The Last, Whoopee !!!

After thinking I had got to grips with these excersises some time ago I lost my final blog. So here's a repeat.

Favourite Discoveries: The visual sites Utube and Flickr were my hightlights. Also realising how much I loved neon art.

Lifelong Learning: This ones a worry because the more I delve into the net the more I realise how much there is to learn and how fast technology is moving. This of course strengthens the need to keep up to date. I did get a confidence boost in my skills, and was able to help people with tricky enquiries about their e-mail and to find information on the web sites they were interested in.

Unexpected Outcomes: The fact that when I had completed some of the more frustrating exercises it gave me a feeling of acheivement . Not unexpected (of course) was all the help and encouragement I was given by my friends and colleagues in the library. Really re-enforcing how good it is to work with super, duper people.
Lastly after joining Facebook finding a photo of my Granddaughter looking just gorgeous and wearing my sunhat!!!

Social Networking

Well after seeing how libraries are using Social Networking I have had to rethink some of the comments in my last blog.

My Space did put me off by all the celebrity sites and erotica ads but when looking at how many libraries are successfuly using this medium obviously it can be harnessed and controlled.

Bebo has had such bad publicity in the press, especially for bullying, I didn't think it would score in my opinion but it was so visual perhaps if I had explored it furthur I may have rated it higher.

Facebook I learnt was generated in academic environments and aimed at students and I did think this was a good site for libraries to use although a comment was made that the students were not using it for educational purposes.

The article "Libraries get social" had good comments on SNS ie. who was using it for educational purposes; for better contact with youthful communities and for vibrant promotions of library services and resources.

Getting social

I was put off at first by My Space. This looked a bit trashy. I liked the way Auckland City and Rotorua Libraries used Bebo and it would seem they have good response to their sites by a wide range of mainly young people. Very good for the future of libraries I would think as a reasonable safe forum to express views.

I did enjoy joining Facebook and took delight in finding my Granddaughter and what a laugh wearing my sunhat in one of her profile photos and looking just beautiful.

E-books

I looked at Kindle first. Good results for Steinbeck and the Brontes. Project Gutenberg was appealing in the manner the book enteries were entered and I was able to track down old favourites, School for Scandal, Sheridan and the Diaries of Samuel Pepys. I found librivox rather complicated to find my way around.
The fact that some of the older classics can be hard locate now unless you have access to special libraries makes the e-books a worthwhile addition to publishing and I can see an advantage to library patrons if this format became part of library collections. But please, not at the expense of a the paper copies. Not everybody wants to read from a screen.

Podcast

I can see this can be exciting technology if I had access to receiving some of the podcasts I was interested in. For this exercise I found little sites where I could use a free rss to complete the task. But I managed to put NPR: Books Podcast on my bloglines and this could be a useful tool for library work.

Utube exploration

I was not very impressed with many of the library videos. The image quality was poor in most of them and the ones I watched were rather corny and amateurish. QandANJ: Now Your Library is Open Late Night Too! was one I liked. Much better quality and the acting seemed more realistic. I could see this type of attractive video could be well used for marketing our libraries as long as it was well scripted, acted professionally and produced to a good standard.

I did look at Neon Art Journalism Video which I thought was an excellent production and demonstrated making this art form in an interesting well thought out clip. I seem to have sent it to my g-mail but haven't cracked getting it onto my blog yet.

Web 2.0 Awards

The best visual arts award I thought were interesting. A bit of a mixture ranging from ColorBlender toThe One Million Masterpiece, The BrothThe One Million Masterpiece. Both these sites gave free access but hoped the user would make a donation. This is the first time I have come across this aspect of the net. Color Blender would be a useful tool but I am not too sure of the art work that will be produced from any person willing to contribute even if its just a weeny square!!! Looking at Lulu I could see this would be brilliant for self publishing and production of perhaps library pamphlets in a very professional way.

Try try again

Here I am trying to make sense of Zoho.  After trying to send Zoho notebook creations I made to my blog site with no luck I am hoping for success with this.

Zoho writer cracked?

http://export.writer.zoho.com/ZExport.do?tstamp=30,9,2008

Zoho sort of

http://notebook.zoho.com/nb/export/mht/Neon-hearts-from-piczo.com.mht?xtype=book&bookTitle=Neon+hearts+from+piczo.com&pageTitle=Page+1&sharedBookId=&sharedPageId=&bookId=160279000000002037&pageVersionId=160279000000003001&sharedBy=

Rollyo

http://www.rollyo.com/waveneynz/ Well I think I may have finally mastered this one on my own. I can see this could be of personal use when locating information about specific topics but not so much fun as the more visual sites to explore in the exercises.

Flickr Toys

A struggle to get this up and running but happy I have a pretty slideshow on my blog. Thanks to...!!!

Library Thing

http://www.librarything.com/profile/colleenwchristie
This one was fun. I quite like the idea of my own library.

Sandbox favourites

I not sure if I was meant to add a favourite on this site but I did and have added it here.

Favourite Garden Birds.


