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Week #10 - Wrap-up

As part of the tech team at Cockburn Libraries, I don't think there is any web 2.0 technology that shouldn't be explored. These technologies are only out there because people use them, and it is our job as information providers to make sure that we are available to educate people on their uses.

Currently we have Linda who manages our Twitter, Lawley who manages our Blogs, LibraryThing, Facebook and pretty much everything else (and is currently looking into Podcasting), Jenni who manages our Picasa/Flickr and me (why am I even in this tech team) actually I guess I have made some pages RSSable and done some other odds and ends. Long story short, we want to encourage staff to be able to teach, customers to be able to learn and everyone to understand the concept of web2.0 and the amazing benefits it has to the provision of information and the enrichment of life.

Despite having worked quite a bit with a number of web2.0 technologies, this course and the readings it has provided have taught me quite a lot about the uses of web2.0. There is a lot more to understanding web2.0 technologies than simply using them.

I think that of all of the technologies we learned about during this course, I can see Geocaching as having the least use in the Library field. Although it looks to be the most enjoyable, the other technologies seem to have more immediate and practical applications to the Libarary.

Thanks for the awesome web2.0 course.

Peace out.

Week #10 - Geocaching

We all remeber Easter Egg hunts right? A few of you might even have done some orienteering in your time? What absolute fun! Fun to do on your own, but awesome fun to do when it is a race to be first to find the treasure or next clue or whatever. I have heard a bit about Geocaching but never really read up on it. It looks like a bunch of fun. I will definately be hassling my wife about getting an app on her phone so we can have a crack at it.

I think the way that Notre Dame is using Geocaching is an excellent, practical way to help people learn the layout of an institution. It would get first year students quite familiar with the inside and out of buildings etc. I think it would work better on a large scale like a university, but i'm sure it could be adapted to help people learn the layout of a library.

I think that copying the Chicago Public Library’s Helps Teens “Find History” program, and putting caches at historical sites around the City of Cockburn would be a good way to get people of all ages involved with our local history.

I reckon the good ol’ Easter egg hunt, or a treasure hunt for kids would be a great use of Geocaching in the library aswell.

Week #9 - Podcasts

Once again our IT department has blocked another terribly malicious web2.0 technology. The dreaded mp3??? It doesn't make it that easy to be web2.0 savvy when all of your avenues of communication to the outside world are severed due possible security breaches. It's like locking yourself inside your house and never answering your phone or a knock at the door because it may be something malicious... I ask you, 'is that living?'

Much like video, there are many great possibilities for the use of audio on the library website. The obvious uses that I am sure are being used by many local libraries already are the recording of oral histories, storytime and other events. Podcasting audiobooks is another use, that will be a standard in the not too distant future.

Screencasting is something we have talked about doing for a while now at Cockburn libraries. Setting up a kind of help page which will have screencasts on how to...'search our catalogue', 'reserve an item', book in for an event' etc. Pretty much eveything we want borrowers to be able to do online could have its associated screencast. It is a lot easier to do something once you have seen it done.

I haven’t really spent a lot of time with podcasting, other than listening to uni lectures online, and occasionally visiting the ABC Classic FM site although I think it is a great resource for libraries to implement into their online services.

Also check out Neil deGrasse Tyson's podcasts. Mentored by Carl Sagan, this guy is half genius, half comedian and is easily up there with the geniuses of all time.

Week #8 - Online Video

Only the other day, Lawley, Linda and I were talking about the possibilities of video on the Cockburn Libraries Website. The idea we began discussing was the videoing/embedding of Storytime, Pram Jams and other various library events. Possible issues with this might be that customers will no longer need to visit the library to see their favourite events, however, I think that it would not stop enough people coming to the events, but would allow those that didn't get a booking to still see the event. From our discussions came the idea of videoing our cooking classes and beginning the Cockburn Libraries Cooking Channel on Youtube. We were joking though... were we?

Below I have embedded a video I made for the Cockburn Libraries to advertise the Multiscreen Channel unit that we had at the time. Enjoy!

Week #7 - Social Networking, Facebook and Twitter

I am a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to facebook (or possibly just the concept of the social networking site). On the one hand I am a webdesigner and general 2.0 user and, for this reason, am amazed by the sheer magnitude of sites like facebook, and the mind blowing code powering them. The possibilities of social networking sites, once the internet becomes a more immersive experience, are unfathomable. On the other hand, the massive potential that social networking has scares me on behalf of my children. I just hope that my children will add me as a friend on Facebook so that I can tell them when it is bed time.

I am operating under the Facebook guise of Cockburn Libraries. Feel free to friend us.

Twitter seems to me to be an excellent way to feed information to friends/family/customers etc. Because Tweets are short and sweet there is not alot of information to wade through to get to the nuts and bolts. Especially if you are beign SMSed tweets - As that story on the Chilean earthquake highlighted.

Follow my Tweets at webtwotraining.

Week #6 - Tagging, Delicious and LibraryThing

I think that tools like delicious have great potential for use as reference tools in libraries. There are many websites out there that are excellent sources of information, but often times you remember the site, but not the URL. - "Oh yeah dogs, I found this great site on dogs, now what was that URL...?" - If however, every time you found a great site on dogs, you bookmarked it on your library delicious page and tagged it, you could simply go to your tag cloud, click dogs and voila, you have reference material for the customer.

Check out my delicious tag cloud and links to my bookmarks to the right!

As mentioned in the blog for this week, Cockburn libraries currently has a similar tag cloud (courtesy of Librarything) set up in our OPAC so that borrowers can take the pain out of searching for books on particular topic in our collection. This is an excellent addition to our catalogue.

Once again IT's security have blocked something utterly harmless and as such I have been unable to create a widget from my Librarything catalogue. Instead I have embedded the Cockburn Libraries Staff's Currently Reading Widget into my blog, also to the right.