A long goodbye

Good Friday evening and I prepare to write my final post for 23Things.

I check that I have done everything and tagged each task and feel I must apologise to the 23things Team for using “thing one”, “thing two” and, “week one” and “week two”, nor was I able to move it conveniently to the left hand side of my blog due to the limitations of the template.

I read my first post about my expectations of 23Things. Next, I read my blog to pull my final thoughts together. It serves as a logical structure for my final post and a review of what I I have learnt. Looking back to my first posts, I find …

I wanted to discover what resources were available and explore their potential for enhancing library services. I have been: introduced to personalized home pages in the form of iGoogle, created a blog, learnt about RSS Feeds and Google Reader, organized my photographs and manipulated them using Flickr and Picnic, archived my bookmarks with Delicious, explored podcasting and YouTube, socialized using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, was educated in my use of Wikipedia, taught about cloud computing by using Google Docs and ThinkFree Office, and worked with widgets.

I will group the Web 2.0 resources in the following groups, none of which are exclusive, for the purpose of reflection on their potential both as information resources and as a means of enhancing library sources.

There are those that are valuable as information resources. These are blogs, Delicious, Podcasting; including YouTube, Wikis and Wikipedia. The highlight of this group of Web 2.0 resources has been the creation of this blog. I have come to appreciate its value as an information resource. This has been an excellent tool in helping me to become a “reflective practitioner”. It has kept me organized and on track with each task. My blog has changed character as it has gone along too. It commenced as rather formal, circumspect in what it said about me, cautious in its opinions, and keeping to the remit of professional reflection on the tasks. Now it has become more informal, more me, more opinionated. This is in keeping with what a blog is about! I may keep it going for a bit so that can I try out new things, do the things I didn't have time to do, re-reflect, and remind myself how I did something. I am rather proud of my blog. I was surprised by the value of Podcasting and YouTube as information resources. I was delighted to have the opportunity to evaluate Wikipedia effectively as it is a tool of which I am particularly fond.

The next group of Web 2.0 resources are those that enhance services through communication. These include principally: Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter; but also Flickr and Picnik, Delicious and the blog. Of these, Facebook proved to be an unexpected highlight. Here my prejudices were challenged fundamentally to good effect. Examining the various ways in which libraries use Facebook I now feel this is an appropriate medium for communication and engagement with my library constituency. I shall be creating a Facebook page for my library over the summer. The lowlights of this group were Twitter and LinkedIn.

The final group of Web 2.0 resources are those that aid organization. These include iGoogle, RSS feeds and Google Reader, Flickr, Delicious, Google Docs and ThinkFree and Widgets. These were invaluable in organizing the various Web 2.0 media. My iGoogle is constantly evolving and being refined as my information needs change and I desire to organize those changes. Delicious will feature in the web presence of my library, making visible and organized subject-based web resources. Setting up RSS feeds and using Google Reader has substantially re-organized and de-cluttered my email inbox. These Web 2.0 tools have given me the opportunity to work more efficiently and effectively. I have been attracted by the potential of cloud computing to facilitate ease of access to my own documents and by the possibilities for working collaboratively.

23Things has also provided the opportunity to reflect not just on the utility of individual resources but also on the wider issues of our web 2.0 environment. The issues of trust, of intellectual property, copyright and digital rights management (Flickr, Picnik YouTube), questions about the archiving and preservation of ephemeral media (podcasting, YouTube, and blogs), the integrity of information, the type, functionality and relevance of information in popular and academic cultures, (blogs, YouTube, Podcasting), the relationship of information and technology, (Wikis, Wikipedia, Google Docs, ThinkFree, RSS feeds), Internet safety, security and privacy, (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter).

I have also been introduced to ideas of reflective writing. I was given the opportunity to explore, investigate and comment, and archive my progress and thoughts in a systematic manner. I have been encouraged to consider consciously the functionality of Web 2.0 resources. I have gained confidence to use them effectively and reflectively.

The structure of the course was just right, building gradually on the skills gained. I found myself comparing and contrasting Web 2.0 resources and how they might be used in conjunction with each other. The tasks were an eclectic mixture of the serious and the fun. It did seem particularly heavily task laden in the middle of the programme and lighter near the end. I wonder if the tasks could be rearranged to give the participant in 23Things a better balanced workload?

23Things can be summed up as community, co-operation and collaboration. Web 2.0 tools embed these values in their functionally. However, the 23Things programme has been all about community, co-operation and collaboration. Through our blogs, and Twitter, we have shared our likes and dislikes, our frustrations and delights, and our successes and failures. We have shared our favourite websites, photographs, videos and documents. Individual comments have kept us on track when we were frustrated, confused or flagging, and reminded us we really were enjoying the tasks and the challenges they brought. Reading the blogs of others has highlighted things I had not thought of but wished I had … !

However, sometimes it was hard for a solo librarian. Although there was always the ever accessible, practical and helpful 23 Things team and our blog followers, sometimes things did seem insuperable and quick answers were harder to come by as we couldn't lean across a desk and ask a more experienced colleague or experiment with an equally bemused workmate. It was hard to find followers for some of the exercises. Gaining a follower for my blog was one of the highlights of the programme. I hope they enjoyed my blog and that sometimes it was helpful, creative, interesting, even amusing. Perhaps sometimes it was a little dull? I enjoyed theirs, which was far more concise than mine! I thank Inky Fluff and LibTourist for their tweets.

23Things was more demanding of my time than I anticipated. I don’t begrudge this, though, as I have achieved a huge amount given I had so little exposure and engagement with the resources. Sometimes I felt that the tasks deserved more time than I was able to give, sometimes they coincided with busy times at work, sometimes I was sick or just plain weary. I would have liked to complete the tasks more comprehensively. Looking back through my blog I find constant references to remind myself to go back and; add videos to favourites in YouTube or subscribe to YouTube Channel, even experiment with my own podcast, explore other photo-editing tools such as Fotoflexer, and compare and contrast Picassa and Photobucket and Kodak Gallery, follow up on copyright licensing under Creative Commons, read up on the effective use of tagging and the creation of folksonomies … . In the pressure to get things done, sometimes it was difficult to be truly reflective of the experience, to evaluate fully the resources and what I had learnt. Sometimes I struggled to write the blog in good English as I am dyslexic, editing was cumbersome, and I am still noticing what to others are probably careless typos.

