Monday, December 3, 2007
The final countdown....
What have been the highs and lows of the 23 Things for me?
Highs
Talking about 23 Thing with others
Discovering some exciting new tools I can use to help manage information
Finding some interesting blogs about library trends
Getting to "play" with new technologies
Lows
What is this obsession with having "friends"?
Managing all of my multiple identities
Second Life menace with limited vocabulary
Having a photo of myself added to a social networking page by another 23 Things participant without my permission and very much against my wishes
Where to next with emerging technologies?
For me?
Contemplate, consolidate, reconsider, be objective
Retreat from networks I am unlikely to use again
For libraries?
Review, evaluate, validate, implement, review, evaluate...
Sunday, December 2, 2007
RSS retrospective
In what cases do you think RSS will be useful?
For users of news type services, web pages and blogs if the services are stable and reliable, updates are made regularly and not incessantly, and the interest of the user is sustained over a period of time
For you?
A useful way to keep a watch on library trends - I tend to look at posts occasionally but not regularly
For our users?
Useful for updates - a good way of promoting new services, trials, or resources
A different way of providing alerting services
What makes it different to email?
Only what I want to read , when and if I choose to read it
No spam!
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Revisiting my goals
Revisiting the goals I set in Week 2. Did I reach them?
Goals
To learn about emerging library technologies
Well I definitely know more than I did before, in some cases more than I needed or wanted to know.
To evaluate these technologies and assess their potential for adoption
I can definitely see a use for some of the technologies, others I'm less sure about, some I just think are irrelevant - I think the Library as a whole needs to seriously evaluate these technologies and the role, if any, they should fulfill in the provision of our services.To adopt some of these new technologies to resolve current workplace need
Have already begun using RSS feeds and del.icio.us to help management information, will possibly adopt other technologies as the need arises.To help mentor others
I found that many of my colleagues did not need the assistance of a mentor.
As I thought at the beginning of this programme regularly finding time to complete the tasks was the greatest difficulty of all.
Now at the end of the programme, my overriding thought is that all of these technologies need to be rigorously evaluated and pedagogically validated before they join our current methods of service delivery.
In my eyes it is preferable that we use these technologies to find creative solutions for existing service delivery needs rather than the "lackey band" situation that causes us to deliver the same service using so many different technologies that staff and other resources are stretched to breaking point and we provide no service well. Just because a technology exists and other libraries have chosen to investigate its use, does not necessarily mean that it is valid or that we have to use it too.
Retroland
However, it did give me some ammunition to use in a disagreement about this horror product of the '60's and '70's - Fresca:
Big Brother remembered it as lemon flavoured but I was sure that it was the most awful version of synthetic artificially sweetened grapefruit drink that I have ever ingested. It used to be sold as a diet drink along with the equally awful tasting Tab, so I was amused to read this description in Retroland:
"In Spanish, the word "fresca" means fresh, and that's something the Coca-Cola company sought to bring to diet-conscious soft drink consumers in the early 60s. The grapefruit-flavored beverage catered to more 'discriminating' palates, and has grown a cult following over the years. While its popularity has grown slightly since its introduction, it remains a cult beverage with followers that grew up with the drink. It joins the ranks of Tab, another specialty diet soda that didn't get mass market appeal."
It was apparently the beverage of choice of US President Lyndon B Johnson - go figure.
Learning about Learning 2.1
bubbl.us is an easy to use tool for creating mind maps - easy that is until you try to export or embed the image you have created, their help is non-existent! as you can see from my mind map I had lots of ideas about how this technology could be used in libraries, including brainstorming, project management, promotional literature and information literacy. I could see a direct tie in with the information road maps that were discussed at the Sharecase.
Gliffy is similar to bubbl.us but also has this nifty floor plan creator.
Sharing slideshare.net
Web 2.0, Hip or Hype - A Library Perspective
An intelligent and reasoned look at what libraries can do to harness the potential of the collective intelligence.
SlideShare Link
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Most useful to libraries ... hmmm...
The two most useful tools that I have looked at so far are RSS feeds and del.icio.us.
I can see that these tools could be effectively used to aid information management by both library staff and library patrons - right here, right now.
Another advantage in my eyes is that they don't rely on critical mass and the obsessive need to have "friends".
Second Life = Sierra circa 1980
This is another new technology that I just don't get.
In the beginning I thought okay a way of combining gaming technology with educational purpose this could interest me. Then I made an avatar and checked out Lindenworld - the cynic in me very quickly realised that the main purpose of Second Life is to make money (lots of money) for Linden laboratories.
What I discovered is that for me it offered little in the way of inducement to learn. There are a lot of hoops to jump through to achieve nothing that could not already be achieved using existing library technology such as web pages, phone or IM, videoconferencing or wikis.
This combined with graphics that were so clunky they reminded me very strongly of the old Sierra PC games of the early 1980's such as King's Quest and Mystery House - it is so slow. Unlike Tibia or WoW you don't even get to kill anything but there is every chance that my avatar will commit suicide due to frustration.
The final insult to injury was having my screen filled with obscene messages and my avatar "frozen" by some other user.
Wittering on twitter
However, I can see a possible use for it as a way of disseminating (perhaps embedded in our web page?) info about library services or upcoming events such as tours and classes. This would be especially useful at the beginning of semester or to provide rapid information but would require constant attention and appropriate content.
