Forgotten blog

I had forgotten I had this blog from a work inservice many years ago. I'm far more interested in stitching these days. I must investigate how to pretty up the page and add in all the interesting extras.
Ruth

Sutherland Shire libraries use Del.icio.us in a serious attempt to aid research. There seeme to be tags and then subtags . This is an easy was to navigate through the wealth of information available.

Cleveland Public library specialists also have gathered together bookmarks that they consider would be useful resources for research. (I got all excited thinking it would be Cleveland in Queensland but no such luck.) The idea of organising bookmarks and having tags to go with them seems to be a great economy of effort. It allows the user to draw out the sites with a common theme without having to search all over the place. This would be especially useful for research in the library situation where well respected sites could be grouped to enable ease of research. Of course this has the added advantage of being able to view bookmarked sites from anywhere.
Here is my del.icio.us site: http://delicious.com/peacelilly8

Library Thing is so excellent. I wonder how I never knew about this before. I can imagine lots of fun uploading my library.



Technorati seems an interesting place. I found no difference when I search for "bookmobile" with the advanced setting.

My libraryThing page: http://www.librarything.com/Ruthking

RSS feeds

RSS feeds take a great deal of the time out of going from site to site to see if there is anything new to note. When you subscribe to RSS feeds any new items are collected in one spot for perusal.

The sites I selected for RSS feeds include Masterchefs Latest Recipes, Courier Mail /Lifestyle, Opal Training (of Course), Powerhouse Museum photo of the day and Statistically Speaking.

This is an excellent source for Libraries to source new books, reviews ob books, items for educational study and other research. It also would help with keeping up with ideas from other libraries operating in a similar way.

A good example of a library blog that I could identify with was loganlibraries.org.

Now I know how RSS feeds work I'll make good use of them wherever possible.

So now I'm on Facebook...

I have previously heard about the social networking sites but it is only now that I have put my toe in the water and joined Facebook.

In the library social networking sites could be useful within branches to facilitate flow of information on an informal basis. It could be a way for staff to get to know one and other when they are geographically separated.

Publicly a social networking site such as Facebook could advertise upcoming events to regular patrons. Online discussion of books would be another way it could be used. A Facebook book club perhaps. New books on the shelves could be promoted this way.

I found the Gaming Learning and Libraries group very interesting. It engendered lots of discussion and seems to be meeting the needs of the participants.

These sites are used for advertising up and coming events as well as providing a place for discussion and interaction on subjects of mutual interest.

Wikis

I now know what a wiki is. It has taken me ages to get around to addressing my findings as I have found all the sites so interesting and have set up a family wiki page. I'm hooked.
http://plnswmarketing.wetpaint.com/page/2008+Seminar+-+It The Public Libraries NSW Marketing Group Wiki seemed to have everything you could want as a support.
* a place to share success stories
*sample marketing plans
* a tips and tricks page
* links to other websites and blogs
All these features seem very helpful.
All that is needed is someway to motivate participation.

Next site that I found helpful ideas from was at http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page - Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
This wiki is set out so well addressing all sorts of subjects.
Amongst other sections one of particular interest was the section entitled Online Training Resources for Librarians.

I thought sharing of programs for preschoolers would be a useful application for a wiki.
In an area where there are several library branches a wiki would be useful for communication.
- an ideal sharing place.

Online photosharing

This lesson introduced me to the photosharing sites such as Flickr, Photobucket and Smugmug. It was very interesting to check out the photos online. Especially interesting were the library photos from all over. I loved the historical ones from Mosman library.

I also looked through some photos from the National Library of Australia using my home town and my family name as a focus with amazing results.

The Commons and the Creative Commons are ways of accessing photos in publicly held collections.

The Commons are for works with no copyright restrictions while the Creative Commons recognise the need to protect artist's rights.

When posting photos with people in it is best to obtain their permission before uploading these images to public photosharing sites. Another point of etiquette is to make sure you have the permission of the photographer before you upload photos taken by someone else.

Test Drive 2

I found it great fun looking around the flickr site. I tended to look for photos about my local area and there were many as it is quite a tourist spot. I chose this beautiful picture of the mists over the paddocks at Malanda because it was a beauriful photo. On a day like that one this would have been the precursor to a magnificent, crisp cool day. Days like that are why we put up with the drizzle going on for weeks. One perfect day and we vow this is the best place to live. http://www.flickr.com/photos/lotsabushes/2718835323/