I would like to post a big thank you to the 23 Things team using all the resources we have tried out but I don’t have time. So just thank you again, not simply for setting the up the scheme but for your enormous amount of help and support, for your clear instructions and the interest you have taken in all our efforts. It has been invaluable.

Am I going to miss 23 Things, yes, the agony and ecstasy of it all. Now, though, my thesis might get finished! Or, perhaps I’ll make one last tweet!

(Finished Easter Monday as our darling cat got sick but has against expectations lived to see this blog’s completion!)

Great Gadgets and Wonderful Widgets continued...

Having gobbled down lunch and done my stint at Bowyer's Arms in aid of the Village Plan I can now return to my penultimate post for 23Things.

Finally I add delicious to iGoogle home page. First I make room by deleting UKeIG blog - no-one has "yammered away" since March 2009. I left their news and announcements feed as this had been updated. I went to add stuff and searched for "delicious". Some interesting gadgets for Delicious, low fat vegan cooking which looked interesting and would probably offer some healthy alternatives to my regular diet but not what is required for this exercise. Also there was Banana Rama to help two hungry monkeys get some delicious bananas. Typing in del.icio.us brought up more appropriate widgets. Interestingly, they did slightly different things, for example: "nuage delicieux" a french site for the cloud display of you delicious tags, and "oishii "showing most popular sites recently booked marked by delicious users. Glancing through the delicious gadgets and their descriptions I selected "My Delicious". The "My Delicious" abstract seemed to suggest it would do everything I want; "get a delicious hotlist right on your home page, browse bookmarks or see the latest entries from your networks, easily switch user ... ." In selecting this gadget the criteria I used were the providence of the gadget feeling that a "google gadget" was likely to work and be reliable. I checked the starred rating and number of users and reviews to aid my selection. Needless to say I was also influenced by the attractive icon. I set the parameters to "Fiona" and realised I had retrieved all the delicious sites belonging to any "Fiona". Making it more specific my delicious sites appeared happily displaying my latest entries on "cloud computing and libraries". This is very useful and will remind me to find time to read them. I really believe 23Things isn't going to come to an end with is task and the final post which follows. I add the picture above - I learnt how do this from an earlier task accomplished from way back in week one or week two!
I like the "editors picks" . It is an ideal way to promote various gadgets particularly as there are so many of them - one for everyone and everything; daily horoscopes, BBC Good Food, a "day since counter" and "Sudoku". The abstracts are clear and informative. I had already added National Rail enquiries to my iGoogle page. I wonder who the "editor" is and how often the picks are updated especially as the gadget "Vancouver 2010 Olympics Games", schedules, results, medal counts for 2010 Winter Olympics must now be out of date. It was a popular widget with 3,352 users, 21 ratings and starred at 4 1/2. This rather prompts me to note that one's iGoogle page probably should be regularly refreshed and like this blog will never be as perfect or complete as one would like. With the elections looming I was tempted by "TheyWorkFor You" gadget, the abstract of which reads "Information on MPS from TheyWorkForYou.com" It has five stars, one review and 2,334 users. I feel the number of users will increase in the coming weeks.

Sadly my last post approaches

Great Gadgets and Wonderful Widgets

I write on Good Friday thinking I really should be on vacation from all things work related. However, as I am sitting in my pajamas with the radio on it's not so arduous a task. I have to go and represent the Village Plan Steering Committee at the Good Friday Walk this afternoon, so this morning is an a good opportunity to explore the final things.

Penny suggested the article http://tinyurl.com/dkyssu. This was an excellent introduction to gadget/widget environment. It provides a brief summary of the types of gadget/widget that are available: communication gadgets, social gadgets, utility gadgets and, of course the catch all miscellaneous gadgets! As yet I have not used the communication gadgets such as Google talk, Jaxtor, meebome or Sykpe. A number of the social gadgets looked useful such as Easy Comments and MyBlogLog . I have already tried out the Google Search gadget. Of the miscellaneous gadgets, I have already added Flickr and YouTube to my iGoogle home page. The article encouraged me to consider the individual functionality of gadgets and the environments in which they could be used appropriately. Following the blogs discussions on the separation of "work-related" and "personal and entertainment" pages, I feel in reality that any iGoogle page or blog homepage is going inevitably to be a mixture of the serious functional gadget and the fun widget. The gadgets can be a great way of organising effective access to the information you need but as the article says "there are many gadgets and widgets you can add" and this suggests to me that a judicious selection is required so that your iGoogle page or blog homepage doesn't becomes like any other disorganised drawer of paper clips, elastic bands, leaky biros, and other "whatisthisfor?" widgets!
Arranging the gadgets on your iGoggle home page or blog is of course a personal choice and says much about your interests and information needs. As suggested by the team I tried moving the gadgets on my blog around but as I discovered the blog template of which I was so proud back in Week Three (how long ago that seems!) just keeps moving them back!

Adding widget to display the tumbnails from my Flickr photostream was comparatively easy. My only reservation is that I didn't seem to be able to select individual photographs but just a certain number. I tried various options to get a subset to display but to no avail! I also found the display rather static. I prefer the slideshow gadget with which I experimented back in Week Four. If only I could get rid of the girl in the bikini!

I have also added the newsreel gadget to my blog. I was impressed by the ease with which it could identify and post relevant stories from the world of astronomy. I am not sure about the colours of the posting as they seem I little out of tune with my chose theme. I think I will go back and change them. I will also need to see how regularly they are updated.

On to the penultimate post ...

Office 2.0 Forms

It's official my questionnaire works!

Office 2.0 continued

Just a few words on ThinkFree as I am looking forward to eating lunch and curling up with a relaxing book (though probably not a Victorian novel!) It was interesting to be able to compare and contrast the functionality of Goggle Docs and ThinkFree Office. I disliked having to download additional software. Initially ThinkFree in slick presentation was apparently more sophisticated offering a Windows Word interface however, after checking the line speed which was apparently fine, I found the speed at which it was operating uncooperatively slow and this prohibited the inclination to further exploration at this point.

