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!