Week 6 Encompass culture

I have signed up to this website and will be interested to see what emails I receive.
I have signed up to a few of the genre lists (World fiction, crime) and think it will be similiar to "nextreads" but with a global list not that the library doesn't hav e a wide variety of material but will be good to see what is avaialble in the UK.

I did a search on adventurous fiction and there was a huge list from diffrent years. I am assuming when you subscribe you get the most recent fiction published inthat genre so will check when I receive the email.

Customers would enjoy this as often when you go into the mainstream book shops you see the popular fiction (chicklit, crime etc) so will provide more of the first time novelists and perhaps more obscure writers. Borders has a good selection and often has more in the less popular genres and that includes non fiction.

It would be good to compare the emails with the Goodreads emails and see if they are heavily slanted to their respective countries.

It is another option for our customers to receive an email when they are relaxed at their computer and would like to read.

I would like some comparitive authors e.g. if you like .... you might like ..... I like Amazon for this - I don't buy but do look at the website sometimes.

slideshare

Wow, don't think we can get away with the boring powerpoint presentations after seeing this website. Great site, really raises the bar but also challenging if you don't have the skills to use it to enhance your presentation.
I looked a the library sites and very professional, tried a few key words and watched a few presentations library and web2.0. I also liked how it was similar to youtube as there were more suggestions at the end to view.

I think all the customers under 25 would quite easily be able to use this site but the older generation who are use to showing graphs and cahrts would find it a real eye opener. There is so much out there to learn, where do you find the time to do all of this?

Tastespotting

Nice website to drool over, did a couple of searches - tamarillo, kiwifruit, pavlova, found a recipe on tamarillo chutney. I wouldn't use this website, if I needed a recipe I would search google. I could see this as a popular palce for good cooks who spend alot of time in the kitchen but not for me. I have cook books I don't use as getting too lazy and want something quick and easy. I also think the less people you have to cook for the more you tend to make the same things - different if you have a family or regularly entertain. But I did like the photos, very appetising.

Feed my inbox week 3

This is a good site to subscribe to a number of feeds which is managed by this site, just register and then choose sites to feed into your email.
Good for busy people who want to keep up with information an don't have time to hunt around for a website each time so can have it come to them in their email.

Picapp week 2

I am running behind in my web2.0 lessons. Explored this website and it's great for all users staff and customers as there the images are free to use so no concerns about the leagality of using an image. I looked up the Christchurch earthquake to see if there would be images and there are including the historic church at Hororata which the PM has promised to rebuild. This would be a useful site for youths needing an image for their homework, for customers needing an image for a presentatin, has a whole lot of uses perhaps greeting cards etc.

Web 2.0 round 2 lesson 1 "Box"

Is this anything we woud use for work purposes?
Yes, just thinking of recent training documents that a few of us have been working on together. They are on the ndrive so we can all access them but when they go out to the whole staff it would be good for staff to access "Box"
Would you use it personally?
At the moment I ahve the n and hdrive and do carry things around on my USB. I could see it being very useful if I had forgotten to take my USB with me
How easy is it to use?
Very easy, I thought it was similar to eLGARNET - is this the same concept? Easy to upload files and add a comments
What worked for you?
Simple to use
What didn't?
Not sure if I am ready to share my documents but I do like the way you can add people, they don't pester you.
What surprised you?
Easy to use
Would customers find this site useful?
This would be great for customers as many of them forget to take their USB out of the pc and it contains valuable and vulnerable info about them so if they could access virtual storage that would help them particular customers without a home or work pc to use.
Would you promote this to customers?
Yes, due to the amount of USBs that get left behind or are taken by others. You can alos control who has access so it can be only you or you can choose who can access the other files
I also think it's easy to bring the document up to edit it e.g. a CV and the system say you can edit it without any software
Why/why not?

Comment of Web2.0 part 2

Enjoyed all the lessons some more than others.

Top lessons: Zamzaz useful for work and to help customers.

Good to know about twitter and facebook - need to get more confidence in using Facebook

MP3 - a real change in appreciating music - easy to track down, don't have to go to the shops, don't have to buy the whole album and can get alot for free. Can select music in the comfort of your home. Still a bit reluctant to put my details out into Cyberspace but did rip a song on to the Ipod at work so feel pleased about that.

Loved goodreads, great to have a site where you can talk books and get recommendations.

Week 6 Facebook

I have had a look at the youtube segment on Facebook and have joined, will ask some of my colleagues at work to show me around. There has been alot of talk about the privacy problems and there have been stories from friends where private information has been sent on to others so still very cautious. I also think about the photos that people add, their whole life is exposed to the world - not for me.

I'm interested to see what happens at the end of the year as Bebo ceases and will the Bebo users transfer to Facebook?

