Readers Advisory Meeting, Tamworth City Library, 29th July, 2008.

meeting opened 2pm

Present:

Ellen Forsyth (State Library), Nicole Don (Richmond Tweed), Surinder Kaur (Coffs Harbour), Linda Brenton (Coffs Harbour), Valerie Phillips (Cessnock), Kim Shepherd (Wingecarribee), Michelle Hudson (Kiama), Frances Riva (Ashfield), Philip Edney (Burwood), Helen Cowen (Wingecarribee - Bowral), Martin Mantle (Armidale), Wendy Millar (Central Northern - Tamworth), Kate Nalder (Central Northern - Tamworth), Howard Boyle (Southern Tablelands), Cathy Johnston (Clarence), Jenn Martin (Auburn - remote via GoogleDocs)

Apologies:

Charina Kofod (Holroyd), Virginia Ghezi (Camden), Jo Smith (Lake Macquarie), Merilyn Hills (Hornsby), Joan Ingram (Singleton), Ros Dorsman (Central West), Chantal Birt (Central West), Jasmine Vidler (Central West)

Agenda:

• Report on planning for Readers Week in September.

• Ideas inspired by Learning 2.0.

• Ideas for shared resources

• RA wiki, RA blog & RISG/RA Forum

• Slam the Boards! & RA

• Next chapter: public libraries in Australia and New Zealand for older generations, State Library of New South Wales 1-2 May 2009.

• Communication - reference e-list ; aliaREAD

Readers Week (Jenn Martin)

Mark the occasion at your library with some of the suggestions compiled by the NSW Readers Advisory Working Group, available from the Readers Advisory Wiki: http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/page/Readers+Week+-+September

Members of the public can get involved by making their own motivational reading posters, which can be displayed in libraries (or elsewhere!).

Called Reading Around Our Region, a flickr group has been set up to collect posters created by library users all over NSW.

We can encourage our customers to support and celebrate reading this September by making their own Motivational Reading Poster and sharing!

Basic Instructions:

1. Join the flickr group

2. Take a photo that expresses how you feel about reading

3. Create a poster featuring your image at Big Huge Labs by using their Motivator mashup for flickr

4. Add the poster to the flickr group pool and tag it with rwmot so that we can keep track of all the wonderful posters that everyone is creating

5. Check and see if your local library is running a competition for the best motivational Reading poster - there could be goodies and prestige in it for you!

The motivator poster generator is here: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/motivator.php

The Reading Around Our Region flickr group is here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/779314@N25/

And the instructions for the public on how to create their own poster are here: http://attachments.wetpaintserv.us/Ag6zaoJMr2LxgBjO%2BD%24KqQ%3D%3D96768

You can also post your photos of Readers Week events here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/537199@N21/

All links relating to the NSW Readers Advisory Working Group can also be found here: http://delicious.com/librarycreature/nswreadersadvisoryworkinggroup

Happy Reading!

Ideas inspired by Learning 2.0

http://nswpubliclibrarieslearning2.blogspot.com/

Comments from around the room indicated that not everyone had finished the Learning 2.0 program; Ellen that new participants were signing up each week so the program is continuing to be a dynamic learning ground for all things 2.0;

Considering the range of 2.0 tools currently being used around the state it was clear that this training program has been extremely useful and productive.

RA wiki, RA blog, RISG/RA Forum, Mashups (refer Readers Week), flickr, GoogleDocs (minutes being taken using Googledocs to allow participation by remote attendees), etc.......

everyone asked to consider how they could/do apply Web 2.0 in their library/Librarian environment

Ideas for shared resources

Promoting resources you can access online - look at the RA wiki & blog for some useful urls (aliaREAD,etc), please suggest others;

Martin (Armidale) suggested a humorous books list on the RA wiki, books that make you laugh, consideration for readers week list? - books that are upbeat, a feel good list;

also websites and specialist booksellers - please feel free to add them to the wiki

RA wiki & RA / RISG Forum

RA blog (http://www.nsw-risg.org/rablog/)

RA wiki (http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com/)

RISG/RA Forum (http://www.nsw-risg.org/forum/)

These urls are also located on the RA wiki; try them out - different tools for different applications