Office 2.0

The Easter break is approaching and I'm feeling exhausted; after a week a work and supervision in London on Thursday evening the critical faculties are some what limited. I fear this entry might be not be as fluent or thoughtful as usual.

The cloud computing is an exceptional development and has great potentiality. I would happily investigate the implications of the "cloud" further. I feel it is going to be revolutionary in the future, in the way we work and conceive of the ownership of our documents and applications. It raises technical and ethical issues which are only partially perceived at at present.

I feel the "cloud" is a useful too giving ease of accessibility from remote locations so long as a there is a computer and Internet connection. A particularly good use of Office 2.0 is perhaps when wishing to share a particularly large document with a colleague. Frequently, I have found that conventional email applications do not permit the transmission of large email attachments with complicated formatting. The cloud permits this operation to be performed. I wonder if the cloud will replace the ubiquitous USB device. The cloud provides for mass storage and back up and wonder how this will compete with the increasing storage capacity and cheapness of other devices. The introduction to this exercise mentions further advantages of cloud; that there is no longer a need for security patchs, updates and upgrades as this will be done in the cloud and, that compatibility is no longer an issue for collaborators. The cloud will contain our creatvity and this raises questions about the integrity of the creative endeavour what constitutes document and author!

I found Goggle Docs exceptionally easy to use. I was able to view a useful document from Lucile Desligneres. I found Google Docs exceptionaly easy to navigate. I discovered the online dictionary with links to Wikipedia and handy synonymns. The formating functions were limited but perhaps this an advantage when using Goggle Docs to share documents as tricksey formatting can make document unnnecessary difficult to read.I created a document in Google Documents to share with the 23 Things Team. I included a picture and link to wikipedia. I changed the colour and style of font to make it more attractive

I would certainly consider using Google Docs in a collaborative environment

PS I also experimented with the form!

Out of tune with bad taste Tweet

First bad experience of social networking

Find in email today the following. Find this rather disturbing and unpleasant piece of spam. No at all what I like. However have I have press the report amateur porn movies for spam. I feel confident that Twitter has now dealt with this. This feels more intrusive than the email spam spam of the same nature; more personal somehow! Is it because following and stalking are like activities. Really does highlight the issues of security, and personal safety when using the Internet and the affect on vulnerable individuals . Will have a look at preference and see if I can alter them to stop this happening again. Another reason for not liking Twitter

Hi, Martha Braithwaite.

Amateur Porn Movies (pornzddl) is now following your tweets on Twitter.

A little information about Amateur Porn Movies:

252 followers 1748 tweets following 1266 people

You may follow Amateur Porn Movies as well by clicking on the "follow" button on their profile.If you believe Amateur Porn Movies is engaging in abusive behavior on Twitter, you may report Amateur Porn Movies for spam.

Amateur Porn Movies may not appear in your follower list. Amateur Porn Movies may have decided to stop following you, or the account may have been suspended for a Terms of Service violation.

If you'd rather not receive follow notification emails from Twitter, you can unsubscribe immediately. To resubscribe or change other Twitter email preferences, visit your account settings to manage email notices. Please do not reply to this message; it was sent from an unmonitored email address. This message is a service email related to your use of Twitter. For general inquiries or to request support with your Twitter account, please visit us at Twitter Support.

A failure of application to work and an introduction to Facebook Apps

Friday 19th - Estimates are out of the way and having negoitated a good deal with the Busar or he with me; I have also sorted out with Conference Manager whether the Library could offer support to a group of teachers planning an awayday, which sadly it can not, I am feeling relaxed. Fortunately, a colleague from another library passes by and, despite spending rather more gossiping (chattering - see my previous posts re: Twiiter) than I should, we finally get around to discussing 23 Things! Thanks to this informal networking (chatter) I have discovered how to add some apps to my potential library Facebook page and also how to create the page but necesary have it go instantly live. What a nice way to spend a rainy Friday afternoon!

Wicked Wikis ... the performance

I think Wikipedia is invaluable tool. Some of fellow librarians frown up Wikipedia and my colleagues at work wonder why a librarian should use it. Wikipedia is like any other information resource and should be used with the evaluative mindset that any good librarian or researcher should apply to any source, primary or secondary, that they use. I have used it to identify people; (Bryan Guiness), locate places, (the state of towns in the US), understand movements, (situationalism), and the thinking of groups (Rosicrucians).

I feel Wikipedia can be compared with the great Enlightenment project that was the Encyclopedie of D'Alembert and Diderot. Their goals are similar and yet unobtainable in collecting together all available knowledge. Wikipedia defines it policy on entries as engendering "civility". This is a very Enlightenment word. It also encompasses ideas about civilization and Wikipedia is an expression of our current civilisation.

Wikipedia is about collaboration, co-operation and community. This is rather like the eighteenth century bodies such as the Lunar Society, Royal Societies and philosophical societies of the Enlightenment project. It democratises information moving outside the elitism of the the university. This shares in the aspirations of Enlightenment and pushes the boundaries of knowledge further in the co-operation of academic and amateur. It values all information equally and nothing is neglected as unworthy of inclusion. Wikipedia also contributes to the globalisation of information. Some might suggest that Wikipedia is subject to bias but if you look carefully at the objective introduction of any encyclopedia you will identify their "subjective" ideological purpose.

What is also of value with Wikipedia is the added value of its entries; the ease of navigation through entries by hyperlinks, the quick facts panels, hyperlinks to references, the added external links many to reputable academic bodies, organisations and institutions, scholarly projects and established knowledgeable communities such as clubs and societies. The additional information is in many forms of media. The options to locate and purchase books is another useful feature.

I was glad to be able to investigate the prefatory material to Wikipedia, as with any use of dictionary or encyclopedia, this often neglected in the urgent need to find the essential information. I now feel I have to hand to answers to those who a critical of the use of the Wikipedia and better equipped to use the Wikipedia as an effective research tool.

The history and discussion tabs are useful for ascertaining the providence of articles and protect against misleading and inaccurate articles. Editing a page was very easy and here is my meagre contribution http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Steele. Must remember to check if there in a couple of months.

I would like to understand further about the Portal projects within Wikipedia

I could write a whole article on Wikipedia but as time is short I will confine myself to the comments above. And perversely, I still feel that somehow I would be uneasy if I saw Wikipedia featured in scholarly bibliography!

