No more lunging (officially anyway!)

It has taken me a while to get back here, to give some final comments on the 21 Lunges program. I’ve been very busy, but that’s all for another time, another post. But it’s officially over; no more incentives were to be had after the 30th November.

Success rate at getting people up and running at my site was not high. As I said in the report I wrote about it in preparation for the recent meeting with site champions, I do not necessarily think it was just lack of interest that accounted for the low participation rate. Time was a big factor (fitting it in with normal workload), secondments and absences, content overload in some cases, and lack of relevance or only parts of the program relevant to some staff (and I agree that it was hard to make a case for those). I admit that at times I was probably less than enthusiastic for it too, as things did not appear to be going far, so I am a factor in the overall picture.

The introductory sessions I ran explaining what the concepts Web 2.0. and Library 2.0 meant, with examples, and why we were embarking on the program, were well-attended, but the sessions I organised to give staff a time and place to do it were not. It got to the stage where an e-mail, the initial posters I placed around the staff areas, or a casual conversation were enough to make some realise that they should do it, and that they didn’t need reminding all the time. I realised that there is only so far you can go in encouraging people to do something if they are not obliged to, before it is up to them. And I did actually help a couple of staff members from their own PC. Maybe I could have pushed harder, opened up the Seminar Room even if nobody came, or been a bit more persistent that they should give it a try, but this is all hindsight now.

I was very impressed with the two staff members who did complete the program, Orange Thoughts and on the way to work. Their insights made me realise that what I was doing was not all in vain. So congratulations to them. The program blog as it currently is, looks like it will disappear eventually, to make way for a smaller program: we realised that there were some lunges that did not provide enough insight, were a mishmash of different things, or could be subsumed into others. And the idea was put forward about running Travelling Roadshow In Service Training sessions on particular Web 2.0 concepts, run by an expert staff member. This is a great idea, so hopefully it gains support. I think it would be a shame (agreed by the others involved) if we did not have some sort of Web 2.0 focus within our Library.

Something else positive may have come out of all this – one of my colleagues is determined she will complete the program even without incentives next year with my assistance when needed, so that we may be able to present a paper at the 2009 Library Technicians Conference, as a mentor and mentee who went on the journey together, exciting if we could make it happen. There are a couple of issues, on which I could continue this blog and this may be one of them. I think I’ll leave the decision till January though. Merry Christmas!

On the way to work tumbling to the end!

On the way to work is almost finished the 21 Lunges journey. Good on you. I think he may be the only one. One of the other participants' continues to have trouble with their Google login and password. I think I know why, and will investigate that next week.

Once on the way is finished, I will post a few comments on the program and my role, given that the period to finish is almost officially over. There are some things we/I did well and others not so well.

A whirlwind is beginning!

A shout out to cyclone who is enthusiastic and going well. Good on you.

Busy, but not really lunging

I have to say, while 21 Lunges hasn't been a blaze of success at my site, I'm not greatly disappointed either. The enthusiasm is there, and the realisation that Web 2.0 is important. But,we have been having staffing issues, so everyone is busy, including me, keeping things afloat until the natural order is restored!

I have to say, I had to abandon the last two 21 Lunge sessions, because I have had to do other things. But I've been sure to let participants know I'm around to help, and sent friendly email reminders too. I've put another time out for next Thursday, so will see what the response is.

Someone is going to the movies!

On the Way to Work has made it to 10 Lunges and will get a double movie pass! Add to that, three more people have signed up, so things are looking good. They just have to keep going!

6 Lunges and counting!

I am very pleased with The Potter Librarian and On the Way to Work. They have made it to Lunge 6, so a Certificate of Achievement will be coming their way soon! As for everyone else, well I don't think I can do anymore than give a gentle prod now. The sessions are there if they want them. Some staff have temporarily moved to other campus libraries too, so this upheaval has to be taken into consideration too. This week's session will probaby go ahead, as another staff member has signed up and appears very interested to start.

So, all in all, as good as can be expected at this stage.

Off and racing

Well, I thought it was time for another update post. Things are going steady at Bundoora. Some more staff signed up, thanks to the blitz that was done with IST's, emails, posters and now the 'hands on' sessions. The next one of those is scheduled for next Friday (18th). I thought every two weeks was a good timeframe, after a couple of weekly slots to get the ball rolling, but maybe I should stayed with weekly. I say this, because a couple started the program, but haven't done much since the last session. Will see.