Slam the Boards! & RA (Cathy Johnston)

http://answerboards.wetpaint.com/page/Slam+the+Boards%21?t=anon

Answer Boards and social searching is a Learning 2.0 Week 8 activity - http://nswpubliclibrarieslearning2.blogspot.com/ ; http://nswpubliclibrarieslearning21.blogspot.com/2008/03/week-8-answer-boards-and-social.html ;

This is not just a reference tool - eg. Yahoo Answers - Arts & Humantities - Books and Authors - http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/;_ylt=AhGTa5DQIMwR1xn4Ir0RjLiExQt.;_ylv=3?link=list&sid=396545299

It makes a great practice tool

It makes a great training training tool

Join the Answer Boards Librarians - http://answerboards.wetpaint.com/page/Participating+Librarians

Ask a question

Answer a question - using our tools (eg. NoveList, etc)

Pick a 'best answer'

Get a 'best answer'

Next chapter: public libraries in Australia and New Zealand for older generations, State Library of New South Wales 1-2 May 2009. (Ellen Forsyth)

The call for papers is out now (closes 26 September - http://www.auslib.com.au/pdfs/Callforpapers2009.pdf).

It would be great to have a couple of RA papers on the program.

There are three groups of older folk - leading edge baby boomers (55 - 60 something), well aged (fit aged) and frail aged. There are RA services for all of these groups.

This could also be an opportunity to look at starting some research around RA services for older folk.

Points to consider when it comes to our Seniors clientele - reduced numbers of LP books (delay in best sellers/new releases being available in alternative formats - fiction & non-fiction); TB's - listening for the narrator rather than the story/author; pressures from increased populations in various areas (balancing collections to meet this demand whilst also continuing to service existing clients, ie. making sure YA doesn't miss out due to increased demands from increased seniors); keeping technologies up with the demand (Navigators).

Research? - existing bookgroups; ageing populations (ie, north coast retirement 'hot spots' - eg. Yamba/Iluka);

The language of ageing; careful terminology - what is seniors? (baby boomers, fit aged, frail aged); targetet/specific services (eg. housebound), accidental services (eg. reading groups where it just so happens that the attendees fall within the 'seniors' framework); social isolation;

Strategies; balancing need/demand/local dynamics - retirement villages, nursing homes, frail-aged-staying-at-home;

Assumptions - 'good book, well written', Granny (aged 90) might not want Catherine Cookson, she may prefer Darren Shan ......... remember the basic principles of RA, it's all about what the customer wants, not what you think they need

Communication

Reference e-list; aliaREAD; Ellen will send out instructions again to PLN e-list on joining the various e-lists; anyone can join aliaREAD - go to ALIA site (check link on RA wiki), digest/individual posts available

It is important that all staff have the availability of these e-lists; a reminder to ensure that staff receiving one (eg. reference) know to make that list available to others who may not be on the list; these lists are our primary points of communication for upcoming events, seminars, Readers Week, feedback, etc - please spread the word

What are you reading right now?

(the fun bit!!)

TS Eliot; JK Rowling / Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows; Loani Prior/Wild Tea Cosies

David Sedaris/Naked; Richard North Patterson/Conviction; Oscar Wilde/The Picture of Dorian Gray

Max Lucado/Finding Your Sweet Spot; Irene Nemirovsky/Suite Francais

John Wyndham/Chocky; Orson SCott Card/Enders Game; John Mrasden/Checkers

Catherine Jinks/A Gentleman's Garden; Elizabeth Gilbert/Eat, Pray, Love; Caroline Hamilton/Consumed

Kim Edwards/The Memory Keeper's Daughter; Jodi Picoult/Change of Heart

Dorothy Dunnet/Niccolo Rising

Susan Vreeland/Girl in Hyacinth Blue

Superannuation; selection of Australian fiction

Kathryn Fox/Without Consent; Maria V. Schneider/Poison Study

National Geographic, June issue; Marcus Zusak/The Book Thief; Nino Cullotta/They're a Weird Mob

Dream time and meditation; Steve Light/I am Happy - touch & feel picture book of feelings

Nick Hornby/A Long Way Down; iphone for Dummies; Sebastian Faulks/Devil May Care

Connie Willis/The Doomsday Book

Terry Jones/Barbarians; Patrick Rothfuss/The Name of the Wind

Cormac McCarthy/The Road; Margaret Atwood/Oryx and Crake

Meeting closed 4pm

Date and venue for next meeting yet to be determined.

kids and reptiles mosaic

kids and reptiles mosaic
Originally uploaded by CatyJ

In exploring options for the upcoming Readers Week 2008 I put together this mashup of my favourite reptiles and of course my favourite children....... now, applying that to Reading????