A favorite bird living in my garden is a male blackbird. A frequent visitor to our deck, this bird waits patiently until we feed him grapes. He is becoming increasingly friendly and follows us around our garden.The blackbird is one of many species that visit. We have Tui feeding on the kowhai, woodpigeons, greywarblers, fantails and rozellas also land close by when we are relaxing on our deck.

Library wikis

What is a wiki? : Good clear explanation emphasising pros and cons of wikis.
Using Wikis to Create Online Communities : Liked the way it specifically demonstrated how a controlled wiki could work in for library situations.



SJCPL Subject Guides I was pleased to see this site was well organised though perhaps a little boring without any attractive imagery. Also liked the fact there was a log on function before anyone could edit and it was librarians edit only in this section of the site. The history tracking was to me important so the edit could be traced to a particular person. I thought this type of info was superior to our libraries's Fitch.

BookLoversWiki I liked the layout of the pages and the use of images of the book covers. I can see this would be a super component for a library website. I am not sure of the commercial side of belonging to this wiki. Better if it was a free service for library patrons.

Discovery resources

Looked at Away from the icebergs. I thought the article "Row your library boat into the Web 2.0 environment" gave a positive view of web 2.0. which gave me more encouragement to keep on with the excercises. "On the way to the library experience of the future" also gave a little hope that the information overload will be organised by and for libraries and libraries will still be able to provide the enviroments people loved and appreciated in the past.

The articles that suggested outreach and patron education using web 2.0 would seem to be a very worthwhile aspect to develop for North Shore Libaries.

Technorati

First impression the postings look a bit frivolous but fun. The mobile ads are most annoying. I haven't discovered if they can be done away with yet. I like the location bar which helps narrow down a search for a specific topic. I like the option of an advanced search.

I was interested in reading some articles with opposing views on learning2.0.
Also read articles that showed libraries using Technorati successfully. Watched a video on learning2.0 which was very useful.

Bookmarks and Tags

Looked at PLCMCL2's Bookmarks and I could see many international libraries make use of this technology. I also looked at the tag cloud and was interested to see blog and design were the most popular tags of the moment. I could see when there was a tag ie learning2.0 there were good articles to read. But yet another option to search out information and I am still not convinced about this technology.

Bloglines

I have opened a blogline account and added several rss feeds. I am still not sure if this new technology will be of any use to me personally. There is not enough hours in a day to followup on all avenues of news. So until I can combine the sites I am really interested in I probably won't make any use of bloglines. What I will do is to look to see how other library systems use these rss's as I am sure there will be useful applications of this technology for libraries. In the meantime I have tried to make my life easier by pulling in my accounts and gmail into igoogle which has stopped my feeling frustrated about where everything is held.

Youtube technology

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YCZVeIJ8xk

Youtube a great way to catch up with images from a multi sources. There doesn't seem to any control over image quality though. This is where flickr excels.

Just trying something

i *heart* u
Originally uploaded by rubeeshareen

Purple perfect neon

Technology

http://maps.google.co.nz/?ie=UTF8&ll=-36.819162,174.731669&spn=0.007781,0.013733&z=16&lci=lmc:panoramio&layer=c

I love finding images and exploring the different sites, but personally complying with the excercises is extremely frustrating!

neon hearts

neon hearts
Originally uploaded by waveneynz

neon heart - very petite

neon heart - very petite
Originally uploaded by waveneynz

Bright beautiful and blue

our hearts in lights

our hearts in lights
Originally uploaded by Jodiefranc

This a sweet one

true -truely

true
Originally uploaded by baccarati

Truely a pretty neon. I am wondering if this is a third party site?

Music Flowers - Improvise

Music Flowers - Improvise
Originally uploaded by S.A.L.

Wondering if this one really includes music

Heigh Ho

Can You Give Me A Hand Here ?
Originally uploaded by davidandpizza

Wow

Love Lights

Love Lights
Originally uploaded by Summertime Cowboy

Just to remind me what to do.

Love in the Night Sky

Love in the Night Sky
Originally uploaded by pisa1616

What a treat to see such a pretty sky. Looks like neon to me

Neon heart

3 Caskets
Originally uploaded by elmada

At last one which may work

Love heart

http://www.flickr.com/photos

Electric heart Blue

Electric heart
Originally uploaded by Roadstar Photos

Hoping to gather this with a pop band site on from a google search

Finding flickr

Today was a bit of a mystery of how to find access to the places I needed to complete the exercise. Thanks to some very welcome guidance from my colleagues I found flickr's love hearts and hooray they are now on my blog.

Lime heart

love
Originally uploaded by charminbayurr

This one reminds me of granny smith apple green.

Rosy rose

It's your heart that knows it.
Originally uploaded by MayJ

At last a beauty I can keep

Things I love

I love a good breakfast in the morning, lovely sunny days, roses, good wine and super food.
I also love art, jewellery, pottery and painting. I love coming to work to be with all the wonderful people I work with. I love shedding tears over happy moments. I love my family and now I have finished this blog I love today.