It is so great to see 21 Lunge posts finally coming into my RSS reader. The Potter Librarian and On the Way to Work are going really well.

I've been thinking over the last couple of days, about how I should use this blog after 21 Lunges finishes. For book reviews - I have been really lazy with my book reading lately, which isn't like me, so maybe it will be an incentive. Or a blog on interesting library-related topics I find. Or maybe I'll start another hobby and blog about that. So many possibilities! I must say I've been very library-focussed in all the things I have been doing lately, even outside of work. Maybe I need to get out my family's rather large slide collection and start organising those. I'm an organised person... hang-on maybe that's one reason I'm a librarian. Tomorrow it is.

And a special shout out to my library pal, The Mirrored Librarian. Till next time

Encouraging staff to lunge

A couple of weeks ago, I met with other site champions and the Acting Staff Development Co-ordinator, to discuss progress of the Library's 21 Lunges program, and ways to encourage more staff to take it up.

I have presented a few training sessions to staff at my site, which focus on what the terms Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 mean, with some examples of Web 2.0 applications in action at the Library already, and explained why we are encouraging staff to do the program. They are going well. Last one tomorrow. I helped two staff staff set up their blogs in these sessions, so I am really pumped!

From next week, I'll set up some regular times in a Seminar Room, if staff want to ask questions, need help, motivation, or just a time and space to go through the exercises.

Hopefully by me doing this, it will mean more take up the challenge.

Progress, and a shout out to a really good resource

Well, it’s been a few weeks since 21 Lunges began, and staff at my site seem to be enthusiastic; now all I need to get them to do is start blogging. I am noticing that it is a bit of a challenge to get people excited about development opportunities and hard too, because they have to keep up with their normal workloads as well. Because no-one is forced to take part (and neither they should be), how do you go beyond the ‘have you started? I’m here if you need help?’ kind of talk. I’ve toyed with a site incentive, getting in someone who has done a similar program to recollect their experiences, or setting up a time and place for staff to actually devote some time to it. But again, the last one is not in the spirit of what it is all about. What to do, What to do?? Keep on plugging away I guess.

Another reason I wanted to write this post is to bring your attention to a great resource called Just One More Book. It is a thrice-weekly podcast hosted by mother and father team, Mark and Angela, discussing a favourite children’s book the family has read (they have 2 daughters, Lucy and Bayla) or sometimes featuring an author interview, all recorded in their favourite coffee shop. It is very well done, professional, and you can tell they have a passion for children’s books and have a large collection at that!

Thing #23 Super Summary!

21 Lunges is just beginning. But I have really enjoyed preparing myself for our program with Helene Blowers’ Learning 2.0 journey.
Of course, there were “things” I enjoyed more than others, but again, they all provided an insight into the new technologies that are out there and what the next generation are beginning to use.
· Mashups are great: the potential to bring functionality from two different applications could be of benefit to libraries.
· Creating Web 2.0 subject guides with a tool such as LibGuides is a great idea, because there is potential to tap into resources on You Tube, Flickr, del.icio.us and podcasts, beyond traditional print and electronic resources.
· Creating a Site-Pal-like avatar could be the next phase for virtual or electronic reference.
· RSS and Newsreaders are great because they push the content to you rather than you having to seek it out yourself every time, great for advertising what’s new at the library, to give just one use for it in our context.
· LibraryThing would be a perfect solution for a small or specialist library who couldn’t afford an expensive LMS. Or for a bookclub. Heck, it’s a cataloguer’s guilty pleasure!
· Del.icio.us. Well I have talked this up so much. Why wouldn’t you want to have your bookmarks travel with you wherever you go? Another good addition to a subject guide.
· Wikis would be valuable as a tool to keep track in a collaborative library project, or as a knowledge base for staff. It would save unnecessary e-mails.
· You Tube could be the medium used for online library tutorials. Podcasting could be used in the same way.
· Audiobooks are a great idea for those who travel, or are in a hurry. Can’t take a book, this is the next best thing.
There is potential there. All you have to do is take the time to think about it. Again, I’m glad I took up the challenge. Now onward and upward with our program.

