Ciao 23Things!

I can't believe that this is it. I was so excited to hear Kate discuss this program in Sydney last year. Always wanted to do it - and now I have!

Kate...can't thank you enough. You have put so much work into creating this program suitable for us all. Your feedback and encouragement has meant a lot.

Too hard to put my finger on one particular THING that I thought was my favourite...although Twitter came close. Very addictive and brought us all a little closer.

I now have a better understanding of many of the Web 2.o technologies that are out there and that are possibly being used by our staff & students. Instead of having a "fair" idea about THINGS such as Flicka, I am a lot more confident. I have even advised my academics that I have completed the program and have offered to demonstrate to them any of the THINGS that they are interested in, particularly areas such as Flicka, YouTube & GoogleDocs.

I find myself being a lot more pro active in Web 2.0 programs. For example, whenever I bookmark a website I make sure I also add the site to Delicious. I am constantly thinking of how I can incorporate these into my position. I am still going to push for a Info Desk wiki!

The only thing that I have found difficult whilst completing this program is time. 15-20mins per THING wasn't enough - well for me anyhow. I found that by the time I read Kate's notes, watched the Commoncraft videos, learnt the task and then blogged about it...I was looking at about an hour per THING. As a part time worker I couldn't fit it into my working week. and did much of it at home (which wasn't a problem).

I will definately be promoting this program where possible. At the beginning of the program I discussed it with a couple of Library Techs and they were very interested in having a go. Not only would I promote this program to my colleagues at Banyo, but to others such as the QLD Chapter of ANZTLA.

I would definately be more than happy to participate in any other such similar program. Wow! Really? 70Things....where do I start?

Tweat for a Week

This was very interesting...although it would have been a lot more effective if we had more ACU 23Things participants. Having said that I found some days a lot easier to Tweat than others. I intend to keep on tweating and look forward to keeping in touch with more colleagues.

What was particularly interesting was to see was what my colleagues were up to during the day. What busy bees we all are! I liked the idea that we could post issues that arose for us and then have the opportunity to gain feedback from each other. Very helpful.

Tweating also provided yet another opportunity to get to know each other...

#22 - Second Life

Before attending the Web 2.0 symposium in early 2008 and I thought that I would try Second Life (as it was one of the topics to be discussed). It took a while to download the software from the net and then was quite slow when I used it (could be my home Internet connection). My avatar's name is Georgiana Wycliff. I found it interesting that you have to choose from a long list of already created surnames (still haven't met another "Wycliff" yet though). Again I found this quite addictive and spent way too much time on it (particularly with changing outfits and body styles, and then of course there is the flying!!!). I think that it is quite funny to observe my Avatar when she uses her hands to type in mid air when "talking" with another Avatar. I have met some interesting people in Second Life - from all around the world. One friend (from Holland) noticed quite early on that I was new and talked me through some of the features. This made it a lot easier, as there is so much to learn. Having said all that I haven't been on it for ages.


Couldn't believe it when I read on our 23Things blog that there are over 9.1 million residents and that the Maldives have an embassy...must look for this. I will have to seek out the Stars Wars world also.


Interesting that the Murdoch Uni Library had "Second Life" sessions, and even more so how they did them. I can only imagine how much time and effort has gone into setting up a Second Life presence, as well as the maintenance and classes involved - could this a specialist area for a LL position?

I can definately see Universities moving more towards the virutal world, and perhaps even moving beyond programs such as Second Life. Our online learning environment is constantly growing and evolving. Students want more flexiblity, and what better way to do it than learn in a virutal world. Sure we use software such as Blackboard but it is still quite impersonal and isolated. Virtual worlds are more appealing - well they are to me!

If ACU established a presence within Second Life I would think that it would be essential to establish a library component. We could look at incorpating our ebook collection into this virutal world, whereby students/staff can select titles from a virual bookshelf and read the item online. Databases and ejournals could be used in the same manner. The possibilites are endless. I am sure that there are a few of us out there that would be interested in becoming involved in such a project - I know that I would!

Number Twenty-One : PodCasting

I attended the Web 2.0 (Beyond the Hype) symposium in Brisbane early last year, and there was much discussion on whether libraries should use PodCasting. Many of the libraries at this forum had decided against it, as they thought that the time and effort that went into creating a PodCast was not worth the trouble. There were some libraries, nonetheless, that we using PodCasting to provide alternative means to reaching their clients e.g. students could download a PodCast on "How to Use the Library Catalogue", when clients weren't attending information literacy classes etc. I think it is a great idea. Especially if we are thinking of looking more into providing online library info lit programs.

When I took on this position I knew that I needed to keep up-to-date with what was happening in Australia and the world in regards to religion. What better way to start than to go on to the ABC website (http://www.abc.net.au/religion/) and see what was available. I particularly wanted to listen to the weekly program The Religion Report (which has sadly since been taken off air), however it was broadcast on a Wednesday morning and I believed that I wouldn't be able to listen to it. I soon realised that I could download the PodCast of this radio program (and access past programs I had missed) and listen to it whenever I liked. It was very simple to do and it certainly made my life easier. I could keep up-to-date!