So what if it's all over, the point is to keep going, and growing, and learning - never stop learning!!

Following on from the PLNSW-C Conference 2008 last week at Tamworth - "The Power of Place" (wonderful time had by all even if my feet are still killing me from walking around so much!!), I have been following Chrystie Hill's meanderings through our lovely country and after spending Friday last chatting extensively with her and Marian Koren during a drive from Tamworth to the newly relocated Manilla Library and then for a quick visit back to Tamworth to visit the newly refurbished South Tamworth Library before dropping them off at the airport for their flight to Sydney (complete with more than a few other conference attendees!), I decided to check out Twitter. I'm still trying to work out how it will best help/suit me but from Chrystie's talk I can truly see its possible applications - I just have to work it out a bit more first...... So anyway, I've now dumped it into my 2 blogs and am curious to see how long it will take before I'm Twittering madly each day! I can hardly wait!

Parting is such sweet sorrow.....

It's with a certain degree of reluctance that I face the end of the Learning 2.0 program. In reality there is no end as Learning is ongoing each and every day.
I have spent the last week or two going back across other Learning 2.0 participants' blogs and have found the experience rewarding (and frustrating too at times). Mostly I've enjoyed discovering what others got out of each exercise - I got one thing, they got another. I can see that some weeks I completely ignored particular aspects or I flew over them as quick as I could. Other weeks I got stuck into one tiny aspect and went over board on it. It's all been great and I am so glad to be able to view others' discussions and learnings along the way. This has certainly been a worthwhile journey and I am grateful for the opportunity.

Among a number of the blogs I have read a few disparaging comments from gainsayers to the whole exercise. I guess this is where I feel so discouraged by others' attitudes and narrow perceptions. Lack of funding is not an uncommon catch cry ("surely NSL staff time and effort could be better spent on getting us more for our dollar from the Premier's dept. [sic]") but here we have been opened to a learning concept (Accredited by ALIA) completely free that exposes us to where the world is and helps us help our clients so much better. For someone who has recently completed a Masters (and paid for the privilege) this cannot be ignored. I am disheartened by the lack of foresight in these gainsayers and am concerned for the future of their library services. In many regards exploring Web/Library 2.0 is all about getting on board or getting tossed overboard.
I admit that finding time for all these exercises can be problematic in an already busy world, but it is not an excuse, nor should it be accepted as one. As someone who is just as busy as the next person I simply ensured that Learning 2.0 was given credence within the schedule of my working day. That's right, I scheduled it in just as I would schedule a meeting or desk shift. By valuing my time and valuing this program I was able to then value my contribution and therefore my own learning. It's all about attitude.....

At the recent Imagination to Transformation Futures Conference, President of ALA Leslie Burger made the following comment:
Re-imagine all that libraries can be. The key to the future for libraries is our ability as a community to continually reimagine our service program in a way that makes it fresh and exciting for all of our users.......... if we get too comfortable and unable to get out of our comfort zone, we run the risk of of marginalizing what we do. We have to invest in work teams that are flexible, future focussed and fanatical about their committment to change. (http://www.palinet.org/media/ReflectionsFuture-Burger.pdf)

I'd like to thank the team at PLS for all the effort they put into this learning program and to also credit them for not losing their optimism and high regard for what we aim to achieve through Learning 2.0. Throughout all the comments they made on everyone's blogs they maintained a positive outlook and encouragement to constructively help participants move forward. Well done and thankyou.

Return to Week 8 - Slam the Boards!

After inviting the rest of the Reference e-list along I have spent the day Slamming! I'm currently exhausted and don't know if any of my answers have been chosen as 'Best Answer', but I'm hopeful.
I kept with my favourite category (Arts & Humanities - Books & Authors) and in the process discovered a great little cheat site called Spark Notes, with heaps of free online study guides.
I think it's time for more chocolate and a coffee to get me home.

Week 12 - the end is nigh.

