Wacka Wacka Wiki Woo Woo

Was it explained anywhere why Wikis are called Wikis?

Initially I was going to do this activity by contributing to the Wikipedia entry on my suburb, Redbank Plains, but due to time constraints I've done a book review on our library wiki instead http://bcclssupport.wetpaint.com/thread/2200784/UNWIND+by+Neal+Shusterman. I'm keen to contribute to the Redbank Plains entry though and will do that in my own time at home. It's such a brief entry and I have quite a bit of local history that would personalise the suburb so much more =)

Wikis seem to be quite versatile, varying from facts to opinions to evolving tasks and so much more.

I found it very easy to make a thread entry in the BCCLS Bookclub. However, it appears to me that Wikipedia requires quite a bit more time and expertise. Reading through the instructions it appears you need to know a bit about html and the referencing required does not follow a standard format but is expected you should know one of the styles. I don't have a problem doing this myself, but it does require more time (hence going with the easier option =P) and I don't think the average joe blow could be guaranteed to do a perfect job. I assume they are expecting peer review to pick up any poor attempts.

Anyways, this was great fun and I hope to add more book reviews in the future.

A final comment on 23Things... I'm very glad to have had the opportunity to do this. Some things I'll never use again, but many others I'll be experimenting with for weeks to come, possibly even as an ongoing thing. Thank you to the powers that be for making this happen and encouraging us with such enthusiasm =)

Social Networking

Since starting 23Things I was inspired to become a member of Facebook and do a bit of reminiscing, looking for my old highschool friends I've lost contact with over the years. I was very surprised to find a significant number had accounts and, even better, was having a little visual peek at what they've been up to.

I struggle sometimes with the idea that maybe I'm being nosey, but in the end curiosity wins out and I figure other people feel just as I do, hence the site being such a success. As long as people are willing to share a little of their lives through photos, Facebook is an unobtrusive way to keep in touch with past friends. You might never actually meet up with them again, but the choice is there and in the meantime it is comforting to know how they are going. Members choose what they want to share and even who they want to see their photos, so the site is only as invasive as the individual wants it to be. All the hooha about loss of privacy can only be put back on the person who chooses to share things they'd rather keep private.

All in all I think sites such as Facebook are an awesome development in socialnetworking. I plan to use Facebook personally outside of 23Things, as well as the other tools I've been impressed with throughout this course (del.icio.us and wikis).

See you soon... on the net =)

Google Docs

The Online Applications unit demonstrated a lot of collaborative web applications. Many of them would be very useful in the work situation. Documents are often worked on by serveral people, and programs like Google Docs mean there will be no confusion with multiple versions of the one document as everyone is able to access the original.

Brisbane City Council libraries has 32 branchs and, though we all have our specific ways of doing certain things, the basic requirements are the same. I'm sure many informal documents that have been created in individual libraries could be used and improved by others.

For this task I set up the beginnings of a storytime songlist (http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgc37jtb_0d3wpnsdv). All libraries have storytime and I'm sure most include a small amount of singing. I personally have a document with the songs I like to use, as I imagine other regular storytimers do. A songlist document that all libraries can access and contribute too would be very handy =) With the Google Docs songlist I created I've made a start by putting in the lyrics for Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Anyways, I created the document as an experiment for this excercise, but feel free to add to it if you wish. If you add any I haven't already got in my own file I'll be very interested =)

Mashup Dog Dervy!!!

How fun was this!?! There were heaps of options for mashups that would keep you busy for days!

I really liked the puzzle maker. Being near Christmas, it popped into my mind that it would make a very nice personalised prezzie =)

I chose to do a Warhol and used a picture I liked from Flickr. This isn't my dog (I don't have a camera!) but it looks so similar to the faces my dogs pull, right down to the lolling tongue, that it almost could be =)

Happy 23thinging! We're on the home stretch now!

Casting for pods

Ah ha! So that's what POD stands for! I've been wondering for ages. But I won't spoil it for you. It would be like telling you the end of a movie =)

After looking at the podcast pages of several public libraries, I see it is most commonly used for book reviews and author talks. I think it could also be used for certain community events held in the library. For example, a staff member at my library organised a "Digital Libraries" event which involved several experts giving a half hour talk about their area of expertise. Typically at these events about 20-30 people attend. Making such events available as podcasts would add value by allowing many more people to access an event they would otherwise have been unable to attend.

Another very important thing I noticed about other public library podcast pages is that many of them have a dedicated area for teenagers. Typically teenagers are a difficult demographic to bring into the library. Teenagers today have grown up with advanced technology from a very young age and are quite savvy with using it. Podcasts offer teenagers a new, fun way of contributing and accessing the library. From what I saw of the other public library pages, it does work =)

To be or not to be? ... that is the question.

A) TO BE of course! Just as long as the 'to be' is good, as in the phrase, "I'm to be given Jaffas tonight for dessert" =)

Haha! Probably not an award winning answer but surely I get points for the awesome subtle suggestion!

Q) So have you guessed the topic of this blog?
A) Answerboards!

I think Slamming the Boards is a great idea. It is certainly one very good way to promote librarians and the work we can do for people with questions. I even think if I ever get a spare few minutes I'll have a crack at slamming the boards too =)

Answerboards could work well in elibcat with people reviewing books, though perhaps it would be a bit overwhelming if unlimited comments were allowed. I think a good way of implementing reviews would be to create a selection of books each month based around a theme (eg, new release, popular, classic, genres, non-fic subjects) and for that month customers are invited to share their comments.

