I will probably need to reread the notes again before I can comment fully.

As an online 'window shopper' I find it enjoyable to read the 'customers who bought this also bought this' sections. It saves me looking through a lot of items as it shows selections by people with similar tastes in clothes. It just means that they have done all the hard work for me. I could see that something similar in libraries when customers review or rate books might work, particularly when readers have read all of a favourite author's works this might be an easy way for them to find a new author to try.

I answered two questions from Yahoo7Answers from the Education & Reference section. I haven't been back yet to see how the answers were rated.

Del.icio.us, technorati, tagging

When I searched for bookmobile on the technorati website I returned slightly less with the advanced search then I did for the other. Only one item was returned when I searched for nswpln2008 but there was heaps more under the photo section.

I think the del.icio.us is useful for reference or research purposes. Recently I was undertaking research on audio/ebook readers and found it useful to have all the websites collated together. I would also have use for it when studying to keep a record of all the websites used in the research so that I can use it for double-checking and listing the reference materials used.

In a library I think it would be extremely useful for the reference desk to list websites by subject, also very good for collecting information on any topical subjects.

Testing the technorati tagging

Click on the following tag

23 things

Youtube, videos etc

I found the following Youtube when I searched under the Pets & Animals category. I love the music and the animals are just gorgeous. I found it easy to get sidetracked when searching through the videos and hard to stay focussed on what I was actually looking for!


In the library I think Youtube would be very useful for showing the layout of the library and for demonstrations of using the catalogue, and being able to reserve and renew items online. I think it could also be a good marketing tool - for example -showing a short clip of popular events.

RSS Feeds

I have a bloglines account and have set up feeds from ALIA, news feeds and some library related blogs. I like the fact that RSS feeds deliver updates to your doorstep so to speak, so you don't have to access websites unnecessarily. A prime example of this is the Nancy Pearl feed that I have added to this blog.

In our library I think it would be useful for borrowers to have RSS feeds to book reviews, new titles and upcoming events.

My bloglines is located at

http://www.bloglines.com/public/Silverwings

Flickr Photo - Tamworth Library

Tamworth Library, originally uploaded by silverwings2006.

One of my Flickr photos

Welcome to the Bodyinthelibrary blog

Hi

I've created this blog as part of the State Library's Web 2.0 training. I will post more as I work through the sessions.