Mashups

That was so cool!
My jigsaw worked, with a minor hiccup. The Big Huge labs site has lots of useful options; customised badges for our children's programs could be really fun. Just thought I'd try the calendar/wallpaper selection so have included it as well...

Week 10 Mashups

Biggest problem is that the requirements of this course use up my monthly computer download time very quickly, so by the end of the billing period I'm on go-slow time. Spending time at work isn't an option as we are short-staffed and very busy...
Mashups look fantastic but as I'm really not very computer savvy, my attempts will be pretty lame, I fear! Have looked at another blogger's site and am so impressed with his work. At least this course will inspire me to get more involved with different sites and facilities.
Oops! Just managed to import the Big Huge labs logo, rather than my image... try again!

Week 9 podcasts and audio

I sometimes listen to podcasts from a couple of ABC radio stations - on my computer as don't have an ipod. Also chose the British Library's spoken word podcast of Evelyn Waugh and thought that this facility would add another dimension to the enjoyment of sight-impared people. Library Success wikis had much to link to and listen to; the virtual classroom is alive and well in schools, universities and libraries(particularly in the American contributors listed).

Our library could use podcasting for such services as children's storytime, especially for children who can't attend a session (and great for kids in remote regions); also, perhaps to introduce book club books prior to selection (as in the Book Talks Quick and Simple podcast).

week 8 Answer boards and social searching

I'm relieved that this week's module isn't as detailed as previous weeks' as I'm still trying to catch up...still loving it though and apologies for brevity of input.

Social searching seems to denote the current communication trend; many activities are done on line rather than face to face or physically trudging from place to place for answers to questions. (sorry, navel-gazing moment). Social describes the interactive nature of the process, allowing participation by posting, commenting, ranking etc of sites.

As to Answer boards: anything that a person could possibly want to know (or not know!)is available for perusal, discussion or rejection. Interesting to see the different questions posted to Yahoo!7 and WikiAnswers. I like that you can view the answers from different countries, as some responses would be location-specific I think. AnswerBoard Librarians wiki is another great community-specific tool, while Slamming the Boards seems to be a more sleek version of the Ask a Librarian facility.

I think the beauty of "slamming the boards" is that it doesn't have to be library-specific; however, if patrons want to know something about their own library's collection etc, they generally have to contact the help desk for a response or check their library's web page. Might be a good idea to have an Answer Board facility on a library's public web page for people to ask stuff pertaining to their library. Just as patrons can currently offer written or verbal suggestions for the collection or commendations to staff etc, there could be provision on the library web page for patrons post their ideas or comments. As with any new service, there are usually staffing considerations - who/when/ how long it would take to answer questions...

Any new idea that brings the library to the community is great.

Haven't posted a question yet - maybe it should be " why does everything break down at the same time- car, computer, camera..."?

LibraryThing - week 7

Took the tour - it looks fun so have set up an account and posted a few remembered reads to my list. The first LibraryThing icon wouldn't paste into my blog so hopefully the second one will link to my book list. This is a terrific site that we could introduce our book club members to - for fun and also to connect to others in their group and to see how popular their choices are with other readers.
As with all the sessions in this course, I'm finding that at least I can get a taste of the different resources that are "out there", and hopefully have more time later to really explore some of the favourites.
Have just discovered that my books have come up in a random display and that the tags are incorrect; will have to investigate how to fix the tagging and layout.

Not having any success with the searches for nswpln2008 on Technorati, including the advanced search option and the tagged search. I'm definitely missing the point of Technorati...I did see the difference in the search for "bookmobile" between the Advanced search of 250 hits and the Tagged search of 25 hits. It appears that the tag is pretty relevant in narrowing the search.

still wk 7

Ok, back on track but still two weeks behind schedule with the sessions...
I have just created a del.icio.us account and posted my blogsite to it!
http://del.icio.us/martikerry

I gave up trying to install the two buttons and just ended up bookmarking the web site, which defeats the purpose of the exercise I think, as I'm bookmarking to my PC...

Still trying to get my head around the influx of new info!! Like the Social Bookmarking film clip suggests, there is probably great potential for particular groups to share commonly required information, such as teachers preparing lessons for particular classes, students tagging sites for assignments etc. Same goes for library FAQs but the brain is a bit mushy at the moment so woul have to think where this could be applied.
For individuals, I can see a real advantage for storing frequently used sites on the web. Having just organised a new computer, I now need to rethink the favourites I had previously bookmarked as I can't retrieve info from the old hard drive.

week 7 Tagging, folksonomics, del.icio.us and LibraryThing

Today has been so traumatic; I've had to buy a new computer as the hard drive of my old one finally died but I find that I now need plug ins for the video clip to play; tried to install this but nothing is happening. And I'm way behind in these sessions.
Had a quick look at Tagging and the Sutherland shire Libraries tag cloud which i think is the created list of links that are "randomly" arranged under sub headings and accessible to anyone. Also looked at cleveland Public Library whose bookmarked sites (more organized or just a more professional layout) have been placed into the del.icio.us bookmarking service. i cant watch any of the clips, even on my new computer, as I dont have required setup...

week 6

The video clip that I had embedded seems to have vanished; ccould I please have some help in finding out what might have happened to it? I was able to see it when I first embedded it...

Have been away from work for a week, plus my computer hard drive has died. Thank goodness for the local library's computer - I haven't had access to a computer whilst away so am behind on the weekly sessions.

I think the embedding problem may be due to manly library's filtering of You Tube; have just gone to the site to try to embed amother clip and cant access the site...Cant wait to get my own computer fixed!!!

Will proceed to week 7