And.........stop!

Hurray - I'm at the end.  I actually learnt more, no I actually enjoyed it more than I suspected I would at the beginning.  I knew that I'd learn about new things but thought I'd hate all of them.  I like delicious and librarything and may even continue to use them - in fact I just bookmarked something I found on Youtube  on Delicious so I'd be able to find it again when I move back to my usual workplace.  So yes, hard work but interesting and potentially very useful to library services.  The only comment I have is that commenting on blogs was actually harder than I thought because I kept running out of time and it was time consuming to read the other comments and try and say something meaningful.

Geocaching

Geocaching - never heard of it before I got to this section but it sound like excellent fun and would a fantastic way to develop some programmes for all ages in the library.  We could have easter egg hunts!  We could develop treasure hunts around the library teaching people about the collection.  It would a great bookclub session for kids.  I can see a lot of great ways that libraries could use geocaching as long as we could sort out access to the right technology.  Although I can't imagine it would be that hard in times when so many people have GPS enabled mobiles phones.

Podcasting

I always think that I'd like to subscribe to a podcast of Hamish and Andy because I listen to it every night on the way home and only ever hear the last hour.  I've tried to listen to podcasts of seminars and talks for work but I always get bored and stop after a while, I think I'd rather read a transcript, don't know why.  I like the idea of students being able to download a podcast of studying music (Arizona SL).  I guess that public libraries could use podcasts for lost of things, storytime sessions, author visits, library lover sessions etc.  It would be a great additional service to offer people who visit our website.

Online videos

I found this video when I was thinking about doing some paving but couldn't get my head around the instructions in the books I was reading on the subject.   I know that some libraries already use videos to show people how to access technology or to do virtual library tours.  I also like the idea of being able to access storytime or rhymetime sessions online so that people in remote areas could have access to these valuable programmes.  It may even be useful as a promotional tool, people could watch bookclub or library lover sessions online and see what their all about would, this would hopefully encourage people to join.

Twitter

Huh?!  I looked at some famous people's tweets like Pink and Rove and I feel like I came in haf-way through a conversation.  It's like getting answers when you don't know the questions.  I suppose it will all make sense when I start using it.  As far as library use goes,  a friend of mine commented that they used Twitter at a seminar so that people could comment on the sessions as the speaker was talking and that it was interesting to listen to someone talk and read (on a screen in the background) what the audience thought.  I also thought that getting tweets to let you know whether sessions at a conference were worth attending would be useful.  My Twitter account name is KPobblebonk.

Facebook

Well I've just joined facebook and I'm waiting for my 'friends' to reply so I can post something.  I guess that people like facebook for all sorts of reasons and some people use it as a lifeline but again I'm just not that attched to technology and I would never be able to commit to something online like facebook.  However, knowing that so many millions of people are regular users means that for the library its a fantastic communication tool and could easily be used to engage people.  Having looked at a few of the library facebook pages I can see how well they could work for public libraries.  I like that it creates a mini community of users.

LibraryThing

Library thing is fun as well, I can see as a reader that it would be a great way to find new titles in your preferred genre.  http://www.librarything.com/home/kmacweb2  It would great to be able to use something like librarything to help readers with 'who writes like' enquiries.  They often have very specific ideas ( I remember one lady who wouldn't read anything that had cravats in it!) about the type of authors they like.  This would be an easy way to hook them up with like-minded readers.  I've added titles of books that I've recently read to my son and would like to find titles that other people enjoy reading to their kids.  I know some parents struggle to find books (especially if your buying presents for someone else's child) that are suitable for certain ages etc.  and this would be a good way of finding that sort of information.

Tagging, Delicious and LibraryThing

I've just joined Delicious and added my first bookmarks.  I thought at first that this would be another time waster but after having a quick look through some other people's bookmarks I've already found some sites that I like.  I can see that if you share common interests that it's a good way to find sites that you may not have found on your own.  Would it be useful as a reference tool?  Yes, as individual library branches in a system we don't have a tool that allows to collect reference sites in a collaborative manner and this sort of website could be very useful for just that.  Having just moved  to another position I'm already bummed that I don't have access to my many internet bookmarks so again this is the perfect tool for those of us who move around.   http://www.delicious.com/kmacweb2 . 

WIKIs

Twilight!  Who has the time or the inclination to write a wiki about fictional characters froma a second rate book?  Who are these people?  Again I find myself thinking that it's all such a waste of time.  I just looked through the games and public libraries discussion forum and the NSW advisory service wiki and they were both really boring and didn't seem to have much on them.  On the whole I didn't find any of these wikis interesting or useful, maybe I just don't care that much about any one subject.   I don't know what sort of wiki Swan could have that would be interesting.

Here's a picture of our resident frog who comes out every night to swim in a bowl of water we have in the garden.

RSS Feeds

This is actually something that I'm already using, I subscribed to FESA alerts through Outlook so I can get up-to-date info about bushfires.
The five sites that I think are useful are:
FESA fire alerts - this is the first RSS I set up because there are always fires in the hills and if you live up there it's good to know whether you are going to be able to get home!
Perthnow - traffic jams and peak hours traffic updates - also useful for driving home
Art Gallery of WA- to keep up with the latest exhibitions
Unshelved - for fun
Guggenheim - it's interesting to see what's going on elsewhere in the world and how awesomely creative people can be - check out "A Biennial of creative video".

http://www.youtube.com/user/playbiennial/?x=dHlwZT12aWRlbyZpZD1uMFA2dUlZZVAwcyZjb3VudHJ5PUFMTA

I'm probably more likely to use RSS through Outlook than through Google Reader because, obviously, I look at that every day.   I could see that the libraries could offer a subscription to patrons to keep them up-to-date with events, maybe new books etc.  Could be useful.

First Post

So here's my first post, not sure what to write about but  I'm not sure whether this blog is something I'd do if I wasn't doing it for this course but it's been interesting getting it set up and playing with the design settings, I like that there are heaps of different backgrounds to choose from.  You could spend a lot of time making it very specky or just use a template and keep it quick and simple.  I think the hardest part was thinking of a subject to write about but I'm building the frog bog and pond at the moment so I thought that would be something I could at least talk about and then add photos as I go and also add links to sites I've used to get ideas.  I think you'd have to be quite passionate about a subject (or like typing) to spend a lot of time writing and commenting on or about blogs.

Flickr

A nice photo of a motorbike frog.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/warpedtime/751408210

I've just joined Flickr and am going to try and upload some photos from my garden and also put them in my blog.  I've already found a few groups on Flickr that have some cool photos of native garden design.  I've also found that by looking at the groups that other people are members of I've found links to other groups that I'm interested in. One of the things I've already noticed on flickr just from using it a few times is that if the tagging is really important otherwise it's quite hard to narrow down your search.  I've tried to look for Australian content and seem to end up with photos from all over the world.  But maybe that's just me! 

I've used Flickr before to look at pictures of libraries and I think that it has been quite inspirational to see what can be achieved if you have the money and the vision.  
 
Red chairs in the new Salon, Learning Commons Renovation, Scott Library, York University, Toronto

http://www.flickr.com/photos/riverdaleto/5027745835/in/pool-ola_worldlibraries



National Library of the Czech Republic.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fkada/4757043538/in/pool-ola_worldlibraries

http://www.flickr.com/photos/brokentoyshop/4362657368/

Here's my first blog for the 23things training.  Not really sure what to say that anyone would find interesting...