I've come to the end of the program and am struggling to fully verbalise what I've learned and how I can see social networking being used and applied successfully in the library environment. It's not that I don't know the answer to the question, more that I perhaps need a little more time to coalesce my thoughts into a cohesive, relevant, and understandable statement.
So I think I'll go grab a coffee and ponder.

Week 11 - GoogleDocs vs Zoho

I like both these applications. I guess I'm a bit biased towards GoogleDocs as I've used it a lot more than Zoho but I do like the visual advancements of Zoho over GoogleDocs (colour shading of backgrounds, etc and generally the range of toolbar options). I have used GoogleDocs in meetings etc and for that purpose it works well. Were I to be creating a more visual document I'd probably prefer to use Zoho. Though in the long run I will probably use GoogleDocs over Zoho as access is easier (straight from Blogger /My Account) and I tend to use it more already . I'm glad I had the option to try it though.

Week 11 - online applications and tools - GoogleDocs

I like GoogleDocs & GoogleSpreadsheets. I use them so their applications for me are obvious. Being such a long way from NSL and many other libraries GoogleDocs is a great way for me to participate in meetings online, and collaborate in writing submissions and other material (without incurring travel expenses and the like). I can restrict my shared documents to viewers only or open them out to other collaborators who can also edit them. Different versions can be saved and by using coloured text all collaborators can quickly see who did what edit and how it fits overall. It's like having a draft document that everyone writes and from all the edits and suggestions a final document is created. I'm really looking forward to using this tool in some upcoming collaborations with some far-flung colleagues. It should be fun, but more than that it furthers the whole concept of collaboration and inspires each and every edit to be more than the last.

Week 10 - mashups - explore, discover, adventure

The whole idea of a mashup is pretty exciting. I like the idea of taking the map of Australia (or NSW) and overlaying it with book covers of stories set in particular towns, areas, states. Even a mashup showing authors and their home towns, etc. To further this reading map concept have a join-the-dots type scenario where readers can read their way across a state, along a highway, from the Top End to the Bite. Themed mashups have such options and creativity that the sky is reasonably endless - romance in rural NSW, crime across Victoria, early Australian life from discovery to Federation, ...... the possible list is limitless.

Week 9 - podcasts - adventure

Where was the Hannibal podcast from Stanford when I was studying Ancient History????? I feel so betrayed.
This is such a cool thing - the new line in online learning. It's not just visual, it's aural - the combination of the two, from a learning perspective is such a great leap and suits all thos edifferent learning types (I may have remembered a whole lot more about Hannibal if I had listened as well as read and he was one of my favourite characters from Ancient Rome).
I did find navigating the iPod downloads a little tricky - not as straight forward as I would have liked.
The Yahoo search worked a whole lot better and I found a great podcast "Hannibal is at the gates" not to mention a whole lot more on Military History - a wonderful door has now opened that I didn't realise was there. This info is not restricted to the sole domain of Universities and other centres of learning, it's out there for everyone, and gloriously free at that. What a great thing!

Week 9 - podcasts - discover & explore

Podcasting opens up such a new world.
I enjoyed the podcasts from the Library Success wiki - Book Talks Plain & Simple - and could immediately see their use in a Public Library for all those RA questions when someone wants to know about a book. This quick little snippet/blurb neatly entraps you to want to listen to the rest of the book and you are left with the author/title info so you can immediately rush out and reserve the book.
What would be really good is a link to the podcast from within the library catalogue so that for every podcasted title you can listen to the blurb and decide from that (as well as cover info if you've got Syndetics) whether or not you want to borrow/reserve the item - you can do this at home, in the library, anywhere and everywhere - you don't have to have th eitem in your hand reading the blurb itself to decide what you think.
As an aside this could then reduce the size of bib records because you wouldn't need to add the blurb onto the record, just the podcast link. For the hearing impaired the transcript of the podcast could be linked to the record also reducing the size of the bib record (I personally find long detailed narrative descriptions within bib records to be highly annoying).
And the best thing? To have these podcasts available for download through Libraries Australia as an intrinsic cataloguing function - that way everyone gets to share.

The podcasts from ABC Radio National mean that if you miss a show or discussion down the street a few weeks later someone talks about "oh yes, I heard this on the radio and they said ............" you can go back and find it and listen to it. If you missed it on the day it doesn't mean you've missed it forever and it's so much nicer than reading the transcript which doesn't have the same feel as listening to the show "live".