Conference Tweets

Although not liking Twitter I was able to follow the Oxford Librarians's Staff Conference via #olc10 whilst working hard on chapter of thesis!

Wicked Wikis ... behind the stage curtain

This week's first exercise was useful in allowing one to get behind the stage curtain of the wiki and see behind the scenes. First there was the all important question of the name of the drama "wiki" means "quick" and not "what I know is" or as Wikipedia puts it "wiki has being by some backronymed as what I know is.

Through an error I made when adding more pages then I intended, I discovered that wikis do not necessary have to be vast unconglomerated mass of spurious information but a mediated and controlled environment consisting of specific information for a individual community; in this case Oxford web 2.0 librarians. This suggests to me that the wiki might be an especially useful way of providing a "desk manual" or "FAQ" site for use many professions; outlining practices and procedures, or for quick reference at library issue desk, lodge reception, or in another similar situation.

Having been frustrated with my initial inability to add a page and then succeeding to add rather more then required by the exercise I had little time or inclination to add much more. I did go OULS hunting. Here is my contribution http://tinyurl.com/ybwf4hr. I didn't spot many more; perhaps everyone has been assiduously changing them. Has anyone been keeping a record I wonder distractedly and is there a prize for the one who has changed the most!

This week's exercise also allowed me to tick of a job from my long to do list where it had been lingering since January, when I added LibraryThing to the small but now growing list of web applications supported by my Library but had not added to the Directory of Web 2.0 Resources


Wikis are are wicked

Tweeting or chattering

My last post was more of my experiences with Twitter; I feel I have not written any thing reflective about "Twitter" as a tool for the dissemination of information or its effective use in the library environment. Finding Twitter difficult I have refrained until I had a clearer vision.

I think perhaps it is better used in a highly the mobile environment with a wireless phone or IPod or such like. In the fast moving environment of market information, legal judgments or latest test results from experiment where speed, accuracy and instaneous communication are of importance Twittter may be invaluable. However this seems lost to most of us.

It is regret I that it hard to see how Twitter can be an effective tool. Twitter seems to be an electronic form of chatter and as such I find it contains little information of importance, value or quality but plenty of quantity. As chatterer myself, I realise now that I should be more circumspect in my conversations and perhaps least said is better and what is said will have more impact. Ideally Twitter should be my ideal tool but it irritating and inane. Sorry!

(S)tweet reply

Fledgling that I am, I have attempted to tweet a reply to Jane's comment. I wonder whether it came to roost?

140 characters ... or a preference for the Dawn Chorus

Looking forward to learning about Twitter

Am I going to become an "actwivist"; I don't want to become a "twitterazzi" but wouldn't mind becoming a member of the "Twitterati" dispensing "Twisdom and falling prey to some "attwaction". I hoping to pay "atwention" and finally sign off with a "fly-bye". Or perhaps just I should just "detweet" now!

Being a wordy person 140 characters is going to be really difficult. At least I don't have to keep my blog entry to 140 characters

Biggest challenge yet ... the experience
Twitter has been my biggest challenge yet and it's just not a question of 140 characters.
Log on to Twitter easily. Filled in a bit of profile and changed the appearance a a bit.

A digression on personalisation ....
Have realised that the options to change the appearance of your page on social media sites aren't just there to be time consuming or work procrastinating, but to make what is an impersonal piece of software - well -personal; rather like putting a on stunning and individual piece of jewellry, a haut couture dress, or idiosyncratic leggings. It says me or do I mean you! However, in this case limited time meant limited me!

Back to the challenge ....
Looking at suggestions for who to follow I discover the same "popular" categories of the other social media we have looked at; "family", "fashion", "food and drink", "health", "sport" but also "business", "charities" and "politics". Decided to delve a bit further and find that "charities" are using twitter and although there is an American bias. I identify The Peace Corps, American Red Cross, UN Refugee Agency, Oxfam International, WWF and Unicef. Signing up to Oxfam I later receive a tweet job advert. How amazing is that! What an effective outreach tool.
"Health" throws up an eclectic mixture of authoritative bodies such as WHO, alternative health practitioners and, good number of health and beauty magazines. Again, there is an American bias.
"Politics" mixes up the The Economist with unheard of American politicians. Amazed to discover The British Monarchy tweets!
"Music" takes me into the danger zone of the celebrity and I quickly retreat.
Checkout tweepmlorg and wefollow.com. Search the websites discover which libraries tweet find the Bodleian doesn't nor the British Library but the National Library of Scotland does! They are also on Facebook Flickr and YouTube.

Next I have to start tweeting ...
I am nervous about starting a conversation but the follower of my blog seems a friendly kind of person so decide to tweet at them. Think, they get half a tweet, a tweet or even the same tweet twice!
Utterly confused by #ox23 until I find the search box on the right. Now I have found a whole community of confused or confident twitterers or do I mean tweeters? Love the tweets of Konnie Bunny and Co at the RSL. Laughter is better than a squawk of frustration!
Tried retweeting (RT) article on why women should be active partners in climate change. It shot off without the opportunity to explain why I thought this was important enough to RT. I have no idea who got it, if anyone. Found an interesting tweet from NLS on Scottish ballads and RT it from NLS website. This is more successful falling happy into the Twitter dialogue box, I was able to add a comment and press send. Checking "retweets by you" I feel confident that it was RTed. But who got it? Checking #ox23 find mention of Tweetdeck. Losing will to tweet.
Managed a direct tweet (DT) more by accident and then any expertise gained. Besides couldn't let "Other Half" get away with snide comments!
Got home and looked at Twitter again in order to write this blog entry. Finally worked out what @marthbraithwai was. I am so glad that I'm not the only one who isn't roosting with the rooks. I'm definitely a cuckoo in the tweeter's nest.

Linked Into LinkedIn

I am flattered to discover that I already had a LinkedIn Account having brought invited by former students. A few more invitations were also awaiting my attention too. I updated my profile a little, added a few apps and joined the CILIP group.
There was an article in the "Jobs" section of the Guardian last weekend on the use of social networking sites and their use in in the world of work. I really meant to save to it, read it and use it to supplement the blog on Twitter and LinkedIn. However, it has gone for recycling and despite browsing the web for it I have not retrieved it.
I should perhaps browse the web for for some interesting articles however, I'm pushed for time; needing to return my books to the EFL, attend an openday on Community Led Planning (CLP), finish a chapter of the PhD (long term project but chapter is taking longer than it should. I blame 23 Things!), mow lawn, spoil cat and pamper husband!

