The Land Of The Blog

ATTENTION: NSW LIBRARIES I NEED YOUR HELP

2008-05-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

I am doing an assignment for my library course (cert 3). I have to do a presentation on the idea of setting up a cafe in the library. If any NSW libraries or any other Australian libraries out there has a cafe in their library i would LOVE to know about it! This request is on the public library network so you could put them on there or send me information via my e-mail r.cormick@hotmail.com or blog them here.

Any of the following information would be great help:

Name of the library which has a cafe
Any statistics regarding door counts and circulation (before & after you implemented the café if possible).
Percentage increases/decreases in circulation/door counts
Advantages of implementing the café
Any issues
Photos
Or any other information that you think would be good to add in my presentation.

Thank you

Week 12 LAST WEEK

2008-05-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

The library could use social networking in the following ways:

To communicate with patrons - patrons can ask questions, suggest ideas
To promote the library - show library events, hours library is opened, what services the library offers, display pictures, videos.
Patrons can interact with one another - They can help one another, discuss favourite books.
To gain interest from patrons

Week 11 Online Applications and Tools

2008-04-29T20:01:00.000-07:00

This week was a real eye-opener to all the different tools you can use. Zamzar, Picnik, Doodle, Writeboard, Jott, Omnidrive, Tada List, Senduit/You send it and Slideshare are just some of the online tools and i bet there are way more out there in the big wide world of web.

I found Google Docs easy to use. It just appears like an e-mail but instead of sending it, the people who you choose to share the document with can view it and if you selected them as a collaborator then they can edit it as well. In the library i think this could be used to brainstorm ideas and maybe used for listing agenda items for a meeting.

Week 10 Mashups

2008-04-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed this week. There are many cool things you can do to your digital images! For the library situation you could use this tool to create posters, create CD covers for those who are missing one and slide shows. With Google maps you could show the locations of all your branch libraries and include a picture of the library as well. This could be added to the library website.

I have used pictures from Flickr and created captions for the Kittens in cups and a jigsaw option for the horse photo.

Jigsaw Puzzle Horse

2008-04-29T16:51:00.001-07:00

Kittens in cups

2008-04-29T16:38:00.001-07:00

WEEK 9 Podcasts & Audio

2008-04-16T16:42:00.000-07:00

I looked at some podcasts on the library success wiki and have found that alot of podcasts are targeting a teenage audience. Also alot of podcasts are used to show what events are being held in the library.

I think our library could use podcasts in the following ways:

Author talks

Talks from the Living Library "Books"

Radio talks

Upcoming events

To show all the services we offer

Library Tours

Week 8 Answer boards and social searching

2008-04-10T22:21:00.000-07:00

Slam the boards is where reference librarians are answering questions on popular sites such as Yahoo Answers, WikiAnswers etc. They are doing this to show what skills they have in answering questions and to let people know that librarians provide reference services. What a great way to help people and promote the library at the same time.

I think it is possible to do this in our library. Maybe have an answer board on our website and where customers can rate or review items in the collection and services that we have. We do have a comments book so patrons do comment on our service but nowhere, where they can review and rate books/items.

Technorati & Library Thing

2008-03-31T20:09:00.000-07:00

I have explored Technorati and Library Thing. On Technorati i didn't find a different search result when searching for bookmobile from the advanced search option, i found nswpln2008 photos though. I LOVE Library thing. I think it is a great idea to make your own online library and see what other people have said about different books. Our library's catalogue is on our website so i dont think its worth puting it on again on a different website but i do think that patrons should be aware that this website exists and make their own accounts. http://www.librarything.com/catalog/r.cormick this is the link to my Library Thing catalogue.
I have even added a library thing search bar and what they call a blog widget of my books.

2008-03-31T20:00:00.001-07:00

Del.icio.us

2008-03-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

http://del.icio.us/r.cormick this link is my del.icio.us account that i made. I have imported my favourites which was on my browser.