I really liked the answerboards that implemented a rating system. It means people can have a say without taking up a lot of time getting into the details (as required by reviews/comments). Ratings would work very well in elibcat and be compact enough to use with every item. It would allow people browsing for a good read to quickly see the average concensus of what other readers thought. It would also be quite engaging for the people choosing to contribute to the ratings =)

Bookmarking to prevent dog-eared websites =)

I really, really like this idea! I've never tried to count the number of different computers I use in a week but at a guess I'd have to say it would be more than just a handful. Bookmarking sites like del.icio.us would be extremely handy. No more struggling to remember that really cool site I'd like to show a friend!

Bookmarking is very similar to RSS feeds except that rather than have the info constantly coming in to you, you have a list of handy sites at ready reference to go to when you need it. RSS feeds seems more suited to things that update constantly (eg, news, blogs, reviews), whereas bookmarking is great for ferreting away those sites you might not use often but want to keep on hand (eg, reference items like dictionaries, encyclopaedias, calculators).

To be honest RSS feeds initially irritated me because I didn't understand this difference. There isn't any site I look at regularly enough to be worthy of being on a feed and so having the feed telling me there was things I needed to catch up on constantly felt pushy and took the fun out of it. What I needed to do instead was to put those sites on del.icio.us. That way I have the sites on record but can access them when I choose, not when I'm told! The control is in my hands! mwahahahaha!

Here's the link to my del.icio.us bookmarks, http://delicious.com/alteredformula. I experimented with del.icio.us by bookmarking YouTube but with 23things winding up soon I haven't added anything else yet. I'm keen to try all the other things before it finishes =)

YouTube!! Can be practical, but geez it's funny =)

I'm so glad someone at some point introduced me to YouTube. I have a lot of great memories of falling off chairs with tears streaming out of my eyes, laughing at a totally silly but hilarious video!

Currently "Beached Whale" http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdVHZwI8pcA is my favourite. It's such a simple little thing and yet it seems so many people I come across know about it. That's the power of popular culture when it has the means to spread with ease.

The other thing I like about YouTube is its ability to grow and change over time. The following scenario is quite common: someone uploads a video ---> lots of people watch it and it becomes very popular through word of mouth ---> some very witty and creative people edit the original video to create something new but in the same vein. An example of this is the Beached Whale video I mentioned above. Add some techno music and edit the video to match the beat and all of a sudden you have something even more hilarious and worthy of the name "Beached Whale Hardstyle" http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=aSEVCPmmTBA.

With the previous two Beached Whale videos I purposely just posted the link. This time, to practice embedding the actual video into my blog, I shall leave you with the following - "Introducing the Book". It makes fun of people's reaction to learning computers by showing how people first reacted to learning how to use books.

RSS feeds

Well, at least I can be assured I won't ever starve now that I'm being fed by Bloglines =) Let's just hope I'm not eating junk!

I'm not a huge Internet surfer. I tend to have a very focussed goal; I go straight for what I'm after; I get out :) I think RSS feeds are more for people who like to surf and turn over a lot of info. An RSS feed would significantly reduce the amount of search time.

I love the library comic strips you see around the place every now and then. With the variety and number of people you meet in a customer service role, you can't help but find many humourous situations worthy of becoming a comic. With RSS feeds I now have several library humour sites converging in one place so I can quickly and easily get my funny bone fix =)

Since doing this task I've begun to notice the surprising number of sites that display the RSS feed symbol. It's amazing how you can tune out the things you don't understand. I wonder what else I've missed that has been right in my face...

As for library RSS feeds, I can see it would be very useful for customers to receive info on library events, book awards, release dates of popular new books, etc. I see the elibcat already allows customers to subscribe to a feed. That might be a very handy piece of info to pass onto customers that show an interest!

Worked to the Bone

The thing I like about Flickr is all the unusual and funny stuff you can come across.

To be honest, I don't use Flickr personally, but I imagine from the librarian point of view it would be useful in getting informal images of the library out there into the public domain. The old straight laced view of libraries is still very much present despite today's relaxed libraries and that can be intimidating to many potential new customers. I think the casual nature of Flickr would show a very different side to libraries... like we don't all run around going "shhh" to the noisy kiddies... rather we're racing around laughing our heads off as we put the more unusual items in our collection to comedic use :)

I'm sure there are some days I look and feel as the guy in this photo does! haha

I think I would really like the people who took this photo (University of Redland Library). They have my humour :)

The first entry :)

Ahh... the first entry. It's almost like the first crispy clean page of a diary, knowing as you press the pen deep into its white loveliness that things will never be quite as fresh as the these few very first moments. You'll encounter trials and triumphs and, after quite some time and maybe just a little heartache, all the pages will be filled with the clutter of life and the joy will then be to reminice on all that you've accomplished.

It seems to me that a blog is very much like a formal diary based on a specific topic or project, except that with a blog other people are free to be inspired by and make comments on your comments.

This one will follow some of my experiences with the 23 Things training. Even though I don't personally use them, I have a basic understanding of most of the things I'll be exploring. That being the case, I imagine I won't have too much to say except when I come across something mind-blowingly cool or frustratingly troublesome :) Your thoughts and comments on these are welcome :)

Happy 23 Thingamejigging people :)