Feeling unsocial about social networking!

This exercise immediately posed questions for further thought if not blogging! To be honest I had not really considered the variety of social networking sites and their different functionality. Thank you 23 things for making me aware of this. This exercise also made me challenge some of my prejudices and, pejorative ones at that, about Facebook. I had not even bothered to look at MySpace, or Bebo and I hadn't heard of Orkut. I have joined by invitation the LinkedIn pages of others so this exercise (13) and the following one (14) is both a challenge and a useful exploration of social networking.

From the Web 2.0 directory I linked to a number of libraries using Facebook pages. There are a variety of them, large institutional libraries and smaller faculty libraries and colleges too. This gave a good opportunity to see which libraries had used which functionality to what degree. Like everything in Oxford everybody does virtually (and literally virtually in this case!) much the same thing but in subtly different ways.

The best example of the useful of Facebook for this exercise I found to be the Education Library.
As well as providing genuine social network there was the appropriate amount of useful information clearly displayed. "The Wall provides for a genuine communication between readers with short sensible posting, comments and prompt and helpful replies. I felt that the wall used in this way promoted a sustained dialogue between reader and library, that probably does reflect, to a certain extent, the face to face conversation at the door. "The Info" tab was short and sweet providing the bare minimum but with links to more detailed information. I confess I think I would have liked to have seen more here. The "Info tab appears to be a good space for posting of genuine information: not gossip, not pictures and not ephemeral news. I find the "Boxes" tab a bit of misnomer but it seems to be used effectively by many libraries to provide links to external services with attractive logos and search boxes. I good way of collecting to together and promoting resources. The "Events" tab is useful for promoting events hosted by the library such as booksales and user-education sessions. It might also be useful for promoting other related events with caution. It clearly marks an event out as distinct piece of information about an individual one off event rather than mixing it up with general news where it might got lost. The "discussion" tab I thought would offer to engage people and promote a longer dialogue and space to talk about interesting things. Sadly, in the sites I looked at despite a thread being started there was little or no further engagement. I wonder how this might be used effectively to create a convivial conversation if not heated debate! The "links" tabs was useful for providing links. I wonder how this might relate to the use of "Delicious".
There is potentially for Facebook but there is a confusion between whether it genuinely "social" or "informational" or something inbetween; a good chimera or bad depending on content. It is difficult to see who takes "ownership" whether is reader or library or both to create a community and conversation. I found a certain circularity of information provision between Facebook, Blog, Twitter and Webpage. I suspect that as information sources we need to consider audience, content and functionality more coherently.

Learning about Blogs has been really useful

http://radley.blogs.com/radley_parish_plan_2010/

Learning about blogs has been really very useful. I sit on our Parish Plan Steering Committee and we were looking at ways to increase participation and stimulate interest in the Plan. The Village Website run by volunteers leaves a bit to be desired. Yesterday afternoon with the help of Ian of Radley College, who allow us to use their server, we set up aRadleyParish Plan Blog! It will feed direct to the website so it will always be current update and interactive. As a consequence of 23 Things at least I knew about these things. I fear however as a "knowledgeable" person it's going to be me looking after it from now on!
The setting up the Radley Village Plan Blog was interesting as it uses TypePad rather than Blogger and I was able to to compare and contrast features of the blogging software. I found Blogger initially easier to get started and manipulate but TypePad has some attrative features; an option to set when a post appears on the blog, the facility to keep a particualar post at the head of a blog, and the ability to split an extended entry so that a long post doesn't push all the others into the background. The latter functionallity I think I have found on Blogger. I think it is propably Sit Feed tab > Allow Blog Feeds > Full/Short. I have not tried it out just in case it isn't and my entries are irretreviably shortened.
I am now interested in looking at other blogging sofware such as WordPress to see how that does things!

Google, Pincic and Flickr

Thought I would add Laura's news to my Blog. It seems a good place to save this information so I can come back later if need and see what effect if any has on the efficacy of these resources.


Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Mar 02
News: Picnik has been acquired by Google
Labels: images, picnik, Week 7 Posted by Laura J. Wilkinson

In the news today: Google has acquired Picnik. I think this will be good news for Picnik: with the resources of Google behind them, they will be able to really develop their product (at the moment they only have 20 employees!).
It is not clear yet what impact this will have on the relationship between Picnik and Flickr (see Thing 8). The people at Picnik are very excited by this new development!


Note: this is not a 'Thing', just a news story which might interest you.

Why YouTube is useful ...

Still sick ...

I was rather suspicious of YouTube as a useful resource, seeing it as sub version of the "You have been framed" genre which I guess shows a certain amount of snobbery about Web 2.0 social media and networking. Yet with some circumspection and concessions to "Simon's Cat" I discovered that is much of value to be found.

The home page initially confirmed my suspicions with its broad hierarchy of searchable fields of reflecting popular culture and shared with the other social media sites already experienced such as blogs, podcasts Delicious and Flickr. They include cars and vehicles, comedy, entertainment and, pets and animals. It also offers similar functionality to Flickr, Delicious, blogs and podcasts; options to view a history, play lists and favourites and opportunities to share the arcane gem or two. I need to investigate the difference between playlists and favourites. Rather like Amazon it offers recommended viewing some of which did seem a little off the mark. There are the obligatory adverts.

I used the search term Victorian and came with Emma's Victorian Jane Austen film (sic), references to Victoria Beckham, music from the motion picture "The Young Victoria" This didn't seem a promising start.

