Last post

Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's Day?
(with apologies to William Shakespeare).


No, this has been more like a tornado ...

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which picks you up and transports you with little control on a chaotic ride to places unknown.

What a crazy ride! This experience has been also a little like a roller coaster and it has been a journey full of descriptives! Here are a few I managed to experience on this exercise: frustrating, engaging, addictive, enraging, soporific, ecstatic ... but I'll stop there. I started this activity wondering where it was going to take me. The social networking sites I think personally I wouldn't bother with in the future, but I found each new activity opened a door into a new discovery and exciting possibility. It was an inventive scheme to "jump start" somewhat reluctant colleagues into the new era. In the last few weeks I found that internet connectivity issues were causing a lot of problems. Everything seemed to slow down to a crawl, or not work properly; and I must confess that there were times when I wondered if it was all worthwhile. Now I've completed it, I will probably go back to some of the websites for a more timely exploration, but I probably won't become addicted to some of this stuff.

Engari ahakoa ngā piki me ngā heke, kua whakaotihia e au. (But despite the ups and downs, I've completed it.)

The music says it all: "Last post"

Youtube

There are an amazing variety of video clips out there, and I had to ponder for a while to think of what to search to find one. Problem is, our connection is so slow that it took ages for it to load; I got two seconds worth of play for every 5 minutes waiting. This was just to view the video to see if it was what I actuallly wanted!
It seems that I have to sign up for Youtube in order to post a video clip to my blog. Have just spent ten minutes trying to sign up. Grrrrrr... Anyway, I am attempting to embed the video clip on libraries I found into this blog. It does take a while to load, though. What do library staff do over the summer/quiet season? This may provide the answer to this question.

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This type of technology could be used on a website to explain a procedure, give a tutorial, give a tour of a collection, or reveal part of the library usually unseen, in a similar way that this clip does. Web download speeds will have to be a lot faster, though. I found the whole experience very frustrating.



Hey neat! Look at what I just found:

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For all those Gerry Anderson fans out there, here's a poser: In the opening credit shots following the countdown, how many scenes from various episodes can you identify? e.g. one of them is "Attack of the alligators". Can you name the others?

Podcasts

I thought that this was meant to be easier as you got to the end!! Podcasts to me just seem to be like a type of youtube without the video. Can't be absolutely sure, as I've yet to play one. Most need to download software to play them. The ones in Podcast.net and Podcasting.com have incompatible software. Tried Yahoo podcasts, and managed finally to play one (it loaded through media player). Searched using the term "library podcast" to find this. Search engines seem to work in a familiar way, though. I've added a RSS feed of podcasts from Sheridan library. I followed the instructions to link to the RSS feeds on the site, but I'm not sure if I've done it correctly, though as it does not seem to be linking to the site properly. I tried adding the RSS feed into my Bloglines account, but I was told that there was a problem there, too, but it eventually worked. See above for screenshot. (Library podcasts folder)

Netlibrary

Gosh, it was so easy to join up with Netlibrary through the Auckland City Libraries website. The only catch was that I had no idea what the content of the library was, and I tried unsuccessfully to find ebooks of some of my favourite authors. It seems as if Netlibrary contains mostly non-fiction or classical fiction. I found a book on plate tectonics which I have bookmarked into my account, and will have a read later. I still dislike the idea of reading a book on a computer screen, though, and prefer being able to browse a book by flicking through pages. In spite of this, reading an ebook was very easy. The text and illustrations were clear enough, and you didn't have to do too much scrolling down the computer screen to read a page. I was amazed to find that we have 773 ebooks in our collection, and these can also be accessed through the catalogue.

Web 2.0 awards

Even just looking through the finalists was quite a chore: What to choose? I was just like a kid in a lolly shop. Glad to see some familiar names e.g Flickr; De.lici.ous; Facebook; Technorati. I was intrigued to notice that the Word Processing award went to Google docs rather than Zoho (after all, it was only using Google that I managed to successfully load a document onto my blog). I took a look at Upcoming (the Events sites winnner) It needed a Yahoo login, and it was basically a site where you could find information on upcoming events. It had a calendar and to enter a date and the ability to search by region. This would be a great way to advertise library events to a wider audience. Surfed through some of the events already listed on the New Zealand region, but this must be a fairly new site, (and mainly American) and not much was listed for Christmas/New Year, even though there must be lots of things happening. I attempted to create a "badge" to appear on my blog but the technology didn't seem to load. I also had a look at Cocktailbuilder (winner of Fun Stuff) Not so much use to libraries, but quite timely as it's coming up to the festive season to know what cocktail you can make with the supplies on hand e.g if you have gin did you know that all you need is root bear to create an earthquake? Here's the recipe I found:

earthquake

2 ingredients

1 - 3 oz of gin
root beer

in a tall glass with ice, mix the two based on how strong you want or need it to be. be careful not to break the richter scale.


