All wrapped up

I have now reached the end of this course. Hooray! I've learnt about some new things (geocaching, twitter, LibraryThing), and revisited some things I knew about but had forgotten about (podcasts, flickr). There were some things from the course I already used quite frequently, like Facebook, RSS and YouTube. I've really enjoyed learning more about all of these technologies, and finding out what everyone else thinks about them too.

Thanks to Mel and Mark for coordinating the course! Hopefully we can start to incorporate some of these technologies into our libraries.

Geocaching

I had never heard of geocaching before this course, so was positively intrigued, but also a little scared. I did orienteering once as a shy pre-teen and it was really awful, so I was wary of something that might bring back memories of that experience.

I cast my fears aside and began reading about geocaching. Wow, it looks like fun. It's like a treasure hunt? I love treasure hunts! Technology used in a way that gets people out and about and away from their computers? Sounds great! There are a few caches hidden in Ellenbrook so it must be something that at least some people in the area know about. I think it would be great to hide a cache in the library as a way of potentially bringing in more patrons.

Sometime in the future I might try it out myself.

Two peas in a pod

I think podcasting can be great for entertainment and educational purposes. In the past I have used language learning podcasts (like this one) and found them really useful. They are a good on-the-go format, since they only require you to listen.

I had a look at some of the podcasts from school libraries. Working in a joint-use library, I can see that we could get students involved in making podcasts (that could tie in with their assignments) and we could link to them from the library website. Linking to other podcasts that staff find useful also seems like a good idea.

I don't see why our libraries couldn't produce a podcast, say, monthly but I don't feel that it should be the highest priority. I think there are other technologies we have looked at in this course that could take less time and reach a larger audience.

Two Peas in a Pod by musikmuse

Video

In the U.S. version of TV show The Office, boss Michael Scott confesses: "When I discovered YouTube, I didn't work for five days. I did nothing. I viewed Cookie Monster sings Chocolate Rain about 1,000 times". Now, of course I don't think this is something that any of us should take on board, but I think it does a good job of summing up YouTube's time-wasting powers! I've never really thought of it as being useful for anything apart from this.

Here, Michael Scott shares his thoughts on Wikipedia.



Some of the library videos out there are pretty informative but I can't really see that the effort would be worth it in most cases. What we maybe could use video for would be mini-tutorials as part of Computer Assistance. Having said that, I'm not sure that people with not much computer experience would be interested in learning this way.

For something book-related, check out Bookmans Does Book Dominoes.

Twitterbug

Twitter is something that is completely new to me. I'd heard a lot about it but never quite understood what it was all about. I am now beginning to understand how it's used. It seems to be a quick and easy way of sharing thoughts and links, without having a homepage that is clogged up with videos and pictures (the way that Facebook can be, for example).

I think if our libraries ever go down the path of a blog, Twitter could complement this really well. Even without a blog, Twitter could link people to the library website and other interesting sites. We could get ideas from other libraries posting on Twitter and share our ideas with other libraries, as well as patrons.

Follow me @jessfrag if you like!

type by dream sister

Face value

Facebook is something I have used a decent amount before. There is much to like and much to dislike about it, in my opinion. I can waste a lot of time on it (bad thing). I can see photos of friends who are overseas that I wouldn't otherwise see (good thing). There is little privacy (bad thing). You find out things about people that you don't really want to know, and see photos of people that you don't really want to see (bad thing). It is a convenient way to get in touch with people, and I know that most of my friends check their accounts quite frequently (good thing, I think). When I do something like accidentally de-activate the sim card in my phone, I can tell people to contact me in other ways, which came in handy yesterday. Overall, it's a bit of a love-hate thing!

Yarn in Love by Spojeni

LibraryThing

Librarything seems fun and quite novel (pardon the pun, that was actually an accident!). I always tend to lose track of what I've read and am always looking for recommendations on what to read next (I also like NoveList for this!).

Feel free to check out my librarything account ...I haven't added many books yet. I'm not sure I would get on board with the "social" aspect of this site, but I like being able to click on a book that I like, see who else likes it and what other books they like. I suppose this could be considered social, at a stretch?

The LibraryThing for libraries feature looks rather interesting too!

Light & Learning by Shadow or Light