Love it! One day I might even work through my physical bookcase and add it to the virtual. Handy to have a list for insurance and those 'mates' that don't return books...
It is also something we could use for reader's advisory because each title has additional information such as recommendations, descriptions, lists of characters for fiction titles, member reviews, and tags. Library Thing for libraries is an innovation we could use to gather the vast knowledge from our readers by giving them a chance to contribute by adding reviews, tags and ratings.
I love seeing the covers view of my library. The choice of how they are sorted is overwhelming - title, author, Dewey, rating, date acquired, and on it goes. I'll stick to alphabetical for now:)
Here's my developing collection-
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/craftykatnz
Thursday, August 28, 2008
#13 Image Generators
This is my sort of play...
First I tried a Bar Drink Generator from The Generator blog (although I don't know any lazy librarians)
Lazy Librarian
1/2 oz Currant Vodka
Dash of Cherry Brandy
1 oz Welch's Strawberry Soda
Serve in a Pint glass. Add a Crazy Straw
TV show title mashup created a few laughs (The Muppet she wrote, Dukes of Flipper), but I want more!
Image Chef is for me. So much to choose from. Easy to add to your blog. And you can even adapt it for legitimate work promotions!
Finally I tried a Google search for 'image generators' and found this interesting blog - Librarian in Black. Will have to check that out later when I have more time.
First I tried a Bar Drink Generator from The Generator blog (although I don't know any lazy librarians)
Lazy Librarian
1/2 oz Currant Vodka
Dash of Cherry Brandy
1 oz Welch's Strawberry Soda
Serve in a Pint glass. Add a Crazy Straw
TV show title mashup created a few laughs (The Muppet she wrote, Dukes of Flipper), but I want more!
Image Chef is for me. So much to choose from. Easy to add to your blog. And you can even adapt it for legitimate work promotions!
Finally I tried a Google search for 'image generators' and found this interesting blog - Librarian in Black. Will have to check that out later when I have more time.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Wetpaint wiki
I managed to add my blog to the list without looking at the demonstration first, as it is nice and easy to do. Firstly I just put the URL but thought it would look better if I put my blog name and made it a link. Very simple to change.
Having said that, I did go back and watch the wetpaint wiki demonstration which is a good overview and illustrated what else you can do.
I added a reply to a thread and as I didn't want to be 'Anonymous', had to join up. That was really easy too - I'm getting good at joining things now.
Looking forward to checking out the lists of favourites as they grow.
Having said that, I did go back and watch the wetpaint wiki demonstration which is a good overview and illustrated what else you can do.
I added a reply to a thread and as I didn't want to be 'Anonymous', had to join up. That was really easy too - I'm getting good at joining things now.
Looking forward to checking out the lists of favourites as they grow.
Wiki wiki wiki wacky
Have had some experience of wikis as I find them really useful to use when I want to be able to work on something at work and at home. Not quite into the collaborative bit yet as my control freak tendancies can't quite cope with someone changing my words!
Guess the Fitch is a type of wiki.
I can see this as a great tool for patrons to add reviews like in the Book Lovers Wiki where I found some books to add to my request list and was delighted to find someone had given one of my favourite books, 'Water for Elephants', a 5 star rating.
The subject guides are also good - and unlike a list of links, there is room for explanations. I noticed it could only be edited by librarians, which gives some degree of control and authenticity.
Wikis are also an excellent tool for collaborative workspaces - between libraries and library systems. Saves on meetings and conference calls!
Guess the Fitch is a type of wiki.
I can see this as a great tool for patrons to add reviews like in the Book Lovers Wiki where I found some books to add to my request list and was delighted to find someone had given one of my favourite books, 'Water for Elephants', a 5 star rating.
The subject guides are also good - and unlike a list of links, there is room for explanations. I noticed it could only be edited by librarians, which gives some degree of control and authenticity.
Wikis are also an excellent tool for collaborative workspaces - between libraries and library systems. Saves on meetings and conference calls!
