Social Networking

Facebook is something I had begun using a few months ago privately and have found that it is extremely time wasting! I can understand that some libraries will use it for particular promotions and it is another way for libraries to showcase and market themselves to those who may be prefer to use this technology. I actually prefer using blogs.
MySpace is something I just haven't tried or wish to. It just seems so bizarre to me that people live in 'another' life when there's one right here in the real world. That's not to say that it's not worthwhile, I just don't understand it and probably don't appreciate it. We are all different and we have different tastes in reading material so technologies are probably no different.
With the different technologies available though it really is up to the library staff to discuss, consider and select the technologies that would best suit their needs as far as staff time goes and also which technologies would most likely be used by library clients.

The 2.0 training course has been a fantastic opportunity for me to work through even though it has taken until now to complete. I've really enjoyed it and found the whole experience enlightening and very worthwhile. There is so much technology out there and keeping up with it for librarians is a challenge but one we must all try to do even though we may not be using the technology ourselves it's important that library staff working with the public are at least familiar with the technology so that if library clients were to ask or mention mashup or rss feeds for example the library staff would at least know what these were.
I must say though that when I have been working on 2.0 or simply spending time on the Internet at home the thing I enjoy most when I logoff is to go outside for a walk or fresh air and saying hello to the neighbours. You still can't beat the good outdoors and I still prefer the face to face contact with humans.

Online Applications and tools

Set up Google Docs and shared with State Library. Can see the benefits of using this technology. We were able to use Google Docs when we were having planning meetings in regards to our Public Libraries Country NSW Conference in Tamworth. For those who would have had to travel a long distance to our meetings we were able to use Google Docs to share our ideas and have peoples comments & suggestions available in real time.

Mashups

Love the Mashups. We could create a library calendar of storytime dates and other fun ways to use photos to promote the library.

Google map is amazing. We used Google Maps when hosting our Public Libraries NSW Country 2008 Conference to show visitors where the most convenient motels and restaurants were in relation to the location of the conference.
We are often asked where our local War Memorials are. It would be really offer people the answer via Google Maps

Safe at work

Podcasts & Audio

It would have been so nice to have had our Country Music Storytimes available as Podcasts! We have been fortunate to have Felicity come along to the library to launch our storytimes at the begining of each CM festival. Felicity reads a number of picture books to the children and then sings some songs. It's wonderful.
There are lots of broadcasts on Radio National that I'd like to listen to at a time that is convenient to me. Mostly I only hear bits of an interview or discussion while I'm driving to or from work.
There have been a number of authors doing book talks in our library and for those people who do not have the chance to come along and be part of the audience a Podcast would be the next best thing. We could video the author talks and have them available as Podcasts on our library catalogue.

Answer boards and social searching

I like the idea of feedback such as on Taste website where people can comment on the recipes and give feedback. Also I enjoy the concept on Amazon which includes feedback as to what other customers have bought and also their customer reviews.
I prefered WikiAnswers to Yahoo!7 Answers because I liked the breakdown of the categories eg Literature & Language had links to categories such as Books and Literature, Idioms & slang in WikiAnswers.
Yet another way for people to seek information on a topic, add their own comments and edit other people's comments.
We are currently upgrading our library system and one of the new functions that has us all excited is the fact that borrowers can review and rate books they borrow from our library. How good is that!
'Slam the boards' sounds so good and if there's anything librarians love to do is to satisfy an information request knowing full well that they have done so using reputable databases, webpages, blogs etc. Go the librarians!

Del.icio.us

I've been using del.icio.us for quite awhile now and love it. It is so nice to log in at any computer and find access to some of my favourite or 'must use' sites.
Once upon a time we'd have to save our 'Favourites' onto a disc if we wanted to use them for training purposes at our branch libraries and then load the 'Favourites' onto the computers at the sites and then check that they worked. It was all terribly time consuming.
Now we just log onto our Del.icio.us account and there they are.
I had a tour of "The Library Thing". It looks and sounds really good. I will become a member in the near future. Fancy having a catalogue of your own books online and being able to connect with people around the world with similar book interests. Just fantastic.

http://delicious.com/N.Lightfoot

YouTube - ANGRY LIBRARIAN

YouTube - ANGRY LIBRARIAN

YouTube & Google Video

I have just spent an amazing hour looking at mostly YouTube videos! The Mosman library on Google video was just fantastic. What a great way to capture and share such prominent guest speakers at the library.
I searched YouTube for storytimes and found lots of videos to select from. Some libraries are doing commercials via YouTube to promote their storytimes others are simply capturing a storytime live. Really good to see.
I found a terrific video called 'Angry Librarian' which ran for 4 mins. It was hilarious!
OH&S is such an issue in workplaces these days and we are always including OH&S when training new staff. We also remind all staff at training days or at staff meetings of basic OH&S issues which can sometimes become a little mundane however YouTube had a number of good video clips and one in particular was made in Victoria. It was quite amusing with a serious element to it which makes it fun to watch but taking on the general message of OH&S.

Wikis

Everything about 2.0 is really interesting and worth knowing about and appreciating! There is so much out there in different formats - blogs, wikis, then there's rss, flickr and facebook to name a few. A person could their whole day on the Internet!
Wikis I feel are quicker to use than blogs. Anyone can participate by contributing so you do need to be careful when relying on content informtation.
Wikis offer a quick and easy way for people to add and respond with information.
Library Book groups are of course my first thought for use in libraries. I really liked the Book Lovers Wiki - 5 star review.

RSS feeds

What I like about RSS and newsreaders is that I don't have to keep checking on favourite websites for up to date information. By selecting & subscribing certain sites the current information comes to me!
I've selected a number of links from Radio National sites eg RN Book Show, RN Health Report as well as Crikey.com just to see how they go. I've also selected the Powerhouse Museum's blog 'picture of the day'.
We're about to update our library catalogue and include a Reader's Advisory Blog of sorts so having this technology available on our catalogue could be useful for people wanting to keep up to date with latest book reviews, what's on etc.
The Powerhouse Museum's blog with 'picture of the day' was just fantastic!!

Flickr

Loved Flickr! Lots of fun and could spend way too much time checking out all sorts of photos! However also great for sharing photos with regional library staff and also good for sharing storytime photos with libraries in general. Yarra Plenty had a great idea for Simultaneous Storytime. They put their photos up onto Flickr so we could all have a look and also contribute our own storytime photos if we wished!

I found this photo of Oxley Lookout in Tamworth that I liked. I go walking up the lookout most Saturdays - weather and snakes permitting

Testing a photo

Never too late....

Well finally I'm away! I've been playing around with 2.0 for awhile but didn't register until now. I'm looking forward to the next few weeks and finding out all sorts of ways that 2.0 can be used in a library setting.