I have looked at a few libraries facebook pages - another way to communicate to library users about events, new books

I would tell the customers about our facebook page but would need a small guide for myself to tell them about it. I think we now need a DLE with list of all of our services so that customers can ask us more.

Week 5 MP3

I looked at Amazon's music seemed to be the site that would cover the mainstream music and did some searching on people I have liked in the past. Searched for some NZ bands and classics (Kiri Te Kanawa) and found their music. No wonder people download music as they can choose the song they want without having to buy the whole album and can store lots of music in a very small container rather than a shelf, cabinet full of CDs and records - still have an old record collection.

It's easy to get around the website just like searching for book titles. Customers would have no problems using it and probably most people under 30 are doing this all the time and don't think anything of it. It is much easier to search for one particular song that you have heard in a movie (listed in th credits) or you when you have been to a concert/show and then download it.

I haven't downloaded a song will ask my colleagues to show me how to do it using the work ipod next week.

Week 4 good reads

After River by Donna Milner


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is set in the mid 60s when men left the USA to dodge the Vietnam war. River ends up over the Canadian border working for a family dairy farm and the impact he has on 3 of the family members (mother, brother and sister) stretches for the next 36 year. Very good read and could picture the farm surrounded by mountains

View all my reviews >>

I like Good reads as soon as you post the book you have read you can see similiar books in the right hand side. One of the authors listed is Chris Bohjalian and I have read his books in the past and would agree he is a similiar author in the Donna Milne genre. This is the online version of the "Good reads" in our reference collections on what to read next.
I think this is a great site to link up friends or even library customers who may read similiar books to you or wanting a good read. To be honest I am terrible at remembering authors and titles and admire my colleagues who can remember the details and then give a verbal review.
I would like this particular exercise to continue and hope that my library colleagues would add recommendations, online version of brwosing the returned today trolley.
Customers would like this perhaps it could be a link on the library website (reading and reviews) so that they could check it out. Staff running the book clubs could also discuss it with the audience and perhaps they could set up a laptop at the meeting so that they could guide customers through the site.
I need some friends on this website so will encourage my colleagues to share their aliases.

Twitter week 3

I looked at twitter, have signed up but not that interested to be honest. I will ask my colleagues how they use it perhaps to send brief info or perhaps they follow well known people??
I have checked out some tweets and how organisations could use this service to send quick bites of information to tempt the receiver. I think it's a good thing that it's limited to 140 characters which means you have to be concise and to the point which I like - no waffle.

Useful if you wanted to contact your list of contacts with the same message. Could link in with customers twitter address as well as their email address.
The library could send tweets about events, service upgrades, new books, send a tweet a week on one fact e.g.
Internet available at all libraries
School holiday programmes
No fines for children's books
New magazines

At a recent MCC meeting the speaker said that in the 1960s/1970s most people switched on to the 6.oopm news on TV or read the national newspaper or listened to Radio NZ but these days there are many ways people receive their information and the majority under 30 would not get it via these 3 mediums so all organisations have to use all the technology and traditional methods to get their message across so twitter is one of those options.

Lesson 2 Zamzar

This is a very useful site for work and home purposes. We often get customers with diffrent files which may not be compatible with the current word programme. The classic file 2-3 years ago were files ending in .txt and we couldn't open them on the Learn.net and had to ask customers to return to the pc they had used and convert it to a word doc. Even now we still have government departments giving customers inforamtion on floppy discs which need to be converted.

I have just converted a word doc to a PDF. This tool will be very useful, particularly just having interviewed new staff and asking IT/HR to convert their CVs and cover letters as unable to open them so will now be able to do it via Zamzar.

Also a great site for our Learn.net customers

Web 2.0 2010 - Lesson 1 next chapter in blogging

I have decided to add on to my blog created in 2008 and use it as a reference to when I need a reminder on how to do the things then and what I am learning in 2010.

Why would I use a blog?

It seems more relevant now as more and more people have a blog, invite friends to view it and treat as an online diary however I still like my privacy. Emails are good, like receiving photos but would still prefer to talk to someone, must be a generation difference.

But for work purposes it makes you feel part of an organisation, able to contribute to a wider audience and keep up with developments. I have just googled "blog" and read about all the blogs out there - genre, media type etc.

Why would a library have a blog? To appeal to the bloggers out there, to disperse our information in a variety of ways. Add all the features we have on the website to the blog (new books, events, reviews etc) I just looked at the Auckland city Libraries blogs and they have blogs from teh Family history section, Rare books room etc
http://www.aucklandcitylibraries.com/blog.aspx
Library blogs
Join Auckland City Libraries’ staff in the blogosphere as we provide commentary on the library world.