The refining of terms brought up "Victorian Music" a bit of misnomer, and "The Victorian Farm". How legal were these episodes of the BBC series of this name? Victorian Houses revealed many examples of American real estate! Already feeling nauseous the Victorian merry-go-round and barrel organ was not a good idea!I plumped for Victorian hairstyles. Unfortunately no sound accompanied these videos. The poster of these videos obviously has a thing about hair and hairstyles just see what else Rbd4N has uploaded to YouTube. It's obviously a labour of love. "More info" identified the category in which these videos fell and these could lend to the exploration of more videos on a similar genre. The tags permit the identification of related sites and identify key concepts to identify further sites of interest, very much in the same way as those in "Delicious". It was helpful to have the full screen option and increase the definition of the videos. There were eight comments on the text of various degrees of helpfulness, one asking who girl in one of the photographs was, one remarking that the women in the photographs were now long dead which does in fact seem rather eerie and somewhat morbid. Rather more helpfully a commentator remarked that the hairstyles were more reminiscent of the Edwardian period. I think I concur with them. What this site demonstrates is the actual utility of YouTube for serious research. The site provides a collection of visual material gathered together in such a way that is impossible in the real world. It permits access to material that is ephemeral and difficult to locate through traditional classifications and catalogues. It archives a record of our visual culture past and present.

Still feeling ill, I pressed on to look at YouTubeEDU feeling that there might be useful educational material to be found there. Disappointingly, there were few UK institutions. It was helpful that the Open University and Imperial College shared the basic YouTube interface, including featured and related videos. I was impressed by the bright, clean and informative site of the Open University. Irritatingly the videos opened automatically and I difficulty working out how to close them. I was pleased to see that some of these were subtitled. The content was obviously geared to the taught courses of the Open University. There was a paucity of videos in the humanities. There was no indication as to copyright position of this material so I would hesitate to reuse this material. These material would be use resource for teaching and learning in the research community.

Distractedly, I searched the National Archive which is also to be found under the Education tab. I found this to be an excellent site. There are helpful but rather simplistic videos produced by the National Archives to aid readers and researchers in their use of the archives. These include, "Recording Research Results", "Ordering Documents", "Using the catalogues", "How records are arranged" and "The History of a document" What is more interesting are videos mixing documents and archival footage to tell a story. Fascinatingly, I found a a government information video entitled "Coughs and Sneezes" which reminded me why I stayed at home today. I have not included it in this blog but one Violet Szarbo instead. Once again I am unsure as the copyright position. Obviously the visual material to be found here is authoritative, well organised and of a high quality with the aim of meeting the demands of researchers at its heart

This exercise has been useful in identifying the range of visual material available on the Web. The various ways which it can be located and accessed. It has revealed how valuable visual media can be to the researcher. Questions of copyright remain unresolved.

Now I will retire to my much longed for sickbed.

Podcasting - Fishing from a tent?

I write this blog entry whilst feeling really sick. Like the Romantics and the Beats, these piece is inspired whilst in a drug induced haze. I hasten to add this is not laudanum, opium or mescalin but Lemsip and paracetamol which are much more prosaic as is probably my entry on the theme of "podcasting"

Podcasts Experienced
I was familiar with the podcast as I had already experimented with the podcasts of Melvyn Bragg's "In our Time" For this reason and for ease as I cannot cope with any difficult today I went immediately to the BBC Podcast Directory. I am regular listener of Radios Four and Seven so the directory gave me opportunity to investigate the gamut of BBC broadcasting. The setting up of the feed was easy.The task of identifying something of interest is made easy by the search options of title, station and genres. This site fulfills the Reithian remit of the BBC to inform, educate and entertain and demonstrates how the BBC adoption of new technologies to support it original remit is worthy of its Trustee status and the license fee. These podcasts have high production values and are an archive of popular culture, represent a consensus of opinion and a thermometer of contemporary debate. They can be seen as authoritative. They support a corporate brand and ethos. These can be use as a resource for the researcher.

Next I looked at the "Podcasts from Oxford University"
Looking at this site I felt that, like the BBC site there was a strong brand identity and ethos reflected in their production, additionally I felt the University was attempting to make it research and resources accessible to wider audience and engage with new constituencies in recognition of what a university is in its fullest sense. I was impressed by the range of Podcasts which include both audio and visual media which highlighted the value of these media in the teaching of linguistics, foreign languages and art history. I love the irony encapsulated in the podcast entitled "Russian Ab Initio Students: Pre-course listening material" Modernity and tradition! The handy logos indicating copyright status are helpful. Unhelpfully, I tried to access and add to Google Reader a podcast from own college, a lecture by Tony Benn which I had attended which was remarkable for a humanism that was witty and passionate, honest and opinionated and stirred the soul to take up the baton and achieve things in the world and not succumb to complacency. I was unsuccessful. Feeling too sick to preserve with accessing this. As resource these podcasts are invaluable for learning and teaching.

Podcast Alley
Feeling more sick now. I had used Podcast Alley before. Podcast Alley reflects the popular end of the Podcast spectrum. Feeling weary I cursory explored the myriad of podcasts which revealed a few pionts for consideration. Typing in "Climate Change" I was alerted to the imprecision of the search mechanism getting references to "Changing career", "A Year of change" and "How to change your sex ..." Under those actually on climate change I found those by organisations, educational institutions, governments, lobbying groups, political parties, companies and enthusiastic individuals. These can of course be filtered by the domain name for example: OffsetCarbon.co.uk/Climate Change, www.Carbonbalanced.org, www.siemens.com/cities. As resource I feel the podcast of Podcast Alley shares many of the characteristics of the blog which I record in "Bloggy thoughts about Blogs" so I will leave this paragraph here and concentrate on feeling ill.

The Podcast as a Resource:
The podcast is an an invaluable information resource I feel. What struck at me at first was the power and significance of the human voice captured in its richness and intensity. The podcast captures the nuances of intonation, subtle changes of pace and emphasis of speaking voice which make it an tool of communication. All these are lost the printed versions of lectures and speeches of the past. Imagine hearing the original sermons of the Tractarians, the lectures of Ruskin, Dickens's public performances, the great political speeches of Gladstone and Disraeli as recorded in Handsard as a podcast. All of which can made available to the research of today. I recently read an the article "Sonic attack from a Florentine Flirt" by Robert Attar in his column "News from the Journals" in BBC History Magazine February 2010 pg. 17 and realised how important sound and its absence can be.

