Thoughts on Web2.0

#18 Concluding summary

2007-12-03T18:18:00.000-08:00

As a final exercise
Favorites:
Most of the things I liked I probably already knew, but may not have taken the next step of taking out an account and adding my comments to the great sea of unconnected words and stray thoughts on the web. Now I quite happily signup with another password and throw some words on a page to see what happens, further clutter up the Internet.

Lifelong learning goals:
Having started late, I am stunned that I have finished within striking distance of the finishing line. I certainly have tried everything, whether I remember how to do 90% of what I have done or find a deep and meaningful reason to maintain a blog is doubtful but I do have a better understanding of what is possible and will more willingly signup for passwords to try new things. (Desperately trying to maintain the balance of refusing all telemarketing offers on principle).

Reservations about the value of the program:
Program in itself was sound and while I didn't take up the offer, it was good to know that I could have attended one of the weekly sessions and been helped through those nagging items where I would try 3 and 4 times before I cracked the code of how to do something.
I would also like to see new items added to the list, as some of this technology is now becoming mainstream and some newer elements should be starting to creep into the program.

Future:
The hard part starts now - how to continue investigating new and emerging technologies and whether I continue to use any of these technologies or whether, as I suspect this blog will die with this entry never to be given a proper burial but to lapse into disuse as so many before it have.

The other hard part is if we do get fired up that we can use blogs and it might be worth creating a 2nd life avatar - how can this be made use of in the library context - as by the nature of this technology it is an individual lonely world divorced from the rest of the library not a community activity in most instances. Further there is the fact that we have not yet embraced the concept of most staff having the right to post items to wikis or anywhere else that has not been vetted by the library. So it needs to go on the planning board to discuss at service forums and staff meetings how this early learning skill can be made a mainstream skill set. Staff to be actively encouraged to add to blog discussions and to create content for wiki entries for the wider world.

#17 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

2007-12-02T23:06:00.000-08:00

Source David Lee King Library 2.0 ripples post(24/8/2007)http://www.davidleeking.com/2007/08/24/library-20-ripples-another-go-at-the-graph/

Culture change
Interesting as we must ask the question where is SLV placed on this wheel > We are probably balanced on the brink of "customer participation" with the project for federated searching and investigating what aspects of web2.0 should be added to our website. The hard part is "Trust staff to interact digitally" and as we continue with a strongly controlled website and levels of control regarding communicating to the outside world except at the reference question level. This then challenges staff and library as staff need the support and encouragement to put themselves out there and to be encouraged that it is what the library wants to happen and no one will be checking and correcting their actions. I don't know how we achieve this but the culture shift to staff being "experts" and "having a voice of their own", not to be a sanctioned clone of their colleagues giving the same statement in the same way is the next step.

This is the view expressed in all the web readings listed from:
Kelly's notes on Web2.0 through OCLC's web2.0 presentation and Kings Library ripples and is backed up by SLV21 statements and NSLA's Big bang at http://www.nsla.org.au/publications/papers/2007/pdf/NSLA.Discussion-Paper-20070629-The.Big.Bang..creating.the.new.library.universe.pdf

Web2.0 OCLC newsletter
The highligts from these items, included
Icebergs by Anderson
* Just in case collections >are not needed as all on web > well this not quite the case and there is a lack of trust that the googles and microsofts will share freely even if it happens. It is a sobering thought that libraries need to take note of growing digital born (and only alive on a virtual platform - blog, podcast etc, as more information will never be reassembled in printed format
* User ed> new ways to communicate with those who use and don't use libraries> the most sobering element is that web2.0 offerings do not spend a lot of time explaining how you use them, most energy goes into how you create an account. So library services that are so complicated that users need to be train to use them are flawed and should be rebuilt to user-centric service
* Come to us service model> the library is not the gatekeeper of information now, if it ever was> we need to promote library as a place users want to be (both the virtual and physical place)