What other benefits does podcasting have for libraries? Author talks - up there and available within days/hours/minutes/live! Combined with vodcasts this is such a huge area for expansion. I know some libraries are already doing and loading visuals to YouTube etc., this is certainly an area where we can expand, grow, learn, and develop some real skill and professionalism - beyonmd the home-movie feel.

GoogleMaps fun

As an aside to everything else I've been having fun with GoogleMaps lately and think it's kinda cool being able to create your own map and embed the results in your blog (or where ever). Here's one I prepared earlier.....


View Larger Map

It shows general directions from Grafton (me) to Salt Ash (my parents).
What's cool about this? Aside from the fact that it creates the html code for me (just cut and paste), it's an easy way to keep track of maps if & when I may need them again, and when blogs are shared it's a simple way of coordinating a trip where all collaborators can go in and view the suggested route/itinerary. I like it.

I don't really need a map from Grafton to Salt Ash (I could probably drive it blindfolded if I had to) but I'm using this aspect to keep track of the next planned Biblio Turismo run scheduled for May this year - bound to be fun!

Week 8 - answerboards & social searching

Okay, now I'm a big believer in the role Libraries and Librarians (esp. Reference Librarians) can play on the AnswerBoards. Aside from the fact that it's a bucket load of fun it's a huge learning experience. I must admit that I have learned so much more in the last 6 months about using the Internet as a reference tool than I have in the last 5 years.
I have been Slamming since September 2007 - some months I get right into it for the whole day and answer as many questions as I can, other months I'll be lucky to answer 1. But the way I look at it, out there on those AnswerBoards are people who aren't coming into the library to ask their questions (in person or remotely) so therefore they are still my client base beacuse I never know from one question to the next just where that person is from and it may be that they are in fact one of my local constituents. But even if they weren't they are still asking questions and helping people find the answers to their questions is 1. what I do, 2. what I'm trained to do, and 3. what I'm jolly good at doing. So I tend to think that on the 10th of every month someone out there is getting the benefit of an experienced and qualified answer to their question - that, and they are being taken seriously, their question is valued.
On a side not, getting your answer chosen as 'Best Answer' is the absolute best buzz!!
Beyond all this though, Slam the Boards means I am part of an online community of like minded Librarians seeking to help as many people as we can around the world find answers and learn that Libraries are great places and Librarians are great people. WikiAnswers has recently come on board to give all registered Slam the Boards Librarians contributor status on WikiAnswers which further cements the quality of answer given and the validity of its contribution.
To further cement the value of the monthly Slam, the School of Information & Library Science at the University of North Carolina is taking on a study of Yahoo Answers to see whether or not the answers provided by and tagged by Librarians are being chosen 'Best Answer' over other answers provided - to see whether or not we are in fact providing value for service and being recognuised for it.
Current count there were 106 participating Libraries/Librarians - including 2 from Australia and 1 from New Zealand.

Week 7 - adventure - LibraryThing

I must admit to not using LibraryThing since I first joined oh so long ago. Looking at it again I can see its social value - at a glance you can see how many other people have your book, you can read comments, give it a star rating and really connect with other readers.
I've now linked my LibraryThing library to my blog.
Personally I prefer to use Shelfari . On a balance I see them both as pretty much the same. I guess I've just spent more time on Shelfari. As with Library Thing I can also link my Shelfari bookshelf to my blog (which I've done). After a while I go with the one that best suits me and tend to let the others fall by the wayside.
I know that some Library Management Systems (eg Spydus) are looking at linking to LibraryThing within their catalogues so that patrons, staff, etc can comment on and rate the collection but I think it is certainly worth looking at what the others can offer too.

Week 7 - discover 2 - technorati

Okay, I found no difference between the results of a keyword search and the advanced search for "bookmobile" though it did take me a moment to realise there were 4 tabs to choose from - posts, blogs, photos, and videos. At first glance they all looked the same.
With the second search for "nswpln2008" I was initially put off by the fact that on the posts tab there were no hits at all what at first I took to mean 'no hits at all across all 4 tabs'. When I went back and did the search again I realised this was not the case: no posts, no blogs, no videos, but quite a few photos. This was a humble lesson in paying attention to the details and not assuming that just because the first search tab was empty that all the tabs were empty.

