SLNSW and social networking ...

… what an opportunity – or rather what a range of possible opportunities. And I think therein lies the challenge.

The temptation is to take a kind of scattergun approach – let’s try this, get this up, see what happens. And we have taken that approach with implementing LibraryThing For Libraries. That freedom to experiment is sooo important but how do we resource and manage 300 odd experiments? And how does it fit with what we know about the need to provide consistency in services? The Government 2.0 blogger puts the challenge well.

So we need a coherent approach to what we want out of this new way of providing our services and we also need a way of providing the resources ($ and staff time) so that what goes up is every bit as dynamic and interactive as the media itself. We all need more skills and we also need more time to practise them. But then what?

In a sense, Learning 2.0 is a good example. It’s been wonderful to expose us to new ways of working with information – but after we get to the end, what next? Some of us are lucky enough to be blogging as part of our roles here, many more have a web presence outside work – but for most the most part there has not yet been a radical change in how most of our library and information services are being delivered.

Like I said, quite a challenge!

and here's the trading card ...

... which didn't load the first time - grrr!

more mashing

Another example of mashup used to good effect is this prize winner from the Government 2.0 Taskforce comp for mashing up Australia: Suburban Trends brings together info on key social and economic trends by suburb/postcode and presents it in an attractive visual way.


And here's my effort at mashing. I used Big Huge Labs to create a trading card that represents the Library's values of engagement and teamwork:

It's been a long long time

How time flies ... am just getting back into this learning experience after too long out of it. I can't remember any user names or passwords which is making the practical activities a tad difficult. I wonder if all our clients would have the same problems with this kind of library use, unless of course they were frequent users.

So, listened to the vod and pod casts - that's always fun. Even more fun was big huge labs where I tried to create a motivational poster. I managed a test one, but when I tried to do the real thing, I couldn't get the photo to load - v. frustrating, as it wasn't clear or intuitive how you actually get the image into the poster. But I'm very motivated so will go back and have another go when I have more time.

Looking at the Google maps mashups, I could see a use for staff at the library - we could do a map of our floor plans and add in the different collection sequences in each location.

On bookmarks - from anywhere

I've already added a few new bookmarks to del.icio.us and can see how handy this one is going to be - I use bkmks a lot and have felt the pain from losing them recently following a very nasty hard drive tragedy. Knowing my newly created ones are all safe and sound at del.icio.us is reassuring - or it will be once I find the time to post them all.

Beyond my personal prediliction for saving and categorising, I can see possibilities for highly customised research sharing & support services in a library setting.

Itube, Youtube, we all tube together

So, as usual it took me the longest time to create my account - like everyone else, I'm compiling a list of usernames, account names, emails and passwords - and trying to keep track of them all.

I love youtube - can waste hours there but can also see some serious uses for libraries. The examples given in the lesson all seemed appropriate and there's a couple more internal uses, I think. I was speaking to a colleague today who has to do a series of short briefing sessions on the impact of some recent legislative change. He's dreading it as it will take a lot of time and he's uncomfortable as a public speaker. How about he videos the pres - loads it - has set groups of staff view it at a particular time and then opens a chat session to respond to questions and comments. Alternatives for the Q and A could be a discussion board. Second internal use could be capturing staff explaining/training new staff in a particular procedure, especially if it has a signifcant manual dimension. This could then be an intro for new staff, with additional personal training available for those who needed / wanted it.

But a little niggle - when watching he clips on the web, all kept stopping continually - intensely irratating and for someone with limited attention span, a total turn off.

Prangstgrup Library Musical - Reading on a Dream PRANK!!

This vid called to mind some of the brilliant Chaser skits - also enjoyed the impact on those watching, both during and after - wonder if informed consent was given? Another plus for it as far as a potential for awareness raising was the mainly positive comments.
Perhaps we could have Mathew Flinders - the Musical - Mathew meets a current Fellow who is researching him - Mathew disapproves of what's being written about him ...