Thing #22. Audiobooks

Well, I may not have been able to download audiobooks on Netlibrary, but I did get to have a play with its e-book functions. And I may have had problems doing the same with Librivox and Project Gutenberg (after I took the initiative too!). Finally though, Audiobooksforfree came through and I got to have the experience. Sound quality varied, but I really think while the paper-book-reading experience may not disappear, audiobooks are a great alternative if you’re travelling or in a hurry. Today’s audiobooks are really the new generation talking book. And isn’t it great sometimes to just feel like you’re being read to by someone, and not have to think about a thing. Shame I don’t get the MP3 player for my troubles.
I can feel a summary coming on soon! And then I can continue to use this blog to track 21 Lunges. Of which there is not a lot happening at my site library at the moment. I can feel a change coming though!

Thing #21 Podcasting

Here I am again, after a bit of a hiatus, working on my own library’s 21 lunges program, helping to get it ready for the launch. We have had a good, steady response so far from the staff and hopefully this continues. I really believe learning about Web 2.0 tools is a valuable exercise. While some of them may not be worthwhile in a library context, just to know what they are and what they do is important. Also, to know what our patrons are using, what they talk about, the environments they inhabit is useful for helping us understand more about who we are serving.

Podcasting is a really great way to reach our clients. Useful for online tutorials, when they are too busy to come into the library for a face-to-face session and to communicate library news and key information about our services. My library is considering using them to complement a self-guided tour we have created, which is how my interest grew in the technology.
I really enjoyed this exercise, because it allowed me to use dedicated search engines to find podcasts on a multitude of topics. – literature, soap operas, technology, teen issues. There is something for everyone. Podcast Alley was a good tool for this. I also got to hear the different levels of quality that is produced, from the really good to the not so good. I learnt more about how to create a podcast, which I will be returning to later.

I guess the basic idea behind podcasting isn’t new, communicating audio to the interested listener, but the ease with which they can hear it and find it is new, how mainstream it has become. I could have an iPod, or could listen to one direct from my computer at home or at work.

Till next time.

Thing #20. The power of YouTube

I think YouTube is a very good site. It’s great that it makes video available to people everywhere. I do agree with Helene Blowers though, that you will find good and not so good content posted here. A benefit of libraries using social video sites is that they can be used to make online tutorials or presentations available to staff and students regardless of where they are. It a convenient way to get messages across to those who don’t come in to the library often, who might have missed an important session, or to complement the face-to-face interaction with library staff. It is useful too, that anyone who uploads content to the site has to create a profile, so anyone else who likes what they have posted can subscribe to be alerted when new content from them becomes available.

The video I am choosing to share with you all from You Tube, is set in a library, where Japanese participants play a game of chance to see who the “lucky” one is who has to undertake each of the quite bizarre (funny) challenges. All the while, people are working, reading, studying around them, and the “actors” have to try and be quiet. Who knows if it is a set-up? I would think it would have to be, because no-one around them gets frustrated by their antics (although this may be part of the Japanese nature). But it is funny. Enjoy!

Thing # 19. Choosing a tool of my own to explore using the Web 2.0 Awards List

What a great list. I will be coming back to it again later It shows the top three Web 2.0 applications in 41 categories for the year 2007, as voted by ‘…a team of 25 of the most knowledgeable, well-respected experts in the field…’. Categories include Blog Guides, Books, Collaborative Writing and Word Processing, Mashups, Mapping, and Social Networking. Because 23 things only introduces a small number of Web 2.0 tools and there are so many out there, this thing asked participants to explore the list, or pick a particular category, to find their own tool to explore. I chose the Bookmarking category and Furl, because this is a tool I would have had to explore eventually, to prepare me to write the post on social bookmarking and tagging for the 21 lunges program. So what a good opportunity.

Furl has the same premise as del.icio.us: it allows a person to create a listing of bookmarks (links) to favourite/useful websites, tag them with useful keywords so they can be grouped together in categories, or easily searched, descriptions can be added to know why a link is useful, and bookmarks can be shared with others – the social aspect.
I can also see what links have become recently popular, based on what others on the sites are doing, can search within both to find other links that interest me, and can add buttons to my browser to easily add links I find while surfing the net.

