Time to chill

thought i would try to add a video. I love this clip of the girl in her PJs doing a Marcel Marceau dance of Jonathan Coulton's Code Monkey.



Click here to see the song being performed live.

#16 and # 17 Wikis

Wikis - I love them! I was first introduced to wikis at a presentation I went to at NLS2006 in Sydney in December 2006. I was intrigued by the whole concept but a little flattened when the speaker, who was talking about using wikis for information sevices, said that the wiki didn't work!

It was with mixed feelings that we then started a wiki for NLS4 as a means for collaborating and sharing all our information. It is a private wiki, and can only be accessed by members of the NLS4 team. It has proven to be invaluable and of course means that any of the team can access the wiki from anywhere at any time. I also love the way that I get emailed notification when the wiki is altered.

I recommended use of pbwiki when our library wanted to start one to get ideas from staff on the future direction of the library and also started one for the Children's and Young Adult area as a way to capture knowledge.

Library Success is a wiki that shares best practice within the library world. It is a great idea. The very nature of wikis. being an open collaborative tool with editable content, means that sometimes they are subject to inaccurate information being put on them, either deliberately or accidentally. I noticed that Library Success is now asking for email verification when an account is opened, for vandalism reasons.

I added my blog PBwiki Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki, the Favourite Blogs (had to use Aussie spelling :) ) page under Australian Blogs. No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get a link to work - Keep getting an error on a page. So guys, the blog name is there, but it isn't a link. I will keep trying.

#15 Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

Libraries will have to keep up with change to keep up with all the new technology that keeps emerging. In fact, Web 2.0 is already becoming dated, with talk of Web 3.0 and the semantic web. As children learn more about technology in their formative years, it means that these things become a way of life - hard for any of us right now to grasp the concept that we knew of days that our children would see as positively primitive - no mobiles, no computers, no PDAs, NO INTERNET!!! And when I studied IT subjects, I had to hand code all my web pages - compare that with blogger's 3 step sign up process, where you have a web page of sorts, where anyone, with barely any skills, can create a web page.


Web 2.0 technology can be used to help bring a new generation of patrons into the library. The Department of Education blocking myspace could be seen by some as a marketing opportunity to attract that client base into the library, and I don't mean just by giving access to myspace on public access computers, but also by trying to integrate it into the way we do things, with our homepage and other services. Unfortunately, some just don't see it that way.

# 14 Technorati

Technorati now tracks over 100 million blogs - that is amazing. I am not so sure that I would want to use it - I prefer to keep track of my blogs through my feeder and to be more selective in those that I track. I could see myself getting sidetracked looking for things. This of course, doesn't mean that I won't go and have a browse......

#13 Tagging, folksomonies and social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us - an odd name - I have often wondered how they came up with that name! I think the idea of sharing links like this is good - I used to do it with Furl and it sort of went by the wayside.

The great thing is that you can see what others have 'bookmarked' with the same tags and find sites that you may not have known about.

I can see a real use for this in academia, for teaching with students. You can have a link on Facebook to Del.icio.us links. Wouldn't it be good for a lecturer to set up a FB account for the subject and then use Del.icio.us to mark sites that the students needed to look at for their studies. Just a way to bring the learning into 'their space'.

I created a Del.icio.us account for myself, but had to do it from home, because of the IT restrictions we have at work. I wasn't too keen on having to download something onto my tool bar though - I don't like external things that are supposed to think for you - I find they can often have a lot of spy ware with them

On the whole. quite a good way to bookmark remotely.

# 12 Rollyo

Well, pretty impressed with what Rollyo can do. It would be great to have different search rolls for diferent subjects by using the drop down menu feature available. It would be used on the reference computer and there would be no problems about any sites that are bookmarked vanishing overnight when the system restores.

The only drawback I can see is that it gives fairly meaningless results from the sponsored links, that really have no relevance to the search - they are just a means to draw you in. I guess that is to be expected from something that would probably require advertising to be able to survive.

I was going to do a work related search roll, but instead did one on some of my favourite professional reading blogs - hence the name 'Cool Blogs'

# 11 Library Thing

Well have had a play with Library Thing, and I have to say that I quite liked it! I don't think I would use it much (who has time to read when you work in a library????). I did enjoy adding some books to my own catalogue but used some books I loved as a child - The little House on the Prairie series. I went a little further and added a spin off series, called Little House - The Charlotte Years. This series is about the childhood of Laura Ingalls' grandmother, Charlotte. There is also Little House - The Caroline Years which is about the childhood of Laura's mother, Caroline.

To visit my Library Thing library, click here.