I also looked at Google Maps (winner of the Mapping section) and located a map of Tauranga showing the motel where I had stayed during my recent holiday. (Bother; link which I had planned to show does not appear.) Quite intrigued that you can have various views: map, terrain and satellite. Satellite shows wonderful aerial shots, as if you were in a helicopter.

Zoho and online productivity applications

I published my attempt at sending a Google document through to my blog page as below. However, the picture I inserted has been half obliterated (I thought it would resize) but no!....
Anyway, this I hope concludes my rather frustrating experiences of these applications on the web.

Sandbox wiki

Playing with the library Sandbox wiki gave me an opportunity for the "feel" of editing an actual wiki by adding my own blog link. It also highlighted some of the security possibilities of a wiki by having to input a password to access it, and to type in your name and email address for editing mode. I also took a peek at Holiday destinations (adding Rotorua and Whitianga) and TV shows (adding Gerry Anderson's TV series). I had to have several tries before a hyperlink worked with this. Using the link command didn't work as I expected it to the first time, but practice makes perfect, doesn't it?

I would like to know who added the Fluff TV entry to have a catch-up, as these are also some of my favourite shows. It looks as if Fantasy/Sci-fi is a favourite for librarians.

Wikis

What flexible things wikis are; I had no idea up to now that you could use them for conference/trip planning, project management or collaborative editing of a work. Another possibility I thought of was as a web-based notebook to organise my thoughts (boy, do I need this at the moment!:) I guess it works a bit like mind-mapping. All I knew of them to date was "Wikipedia". The Commoncraft youtube video gave wonderfully clear basic information on how to get started, and just how easy it was to use a wiki. It explained that wikis are great tools for co-ordinating information, and as such are great for giving a space for public feedback on library websites (although we would need staff assigned to monitor and answer them.) They also could be used for online tutorials.
You don't need HTML to write a wiki, and this may mean that in the future, standard web pages as we know them will be phased out. Various versions of wikis can support user login to prevent mis-use and vandalism. Maybe the new ACL web page could tap into the pool of knowledgeable and enthusiastic users. It could also be that a wiki could be easier to use and maintain than a fitch, and allow public viewing and comment as well.

Web 2.0 reading

Reading other people's comments on the use of Web 2.0 in libraries was totally amazing. Looking at "Away from the icebergs" does highlight some of the issues we already have at ACL. The numbers of (adult) customers coming up to the reference desks for assistance with blogs, email, digital cameras, flickr and even how to do basic things on computers is increasing. Many older users are feeling increasingly swamped and alienated with the new technology. The 'Click and Learn' classes which we hold have proved popular, and there is a demand for more than we can provide with the resources we currently have. The other comment on user education also hit home, saying that many libraries are insufficiently resourced for this: a better idea was to ensure that the search interfaces the public use are as easy to search on as some of the modern search engines.

Intrigued by the comments in the article "On the way to the library experience of the future", where "Libraries are not just collections of documents and books, they are conversations ..." After all, blogs and wikis are also conversations, so is this where libraries are headed? Also interesting was the observation that there may be competition amongst libraries for the best "librarian avatar" and the "people will collect librarians rather than books ..." Searched on Google for "librarian avatar" and found this article. Scary stuff!


The other thought that struck me was that librarians have expertise in cataloguing and classifying information. If that is the case, we could be developing a service for "tagging" online information for easier location.

The future of libraries was a conversation point at the LIANZA conference in Rotorua. Delegates were offered the chance to record what their vision of libraries would be in 2017 with interesting results. Here is the flickr link.


Another thought highlighted in the "Into a new world of librarianship" article was the use of Web 2.0 technologies e.g. wikis and blogs to connect with users online, and the idea that library users could participate by assisting in the creation of online library content. Perhaps we could also use a site blog for communicating up-to-the minute information to other library sites. Perhaps through Library Zone with an RSS feed? This could be useful, as our Reference Desks do not support departmental/site email.

