Feedback

I thought it was a good idea but was not really enthusiastic about participating. The early tasks involved in setting up the blog were a bit frustrating due to my incompetence but as the time has gone on, I have found it easier and easier.

There are applications for the library in the area of communicating with students. An example is the recently formed Facebook group "Keep Sunbury and Melton" which has 450 members already and contains news and comments about the recent decisions.

It is a more successful communication method than email for things like overdue advice.

I want to investigate using Blogs and RSS feeds for pushing the collection out to accademics.

I also want to investigate the use of podcasts for Information Literacy so that students can download them onto their ipods.

I want to explore Wiki's more for education and training.


Thanks to all of the team for the hours of support they have given us and to Philip and Garry for inspiring us.

My enthusiasm and excitement has been aroused and now my question is .......what will we learn next year?

Instant Messaging

Unfortunately, this was not accessible from the computer I am using at the moment. Access has been denied, but I think that I have managed to add a link to Google Talk.

Mr Bean in The Library

Wikis

I felt that posting a picture did not really give me experience with Wikis. It gave me some frustrating moments with flaky connections between my camera and the computer, with trying to work out Picture manager (the directions were great) and how to save to the computer. The bit of Wiki that I did was simple but surely there is a lot more to Wikis.

Library 2.0

I'm disappointed because I expected to see avitars and islands and magical library lands. Innovative was a far cry from fantasy.

I love the new Ebsco interface and have added the link to the tutorial.

A big issue for me arose after trying to explore Delicious - management of all the passwords needed to carry out a normal day's work. So far, I'm up to 13!!

Does anyone have the answer to password management for the user?

Delicious

Was not sure about this one, but have used a fairly anonymous username so I feel a bit less apprehensive. Can see great potential for storing and organising links although it did occur to me that I may be helping ease myself out of a job.

igoogle

This is great! But dangerous .... it's like the first time you use powerpoint. Too much of a good thing. I've loaded so much on to my page that it takes ages to load and I crashed everything with my impatience. Still, I've got news, horoscopes, two Youtubes by mistake, petrol watch which I used last night on the way home and lots more ....its great.

Google Books & Google Scholar

Google Books
As soon as I hear that there is a plan by a commercial organisation to digitise out of copyright books I feel depressed because I know that on a whole the books they will capture will be obscure, of little value and interest. That is why they are out of copyright. Knowing a little of the publishing industry, I know that the big publishing companies watch like hawks anything of remote value that is coming out of copyright and they snap them up and whack a copyright on them.

A few years ago, I thought it would be a big threat to the commercial publishing industry but it is still very much a 'David'.

I've looked at Google Books and it is a sad depressing collection of obscure and valueless titles.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar, on the other hand, fares a little better, because of the global committment to OpenArchives and Share ware.

Google Documents

I will take to this like duck to water, but as I said in my posting on 23 Things it lacks the sophistication of Microsoft products and will lead to frustration.

Google Maps

Ah!!!! this is better, I'm on familiar territory. I discovered this tool last year and use it constantly to find the best route, to find where friends live, to see what my house looks like.

MySpace and Facebook

I feel there is an amount of caution for my generation regarding Facebook. We are not used to 'exposing' ourselves in public so much. I feel ambivalent about using it. Part of me is a bit nervous about 'being out there' on the web, but the other part is curious. I have already enjoyed the benefit of social networking systems like Facebook far sooner than I expected.
Personal
Wondering how on earth I was going to find someone I knew on Facebook, I thought of my son and quite rightly surmised that he would definitely be on Facebook being a gregarious show off from way back. Sure enough I found him and added myself to his entry, I was suprised that he accepted me- his old mum amongst his 'net friends'. (Although, I was careful not to reveal that I was his mum!) It was very interesting because he had just arrived back from a trip to Vietnam the night before and had uploaded his photographs already, so I was able to fully appreciate the benefit of Facebook by it allowing him to share his photos. Normally, it would have been weeks before I met with him in person and therefore able to see his pics.

Professional
I read through some of the articles provided and suddenly could see how useful it would be, for instance to get instant feedback from students on the specifics for the Insync survey. When they say we have no books what exactly do they mean. Do they mean we do not have enough copies, or do not have the correct items? Do they know that we have a lot in electronic format etc.

I now realise how important these communication tools are.
I can ring several times to my son or daughter and they may or may not ring me back but if I sms them or, now, post on their Facebook - I get a fast response. These are the tools they use, not the telephone or email anymore.

RSS feeds

This is the 1 gizmo that I really wanted to master because I can see potential for alerting academic staff to the arrival of books they have requested. Once I have mastered the application, I am sure that I will think of other cool things to use it for. So far, I have only added news items. Now I am off to add a few more things . . . .

Librarything

This is really useful for storing info about your reading wishlists or own collections. Here is the link to my library http://www.librarything.com/profile/GMckinlay

Those image blender thingys

This was great fun!

Blooming

ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

Journeys

I returned last week from a four week journey through Germany and Egypt. This one journey was actually many on different levels. It had been over 30 years since I was last in Europe, my birth place and I found a resonance that I had not expected. It raised memories that I had long forgotten: the colour of green; the vegetation; hedges of berries; the sophistication of people and fashions. I left feeling more balanced. I had been born in post war Britain and grew up with stories of the war, now I was witness to the impact of war on the "other side". I noticed the lack of old buildings in Cologne; the boring architecture so obviously designed to add speed to construction; the photographs of the cathedral standing alone in an environment of total destruction. In Germany, I learnt about a trait that needed improving and working on.

The journey through Egypt was a journey back through time to the present. Immersed in visits to ancient temples during the day, by night my dreams took on a life in ancient Egypt. The journey allowed me to observe myself and those of my travelling companions and to see aspects of them that I had not noticed before. By the end of the trip, all of us ( a group of 16) wanted to get back to our lives in Australia. I was suffering withdrawals systems from Chadstone!!

Ramses II temple: Abu Simbel

Himalayan stream

Mashups

I had a look atFlickr Color Pickr and Montagr and a whole new future opened up for me!!!

Dharma Diary

Setting up this blog really brings to mind the quote: "living is not just for today but for tomorrow also". Choosing a name and persona that is meaningful but one that will not be embarrassing in the future is not easy. And then the inspired answer came to me. Dharma is a sanskrit word that seems to have more than one meaning. It can mean duty or action, but I think of it as doing the right action at the right time! What an appropriate description of setting out on the 23 steps!