Social Networking

Currently we have lots of library customers participating in social networking on our public access computers. Social networking is extremely popular with the younger members of the library. Access to social networking sites is dependent upon Council policy regarding this and is not taken as something that will continue forever (even if library staff would like this to happen).

If the Council is happy to support social networking the library could set up a facebook page to attract youth participation. The social networking site could be used for research, marketing, sales, support, and development as mentioned in the article cited in this week's lesson.

Online Applications and Tools

I'm very impressed with Google Docs. I can see this as really useful for library staff who want to contribute to collaborative works with persons at other locations. This could mean library staff collaborating with other library staff at different branches or library services, library staff collaborating with other Council staff in the Administration Centre, or cross-government, business and community group collaborations.

Mash Ups

I can imagine the library doing some good advertising using Big Huge Lab. We would just need to budget for a good colour printer and its maintenance costs. We already have the motivated and creative staff members.

Podcasts

The booktalk podcasts are a good way for members of the public to learn about new titles/authors. Both staff and community members could talk on particular titles. I especially like the idea of young people talking to young people about books they may enjoy, or persons broadcasting reviews in their first language (other than English) so that the multicultural community is represented on the library website.

Answer Boards

One idea could be that the library hosts an answer board with the specific subject of local history/local knowledge. Currently building up the local history/local area knowledge body requires contributions from many sources. If the potential contributors were "online savvy" and equipped this could work. (In the meantime the library could continue to promote its free computer classes and Internet services to the public, specifically targeting older persons and persons without home Internet access.)

Del.icio.us

Del.ciou.us does look useful for research purposes, especially if undertaking a group research project. I can see this as being useful for work groups eg. setting up links to relevant sites if researching a particular topic so that everyone could share the information and add to the information pool reducing the need for face to face meetings, emails or phone calls.

Online Videos

The online videos available now can be amazing ... especially the music ones if you love tracking down the songs you haven't heard for ages.

I can see that the online videos would be a useful inclusion on our library website, something simple such as a staff member welcoming visitors to the library, walking through the library (library tour) and outlining some of the services offered by the library would be a good start.