I've not used techorati much at all so may just need to play around with it a bit more to get the best out of it.

Week 7 - Explore

The instructions were simply and easy to use. Having joined del.icio.us some time ago it was good to go back in and really look at its usefulness and usability. So now my del.icio.us account is linked to my blog and the world has opened up in a whole new social way.

Week 7 - Tagging, folsonomies, del.icio.us, LibraryThing - discover

My big discovery was the careful planning and arrangement that had gone into Sutherland Library's tags - not a jumbled, haphazard array but neat and tidy and categorised. Shows how the sheer volume of tags can be controlled.
Also the choices - tag list, tag cloud, frequency tag list. You're not stuck with the one option, you can change it any time and rearrange it as well.

Week 6 - videos - adventure

Task: find a video I like and embed it into my blog........ Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions.

I did a bit of searching for this and that and something else and finally settled on my favourite reptile, the Eastern Water Dragon. I don't have any live footage of my own Dragon (only photos) and found the search for someone else's footage an education in itself. In the end I settled on this one - it's informative, the dragons are in a replicated natural environment and human intervention in the video was nil. (It sure beat the videos showing water dragons tethered on a woven leather leash so they wouldn't escape whilst the video was being shot - those I was horrified by.)
There were a couple of ways I could have shared this video but have found that the easiest by far is to move from the 'compose' tab to the 'edit html' tab and copy in the 'embed' data from the video page.

Week 6 - videos - explore

I have to say the time lapse photography of the Qld State Library's construction project reminded me of a Peter Gabriel videoclip. Yet I was also struck by what it achieves - in a short 2.02 minutes a building site goes from nothing to something. Here you can 'see' vision take shape.

Then the Staff orientation video from PLCMC showed a neat way of presenting a professional image which all and any staff could access from anywhere. In a Regional Library network this sort of 'distanceless' orientation process is a huge bonus. With training days so hard to organise across distances and time and staff here is an 'easy' way of ensuring that the same message gets to all staff within the overall library service. The possibilities here are endless.

And Video Coolness - yay. For me this would be the best - video footage of a book group in action. Discussions, laughter. coffee, digression. All the things that the best bookgroups are made of. Book reviews online and available via the library website - the coolest stuff in RA available!
Across ages and genres the possibilities are absolutely endless!

Week 6 - Videos online - discover

I love YouTube, I find all sorts of lovely and wonderful surprises each time I visit! Firstly I searched for lego and played around with the Indiana Jones lego game, then I searched for Kogarah Library and came across a live band performance in the library, lastly Liverpool Plains brought me a Harvesting 2006 video. All good
Next I did the same at Google Video. This time I noted the difference between a search using "all viedos" and one using "videos hosted by google". The first had hits with YouTube and many others, the second was a much smaller result.
So which were my favourite videos? Well all kids love lego so I couldn't go past Indiana Jones:



& Monty Python and the Holy Grail.



As a finale though I came across Paul McDermott & Fiona Horne performing Shut Up/Kiss Me live.



Like I said, all good.

Cool wiki moment

I just went to the RA wiki and thought I'd check out a few of the pages and noticed that the page for Genre Lists has a link to Crime authors, but not to any of the other genre lists I know are there. Playing around with this I realised that it is the tags which link these pages together and ensure that they appear at the bottom of the others' pages. So then I went through and put in relevant tags in Medieval Mysteries, Paranormal Romance, and Genre Lists which reflected each other and ensured that they linked. This way no matter what genre page I am on I can get to the others quickly and easily within the page rather than from the left side menu.

The tags are the key - I guess that's my own little epiphany for the day

Week 5 - Wikis .... Explore (part 2)

Okay, got my invite key to the Learning 2.0 wiki and edited a few pages. I liked answering the questions as they got me to really think about what I do, why I do it, and how I would talk about it to others who've got no idea what being a Librarian is all about. To make my answers distinguishable from others I changed the colour of the text and signed it CatyJ.
Yep, fun.

