Task 22 - Thoughts

It's great being given the chance to explore and play with these technologies at work. Looking through the task it's hard to choose a favourite and I have to admit some of the tools have slipped my mind already. Someone mentioned Techonorati the other day and I had to think. So you can see that I'm not making a huge use of Web 2 technologies. But that's the thing with all these tools and technologies - how necessary/useful/timesaving/beneficial.... are they? For the most part and for me and my personal/social life the answer is 'not much'. The thing that probably impressed me the most is how much a lot of these tools and technologies are being used by all kinds of people and I wonder how on earth they find the time to spend on blogs, uploading and tagging photos, adding books to LibraryThing, collating and subscribing to blogs and podcasts and then twittering .... personally I would rather catch up with a friend over a cup of tea and biscuits.

I use RSS feeds and try to log into my feedreader regularly. I would like to have a blog for my liaison work, but that needs some time and thought and I'm not sure what the policy is there. A fellow librarian at QUT has one and the blog address is part of their email signature. I think it would be a good way to present relevant services, resources and tools to the staff and students. I like the ECOB blog and they way they post the 'New books list' on it.

The task instructions and links need to be checked/updated regularly as a few of the tasks were a bit vague, and I've made a few comments in the posts about this. I think the time period could be a little longer - say 12 weeks, minimum, as some tasks take time to explore and some weeks are busier than others. It's important though to make time to do the tasks and to set a regular time aside and be disciplined about this, otherwise it just gets away from you.

This has been a good exercise and a good way to get an overview and some experience of what's out there. 23Things has given me a reason to explore and learn more and that's a good thing and what life-long learning is all about.

Task 21 - Social Networking

I've had a Facebook account for a while, though I must admit I rarely log in so I have lots of annoyed people asking why I haven't accepted their invite. I can see its advantages and it's a great way to keep in touch with lots of friends at the same time without much effort. Emails seem to have gone the way of letters so our personal communication seems to be shrinking in content (and depth) but widening in reach - interesting!

I don't have the internet at home so this means I don't get much chance to go on Facebook, and in a way I'm quite happy with that. I spend most of my working day in front of a screen so it's the last thing I want to do in my free time. ...

Task 20 - Podcasts

The link to the Yahoo tutorial on podcasts is a broken one but it took me to the Yahoo news site where I learned that new iPods were launched today.Then the only directory link that worked was 'Podcast Alley'. I did a bit of searching and exploring. I used the word "library" for a search and got 167 results-though how many are library related is doubtful.

This one from Woodruff Library at Emory University in the US is quite good. It even has EndNote podcasts. I'm listening to the one on searching discoverE, their version of UQuicksearch. Emory also have their podcasts available in iTunesU.

I watched some of the tutorials on using Audacity to create a podcast. They seem quite good, so I know that they exist when I need them.

I've subscribed to a few podcasts from ABC radio national but still don't know how to transfer them to my ipod, - hopeless.

Task 19 - YouTube

Some great stuff on YouTube, but also so much rubbish. I had fun exploring and watching some interesting things.

Mostly it's a case of one thing leading you to another or people sending me links. I have never thought "I'll search YouTube for this". I'm not sure how it could be used in libraries, these are probably the obvious uses: "Tours", "How-to" kind of videos, librarians reviewing books...not very exciting.

I was sent this one yesterday, Conversations with History - Craig Calhoun, a very senior US 'social scientist' who has some very interesting things to say about social science, its research and its importance.

On a lighter note this is a favourite Women, Know your Place

Task 17 - GoogleMAPS

I often use Google Maps, I'd never used the "Get directions" feature so that was good to try out and it was pretty good.

I really don't think many people would like to learn that their house can be seen by the world (Street view feature). I'm sure my mother wouldn't. One has to question aspects of privacy but then we are all being watched and listened to in so many ways that we know nothing of.

My post below is my Google docs page. I created a document and then followed the prompts to publish/post it to my blog, and hey presto, there it is - amazing.

Hi

 

 Welcome to my Google docs page.

 

so far so good.

 

I've just read the instructions and it seems like a great tool. Very versatile and one great feature is the collaboration that can take place. I can see its use in many situations in not only the world of research, teaching and learning but also in creative and business projects.

 

I'm not sure I would use it but it's a great discovery for me. I'd heard about Google docs but had never explored it.

 

Task 21 - Twitter

A friend who works at QUT library was raving about Twitter last year but mostly from a social point of view but that's something I can live without.

I can see it has its uses, especially with breaking news events, eg the protests against the election results in Iran. I don't know about the technicality of blocking tweets but at least it cuts out barriers such as having to have access to a computer and web browser.

This Guardian article is a good one - Making the Most of Twitter

It would be interesting to see how libraries are using Twitter and the take up of library tweets.