This led to me think that the podcast is a valuable medium for the preservation of the sounds that surround us. It records the auditory world that we inhabit that is instant and ephemeral. Once a word is spoken it is gone never to be recaptured in that original coalescence of thought and sound. The podcast captures this ephemerality for posterity. It seems, for the moment at least, to be an appropriate medium for the preservation of audio media which threatened by the transitory technologies of tape, CD, blue-ray, shellac and vinyl.

The podcast reveals the variety of forms and functions that auditory communication provides to the listener, the polemical and political and, the educational and entertaining. All these provide a valuable resource to researcher.

The auditory nature of the podcast can lend value and interest to the teaching of students, not only in providing information in the multi-media environment but transferable skills of listening and interpersonal communication skills.

The podcast offers new ways for the dissemination of information in the mobile environment letting us listen where and when we want to listen which perhaps brings to the fore new issues about our receptivity of the auditory world in which we live and how we listen and what we hear.

Must find an opportunity to read "Podcasting in Plain English"

Having written this blog I now going to lay back on the sofa and drowsily listen to the soothing tones of Melvyn Bragg's "In Our Time". Thanks to the 23 Team for giving me something to do to wile away the hours of headache, nausea, rheumy eyes and prosaically runny nose!

More Delicious

Thing ten was easy. As I was begining to feel weary I just followed the given instructions step by step. Thankfully it worked first time. I do wonder though how instinctive the process would be without the helpful screen prompts we were given. I shall have to try it again on my own sometime. Just too tired to experiment with more things!

Above is a picture one of the institutions on my network

Delicious Delicious

Loging in was easy. I decided not try to link to my previous experiments with delicious as it would only be an added complication and probably drive me to distraction. I think I did things a bit differently from the instructions adding delicious thru' the FireFox Add-Ons. I used the import bookmarks option so my delicious account was instantly populated. Just how many redunant bookmarks can one person have! I was unsuccessful with adding the "bookmarklet" and will have to go back and try this functionality again.
I found navigation thru' my long list easy by selecting my tags. I tried the bulk edit option after I had copied and pasted my string of tags and description from a file on notepad! The editing functionality was easy.
I used the tag function to bring togther my sites on Buddhism and/or book history but it would have been nice to have them arranged in a permanent set of results.
I like the search function which allows one to search within your bookmarks, your networks' bookmarks and within delicious.

At first acquaintance delicious apppears a useful tool to organise a wide range of web resources. Delicious allows you access all your books from a remote location on any computer so you don't have them linked to a worl machine or personal laptop which seems a good thing. The tagging function permits the association of keywords with a variety of web media. It is useful to be able identify those users within delicious who share your tags and build a personal network of those who share your interests outside your immediate networks. The tagging function might I feel be used rather like a citation index; identifying key sites, and perhaps some offbeat ones too and, in locating related sites. It is a bit like throwing a pebble in the pond and watching the ripples spreading ever outward. The tags also revealed an number sites in languages other than English which might not otherwise not have been found depending of course that you can read French or German or Italian ... The top ten tags functionality is useful in identifying appropriate and helpful keywords. My only reservation is that self assigned keywords that are tags can lead to inconsistency and imprecision within your own bookmarks. It also lends a certain unpredicatability when searching within delicious for related sites of interest. It seems to be a good tool for sharing a relevent selection of key web resources with a group of readers or researchers for example my list of sites of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies. I also have a list of key sites for Chinese Studies too.

I hope Angela likes my link to Tibetan Art works.

I need rather more time to locate and read up on the uses of tagging and folksonomies.

Makeover Part Two, or Pride comes before a Fall!

A message from Jane today



Hi Fiona,

Apologies for using the decidedly web 1.0 method of communication, but I just tried and failed to put a comment on your newly made-over blog so thought I should let you know how to fix the problem. I've had this problem with templates before, in that they sometimes don't handle the comments settings well. You can fix it by altering your comments settings - go into 'settings' and then 'comments' in Blogger, and then change the option by 'comment form placement' to either 'full page' or 'pop-up window'. This should make it possible for people to comment again.

Jane

I did wonder why I'd not had a new comments recently. My poor follower might have been struggling to say how much he hated its makeover!

I was going to blog that the edit function was not working and how I might solve this. (I was going to my dashboard and working from there)

Lets hope it works!

My Blog has had a makeover

Today my blog has had a makeover. I was rather envious of those delightful designs of some of the 23 Things participants; growing in confidence and ambition I wanted more. The helpful 23 Things people were once again my angels. Referred to btemplates.com. I spent a happy hour browsing the fantastical, the extravagant, the sentimental and the professional template styles, before deciding on what I hope is suitably elegant. I can certainly recommend btemplates for anyone wanting to change the appearance of their blog.

Having selected a new template I paused apprehensively would my existing blog disappear into the ether. There are helpful instructions so with much anxiety I pushed the download button hoping and fearing that this was not my nemesis. I downloaded the file and unzipped it and all I had then to do was copy and paste the file location in the space provided. The file didn't save to the desktop so a bit of hunting around was required and initially it insisted that no such file existed! Back to boring old blog I believed. After some puzzlement I managed to add the file. The process identified the widgets I had added previously and asked if wanted I to retain them. I did. A new madeover blog ! I had to spend a few moments tweaking the colours, including some html editing, and the removal of the Google seach gadget. Overall I am feeling rather proud of smart new blog! I do hope my follower likes it too.

Lychgate

Lychgate
Originally uploaded by martha braithwaite

An example of pleasures with picknic

Pretending to be creative with picknic

This was a really enjoyable task. It was so easy to logon and start editing. I enjoyed experimenting with various effects and adding comments and tags. I am really rather pleased with my results. It was very easy to reload the edited photograph to flickr. Looking at my "cat" set on flickr in retrospect I am going try out the "red-eye" function of picknic.
My only reservation with picknic is it is a blunt instrument for photo editing. It's more for creating special effects. I think there are probably more specialised tools for the experienced enthusiasts. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to explore the other tools. A task for the future...

Are you adding a note or a person?