Week 5 - Wikis ..... Adventure

As I'm currently living in Grafton I jumped over to the Wikipedia entry for Grafton and was left thinking hmmmm, someone has gone in and done a very good job here already so then I decided to find entries for every town I have ever lived in (bound to be quite an adventure as I'm rather prone to wander...!).
Anyway, here goes......
Elanora Heights ; Narara ; Herons Creek/Kendall ; Griffith University / Nathan / Mt Gravatt ; Maroubra ; Clovelly ; Coogee ; Bronte ; Randwick ; Narrabri ; Bellata ; Mount Victoria/Blue Mountains ; Walgett ; Collarenebri; Tamworth/Calala/Tintinhull; Grafton .
Whew! What a trip.
I was quite curious to see if there was an entry for Herons Creek as this is a tiny village just north of Kendall & Kew and the closest place of habitation to the farm I grew up on. Herons Creek has a timber mill which serves the local industry - many is the time a timber jinker has given me a lift home from the bus stop out on the highway! Thinking about it though and really taking a solid look at what is on Wikipedia as far as towns and cities go, most of this information is provided by clever Councils/LGAs seeking to establish an online informational link for people who want to know about that place. For the Port Macquarie-Hastings Shire Council, their wikipedia pages detail the main towns and industry within the area from a Council-based tourism point of view. A little place like Herons Creek is off the map and simply doesn't cut it as a tourist destination - I have to admit to being quite happy when I left the area - so doesn't get a mention. Which I guess brings me around to the point that you really need to think carefully about what you're putting out there on the web. Getting everything and anything out there is not necessarily a good thing, after all what are we trying to achieve by doing this?
So, should I add a page to Wikipedia about Herons Creek? Maybe. But I think that if I did I would focus on the industry side of things and link it to the Timber Industry and perhaps also the historical angle for the Hastings area with a neat tie in to Wauchope and TimberTown rather than to the LGA.

Week 5 - Wikis .... Explore

I've had a quick look at the new Learning 2.0 wiki and ran through the pbwiki tour, now I'm just waiting for the invite key so I can go in and play. The thing that has struck me most this morning is that whilst each of the wikis I've looked at is essentially different they are also essentially the same so though the look of one is so different to another I feel reasonably confident about editing the Learning 2.0 pbwiki simply becasue I have already played around in Wikipedia and the Readers Advsiory wiki (which uses Wetpaint).

Week 5 - Wikis ....Discover

After watching the video clip (great for graphically providing an idiot-proof version of what is a wiki and why they are good to use) and reading through the Wikipedia entry, I then checked out the following wikis -
Wisconsin Heritage Wiki, the full Library Success: A best practices wiki, Book Lovers Wiki at the Princeton Public Library, and Wookieepedia.
I loved Wookieepedia - it was bright, fun and heh it's Star Wars so it can't go wrong, it's advantage is that the subject matter alone is what inspires contribution and collaboration; The Winsconsin Heritage Wiki is very much a user-based rather than visitor-based wiki and I have to admit I got a little lost; I liked the Library Success wiki because it used the simple format that is key to Wikipedia's success - after a brief intro to the topic there is a contents list which quickly shows you what you will find and will also take you straight there - easy to use for longtime players and the new. Lastly I visited the Book Lovers wiki, no guff just straight into what the wiki is all about with a clear concise and positive review about a book about toilets and plumbing (!). The arrangement of the page led me to be instantly interested and then keen to expliore the rest of the page which I could easily and readily do. Finally, and possibly more important from a social networking angle - I felt welcomed.

Now to explore ..............

Diffusion vs. concentration

Lorcan Dempsey's blogpost - The Two Ways of Web 2.0 - discusses the diffusion and concentration of Web 2.0. I was particularly struck by his final comments:-
"When we discuss Web 2.0, there is a temptation to think about blogs and wikis, RSS and a Facebook application, and to stop there. There is also some useful thinking about how to expose web services or data in ways that they can be remixed into other applications. However, Web 2.0 is also about concentration, concentration of data, of users and of communications. We need also to think about how libraries reconfigure services in an environment of network level gravitational hubs, driven by network effects. This will involve greater concentration of library resources in various ways, and also - probably? - greater reliance on other web presences to deliver their services. "

"work 20% differently, not 20% more..."

Ellen has just emailed this link around discussing changing work practices as a result of emerging web 2.0 technolgies and the rise of social media - http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2008/03/06/resourcing-for-social-media-social-media-cultural-communication-2008-conference/

Harper College Library

Pam sent me this link from WebJunction to Harper College's YouTube tour around the library. You can't help but smile........