I didn't realise that I could pull the RSS feed into my Google Reader - excellent! This will make it all a lot easier. (Again) Go Google! I have just added the Compass VodCast (video file) RSS to my Google Reader also. Nor did I realise that Google had a podcast directory!!! Wow - the GodCast 1000 is extensive.

#20 SHAREPOINT

I would have to say that this was the hardest THING I have had to do. There are so many options and it was very slow in uploading my image. Not "user-friendly".

I like SharePoint because it has all the news we need in the one spot. I have just read about NetLibrary timing out etc.. The Liaison Librarian area could be particularly useful, if only we all had the time to look at it in more detail. We could post PPT slides for info lit classes & handouts etc. Creating a wiki and/or blog could also be useful. I have suggested that the Banyo Library create a Help Desk Manual Wiki - perhaps one could be created on SharePoint for all campus libraries to use (with sub categories for the campus specific info)?

I have been interested in looking at the working documents page - have found some informative pieces of info.

Creating the calender in Outlook was quite straightforward.

It certainly is a good idea to set up alerts to the pages within SharePoint, so you know when something has been added or changed.

Someone also pointed out to me that SharePoint is a good place to find out information on what is happening in the Faculties, e.g. meetings. I agree - it has been very interesting looking at these pages.

I will be spending more time exploring SharePoint, as there is such a lot of information to get through. Not one of my favourite THINGS, but still interesting and useful all the same.

No.19 - YouTube & SlideShare

YouTube can be very entertaining and very addictive. Once I find one clip, more often than not I am on to another and another and another.

My husband took it a step further a few years ago and posted a clip. Yep, it is the very long one of our son playing cricket in our backyard (at the old house) in his Spiderman PJs. We think it is quite funny that it has now been viewed 447 times. Russell (husband) also uploaded our bumpy Sydney-Manly ferry ride. The third posting was the slide show Russell made a year ago for his father's funeral. We were asked by family members if they could have a copy, so instead of spending hours burning CDs...Russell uploaded it onto YouTube - easy.

I have never looked at SlideShare before. Like the browse tags on the right hand side! It could be very useful...perhaps for sharing PPTs for info lit classes?

Things 17 &18 - Twitter (such a great word!)

Needed a break from for Info Lit class planning... It has been my first O Week as a LL and has been just as busy as I thought it would be!

TWITTER! Well the first time I had heard of this THING was when the commerical plane went down in New York (Hudson River). The news on TV mentioned that the first reports of this crash were received through "Twitter" (Here is an article on this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/twitter/4269765/New-York-plane-crash-Twitter-breaks-the-news-again.html). As the article states, someone tweated this event only 4 minutes after the crash- not bad. I just had to look further into this and so I registered and became a member (with yet another password and login).

To be honest, I haven't found a need to use this. I don't have many friends that are interested in using this program (yet!). The tweating that I have done is over the past week. I am looking forward to our Twitter week in March though. Can't see much use for Twitter in a library -except perhaps to provide users with yet another outlet for library information updates (e.g. database info etc). I will see how I feel when more 233Things friends begin tweating and report back!

Facebook - yeah! #15-16

Where do I start...

I will never forget the first night I signed up to FB (about 1.5 yrs ago)- I don't think I went to bed that night. That was when my addiction started - still trying to work out how to stop.
FB is an all-in-on package. You can cover your professional development side as well as your social side - all in the one go.
Finding ol'friends and "catching up" again is just fantastic. I rarely think "I wonder what happened to...".

FB & libraries..again where to start. FB is an opportunity to reach more people. An academic library wouldn't have to force itself on students/staff, as the staff/student has the option of adding the library as a friend. A library on FB may provide up-to-date database access info, changes to library policy, or perhaps info on info lit classes. Why not offer library resources to clients in a variety of means? I believe FB is here to stay and we, as librarians, need to use it to its' full capacity.

Progress #14.1

I am just over half way on this adventure - and have loved the journey.

Loved this THING! Spent hours on it actually. Hard to read my airline ticket. Basically it says "From/Depart: 1Thing ;To/Arrival:23Things"

#14

Today is my son's 7th Birthday, and as I didn't bake him a cake (bought one from the bakery instead) I have created a virtual one for him. D'Arcy was very impressed!

Thing #13 Flickr

I just couldn't wait to do Thing13. You see, this is one Web 2.0 thingy I have yet to explore. So at last I have a Flickr account and have uploaded a pic (with the aim to add more soon!).

It is very much like uploading a photo onto my Facebook profile.

I have to explore the Flickr layout some more, as I would like to change it. Very boring at the moment as is. It needs more colours and headings!

Ok, so now I also have to have an Yahoo email account. This would have to be my 8th account. This part of the Flickr registration didn't excite me, but overall I thought the registration quite simple.

Can't wait for more 23Things Librarians to sign up to Flicker so that I have a contact or two!

#12 - Uploading an Image

We have been living in our new house for just over 2 months now. D'Arcy (who will be 7 next Friday) started at his new school (Year 2) last week and just loves it! So I had to take a pic of him in his new uniform (oh the colours are so bright and so far it is stain free!).