Technorati and tagging

Had a bit of a squizz at Technorati. At first it appeared to be another search site plagued by pesky pop-up advertisements. Then I noticed the "clickable" tags. This is not always helpful as I was in for a surprise when I typed in motorcycles. Look at this link to see what I mean : http://www.technorati.com/tag/motorcycles?authority=a4&language=en What has a diabetic recipe got to do with motorcycles? (this is now on the second page).It was only when you viewed the actual post that it became clear that motorcycles had a small mention near the bottom of the page in the labels, along with "Riders against diabetes". I quite like the way you can search for the tags in either posts, blogs, utube or ....I searched for my own blog on Technorati and was totally amazed how easy it was to find it. I just used the search box to enter crystalines and here it is: http://www.technorati.com/blogs/tag/crystalines (but I have no fans ... boo hoo!) I checked out some of the blogs listed under the popular tag - amazing how many are about making money. e.g. this one: (I suppose anything to do with making money would make it popular!:)) Lifehacker, too, looked intriguing.

Del.icio.us

I've had a peek at the Del.icio.us site, and was quite impressed with the ability to store bookmarks. I like the idea of being able to save your favourite websites for use on any computer (saves having to remember them "Oh my aching head!"). Now all I have to do is remember the logons and passwords to all these fancy sites I have created.
The youtube video (Social bookmarking in plain English) audio kept stopping and starting, and it was a little difficult to follow. Trouble is, I'm quite sure that we're not supposed to download material onto work computers, and the public terminals don't accept downloads either. However, I did create a "network badge" which I can hopefully attach to this blog. This is the address I was told to copy and paste in:
http://del.icio.us/feeds/js/networkbadge/Darkcrystal1?name;nwcount;fancount;icon, however it does not seem to be working properly.; it is asking me to download a file to view it. Now I'm not sure whether I need to use a link roll or a tag roll instead on my blog.
Looking through the popular and recent tags was an eye-opener. The type of websites people like to look at was a bit revealing. I preferred to use the search function for more specifics.
The tag options sorting was interesting, and I like the way you can read other people's comments to the website and link to their bookmarks. However, I can't work out how to add a tag to a previously saved and tagged bookmark. I don't want to change the tag, just add another one. The edit tags function only allows you to rename or delete, but not add.

I am sure once I have the time to have a decent play I could sort this out. Maybe later... maybe next year.

I

Rollyo rollup, rollover and beg

Initially I thought this was great when I read the FAQs and blurb about what Rollyo could do. I thought this would be a great way of saving favourite links when you are away from your home computer. However, I was in for some disappointments: I followed the instructions and created a customized lists of links, but my page did not have a name. Just found out that to create a named page you have to create a link, so here it is: http://rollyo.com/darkcrystal/automotive_specs/ . Got so excited when it finally worked, that I created another list: http://rollyo.com/darkcrystal/manic_volcanic/. Now I can access my favourite web pages from any internet-connected computer.

Library Thing

Was fascinated reading the information about Library Thing. It was exactly what I was looking for as an aid to listing my growing library at home. Have started adding some of my books to the list, but it may take some time.... (I wonder if I will be prepared to pay if I find I have more than 200 books?) Like the way you can search the various libraries of the world for the book (noted that the National Library of New Zealand was not one of them, though). Here's my Library thing page http://www.librarything.com/catalog/darkcrystal. It's great how many fields you can fill in with other personal information, e.g. in my case, I have met some of the authors of the books, and have made a note there is an autograph inside. The tags also allow you to view other books of a similar subject.

Image generating

The "League of Bone" band members from top to bottom: Petal, Boon, Alfie, Jess and Mac

What fun to play with more pics! Just coming back from holiday from the Gold Coast, Australia, and was inspired with this site: http://www.neonmirrors.com/custom/ to create neon signs. I've included the picture I created to the left. I also went back to a site I discovered with the Flickr exercise, and created this movie poster(far left). (I hope this is not going to be prophetic!). Using a link given in The Generator Blog, I created a Death Metal Band name http://www.generatorland.com/display.php?id=69 Mine is "The League of Bone", and here are the band members: Mac, Jess, Alfie, Boon and Petal which I created using the Doppelme Avatar Generator (one of the links in The Generator Blog)

