Week 11 Online Applications and Tools

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

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

Kittens in cups

WEEK 9 Podcasts & Audio

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

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.