Monday, August 11, 2008
#10 Library 2.0
Found some really interesting viewpoints here and found lots to think about. I especially liked Michael Stephens' comment in 'Into a new world of librarianship:
''Librarian 2.0 also listens to staff and users when planning, tells the stories of successes and failures, learns from both, celebrates those successes, allows staff time to play and learn, and never stops dreaming about the best library services."
Another important comment was when deciding whether to implement some of this technology, ask "does it meet users needs in a new, improved way?".
I see Library 2.0 as a new way for us to communicate with our patrons and for them to communicate with us and buld new relationships by letting them contribute to their library. Presently rating an item on the OPAC is one thing we offer along those lines.
I would like to see our patrons reviewing books online, commenting on library events on a blog, suggesting things they would like to see happening at the library - all these things are possible with Web 2.0.
''Librarian 2.0 also listens to staff and users when planning, tells the stories of successes and failures, learns from both, celebrates those successes, allows staff time to play and learn, and never stops dreaming about the best library services."
Another important comment was when deciding whether to implement some of this technology, ask "does it meet users needs in a new, improved way?".
I see Library 2.0 as a new way for us to communicate with our patrons and for them to communicate with us and buld new relationships by letting them contribute to their library. Presently rating an item on the OPAC is one thing we offer along those lines.
I would like to see our patrons reviewing books online, commenting on library events on a blog, suggesting things they would like to see happening at the library - all these things are possible with Web 2.0.
Friday, August 8, 2008
#9 Social bookmarking
After exploring Technorati I came to the conclusion that I might use it if I was researching a particular topic, but otherwise it wouldn't be something I'd normally look at. There seems to be a lot of rubbish on blogs and it takes a lot of time to find the good stuff.
Searching for 'Learning 2.0' in blogs retrieved more hits than searching in posts. I also clicked on the photos tab which came up with some good pictures. I especially liked this one on Flickr where an artist has created a painting with Learn 2.0 in it without knowing there is a programme of the same name.
I got the same search results in the advanced search using tags, probably because I had grouped the words with parenthesis in the first search.
I'm not interested in the world reading my thoughts so didn't claim my blog which would have let me add tags so others could find it in searches. (At least that's how I understand it works)
Of course I'm happy for NSL Web 2.0 people to read my blog though as long as they are nice to me and forgive my typos and ramblings!
Searching for 'Learning 2.0' in blogs retrieved more hits than searching in posts. I also clicked on the photos tab which came up with some good pictures. I especially liked this one on Flickr where an artist has created a painting with Learn 2.0 in it without knowing there is a programme of the same name.
I got the same search results in the advanced search using tags, probably because I had grouped the words with parenthesis in the first search.
I'm not interested in the world reading my thoughts so didn't claim my blog which would have let me add tags so others could find it in searches. (At least that's how I understand it works)
Of course I'm happy for NSL Web 2.0 people to read my blog though as long as they are nice to me and forgive my typos and ramblings!
Searching blogs on technorati lead me to Helene Blower's blog (creator of 23 Things). She had a link to this poster you can make on the ALA website. Of course I had to have a go. I think I need to find a better photo though.
Friday, August 1, 2008
#8 social bookmarking
I can see this being useful. Many times have I thought 'I know a really good website for that...' and realised it is saved in favourites on the home computer.
Speaking of the home computer, my favourites list is quite long now, so it would be prudent to have them saved elsewhere in case of computer disasters.
I installed the del.icio.us icon on my links bar at home and will start adding things there (one day!) Found again I could spend a lot of time looking at other's favourite websites.
Speaking of the home computer, my favourites list is quite long now, so it would be prudent to have them saved elsewhere in case of computer disasters.
I installed the del.icio.us icon on my links bar at home and will start adding things there (one day!) Found again I could spend a lot of time looking at other's favourite websites.
I looked at Thunder Bay Public Libraries internet links page and found it very user-friendly.
Having this function on our library website would be great - patrons could search using our tags and receive a list of relevant websites we have found. Imagine how useful that would be with the current Olympics topic, where lending copies of books are like hen's teeth! Of course, it isn't that simple as we would have to keep things updated and current.
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