I really like the idea of bookmarking tools, because all the links I use regularly, or just like, are in one place and can be accessed wherever I happen to be regardless of the computer or browser I use. And that you can also explore other people’s bookmarks around you is a great thing. I’ve written in my post on del.icio.us how bookmarking could be useful for libraries and academia generally.

Del.icio.us is easy to use and navigate, because of its simplistic colour scheme, it has a very clean look, it is easy to add, delete and share links, and help is identifiable. Furl is not so easy or intuitive. Furl is not cluttered and the colour scheme is fine, it looks like a good page when a person logs in, but it took me a while to realise that the four links across the top, ‘Welcome’, ‘Tools’, ‘Save’ and ‘Explore’, are expandable menus (it didn’t help that I have been having trouble with my computer either). So, I was going to the bottom of the page instead to use (some) of the options. There is no ‘Help’ at the top, this is also at the bottom, and I felt the ‘FAQ’s’ weren’t as detailed as I would have liked, and I thought the ‘How People Use Furl’ link would be Help-based, but instead it provides quotes from people on ways they use it. Also, I wanted to edit some of my links after initially including them. Nothing explained how to do this that I could see and only after a bit of exploring did I realise that the “orange f” next to each link added is expandable too (you have to get the mouse just right), with edit, delete, and other options displayed. I also don’t understand the ‘Latest Headlines option’: a search on this seems to return news-related links based on the keywords used. But I’m not sure, as it isn’t explained.

I do like the fact that Furl saves a copy of the page you bookmark, so if it ever goes down, the cache is still available, and that you can choose from predefined tags, as well as include your own free-text keywords for searching. Furl also allows full-text searching (finding all instances of words searched in the results returned). The template used to populate information about a new link is good. It would take some getting used to, I don’t think it Furl is “bad”, but of both bookmarking tools explored (thus far), del.icio.us is superior.

Thing #18 Online productivity tools – Zoho Writer

I understand the premise behind something like Zoho Writer. It allows people to collaborate on a document, not dependent on a particular type of word processing software or a particular computer, access anywhere, anytime. That the history of a document (edits) can also be tracked is beneficial.

I did get to have a quick play with the tool, but now it appears to be “freeze-happy” when I attempt to login at the sign-on page, so who knows? It reminded of a Word document template, with all the key shortcuts on a toolbar. I can choose the type of font I want, if I want to bold important text, create HTML links, cut and paste, anything I would expect to be able to do with Microsoft Word. I can export a document originally created in Word to Zoho Writer to work on it here. Two things that I can’t do with Word are adding emoticons to a document, and tags as a way to organise my documents on Zoho.

I’m not sure whether I would regularly use a tool like this in my work, because most of my colleagues use the same applications as I do, so there are no problems with compatibility, (although it might save track changes) people may find it a trial to go and the web and sign in to edit a document, when they could just as easily do it from a program on their desktop, and having just learnt about wikis, couldn’t a wiki be used to collaborate, create, edit, express ideas with others, just as well?

Thing #17 Adding favourite things to PBWiki ??

I tried adding to the Learning 2.0 wiki, but it looks like you can't just create your own login anymore - you need a special one from the administrator.

I have a good understanding of wikis from Thing #16 though, adding to and editing one will have to wait until our own program begins.

Onto Thing #18!

Thing #16 A “quick” post about Wikis

In Hawaiian, wiki means “quick”. Ward Cunningham developed the first wiki in 1994, the concept named after the Wiki Wiki bus at the Honolulu International Airport that runs between the airport terminals (Wikipedia).

Wikis are the tool of a democratic web. They allow people to collaborate/participate in creating a web presence to meet a particular need, or for specific purposes. Control is in the hands of many. A wiki is not static: it gains value the more it is added to. Meredith Farkas (who I found is a key voice/player in discussions about Wikis) writes in an article on Web Junction, “Using Wikis to Create Online Communities”, ‘The possibilities for what libraries can do with wikis are endless. At their least, they are spaces for quick and easy collaborative work. At their best, they can become true community resources that can position the library as a [sic.] an online hub of their local community’.

