All in all, the 23 Things exercise has been useful in a number of different, but interconnected ways. One important factor that is easy to overlook, has been the Team-Building aspect of everyone engaging with new concepts and learning alongside each other.
The most important aspect of this exercise seems to me to be that it ensures a consistent level of knowledge across all staff. This makes use more informed and helpful to library clients, but also puts us in a better position to engage with future directions. It's also just fun!
While I had encountered most of these Things before, I hadn't actively engaged with all of them. I'm a long-time Blogger already, though ironically, I've lately decided to stop, at least for now. For that reason, my Library Thing Blog was only ever for this particular exercise.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Second Life
While I decided not to join Second Life, I did get interested in it at the stage where the WWF set up Conservation Island. Until that point, I'd thought of online gaming (which this pretty much appears to be), to be an overly diverting distraction from real life. So, yes, it's an interesting movement, and it does involve real people in an "open" environment, but I don't feel any compulsion to join.
YouTube
YouTube is amazingly useful if approached the right way. I'd long struggled to play proper A-shaped bar chords on the guitar, clearing the high E-string. I never managed to master it until I found a YouTube clip earlier this year, showing me just where to bend my finger in the right place. The key here was searching for the right terms. Wow, what a brilliant teaching device!
Anyway, getting back to libraries, the same is true. There is a wealth of information. Everything from televised user education classes and Powerpoints, to fully-fledged 70 minute filmed presentations/discussions such as the University of California at Berkley's Building Academic Library 2.0. Actually, this kind of thing can run in the background as a Podcast pretty well, but the visuals do help.
I think YouTube works best for short and direct films, such as music clips and advertisement-like quick pieces, or short speeches with images. Libraries are definitely a big presence, so more dedicated and imaginative film-makers in our ranks could make this a very powerful means of communication.
Anyway, getting back to libraries, the same is true. There is a wealth of information. Everything from televised user education classes and Powerpoints, to fully-fledged 70 minute filmed presentations/discussions such as the University of California at Berkley's Building Academic Library 2.0. Actually, this kind of thing can run in the background as a Podcast pretty well, but the visuals do help.
I think YouTube works best for short and direct films, such as music clips and advertisement-like quick pieces, or short speeches with images. Libraries are definitely a big presence, so more dedicated and imaginative film-makers in our ranks could make this a very powerful means of communication.
Pet photo
I'm not a big fan of Fireworks, preferring Paintshop for simple web editing and resizing. Paintshop is good for other graphics as well, but only handles RGB webcolour, not CYMK print colour, so I use Photoshop if I need that.
I've resized and added a picture of the late Patch, the guineapig, to the "Pet Heaven" section of the Library Wiki.
This was a good exercise. Handling graphics and Wikis are both useful skills.
Monday, March 10, 2008
Library 2.0
My immediate impression is that Library 2.0 approaches library resources and access in a manner comparable to the Internet - interactive, evolving, reactive and volatile. As I don't know much about Business 2.0 and Web 2.0, I have to agree with those who point out that this isn't new for librarianship. Constant change, geared to the needs of our clientele, has always been part of what we do, and we're always looking at way to improve the mechanics of the processes and relationships. "Radical trust" does involve looking at the old paradigm in new ways, and ones that the 23 Things exercise is definitely relevant to. While I agree with come critics that this process could get co-opted, rather than realized, as long as the underpinning philosophies are right, I doubt it.
del.icio.us and Podcasting
I went to del.icio.us and typed in "Australian comics" just to see what might turn up.
Not bad. The first links turned up usual suspects, individual artists such as Shaun Tan and Ben Templesmith, along with particular titles like Platinum Grit.
While those were of some interest, there were also what I was looking for, general sites such as Heroes and Villains: Australian Comics and Their Creators, the Comics Down Under blog and the Hayase Australian Comics Wiki
"Heroes and Villians" has a nice Heroes and Villains Audio Tour and Audio Podcast Tour. I created a new folder to subscribe to this one in my Bloglines account, though really it's long over and unlikely to have any new material lately. I think, the individual mp3s in the audio section are more fun and easier listening.
del.icio.us is a pretty effective tool for finding stuff!
Not bad. The first links turned up usual suspects, individual artists such as Shaun Tan and Ben Templesmith, along with particular titles like Platinum Grit.
While those were of some interest, there were also what I was looking for, general sites such as Heroes and Villains: Australian Comics and Their Creators, the Comics Down Under blog and the Hayase Australian Comics Wiki
"Heroes and Villians" has a nice Heroes and Villains Audio Tour and Audio Podcast Tour. I created a new folder to subscribe to this one in my Bloglines account, though really it's long over and unlikely to have any new material lately. I think, the individual mp3s in the audio section are more fun and easier listening.
del.icio.us is a pretty effective tool for finding stuff!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