Week 4 RSS feeds

I seem to be fluctuating between enthusiasm and feelings of "numb brain-ness" with this new technology. I hope enthusiasm wins the day, though. It seems to be taking me much longer than most people to get a handle on how to do these things. Frustration is a constant companion.
I looked at the newsfeed search sites, and found none that I really liked to use. Feedster search seems to take you to individual RSS posts, but when you go to the site there is no opportunity to find the RSS link to similar material. Similar things happened to me when I tried Syndic8 (boy is it slow!!!) and http://www.blogger.com/www.completerss.com (as mentioned in one of the tutorials). Only dawned on me that the search engine finds the feed but not the link to find feeds of a similar topic. Topix was the only search site that instantly appealed (mainly because RSS feeds are clearly labelled at the bottom of the page, but apart from general New Zealand news, nothing really appealed.)
To find RSS feeds, I mostly went to my favourite web pages, and looked for an orange box indicating a RSS link. Amazed at how many RSS feeds are available out there, and that they can be called different things, e.g. XML , ATOM
Tried searching for "RSS feeds" using Google. Had a look at Solarwarp http://www.solarwarp.net/ which lists topics in a directory format. I dipped into some of these and once again found the actual feed item, rather than a link to the subject. Reading the feed itself does not provide you with a link to other similar feeds. Could someone offer a tip please? How on earth do you find an RSS feed for a subject?
Tried once again using Google and typed as a search "Rss feeds" library. This seemed more promising. Had a look at the New York Public Library, which is using RSS feeds ( http://www.nypl.org/rss/ ) for keeping customers up-to-date with library events and news. I tried searching for some librarian humour as a feed, but got into some very dodgy sites!!
Set up a Bloglines account to record some feeds, but not sure how to attach them to my actual blog. Perhaps as a link to the blog? This is the web page address which appears when I log in: http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs. However, when I'm not logged in, this does not take you to my page, so I have added a screen shot of my page (and scanned it to a jpg) to show the feeds at the top of this rant.

Another thing:

I tried attaching an RSS feed to my blog (Consumer product recalls), adding a Feed element, but this did not seem to work as successfully as Bloglines. See the Consumer product recall alerts. This was done several days ago, and have just made the same link to Bloglines, and already there are two more product recalls which haven't appeared on the link on my blog.

Flickr mashups and technology rant

Well, some of those mashup tools are not very intuitive. I tried to create a mosaic using Montagr (thinking of course that a mosaic would be made up of several images), but ended up with a single image to email. Not very satisfied with that, so looked around for something else to play with. Attempted to make a cube, but on entering the site (bighugelabs) it wanted me to sign up with another account (wouldn't accept my Flickr account). Didn't want to go through having to remember another account sign-on name and password, so gave that a miss. Finally, I tried to create a poster/postcard. This seemed fairly successful. (Hope you don't mind, Jo, that I borrowed your picture.) The result is up top.

Technology rant: This was hidden in the previous Week 3 post (remember the problem with pics?)

Week 3 Flikr experiences

I joined up to a Flickr account, but found that I had to have a Yahoo email. Grrr.... and it took ages to create, and I couldn't use my gmail account name, as this had already been taken in Yahoo. Double grr.... I now find I have to have a notebook with all my different account names ... and computers are supposed to make life easier?

Talking about more technology gripes: My digital camera is driving me crazy! Not only do I have trouble downloading my pics, but when I look at them on the computer, the pictures are always too dark, (even though they look OK on the camera screen) and I have to fiddle with them in edit to make them presentable e.g. the one on the left is the original, only being edited to resize it for the web.

The one on the right has been recontrasted and brightened to have some semblance to what it should look like. And I have to do this for just about all my pictures with this camera. I really need a new one now!!

I added two photos to my Flickr account with a tag ACL Learning 2.0 so you can find them easily. One is from Pompeii, the other of White Island. If you think they look familiar, you have probably seen them on the ACL natural disasters (volcanoes) web page. It was fun looking through other people's photos on flickr, checking other tags to see what pictures are out there.

3 October addenda: I have just looked at the Flickr page, and on entering ACL Learning into the search box could not find my photos, even though I added these words to my tags. Found Marilyn's pictures, though. Can't understand this, and don't know what I have done wrong.

Week 2 Social Networking

Well, I looked at Bebo, Facebook and Myspace. I must confess I did not understand their function much. It all seems a little strange to me. I had difficulty viewing video features because we did not have the correct version of the necessary software. I am feeling confused about what the difference is between a blog and the social networking sites. They seem to have similar functions. Maybe I'm from the wrong "generation", but I feel very uncomfortable about:
a) putting my personal details up on public display
b) seeing other people's personal details up on public display

I signed up with Bebo in order to "be a friend" of the ACL page. Still waiting to be accepted, but I'm wondering whether they will recognise me from my alias?

As Alice said," Curiouser and curiouser ...."

Quote of the day:

"I'm full of fears and I do my best to avoid difficulties and any kind of complications. I like everything around me to be clear as crystal and completely calm." Alfred Hitchcock .

(Hey, it looks like I may have something in common with someone famous!)

Did you know?

Find out more about quartz.

First attempt

AArgh! Blank page! Instant panic!
Well, this has been incredibly frustrating, as it is not at all intuitive. I didn't even realise that I had to log in to create a Post (fancy new term for a blank page to write stuff.) I tried to save my draft, but got an error in processing message. What??
OK, now it has saved.
Not too sure about revealing all this, as it may appear to make me look stupid.