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 ...

"We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought"

At last, access to rss feeds - but oh my gosh, there's so much info piling in to the reader.

Came across this today: “In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper, but we actually banished thought” – Michael Crichton.

How true - today I also read of an grad student who's written an applet that prohibits him accessing his computer for a set period (set by him, depending on how much thinking time he feels he needs).

Re some of our 'set questions': What I love is having it all come to me rather than go out looking for it - though for most of what I get now, I get via email alerts anyway. And now, G Reader is just another place I have to check.

I subbed to several of the suggested sites, and added a few blogs of people who always make me think - and then I got carried away creating folders so I could keep like feeds with like - what this does though is limit how much you see since the latest feeds display for each folder - must see if I can change this so just the latest of any folders shows up and I just use the folders if I want to go back and check something.

Wikis - what do they offer?

I've been using wikis in another role for about 4 years now so was familiar with what they're all about and am falling in love with Google notebook as a way of capturing all that important stuff from the web and contextualising it for me.

Still it was fascinating to see how they're being used in libraries.

I noticed that most of the library ones we were alerted to permitted 'authorised' editing, either by library staff or by 'community' members - think this is essential. If readers are not permitted to edit, is it really a wiki?

Though I also like the idea of using a wiki to set up a low cost website.

So, at the library ... although one of my colleagues has her/his doubts, I can see some real benefits - suspect the family historians would take to an fhwiki like ducks to water and scholars drawing on the Mitchell collections ... I guess as the 'doubting dog' says, it comes down to whether or not there is a need driving the collaboration rather than collaboration going in search of a need.

Energy and Teamwork

Here's a pic showing an impressive bit of energy and team work, one of the values we hold dear at the Library. I like to think we display "grace and elegance"as we go about our daily work - not sure though if all our energy is in our hindquarters.

I picked it cos a) I like stuff to do with horses and b) was intrigued by the comments inserted into the pic when you run mouse over it.

Blogs and libraries

How should libraries use blogs?

There are lots of things we could do with them but I've often thought that one thing a big research library like ours should be doing is capturing some blogs of ordinary everyday people today which will form part of the 'documentary heritage' of this state for scholars in 200 years time.

My colleague over at Library Thoughts has been thinking along similar lines. PANDORA will capture online publications of national or state significance but it looks like blogs are excluded from selection at present.

Will there be a 2208 black hole where previously have been diaries and letters?

Blogging - wiifm

It's taken some time to get back into the b/sphere but I've spent the time mulling over what to say, how to say it ... and have reflected on the nature of blogging which seems to me to mostly be one way communication. My observation is that most bloggers blog but most posts don't attract feedback. Not to say that means the posts are not useful, intriguing or thought provoking - just that they're one way. And that perhaps is a clue to the low priority it has had for me this week.

I love sharing ideas, tossing opinions and concepts back and forth, reshaping what I think depending on what I discover about what others think. But posting feels like shooting arrows into the sky and not knowing where they'll land.

A whole new way of communicating for me.

why wandering?

New bloggers should be warned about the time it takes to think up a cool, creative, elegant and intriguing name for your blog ... I've just spent 15 minutes doing some concept design work and then trying to come up with the right words to capture the concept. Yes, I know I can change it later but I also know a name change will remain low on the list of the many priorities competing for my attention.