In academic libraries, I can see wikis being useful for project work, saving a mountain of e-mails between participants, being able to flesh out proposals that everyone is happy with and having all the information in one place. That you can also see previous edits, is valuable for this endeavour. They would also be good a way to maintain library instruction manuals or procedures. This would particularly require library staff buy-in to ensure it would be updated when necessary, because of its “long-term” nature. Subject guides is interesting. I can see why a wiki could be valuable here, because new resources always present themselves and others become obsolete. But I’m not sure if libraries could allow something like this to be truly collaborative: if so, these could become a glut of unorganised information. Tools such as the Web 2.0 subject guide tools I discussed in an earlier post and del.icio.us are probably better alternatives.

I understand that there is the possibility of chaos if you allow anyone to edit web pages and so this is a “con” in the discussion of wikis as a collaborative tool and I agree that in certain circumstances this would be true, but for example, a library project wiki should only be available on the private library intranet for those interested staff to participate in. And when a wiki is initially set up, it should still have a purpose and so parameters/initial points to stimulate discussion should be set by the person who originates the wiki.

I had heard about the Library Success wiki, as a place for libraries to share ideas and information about library issues. It saves duplicating effort, if you can find some good resources to start you on a journey of further discovery. Now I have seen it and I love it. Our profession is one that helps people, and has very rich professional connections, so what a great use of a wiki!

I can think of a way to use a wiki in my library in the future and Helene Blowers has provided some great starter resources on the 23 things blog. Shh! It’s a secret.

Library 2.0: A new philosophy, or something we have always strived for?

Having done a bit of reading on Library 2.0, I wonder whether its underlying ideas haven’t always been part of the library philosophy, and it is only now that major discussions are taking place about the value and future of libraries, that we are really considering what we do and how we do it. Library 2.0 sprouted from Web 2.0, moving towards a more participatory web, using the social tools that are part of this movement, to create new experiences. Libraries have always been about communities, trying to meet needs and expectations, bringing people together, so what does 2.0 really mean to us? The Wikipedia article on Library 2.0 states that “…ultimately the Library 2.0 model for service will replace traditional, one-directional service offerings that have characterized libraries for centuries”. There is “…an increased flow of information from the user back to the library”. We have always tried to serve our communities better, but now Web 2.0 technologies and the Internet generally, have placed more of the control in our clients’ hands in getting the information and services they need. Information provision is not just in the hands of a few anymore. We have to consider how we are going to keep clients’ coming to us, and by investigating the tools they use to communicate with each other, the possibilities that this offers, we may be on our way.

It has been quite hard to write posts about Web 2.0 and Library 2.0, because what they mean and whether what they propose is valuable, is different in each discussion of them. What I think Library 2.0 is forcing us to look at, is not necessarily the services we provide and the communities we serve, but more HOW we do it. And this is the radical part.

Did that make any sense? I can’t wait for wikis!

Technorati

The 14th thing was to explore Technorati and how tags work.

Although I don’t want to register or “claim” my blog on Technorati (yet) or include html (Technorati Tags) to allow Technorati to “crawl” it, (however I think it crawls tagged Blogger blogs automatically) I did want to come back for a look as indicated (implied) in my post on Thing #9. So that is what I did today. A great tool for finding out what the blogosphere is saying about topics of the day and staying current (short and sweet I know, but I didn’t feel like doing a long post).

Thing #13 Tagging is Del.icio.us.

This is another great tool. I decided to import my “favourites” into del.icio.us, along with a few new links to web 2.0 tools. I can tag each one with my own meaningful terms, see who else has also bookmarked them as useful (if any) and how they have classified them. This tool also means I can access my links wherever I am. I can see how this would be in valuable if people were undertaking research and wanted to keep track of all relevant weblinks in one place. Or a course co-ordinator could set up a profile that contained all the recommended web resources students would need, and students could also add to this themselves. Similarly, it could be used as an alternative traditional library subject guides.

My del.icio.us links are at http://del.icio.us/e70976.

It will be interesting to research more about tagging, social bookmarking and folksonomies in preparation to write the content (blogpost) on this for our 21 lunges program.

I really like the blog post by Elyssa Kronski, The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging about the benefits and flaws of user-based tagging/folksonomies for classification purposes.

Thing #12. Rollyo - The customised search engine

What an interesting tool – creating a search engine that only searches the sites you want and trust. I think it is a niche application, rather than wide-ranging, but I can see an application for it in libraries/academia.