Librarian2.0 Skills set by Stephens
* plan for users > focus on the user and his needs not library systems and their needs
*embrace tools > focus on collaboration> meet users in their space
*control technolust > technology is a tool not the idol
*make good/fast decisions > change happens fast and constantly> decisions should be base on user need
*trendspotter> always be looking for new ways to engage with users and what the new "thing" will be
*get content> content is conversation> you cannot wait for the world to find you

Future place by Shultz
*Libraries are?> collections, conversations andconvocations of people, ideas & artifacts > Libraries are communities
*Library1.0> are Books> as commodities to be collected, inventoried, organized & warehoused
*Library2.0> are products packaging books and becoming redundant as more becomes digital and globally accessible unless the library moves to
*Library3.0> is Service> embracing Web3D> and tailoring information to user needs by developing relationships with users and personalising our libraries to be where the user is, even in 2nd life
*Library4.0> is Experience> libraries as idea labs embracing the social attributes of the web where library1.0-4.0 attributescoexist> to create a knowledge spa as a space, a retreat and a safe social world

Web2.0 Catalogues
Catalogue changes are already flagged with
>Federated Search, picking up FRBR,BrowseFacets, clustering and relevance rankng
>Website and catalogue tools to embrace>RSS, tagging & social sharing and commenting
SLV21 and SLV@Swanston looking at>choice where the user wants to be, how the user wants to work & socialize in a single space both virtual and physical
For us this meansus is to do work once and use it many ways

World cat, a master work
Librarylabs, a good way to test some of the new features coming from the federated search project
Washington state, I love the 'Seattle Post-Intelligencer' example and would like to see similar work done as a regular pattern for journals and newspapers

# 16 Podcasts

2007-12-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

My standard search of libraries +technology did better on podcastalley and yes I have now cluttered up the RSS feed with another couple of sites. - Sirsidynix looks most promising.

Uses:
Personal use: allows you to do 2 things at once.
Library use - tours and how to use specific resources and as SLV is currently doing keeping any lecture program available beyond the original performance, assuming the recording quality is good.

Podcast directories:
Podcast.net: didn't do much for me a bit limited
Podcastalley.com: better choice, better results for industry searching
Yahoo Podcasts: useful for the more lightweight, social type of searching

Learning2.0 podcast
podcast by Helene Blowers (creator of this Learning 2.0 program Learning 2.0 : Make "play" your New Year's resolution : detailed account of proceedings, obviously exported to many libraries, a search of google blogs raises the spectra of baby steps blogging and #23 things - what I learned from all quarters, however blowers presentation is quite inspiring and it obviously had effect. Only issue is there does not seem to be a sequel, the program is in repeat mode in libraries, with no new content being added, does Web 2.0 end here.

Downloadable eAudiobooks: interesting, what is often more interesting is the size of some of these files and the repeative nature of the samples on offer. But it does fit in with the whole ebook delivery and we will eventually get our ebooks page loaded on to the website and can edit some of this material into the options.

#15 Video

2007-11-28T20:20:00.000-08:00

Here is the most upfront Web2.0 summary for all

Librarian 2.0 manifesto
http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=5ff637e7984152a3531d

#14 Web 2.0 Awards

2007-11-27T17:21:00.000-08:00

The sites above from the Web 2.0 Awards winners. have appeal and use or are just interesting. The only thing we haven't followed up on are the Socializing sites of - facebook, myspace & secondlife - maybe next time.

#Searchengines - zuulu is a nice alternative when you feel like rebelling against google - compare results from a number of searches.

#Searchengines - video searching tool - certainly the way to keep tabs on news, television programs and much more

#Maps - google maps - known and used but who can go past it

#Wiki - wetpaint - looks colourful and bright as an alternative to the more traditional wikis - with a text based presentation - worth a try as an alternative

#Lists & polls - statsaholic is fun to compare website traffic - who is more popular - nicely graphed

#Upcoming - more social about town - worth looking at to promote own SLV events to a new user audience as it leads with the local stuff

#Events - confabb is worth considering as a replacement for conference directories in the reference collection - needs further evaluation.