Socially, I don't need constant snapshots of other peoples lives in 140 characters or less and lets hope it doesn't have this effect.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Sunday, November 11, 2007
19 down, 4 to go
From Google Reader
I was most interested in an article posted at librariesinteract.info about the Australian Access Federation, a programme to develop infrastructure to facilitate electronic communication within and between research and higher education institutions. Each institution in the AAF would trust the authentication credentials of other members’ users to provide authorised access using Shibboleth and Public Key Infrastructure technologies.
Sunday, November 4, 2007
Social networks
Littérateur will now don her grumpy little old lady suit...
I know what social networking is about and I know a lot of our students and academic staff use these tools - what I don't know is why are we here?Social networking is just that intended for just that - social purposes. Students use Facebook and Myspace to interact with their friends and classmates. Anecdotal and other evidence suggests the intrusion of others into their space can cause resentment or ridicule - an American college student recently described librarians in Facebook as "like a soccer mom wearing a Pikachu T-shirt". There was a considerable outcry when Facebook was made available to users outside of educational institutions.
Facebook precludes usage by institutions - so why would a group of librarians create a Facebook Group or Network and then hang about waiting for students to "friend" us. The even creepier alternative would be us trying to "friend" the students.
Another consideration is that many employers are now banning the use of Facebook including banks, television networks, councils, government departments and private enterprise. Why encourage students to use a resource for any library purpose which they will probably not be able to use once they gain employment?
I can not think of a single purpose that we could use social networks for that could not be met by web pages, CE6 or email/chat reference services.
Maybe I'm just not social...
Flickr gives me the flick
This is the first Thing that I found really difficult to follow. Often what I was seeing on the screen didn't seem to match the instructions. Even more frustrating was that the Flickr help screens didn't actually help with my problems.
I did succeed in the end but I think I would only use Flickr in the unlikely event that I needed to share photos with a large number of people.
Images in a blog
When Kathryn suggested that we take photos and add them to our blogs I thought of my subject instantly.
Hidden away on North Wing Level 3 is a wonderful series of black and white photographs which document the history of Murdoch University and the Library. Some of the photographs are attributed to University photographer Brian Richards.
It was a shame that these photographs were not relocated during the refurbishment as they are not displayed to their best advantage. Unfortunately the cramped conditions and light reflections make them hard to photograph.
If you have a look you might even be able to identify one of the subjects of the photograph at the bottom.
- Adding the images to this post was extremely straight forward but I do wish that Blogger would improve the "drag and drop" capacity, so frustrating!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Image generators
This is a clever piece of technology which has potential for application in information literacy or in enhancing web pages or WebCT.
It would be a really good method of catching a reader's attention or highlighting one aspect of a significant amount of information.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
del.icio.us vs google...
The tagged sites brought up some duplicate sites and some unique sites. A search in a tagged site will only retrieve what has been tagged with that exact term, while other sites with a taxonomy will possibly achieve a wider recall. The number of hits may also depend on the number of users registered to use the site.
I particularly liked using Kartoo. This is a very different site which presented the results visually. It is very similar to the Visual Search option offered by EbscoHost databases.
I also like del.icio.us, it will be great to have a bookmarking facility which is not computer or browser dependent. I have already created an account and added some tags.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Here wiki, wiki, wiki
Both of these tasks were reasonably straight forward but the hardest thing I found was coming up with content that didn't bore me to tears, let alone my fellow participant s in the 23 Things project. I found myself creating and destroying different Pbwiki entries because they simply bored me stupid.
If you are interested you could check out my 'final' effort.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Cute and cuddly...not quite
I wanted to practice adding images to my blog so I had a quick look at my fellow Participants blogs - there are an awful lot of furry friends represented on our blogs. Now those of you who have established my identity will know that I am usually not a fan of the cute and cuddly - there will be no fluffy kittens or puppies on my blog! So in keeping with the established trend, the image above will be the only thing cute and cuddly to ever be included In Black and White.
Feeds on a diet or diet of feeds?
- Blogs with few subscribers - because you won’t be rereading their comments on everyone else’s blog
- Analytical, thoughtful blogs - they’re worth the time
- Blogs outside librarianship, or with a higher ratio of original content
- Feeds you actually read, if you use Google Reader use the statistics feature to work out which you read the most
I guess ultimately putting my feeds on a diet is better than a diet of feeds
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
The opinions of others
The conspicuousness of RSS feed links on pages is so variable.
It is fascinating to read the views of other librarians towards emerging library technologies and Web 2.0. It is reassuring to be part of a profession that thinks deeply about the adoption of new tools and allows for the expression of such diverse views as those expressed by Feel-good Librarian and Annoyed Librarian.
Another enjoyable task this week is looking at the blog posts by the other 23 Things participants. What a diverse group of people we are!
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Goals, obstacles and toolkit
To learn about emerging library technologies
To evaluate these technologies and assess their potential for adoption
To adopt some of these new technologies to resolve current workplace needs
To help mentor others
Obstacles
Time
Did i mention time?
Time
More time
Time
Toolkit
A more active imagination
Time
Firefox
Earphones
Digital camera
A mentor for the mentor (Kathryn - where are you?)
Introductory post
So far, the first two things were actually rather pedestrian - too much reading and not enough doing for me.
Things 3 to 5 have proved much more interesting - more hands on and interactive. I'm just a little concerned about all of the usernames and passwords I am amassing.