Final thoughts on RSS

What feeds did I subscribe to? A whole range of things from world news, technology updates, food, travel, fashion, literature, library 2.0, librarianship, and many more. As an eclectic reader my interests cover a range of areas but I like the idea of being able to chop and change as my tastes waver and grow. Check out my 2 links to RSS feeds on the top right for the full list of my subscriptions.

Adding an RSS Feed to my blog

I had real trouble with this one so in the end I added a link to my Bloglines account to get around the hassles I was having trying to add a feed when customising my Blogger account. Adding a feed did not accept any of the urls I put in so somewhere in the process I was glitching big time. Adding the link worked and immediately takes me straight to Bloglines. I think I'll go back and edit a bit and add Google Reader to this list too, at least until I work out the fine details of adding a feed page element to my blog ( it will come in time I'm sure)

Week 4 - RSS Feeds

I found this entire exercise useful in that I've been using Google Reader for a while (when I remember to go check it!) and now to give Bloglines a go I find myself comparing the two.
I tend to not utilise these RSS feeds on a daily basis. Often this is because of lack of time, also due to the display format of Google Reader. I much prefer the screen display of Bloglines. Both are easy to manage, though the sheer volume of daily feeds that can come through can be a little daunting. I like the aspect of being able to keep completely up to date with various subject fields and areas of interest.
I'm still trying to streamline the whole 'subscribe to this feed' aspect from the website end rather than the Google Reader / Bloglines end. But as with other things I like the facility for achieving the same end result using different methods.
My favourite RSS Feed subscription? The quirky Budget Fashionista. It's a girl thing.

Flickr - another Virago 250

Virago 250
Originally uploaded by Karisma

I like this photo simply because it's an accurate copy of my bike (except for the pillion seat which we removed and the soft panniers which I've currently got on it - minor details). But there she is, pretty and neat and the perfect colour!!
Curiously though, there are no additional tags - such as year of this particular model, mileage, etc. Makes me consider what tags I would give should this be my contribution to Flickr, what do I want the world to know about my bike?

postscript: I've gone back in to this post and the previous one and added tags of my own.

Week 3 - Flickr - Virago By a Fence

Virago By a Fence
Originally uploaded by lightgazer

Why did I choose this picture? First because I ride a Virago so was kind of curoius to know what photos were out there featuring my little bike. Second because I love the clouds in this image - it's a beautifully scripted photo, balancing road, fence, and bike with the limitless feel of the clouds - as if the clouds themselves were the road (bit of a ghostriders feel).
Basically I just think this photo is cool.

Week 2 adventure - Technorati

Technorati - what strikes me first about this search is that from simply typing in "Library" I am presented with immediate results but more helpfully, a list of tags (other words I could use to better search, refine my search, other ways of expressing what it is I'm looking for) - this is especially useful considering how everyone both uses different words to express the same thing and different language to define concepts and ideas - very cool.
Technorati also gives me 4 options - posts, blogs, video, photos. If I select blogs I find a usable page that doesn't confuse me with an overload of text (a good thing for me) and 12, 078 hits (wow!).
Refined to 1,078 blogs about Libraries. Now if I search for "Libraries Australia" I get 12 hits and a much more manageable, and I hope relevant selection. Noticeable in this smaller group is the Sydney Boys High library blog. The one I best like the sound of is The Booksnob's Blog - A library-oriented blog in which the intrepid booksnob writes without fear or favour about books gorgeous and wonderful, strange and unusual, with the occasional digression into movies and music.

Technorati is useful, it's a great starting point for finding out more and for any newbie to blogging a helpful hand to have around.

Learning 2.0 - NSW Public Libraries

The Learning 2.0 package was launched this morning and after running through the Week 1 Discoveries, I was particularly struck by Stephen Fry's comments about Web 2.0

Looking at the 7 1/2 Habits I found #1 - begin with the end in mind - to be particularly relevant to me. There are specific goals I wish to achieve from this learning process and in doing the quick survey before I started I was reminded of that. Combined with #7 - teach and mentor others - I view this whole adventure as a fabulous way for me to strengthen those areas of Web 2.0 where I am perhaps a little weak, and facilitate the sharing of Learning 2.0 with my colleagues and supporting them in their efforts.

I'm up for the ride, it's going to be fun!