#Not new but a great one stop search site for out-of-print books, rare or otherwise. Good for reference questions. Nice to see it included in the list.

#13 Anything techy

2007-11-27T17:14:00.000-08:00

Too much to focus on already from Federated Searching for SLV sites to the next version of ebook readers "Kindle" from Amazon, to a demo by Autonomy on searching video and providing on the fly transcription and face recognition to allow pinpointing the context of speeches. All scary stuff.

The trick is to see ways of using the things you see and to have the time to explore and apply.

Nothing earthshattering or profound.

#12 Wordprocessing: Google docs vs Zoho Writer

2007-11-27T17:10:00.001-08:00

Test in Zoho Writer

I am being lazy about this one, but do enough word processing not to want to compose prose for the hell of it. But on the positive side I can see major advantages in this for public and self.

Not sure why but works better in Firefox, and extraordinarily slow to load document in Internet Explorer, so slow in fact that had to abandon on 3 occasions (not sure why).

Discovery Resources:
Web-based productivity applications: I like the idea of having access to word processing on the internet, especially as able to connect when on desk and outside the firewall and have now wordprocessing or spreadsheets available.

Discovery Exercise:
I have a free account in Zoho for Wiki, now also in Zoho Writer and spreadsheets.

Feature	Google Docs	Zoho	MS word
fonts & editing	easy - what I am use to, has the feel of an email page & set up	all the features I want - clear and simple	Home base
saving	versions saved as well and discard versions when ready - has the advantage of saving to the internet rather than to pc/usb	all options: word, text, html,pdf - saving to pc or usb	know filing system, normally only current version saved
Ability to move content	can email, use anywhere, export to pdf or alternate version, can post to blog & web	can post to blog	Must use on staff pcs not available on desk, need to copy and paste to move to email or bl

Optional:
This posted to blog from Zoho’s "publish" options (and send via google docs as well to compare formating)

Same document in Google Docs

Spreadsheets are excellent and will test further and will test Google at a later stage, but Zoho spreadsheets work well and both should be tested to see if we can put a staff version of the roster on the internet for desk access outside the firewall.

#12A Google Docs Test to blog

2007-11-27T16:33:00.000-08:00

Test in Google Docs

I am being lazy about this one, but do enough word processing not to want to compose prose for the hell of it.

But on the positive side I can see major advantages in this for public and self.

Discovery Resources:

web-based productivity applications

Discovery Exercise:

I have a Zoho account (now also Zoho writer) and I have a google account - now likely to loose the world moving between virtual spaces and different identities.

Feature

Google Docs

Zoho

MS word

fonts & editing

easy - what I am use to

all the features I want - clear and simple

Home

Saving

versions saved as well, and discard versions when ready - has the advantage of saving to the internet rather than to pc/usb

all options: word, text, html,pdf - saving to pc or usb

know filing system, normally only current version saved

Ability to move content

can email, use anywhere, export to pdf or alternate version,can post to blog & web - at present this looks easier than Zoho to blog

can post to blog - in theory, though may be a trick as not being done willingly

Must use on staff pcs, not available on desk, need to copy and paste to move to email

Optional:
Will follow up on spreadsheets and see what sized documents can be move - this looks very promising for Rosters to be held on the desk.

#11A Flickr mashups & trading cards

2007-11-26T17:44:00.001-08:00

Doubt Redmond Barry would approve

Trading cards, not sure of the value but as I say hours of fun for all.

Image generator The Generator Blog: Sudoku Generator.

#11 Fickr mashups

2007-11-25T23:16:00.001-08:00

Explore some of the fun Flickr mashups and 3rd party tools, hours of fun for all, whether you are creative or not, doesn't matter someone more creative than you will have done the programming work and allows you to ride on their efforts to display your work or others work.