It would be another way to help students in their research – putting together a search of websites that the librarian (or course co-ordinator) considers valuable on a particular subject – an extension of the subject guide. The student could include the search widget on their browser (which I had trouble doing, by the way. I have included a search box on the blog though).

I created “My Library Essentials” searchroll, which searches the Librarian’s Internet Index, BUBL Link, and the Open Directory Project (DMOZ), which I think are good general web resources to help start a researching any topic – good for us and the patrons we serve. Now I can search them all in one place: it will encourage me to use them more (if only I get the search widget on a browser!!!).

Rollyo - http://www.rollyo.com/

LibraryThing is my Thing!

I just love this thing! Perhaps, because I have an interest in catalogue, indexing and a good personal collection of books. I had heard good things about LibraryThing, and the opportunity to try it out initially came when I was doing some research on catalogues for a friend last October. I was impressed, and determined to come back and explore it more later. 23 things has allowed me to do this. I now have eighteen books in my library, ones that I have really enjoyed, such as Bryce Courtenay’s Four Fires, and ones that I have been wanting to read for ages, but haven’t yet, such as George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty Four (I know, shock horror!) Of course, I hope to have time to add more. You’ll notice I have a leaning towards Australian authors’ too. I have embedded an LT widget into the blog. Another triumph for me!

LT is great because it does a lot of the hard work for you. You can enter details of a book manually if you want, or do a search within Amazon, the Library of Congress, the National Library of Australia or 252 other sources/catalogues to find item information and populate a record . You can choose to add your own personal tags to describe the book, give it a rating and review it. You can see who has recently added the book to their collection, see other’s reviews of it, blurbs from Amazon and choose from a collection of cover art if available. The Recommendations page connected to each book is interesting. Data is mined from other LibraryThingers and Amazon to list similar books to the one chosen, also books with similar tags, books with similar subjects, and people with this book in their library also have…

The Zeitgeist aspect of LT, shows you the vital stats for the social site. There are 343, 131 members as of today, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the top book, (in the most member libraries) and fiction is the top tag. I have joined the Australian LibraryThingers and Librarians who LibraryThing groups, to allow me to participate in discussion threads, and added more info to my profile.

Books are a great way to connect with people, so that there is a tool that facilitates this interaction is great. My library catalogue is available at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/daniel82.

P.S. The Free Range Librarian blogged this week about a LibraryThing project, which aims to catalogue the libraries of great people, such as Thomas Jefferson. It’s called “I See Dead People[’s Books]" . This is something I want to explore. Maybe tomorrow…

Thing #10 Image Generators. Great fun?

That’s exactly what I thought I’d have with Thing #9 but I wasn’t as “into it” as I thought I might be. I’m not saying I wasn’t intrigued by what I found. I think some of the poster generators would be good for marketing. I did enjoy creating a movie poster with Poster Forge (see below). And the Garfield Comic Strip Generator. But some of the generators really don’t have a widespread application or none at all – just created because they can be, or for curiosities sake alone. Like the Nightingale Song Generator, where you type in a word and it is translated into nightingale for you, or the similar R2D2 Language Generator. The Chinese Name Generator is another, or the HairMixer, where you can pick two photos of celebrities, or upload your own, and mix one person’s face with the other’s hair. As a final example of the not so great, you can create your own Oscars’ speech by filling in the blanks.

I mainly checked out The Generator Blog to see what is out there. And of course fd’s Flickr toys are great (see previous post). Looking forward to reacquainting with LibraryThing next.

Below are some of the results I created.

Smiley Generator

Chocolate Bar Generator

Poster Forge

Thing #9 Finding Feeds

Thing #9 required that we use some feed search tools to find some feeds of interest to subscribe to. I already subscribe to a few, as you can see from my blogroll. But I do have professional interests in library marketing and information literacy, so I focussed mainly on those in my searches. I am a bit of a Neighbours fan too, but couldn’t find anything that really caught my eye. The new feeds I added to Bloglines are, 2c Worth, and EDUCAUSE CONNECT’s Information Literacy and Fluency Blog, which relate to information literacy, and Bronwyn’s Library Blog, (an Australian) and Pimp My Library, which I thought would give some marketing ideas. I also subscribed to Library Podcast! on how to create podcasts, for future reference if my library chooses to create a podcast to complement our self-guided tour.