I'm definently going to use this very often as im on different PC's all the time at work and i can see it being used for research assistance. The library could make an account and put good websites on del.icio.us and group them under different catagories/tags.

Kids Rock

2008-03-27T22:50:00.000-07:00

Week 6 - Videos Online

2008-03-27T22:37:00.000-07:00

I have explored you tube, google video and have managed to embed a video into my blog!!! YAY! Take a look at the Crazy Warehouse Guy from Chaser's War on Everything!! Really Funny!! It wasn't as hard as i thought to embed a video. All you have to do is copy the embed HTML, create a new post and paste it in it. First i clicked on "add video" and tried to paste it in there but it didn't work.

Crazy Warehouse Guy In a Library

2008-03-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

WEEK 5 - WIKI'S

2008-03-16T17:34:00.000-07:00

This time i wasn't mind boggled at the term. At least this time i heard of the term and knew of a wiki - wikipedia.
I looked at some of the wiki's and thought the library wiki's are a great idea. Two in particular "Book lovers wiki" and "library success : a best practices wiki". In the "book lovers wiki" they had book reviews from people all different books in all types of genres. "library success" is a wiki which allows input of anything that might help other librarians and also anything that other libraries have done which was a success. I think these are both fantastic ideas. And for all those Star wars fans out there, there is a star wars wiki called "wookieepedia" and as you might imagine it is popular with 55,316 articles since March 2005.

Motorbike

2008-03-16T16:44:00.000-07:00

I wanted to put our new motorbike on my blog so here it is. My partner and i got our L's and bought our very first motorbike.

WEEK 4 - RSS

2008-03-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

I was a bit mind boggled when first hearing the term RSS, but after experimenting I see that it is a great feature. Being able to add feeds from your favourite websites in a newreader (bloglines) or your blog saves you time - you dont have to go to all your favourite websites, you can just go to your blog or newsreader and its all there - your favourite recipes, news, jokes and the list can go on.

On bloglines i added feeds from national geographic, library blogs, a photographers blog and the powerhouse museum photo. I also added a feed from taste.com to my blog.

I can see how libraries can use this. They can add feeds of library news and other library blogs.

My photos on flickr

2008-03-03T17:42:00.001-08:00

YAY!!! I have successfully uploaded some of my photos of Airlie Beach on flickr. They are called "Reef World", "Flying to Airlie Beach", "Flying to Airlie Beach 2", "Airlie Beach Hula Dancing", "Airlie Beach Resort Pool", "Fire Sticks".

WOW!!

2008-03-03T16:44:00.000-08:00

Below is a picture of a beautiful sunset that i uploaded from flickr. This person is obviously a FANTASTIC photographer!!!!!

How i did it!
After exploring around flickr looking at heaps of different, wonderful pics i stumbled across this picture......WOW.... i clicked on blog this (above the picture). It then told me to go to click the link to google below, sign in and click grant access. Now when you go "blog this" you can just choose your blog, click post now and away you go!!!!

2008-03-03T16:41:00.001-08:00

, originally uploaded by Sh@mpoo.

2008-03-03T13:58:00.000-08:00

Learning 2.0 & blogs

2008-02-25T22:41:00.000-08:00

After reading through the list of things that will be covered in Learning 2.0 i have discovered that there are a lot of new things i haven't even heard of, some i have but not used and some that i am familiar with. It just shows how much the web is expanding with new tools, new ideas and technology.

What do i hope to learn from this program?
I am interested to learn all those things on the program list that i never heard of. Such as mashups, RSS, Folsonomies, flickr.

The web is a confusing place with so much rubbish, amongst this rubbish there is useful information and tools you can use. After doing this program i think i will be surprised at what tools there are. Like blogs, so easy to create and use and i never used or knew what they were.

Blogs inside the library
I think blogs could be used in a library. It would be a great and fun opportunity for booklovers to blog about books they have read, books they loved and didn't like, favourite authors, questions or anything library related.