#10 Flickr

2007-11-21T18:18:00.000-08:00

Tour of Flickr, interesting, exciting and boring images, should encourage to invest in a digital camera, probably has the opposite effect. It has already been captured already better than I can, why bother.

Interesting images to blog - and to put together with other new images

Exercise of add image to blog, the trick of the exercise is save image to pc/usb first and to remember where the image came from to acknowledge copyright

(Acknowledgement of Ask sign from dan in deutschland's photos onFlickr)

#9A LibraryThing

2007-11-21T15:48:00.000-08:00

LibraryThing experiment http://www.librarything.com/tools

All very nice and I am sure something I could/should embrace, but this strikes me as being too organized for comfort.

LibraryThing blog http://www.librarything.com/blog/ has potential to keep up to date, but a bit like more of the same.

#9 Technorati (blog search tool)

2007-11-19T22:26:00.000-08:00

The scary thing and the impressive thing about Technorati is to find your own blog posts listed on the site, it reminds you to beware of what you key - someone somewhere may trip over your comments.

As with all search engines this provides serious improvements over the finding of information by accident or what you remember. A good site, tagged into my del.icio.us account for future reference.

Claiming my blog on Technorati seems a bit self serving, but the whole blog thing seems a bit of an ego trip.

Watchlist option is a very promising item, which should be used with care. Find this useful.

Technorati tags trial:

SLV Learning2.0

#8 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarks (Del.icio.us)

2007-11-19T17:23:00.000-08:00

Almost mainstream technology now, library has been using this and similar earlier tools for some time in the library.

del.icio.us - have been using for some time - good toy as long as I remember to do my housekeeping regarding categories and tags

http://blog.delicious.com/ - has some advantages in keeping up to date with changes to site.

I probably have a better understanding of the method behind the tags and how to search delicious than I did before.

Uses for library:
Desk community websites (for AskNow & SLVChat)

#7 RSS Feeds

2007-11-19T16:23:00.000-08:00

Search engines for RSS feeds makes sense and alows you to segment the information you are looking for.

Feedster - Off air when I tried to search - will try another day

Topix.net - (news and media outlet RSS feeds , not weblogs)
Cluttered front page but sound searching and worthwhile way to find this type of information

Google Blog search - (BETA mode) - I thought Google was about having permanent beta versions of everything. Good site and has the functionality to link everything together, which of course is the big downside of bringing the concept of "Big brother" is watching to mind as more reliance is placed in using Google tools.

Obvious answer to this is as with search engines, always use 2, reducndancy is the key to ensuring an unbiased answer.

Journal alerts - I have been using this for some time, but only as email alerts.
Use to the library:
We need a campaign to encourage staff to take up RSS or email alerts for full text journals and stop journals being routed to staff - free journals for public use and remind staff to encourage users to do the same.

#6 RSS

2007-11-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

It could become addictive, more time focussed on the latest news than on work, like email it can becomes a distraction or the central focus of work. Essentially it is all about time management.

Uses in the library setting:

For the public we would need to establish the infrastructure behind the RSS feed to put regular messages to the public pcs.
For regular users and at home users we should be encouraging users to get RSS feeds for their favorite journals or regular search from databases and revisiting the "new books" discussion as a feed from the catalogue
Wishlist item would include ability to RSS information on delivery of collection items to users, especially as txt to their mobile phones & laptops.

# 5 Wiki exercises

2007-11-14T15:27:00.000-08:00

As part of this exercise I have added my blog to plmc wiki and added pages to the team wiki and will now look at ways of improving presentation and content to that site.