Of the search tools used, the only one I found difficult/hard to understand was Syndic8, because it still appears to be in its early stages, and has no real structure. It is a community effort, and people submit their own feeds to the site.
Topix searches news and media outlet RSS feeds for recent coverage of stories. For example, I did a search on Harbajhan Singh, to see how the Australia/India cricket controversy was being reported throughout the world. I think this is a great tool.
Technorati is interesting. And I think it is something you would have to use a few times to understand what it offers. Of particular note, not only can you search for blogs and blog posts, you can see what is the most popular/becoming popular out in the blogosphere in categories such as Lifestyle, Sport and Entertainment. I can also see who has commented/linked to particular posts I find (giving it ‘authority’).
The search capability within Bloglines is very easy to use, as is the Google Blog Search Engine (like its parent), which I tried in place of Feedster, which is undergoing changes and is not available at the moment.

Generally, I think tools like this are good idea, as blogs and news sites are becoming “many and millions”, on a variety of topics. They are a valuable, current, constantly changing source of information that should be tapped.

The magic of RSS and creating a Bloglines account… finally!

What a hot day today! Good for staying inside and learning about RSS and newsreaders.

Thing # 8 required that we get to know a little bit about RSS feeds or Really Simple Syndication, create a Bloglines newsreader account and subscribe to a few feeds.

I’m not completely new to RSS, because I have a list of feeds that I access through Internet Explorer 7, so I check those everyday. I like that I don’t have to go to all the different websites to get the news I want, instead the content has been aggregated in one place thanks to RSS. How did we ever live without it (and I truly mean that!).

There were one or two feeds that I couldn’t subscribe to with IE, so I had looked briefly at freely available newsreaders a while ago, Bloglines being one. I soon got bogged down with other things. However, I was determined to return! And I’m glad 23 things has given me the opportunity to. My reaction to Bloglines, is that it is easy to sign up, subscribe to
and organise feeds. It’s great that you can subscribe to flickr photo sets and news sites (I added ninemsn news and ABC news) along with blogs, which you can’t do with Internet Explorer’s functionality.

I may end up deleting most of my blog feeds in Bloglines though, because I find IE convenient for this, but certainly for other types of news, I would use it.

I think libraries would find RSS useful, to keep clients updated on the latest news, new materials, and as a way for clients to create profiles of their interests, favourite books, subjects and authors so that when relevant information becomes available, this can be pushed to them.

I have made my blogroll publicly available at http://www.bloglines.com/public/Dan-G.

#7 Post about anything technology related – Web 2.0 subject guides

In preparing to write this post, I found lots of little gems.

Creating Web 2.0 subject guides is an interesting idea, that first came to my attention a while ago through a post on Stephen’s Lighthouse. In this post, Stephen Abram pointed to a post by iLibrarian, who writes about some of the new ways to create library subject guides and provides some examples. So now I have the chance to blog a few lines about it myself.

Libraries create subject guides or pathfinders as a starting point to help their community find resources on particular topics of interest to them. So it is not surprising that we should be starting to look at ways to embed/include Web 2.0 tools to improve them, because these too also have ‘community’ behind them. I think having community elements within guides, gives those interested in the particular subject a sense of ownership, that they are helping those with similar interests by voting, tagging, commenting on resources that benefited them, a real sense of collegiality. Subject guides that include Web 2.0 ideas would be very worthwhile for academic libraries.

Also, Web 2.0 has given us YouTube, flickr, blogs… so we can use these as other resources point for finding relevant resources, not just what is in print, or on websites. It also means that by including RSS technology, tagging or voting features, guides become more relevant, because they would be updated more regularly. And this is not a bad thing.

Of the new subject guide tools suggested, I really liked Squidoo (although each guide does have some ads included, based on the content – I’m noticing that there is a commercial element to Web 2.0 tools). The example guides provided by iLibrarian relate to getting started with Web/Library 2.0, so there is a benefit of exploring this that I wasn’t expecting!