School is only a 5 min walk away from our house, and we have aready made some friends on our journey.

Hmmmm Delicious!

At last I too now have a person in my network. I first heard about delicious when I was working at QUT a few years ago. The Creative Industries Librarians created delicious clouds as part of their subject guide. It was brilliant and very effective. Still used - check it out at: http://www.library.qut.edu.au/learn/findsubjects/internetresourcesforci.jsp.

There is nothing worse than saving a website as a favourite and not knowing which laptop or PC it was saved on. Hello delicious!

I like that fact that I can choose which sites I would like to share and those I would like to keep to myself. Nothing like being in control. Of course it is very interesting also to look through someone else's treasure chest.

Social Tagging - Thing 10

Ok, wow - I haven't heard of or used many of these sites. I found KartOO particularly interesting. The idea of mapping helps further stimulate ones search strategy when researching. The short blurbs that appear on the left hand side of the screen when the mouse is moved over the site is also very useful. I wasn't, however, really impressed with the search results. Some were really left field, however this can be quite useful I guess.

The search term I used on each of the sites was "Friends". I have just spend Australia Day hanging out with my friends by our pool and it was the first thing to pop into my head.

Meta search engines, such as Zuula, are a great place to start any Internet research. I have always used Dogpile or MetaCrawler. I do like the Zuula interface and the various search engine tabs across the top of the page. It is interesting to see the different results given within a meta search engine.

LibraryThing #9

I have heard of LibraryThing and once looked into it (I am sure I signed up - can't recall the login details of course!). I never went any further with it - I guess it was a combination of a number of reasons, i.e. don't have a huge collection of monographs to even consider creating a library.

My Father, nonetheless, is a huge fan. He does have a large home library and was so excited to learn about LibraryThing. To this day he continues to use Library Thing.

I can understand why someone with a large personal collection of monographs would find LibraryThing useful. It would also be very interesting to find, and chat with, people who have similar libraries. It would also be very satisfying to have ones own collection catalogued, and seen by others.

I have signed up (and noted my login detials this time!) to LibraryThing, so that I can explore it further. I am very interested in the reviews. My username is Nairarbilibrarian if you are interested!

More on RSS Feeds #8

RSS feeds enable me quick access to the information I want. I am in control as I can look over the "headings/titles" of the feeds and decide which pieces I want to read, i.e. do they interest me?


Sometimes it can get a little overwhelming having to look over all the Feeds that I receive. It is therefore a good idea to check the Reader/Feeds more often than not (and as I have mentioned previously I don't practice what I preach).

I find the RSS feeds in some of our databases very useful, as do many of the academics. It saves so much time and provides all the current information needed to keep up-to-date on a particular subject.

RSS Feeds could be very useful for a library. Enabling users to subscribe to a library feed would provide a library another form of communication. A library could provide information such as database updates, changes to opening hours etc.

RSS Feeds

I discovered (can't recall how) the Google RSS Reader a couple of years ago. It is just what I needed - one location with all my RSS feeds. I was over having to recall which PC I had one of my RSS subscriptions on. It is just so simple. Log on and there they all were. Nice and easy.

I currently subscribe to ALIA Board Blog, ABS Blog for Librarians, Blogging for a Good Book, e3 Information Overload, LibrarianInBlack, Libraryman, Paper Cuts, Roxanne Missingham, Tame and Web, Tame the Web, & Walking Paper. I began subscriptions to these as it was an easy way to keep up-to-date with what was being discussed and discovered in the library world.

I must admit though...I don't regularly read these feeds. When I do get a chance to catch up, it is easy enough to look through all the feeds I missed.

Google

Google Docs...



Had a look at Google Docs a couple of years ago. Found one of my old files on there when I logged in. Really like the idea, but haven't needed to use it. I guess it would be very handy to use between the liaison librarians, and it would be terrific for group work if you are a student. Particularly good for people who can't afford word processing software etc.



iGoogle...



I created my iGoogle page back in 2006 also and still love it. So much fun and very useful. Some of the gadgets that are available now are awesome. I really like having the "current top news stories" on my homepage - good to know what is happening outside the library. I have also added the currency converter, Gmail, calendar, weather, facebook, stickynote, & tree frog widgets for a bit of fun. The background colours/fonts/designs that you can choose make it more appealing. I have been using the Akira Isogawa artist theme for sometime now.



I really like the idea of moving around the gadgets so that you can change the look of your homepage as often as you like.



I could rave for hours on the wonders of iGoogle...haven't you noticed!

#5 - Wikis

Yeah for wikis!! I think that they are fantastic.

Before ACU I worked at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT) Library. QUT had 3 campuses across Brisbane, and we wanted a better Help Desk manual that we could all use. So...a wiki was created to replace the out-of-date Help Desk manual folder that each campus had their own version of. It took a while to create the wiki, but it was definitely worth it. Goodbye paper based manual! Of course were are some campus specific information that wasn't relevant for all campuses to use, so we created sub categories for each specific library. Information was so easy to find - no more frantically flicking through a loose leaf binder in front of staff/students.

Perhaps we could think about creating an Information Desk manual wiki for ACU Library...

Happy New Year!!!