My thoughs on the journey

I must admit I started this online course without very much enthusiasm. I had just completed another course, "Cert. III in Library Studies", and the motivation to get the brain working again just wasn't there. Slowly, little steps at first I registered my blog. Thats where it stopped for four weeks, I was on leave and who wants to do work related activities at home.

First there was the registering of my blog, that went smoothly enough. I used my blog from previous studies, made it a bit easier for me.

Next was sharing images, that was alright.I had to put a link in my blog to a picture because I couldn't work out how to include the picture in. I didn't get stressed or frustrated, I just went with the flow, my flow.

RSS aggregators. I liked this one, the place to get regular updates on my favourite sites. It wasn't too hard to work this one out.

Wikis. It's an online notepad, would proberly work well in a Library situation

Delicious. If my job changes and I have the need to change computers on a regular basis, then delicious id the place to put all my favourite sites. It can have its uses, not sure if I will use it.

Library Thing. Didn't like at all.

Facebook. I can't believe that when you become friends with others it's possible to be friends with all their friends too. My goodness the amount of time you spend deleting all these wannabe friends, is very time consumming in it's self.

Twitter. My daily account of what I've done, another place to make friends and followers. Online video. I rather enjoyed this one, who doesn't enjoy Youtube, I could watch videos all day no need to work.

Podcasting and Vodcasting. I could get used to this one also, listening and watching things I've missed.

Geocaching. It's like a form of orienteering, if you are into that sort of thing go for it. I don't think it's my sort of thing though.

The End. What do I now do with all these accounts I've set up. Do I keep them? Will I have a use for them? Will they cease to exist if I don't use them for a certain length of time? I honestly don't know.

As a whole though I enjoyed the course. To promote different options to our Patrons we need to be aware of whats out there. We can be educators given the opportunity. Now I have accounts for Yahoo, Blogger, Twitter, facebook, Youtube, Wetpaint, Google Reader and some more. I'm now a Minow in the Ocean, the ocean of cyber accounts and all the logins and passwords that come with them.

That just about wraps it up for me.

Peter

Geocaching

I don't think Geocaching could be used in a Public Library, unless it was part of a program being run. I can't see either teenagers or adults wanting to do this. In the example, new Students in a University Library were enthusiastic about taking part, it was used as a way of getting to know their way around the University campus. It's sort of like an orienteering exercise with a difference, using a GPS. When I was a lot younger I went on car rally's with my parents, maybe GPS grid references could be used for the rallying points instead of clues on a sheet of paper, in the style of that old film "Smokey and the Bandit" starring Burt Reynolds and sally Field.
Peter

Podcasting or Vodcasting

I actually enjoyed this section and have, in the past, listened to some podcasts from the ABC. I think they are a good idea because if you miss something on television or the radio you can listen to or watch the Podcast/Vodcast the next day.

I've actually seen Library Patron's using the Public PC's to watch television programs. In a library situation Podcasts could be used for book reviews or the reading of the first chapter of a book to get people interested enough to request the item as an audio or book.

If I did subscribe to Podcasts they would be from the BBC and ABC news service, also as I work fulltime it would be good to catch up with the local Perth ABC radio station 720.

Peter

Online videos

Hello Peoples

We could make up an online video showing how simple it to use the self checkout machines. A user guide on how to use the online Library catalogue, place requests on titles and renew library items. Opening and Closing times of the Library. Introducing the Staff members and what we are reading.

I liked the lego videos on Youtube, especially lego street shootout, Lego rocket launcher test, Shutter island blooper I could go on, theres hundreds of them. I also liked the video o,n London Court in Perth, pretty place. I had a speaker talk at a recent Library Lovers session who spoke about Dick Whittington, where if you look closely you can find the statue of Dick and his cat in London Court.

I also liked the Can Can't Dancers, maybe Swan should get a dance troop together, we too could be famous and have a video on Youtube

Peter

Facebook and Twitter

My thoughts on facebook

Well I've now got two Facebook accounts, you can find my work one under Oscar Morrish, drop me a line or two or three. Personally the only reason I joint Facebook was to contact my cousin in England. The good thing is I don't have to log on to communicate with her because I recieve an email each time she sends me a message on Facebook, is this the backup process?