LibGuides is also good. I was actually going to say how good this was to some colleagues a while back, and found that my Library is actually going to trial it with some of their guides this year! I think the way you can organise information on the page is very clear. Tabs across the top allow you to navigate to different parts of a guide. The subject librarian’s contact information can be included (not just e-mail, IM too if applicable). It will be interesting to see how we use it.

Koonji didn’t seem to work for me when I clicked on the link this time around. I have played with it briefly before and from what I remember I didn’t think this would easily be transferable to a library context. iLibrarian says it is a “…how-to or resource guide for a particular subject which is broken down into steps. Each step describes a process and can include narrative, recommended links lists, tips, videos, and images. Users can add and recommend links, vote for and add tips, discuss guides in forums, and rate koonji guides’.

I also had my first real introduction to del.icio.us. RSS feeds and linkrolls can be added into existing subject guides to add another dimension. I can see how del.icio.us may be useful in helping me keep track of interesting links related to my work, and I can’t wait to explore it more later in 23 things.

Something else I explored thanks to Helene Blowers’ post on thing #7 was SitePal. She had created an avatar to introduce the requirements for this thing, rather than a podcast, but it is no longer active. So I thought, why not try and create one myself, to see how it works. SitePals can be placed on websites and blogs, used as marketing tools, ways to attract traffic to websites. I used the demo to create a rather suave guy (!!), but when I tried to enable the free 15-day-trial to show you my result, I had to include all my details, including credit card to do so (in readiness for later purchase if I wanted). I wasn’t comfortable with this, so I abandoned it. But I can see a benefit in using this or something similar for libraries. The face of a virtual reference service, anyone?

Thing #6 flickr fun

Do you like the fancy heading? I created it with the flickr logo makr, one of the cool things I have been exploring to help me complete thing no. 6 on mashups, web apps and third party tools.

In a nutshell, a “mashup” is a web application that has taken data from two or more sources and used it to create something new (a hybrid), giving it a value that it didn’t have before. The term originated from the hip-hop music scene, where two or more pieces of music are mixed together to create a new song (Wikipedia, 2008. Helene Blowers is right, there are some good resources on this page to help understand mashups).

It could be said that a mashup is like a value-added application, and libraries/librarians are good at adding value to things; maybe mashups should be the major Web 2.0 area libraries should be exploring, creating content and tools their users want by combining different elements. Have they already been doing this, and it is only now with more tools and technology at our disposal, that it can be fully appreciated?

One of the first mashups created (according to Sherif, 2007) was a website that maps Chicago crime stats (using Google Maps and police crime statistics). Click here. Map mashups appear to be very common. flickr lets you create a map to show where your photos were taken.

I had so much fun with this exercise, I could go on playing forever. Of the things suggested on the 23 things blog, I really liked the Flickr Color Pickr, which lets you choose a colour from the colour wheel and public images from flickr are found that match the colour. And not just any images. You can choose from categories like Flowers and Doors and Windows if you like. I would really like to create one of these myself. Montagr is great too. By typing in and searching for a flickr tag a really cool montage is generated of one of the random images found (by default), using the smaller images. I did try out a lot of FD’s Flickr toys. I created my own trading card (as suggested) and magazine poster. See?

I also liked the Warholizer. dumpr is similar to FD’s in fun factor is well. I really liked Make Photos Look Old and Photo to Sketch of these tools.

Note that you don’t have to use flickr images for FD’s or dumpr. You can see the effects just by downloading photos you have on your computer, which is what I did, because I don’t have a big enough flickr library yet.

Of course, there are some applications where you would need to be heavily into flickr to try them, such as creating widgets for your blog, toolbars, screensavers. And then there are those that meet very niche needs, or are very similar to others.

I also tried some games that use data from flickr. There is fastr, which I really enjoyed. You have to guess which tag is shared by ten images that appear on the screen. If you guess right, you get points. You have six minutes to guess as many as you can. TagMan is based on HangMan, except you have to guess the flickr tag before it’s too late. The only thing I didn’t like about this, was that it didn’t show you the answer if you were hung.

So I had lots of fun today and over the weekend with mashups. And I’m sure I will return to this again. There are a couple of ideas I’d like to try…

PS. I had a look at some other photo-managing/sharing sites and Webshots looked really good as an alternative to flickr.

dumpr's Photo to Sketch