week 9 # 23

I Have enjoyed the web 2.0 experience in particular RSS feeds (now noticing this symbol on a lot of web sites); generators, stickies (fun exercise), delicious, youtube and Google.docs and Zoho. It was good to learn about the other things - social networking, wikis and technorati but to be honest I don't think I would use them at this present time(not being a person who writes a diary and still sends postcards!) but who knows what the future will bring.

It was good to work together with others and share our experiences and also see how creative some of us are with our blogs. I also feel more confident helping our patrons or at least knowing what they are talking about. Still a bit cautious about downloading things at home so will contine to ask the more computer literate people at work for assistance. Really enjoyable just wish I had more time at work to play!

week 9 # 22 Ebooks

Project Gutenberg is a very good site for everyone wanting to read classics or books published last century or before. It is a good site for people to access when a whole class is studying an title or needing access to an item where there are only a few hard copies available. Also these days more branch libraries are only keeping a selection of "popular" classics and there is usually one copy held at the main library.

Ebooks.com has many recent titles including the Stephanie Meyer vampire trilogy whicg is very popular now. I can see this being a popular site for people who buy their books (like them new pristine and instant)rather than using the library as they can either visit a book shop in person to see the new range (Borders, Whitcoulls) or purchase the ebook equivalent. I also checked a couple of subjects to see how current the books were e.g. travel. There were a few 2008 travel editions on Australia but not much on New Zealand. I also did a search on rugby and came up with the Australian brumbies but nothing on NZ - not that I am a rugby fan but seemed a good test.

I looked at the Kindle and as it is new it is very expensive and also limited to North America. Other companies are looking at producing something similar, will stick to my PC at the moment.

Week 9 #21 Podcasts

Not being an ipod user yet, I found this paragraph explained it well.

Break PODCAST down into two parts. First the POD: you can either listen to a podcast on your computer or transfer it to your portable audio/video device, which means that file is Portable, and it’s On-Demand because you can listen to or watch it when you want, where you want. The CAST means the file is sent out to you over the Internet, in the way a “broadcast” comes to you over the radio or TV airwaves. But instead of using a radio or TV, with podcasts you use a computer connected to the Internet, and on that computer you have a program that allows you to subscribe to, manage, and listen to or watch your favorite podcasts.

I looked at podcast.com and it has 60,000 audio and videos for people to download and you can choose from various categories. I'm starting to think that people will never move from their home as they can now get everything via their PC. Will people stil want to meet face to face in the future? I suppose if you find people with common interests who are still geographically close you will meet up (Social networking where you invite people to join your site). Still trying to add some podcast feeds but my PC at home may need some upgrades to accept the new info.

Youtube Highland cattle having fun

week 9 # 20 Youtube

Well the video made for Library week was a bit dour - however Conan the Librarian would thrill our customers especially the boys! From these 2 videos I went on to others on library topics. We could make short videos for youtube about our services and people and when we go out to schools login and then show them Manukau Libraries -may change their perception of libraries particularly if the audio was a rap or great music.

As youtube is watched all over the world this is our opportunity to connect with everyone. It's also a bit of a notalgia site watching clips of children's TV programmes that I used to watch. However I have added a clip from Rab C Nesbitt' Scotland's Fred Dagg complete with singlet (string not black)!

Week 8 #19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

There are so many tools on the web that we could be using to help us with our work and hobbies-you don't have to start from scratch anymore nor do you need to go out and buy a package from a shop. I looked at the genealogy sites and it is much more easy than the clunky package I ordered a couple of years ago. There is also the added advantage of uploading digital photos or scanning old photos to add to the relation's profile. There are other people you can ask for help of build up an online relationship with (if you are brave - still a bit wary myself).

I went through the "best of list" and there are alot of sites we have been using in the web 2.0 lessons - flikr, rollyo etc. This would be a useful address http://www.seomoz.org/web2.0/short to add to my delicious account so that if I need a particular "tool" I can log into delicious and see if there is a recommended site I could use. Maybe in a few months when all this web 2.0 sinks in and I actually use some of these sites I have been playing with.

week 8 # 18 online word processing with Google.docs

I am going to encourage more of our Learn.net users to use Google docs or Zoho in the future, up to now I have been telling them to email their documents to their email so that they can have easy access in the future.g. CVs, cover letters etc. But I will now tell them about these 2 very useful websites and encourage them to use them - just need to get more familiar with them myself.

week 8 #18 Zoho - good way to get feedback on documents

This site would have been a useful site to save the new PDRs to while all the managers were working on them. The managers could have been allowed access to these PDRs through Zoho and this would save each of us saving them to our hard drives, amending them and then emailing them back. It's just amazing what can be done now and that there are different options for people to work on shared documents. Posted by bisketpalmer from the zoho site!

http://writer.zoho.com/index.do#

Wow! will we be doing this with all of our documents needing feedbback? Only thing is it may take me longer to share a document with everyone rather than using the traditional way of attaching it to and email!! Deadlines may have to be extended for Web 2.0 methods of communication!!.

Week 6 #16 Web 2.0

the library is everywhere, barrier-free, and participatory. Collaborate with Amazon; provide digital downloads of books; create a global, and globally accessible, catalog; invite readers to tag and comment.

I decide what I need. I think this sentence above from http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/6.htm explains what our libraries will be in the not too distant future, they probably are now and before the Web 2.0 exercise I wouldn't have known what I was seeing but now feel I am learning to understand this concept.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
I watched the youtube video and I finally grasped the web 2.0 phenomanen - we control the web content now,we decide what we want, we sort it into how we want to receive the information be it through RSS, wikis, logging into blogs, linking with other social networks - quite scary really when I am used to going to a web site every now and then to look for facts but at the same time more interactive and more exciting.

Week 7 #17 Social networking

I have had a look at the 3 social networks and they are a great way to keep in touch with people who are physically distant especially family who live in the UK or even search to se if there are any old school friends listed. I need to sit with someone who has one of these sites so if I joined one of them I can feel more confident about sharing my information. Lots of the Learn.net users are Bebo members and are always adding info, uploading photos and connecting with others. At our next library web 2.0 learning session I will ask Taniwha's moko or Forestbabe to give me a demo.