Kate's Library Blog

Social Networking

2008-05-31T01:14:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-31T00:03:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-30T23:24:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-30T21:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-26T22:11:00.000-07:00

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.

Wikis

2008-05-26T21:30:00.000-07:00

I would like to think that in the future our library service may be able to use wikis to promote reading. We could set up wikis for the various age groups and contributors could share their good reads, etc.

RSS Feeds

2008-05-26T21:20:00.001-07:00

One idea I would like to try is organising for library staff to show other Council staff and Councillors how to set up RSS Feeds for their own work/personal interests. This could be done during Local Government Week as a opportunity to raise the profile of the library within the Council.

The Real Thing

2008-05-16T20:57:00.000-07:00

Getting out in nature, appreciating it and making sure it doesn't all disappear will always be better than living in the online world.

Photo from Flickr Website - http://www.flickr.com/photos/tangledcontrolpads/733301138/

NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.0

2008-05-16T19:01:00.000-07:00

NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.0 is a fantastic opportunity for library staff to learn about recent developments in self-publishing, networking, etc.

Blogging certainly helps make web publishing accessible to massive amounts of people from all walks of life.

There are some great blogs about. I am particularly interested in the blogs that journalists now create, enabling a broader (and often more in depth) coverage of the news that may not even be mentioned in major newspapers or television news reports.

Like anything there are many aspects to the increased opportunities to participate in the online publishing world and online social networking scene. For example, there have been some interesting comments on the increased opportunities for identity theft and other crimes, how potential employers can trawl through social networking sites and use this information to assess the suitability of the candidate for positions, how people behave differently online than they would in person, etc.