It has its advantages though you can send messages and if they are on line they send you a reply. I suppose the meassages people send are in sms form as well. Whats going to happen to the english langauge, they will forget how to spell correctly. Me though I would rather pick up the phone and speak to them. You can say so much more with the spoken word.

My Thoughts on Twitter

I like it, Twitter is the best. This is the best question so far. I'm finding that if you have no expectation it's quite simple and a lot of fun. I can not see any reason why we can not use Twitter within Library. It could be a way for Patrons to request books, admittedly only one at a time. It could be used as a Patrons suggestion box, a notice board for up and coming events, a complaints or compliment file.

http://twitter.com/
Find me on Twitter
Peter

www.librarything.com

"Librarything" is more or less another form of a Library Catalogue. Good or bad, I'll leave that up to you. If you want to follow what others are reading then thats good, but if you want your privacy thats bad, but if that was the case then you wouldn't use Librarything any way. Mind you I did manage to add some of the books I have enjoyed reading to my blog page. I would recommend anyone liking stories about spies during the cold war era to read the Bernard Sampson series of books written by Len Deighton, nine in all, they were very good. He has not written any more title for a long time now. SHAME.
Peter

www.delicious.com

I can see the merit in using www.delicious.com

It's another way to carry all your favourite sites with you from place to place. Although it's not quite the same as having them stored on your PC under the favourites tab, where you see the whole title. On delicious you only have tags which are limited to one word, unless I didn't understand it correctly. Its just another site to log onto, another username and more passwords. You'll soon need a website to keep a track of all the different logins and passwords you have or has someone thought of this already.

Oh by the way, when I got to the Swan tag I expected to see a cloud, maybe rain, even hail stones, but I looked very closely and still couldn't see the cloud. Was that trick question?
Peter

Wikis, can be fun or serious

After reading and seeing the video about the camping trip and what you can do on wiki with it, I must admit I'm just a little bit impressed. Only a little though. Perhaps as I work through the practical bit a little more my impressions may reach even greater heights.

Us Library Staff could have our very own Joke page, only clean jokes, god knows there are so many jokes floating around out there. Who would contribute to this page in history? Drop me a line if you think it would be a good idea.

Follow the link to see my comments on the Future of Libraries
http://swanlibraries.wetpaint.com/page/The+future+of+Libraries

Peter

RSS Feeds : who would want them, not me!

There's enough information floating around from other media outlets, than to be voluntaraly bombarded with extra information. Life is too short to be sitting in front of a computer all day, when you could be out in the sunshine getting sunburnt.

If you would like to see the Feeds I subscribed to follow the links below.

Amazon.com Bestsellers: The most popular items in Teddy Bears
http://www.amazon.com/rss/bestsellers/toys-and-games/166491011

BBC News - Asia-Pacific
http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/newsonline_world_edition/asia-pacific/rss.xml

BBC Sport Football World Edition
http://newsrss.bbc.co.uk/rss/sportonline_world_edition/football/rss.xml

Fart Farting Flatulence Gas Bodily Function Sound ...
http://www.kidzworld.com/me/rss

South Korea News - Breaking World South Korea News - The New York ...
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/southkorea/?rss=1

The Royal Family, latest news and gossip about the Queen of England and the British Royal Family
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/theroyalfamily/rss

Midland Town Hall Complex

Also referred to as Midland Junction War Memorial.
The first stage of the Town Hall, constructed in 1906, replaced the old school house (situated on Lot 160 next to the original police station) as the headquarters of the Midland Junction Municipal Council. In 1923 the clock turret was added and in 1924 extensions to the eastern side of the original building were completed. The Town Hall continued to serve as the Council Chambers and Administrative Centre for the Midland Junction Municipal Council (known from 1961 as the Midland Town Council) until 1970, when the council merged with the Swan-Guildford Shire Council. The newly formed Swan Shire Council then established its headquarters at Middle Swan. The Town Hall is still used for council purposes.
Nice old building, it was given a face lift a couple of years ago.

Follow the link to a picture of the Midland Town Hall Complex http://www.flickr.com/photos/geoff-inoz/4443888301/sizes/m/in/photostream/