It may be the day or time but the main issue seems to be one of speed of internet access to open and change pages and content. Its preference for Firefox is also frustrating as you forget which browser works best for what

Changes to our website to make use of wikis
"Resource guides" rather than the more formal collage software management system which while very good is more appropriate for fixed information and does not encourage more staff to keep pages alive and uptodate.
Lifelong learning - how to notes for public paticipants - could be a good model for adding comments and encouraging self paced sessions when subject training not being held or for things like how to use the catalogue

Sites which we could use as models for providing subject guide information

Ohio University's Biz Wiz
http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page

#4 Wikis

2007-11-13T19:39:00.000-08:00

#4 Wikis: Major undertaking is the same as for any of these technologies, it is not the technology that is the issue but the effort and drive to create the content and use the information assembled.

As noted by most papers it relies on the community, rather than technology, to manage the data, Though wikis have the advantage that save copies of successive versions exist and changes are readily detected and work can be recovered.

Most of the format is pretty bland and requires planning to establish a workable structure, though there is a heavy search emphasis.

Uses include:
Subject guides
Annotating the catalog
Community wiki
Wikis for Librarians: Reference manuals, Training guides, work space for team projects

I Liked Blake's recommendations
"wiki is a simply-structured online database which stands or falls by the quality of its community. Wikis require careful planning and management in order to remain effective. In a wiki, expertise is not by default provided
Don't use a wiki :

Just because they are fashionable
For static information
Where delays are okay

Wikis need

Community
Planning and management
Expertise (the Wiki does not of itself create it)
Wikis suit information which
needs continual/irregular updates and can be done by many users
doesn't need to be arranged in a strict order
requires community or consensus of opinion

Positive sites
SLVTraining Wiki
Good use of the technology, encourages staff use on desk where g: drive, etc not available

http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_Page
Did their planning and created a sound way of delivering "resource guides" building in new books, information on databases and tips for searching plus external sites and how to search the library for information and keeping the "ask a librarian" link well to the fore - though pages tend to be a bit static and not encouraging any public participation - comments allowed, though most looks to be spam

http://libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
sound site to demonstrate how reference manuals can be maintained in this technology & hopefully what we can achieve with the new intranet software, which gave some excellent examples

Readings I enjoyed

Library Technology Reports including:
Tools from ''Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software" Revisited Sept/Oct 2007 p15-31 (Updating the Web2.0 report done in issue Jul/Aug 2006 (Both fulltext via A-Z)
Using Wikis to Create Online Communities : Wikis open up new possibilities for collaboration between you and your patrons. Blogger and WJ guest editor Meredith Farkas tells why wikis should matter to you and your library. By Meredith Farkas http://webjunction.org/do/DisplayContent?id=11264
Lamb, Brian. "Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not." Educause Review. Sept/Oct 2004. http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm04/erm0452.asp

Value of blogs

2007-11-13T18:21:00.000-08:00

While I understand some feel the need to share their thoughts or even to make a mark somewhere to show their passing, I don't think that is in my line. However, I can see the value of blogging for the library to move us to a more social connection with our public.

If we have the courage, there is merit in using blogging for:

"Suggestion/complaint" comments rather than maintaing a hidden paper trail which ends up in being a correspondence between the library and the individual - a more open viewable process would be better
SLV21 and our public (or even an open letter from the State Librarian) would engage our public in what the library is doing for public before events hit them and opens the way for improved communication - this focus would involve the public in ways that technology can be used to help and gives the library feedback on developments and the way people use the library
Internally it would be good to change the "Digital Digest" into a blog which shares the experiences of the technology and readings about new technology and encourages more discussion about new SLV21 developments
Desk diary has the potential to share knowledge among desks and between shifts

But as with everything - all of these require ongoing commitment and seeable "me" type benefits.

On a personal level, this may help me practice "Writing for the web" techniques

Spider web [picture] by by Wille, Peter

2007-11-13T17:52:00.000-08:00

Spider web [picture] by by Wille, Peter

To blog or not to blog

2007-11-13T16:55:00.000-08:00

The trials of blogging and adding inconsequential thoughts to the internet has started.