Flickring into Life

Registering with Flickr and uploading to Flickr should have been easy. However, there seemd to be some issues with the display and changing my password. I used yahoo to register for "delicious" in the past. This just left me irritated and annoyed, particularly as I was looking foward to a really fun exercise. I had spent all day Friday trying to find a moment to take some photographes of the Library. I finally manged it about four-thirty! Yes, I know it looks later in the photographes. I don't want to deceive my fellow bloggers that I was in the Library as some unearthly hour! It proved a good opportunity to promote my Web 2.0 projects and new found knowledge to my college colleagues who wondered what I was up to. Some were being just plain nosy; others were genuinely interested.
I was a disappointed to discover that I had to add photos one by one rather than a file at a time. Discovering that some of photographs were sideways I found the editing tool to rotate them although this too seemed to be unpredicable. I also found the delete function when I discovered I had two photographes of the John Piper tapestry. I had downloaded the photographes in sets and added comments, tags and descriptions as I went along. It was fun trying to think of some entertaining captions and descriptions. I had to experiment with the different views to work out how to edit photographes individuality. I love the slideshow functionality.

The map option was easy, quick and fun. Like one of the other "23 Things" bloggers I discovered that the place tag seemed a bit off the map - Dorchester was tagged as Burcot, Oxfordshire. However, Linton Road was described correctly as Summertown, Oxford. I had difficulty exciting from the map and returning to Flickr. Any ideas?

I needed to investigate the the various copyright options more fully. I just used the option suggested. I often use the Creative Commons site for images so this was new but I do need to read up on this.

I tried to add my L-Space stream to my blog. It worked - hurrah. Then I discovered additional photographes of an attractively posed lady in a swimsuit. A quick websearch revealed L-Space swimsuits. I decided to change the name of my L-Space stream to L-Spaces and try again. It didn't work. This really bothering me so if anyone can help just send me a comment

Album - sorry photostream needs some tiding up but task eight was still to be done...

PS I can't seem to add a tag for "flickr" having one already called "yet to flickr more brightly"

Blog-exciting and not a Flicker of Flickr Yet

I really very excited today. Someone has chosen to follow my blog! Wow! What a wonderful feeling!!!!!!

Didn't realise that blogging could be better than ....

Now I feel a deep responsibility to keep it up-to-date, interesting and perhaps entertaining too!

I need to fan the flames a bit to get from a flicker of idea to a Flickr page.

Blogs, Blogs, Blogs - Not So Simple but Bingo at Last

Time to add some more blogs. I had already added "The Long Nineteenth Century" and Radley College's "Diary of R.C. Singleton" last week when I was getting enthusiastic about blogs!

Zetoc
I had previously subscribed to 15 email alerts from Zetoc so thought I would try and transfer them to RSS feeds. I want to see what the differences are. Mistakenly thought that pressing the RSS button would simply add the feed to my Google Reader but no ... I was offered the option to create a live book mark. Can someone tell me what this and how differs from an RSS feed? Thank goodness for the helpful "how to do" from the 23 Things Team. Their instructions made a potentiality problematic and frustrating situation less so. It was time consuming copying and pasting everything though. I feel academic resources need to embrace the ease of latest technologies that have been quickly embraced by popular culture. Don't know how soon I'll get a feed from these journals probably after this programme has ended!

BBC - History of the World
Decided to add the BBC History of World as the 15 minute slots on Radio 4 which focus on a single physical item from history and concisely describe the object and its significance, provides a thought provoking insight into our material cultural from the earliest times to present. I'd share this with anyone and everyone. Surprisingly, once again there was no handy "add to" functionally. I was disappointed as I expected better of the BBC.

The Oxford English Dictionary
Bingo!!! "The Oxford English Dictionary - Word of Day" has the greatly to be desired "add to" functionallity. The Press has got it just right - providing me with an easy distraction and, the opportunity to astonish and astound the hoi-ploi with my erudite and recondite vocabularly!

Last but not least
Added 23 Things Blog, and marked as a favourite of course! Also subscribed to "College Library Jottings" to show solidarity with my college colleagues.

The Elusive Blog Search
I am not overly impressed with search engines abilities to locate blogs. I think someone has already commented on the inadequacy of the Google blog search. It was nice to know that I had not been entirely stupid when I had not found anything satisfactory.
I decided to explore "Technorati". The search engine was good but was obviously geared to the location of blogs concerned with popular culture. It had a pleasant and attractive interface. I like the way it divides the blogosphere into a hierarchy of mangeable subjects hence: "Entertainment" includes subsections on films, books and celebs whilst, "Living" includes subsections on health and pets. I liked the "Top 100 and "Top10 movers" features. I was surprised not to find any cycling blogs. I am reliably informed by husband there are lots of them - he rattled them off 'till I gave up listening. And as to football - no thanks! As information resource I think"Technorati" could be used to identify trends in popular culture at a given moment - dare I say its fascinating. Technorati I feel provides an effective search tool for blogs concerned with popular culture. The ability to locate blogs in the academic environment seems sadly neglected.


Bingo at Last!
Really pleased to have had the chance to explore RSS aggregators, such Google Reader. No more checking individaul feeds and no more cluttered inbox. The option to manage feeds aids effective and efficient retrieval of my feeds. An ultimate BINGO, I feel

Really Simple Syndication - Really Simple

Creating a Goggle reader account was really easy - next task adding feeds to blogs not so simple read on

More Tasks in Reverse - Why am I doing this?

Why am I doing this - one might well ask? It's Sunday evening and it's work tomorrow! The web connection is getting slower and slower obviously everyone else is watching IPlayer, doing their shopping online, browsing the internet and downloading the latest hits (legally of course!). And I'm trying to write this blooming blog about why I want to do 23 Things.

Yes, I really want to do 23 Things! Why? Because I want to discover what Web 2.0 applications are and explore their potential for enhancing library resources and services. I confess to being unsure as how they might contribute but I am becoming converted. 23 Things seems to offer a systematic introduction with fun tasks and the opportunity to reflect on the usefulness of the applications. 23 Things also offers a sense of community of like minded individuals struggling with the same tasks week by week. Then there is a feeling of support from those with more expertise than me. The programme assists me in actually making time to investigate Web 2.0 rather than saying I'll do it later or tomorrow and actually doing it sometime never. There are of course the added incentives of a certificate of completion and prizes - not that this blog will ever win one!

Tasks in Reverse Order

I already had an iGoogle account and a few random gadgets. I must have been experimenting sometime in the past. Here was the opportunity to give it another go. The actual process was very easy. However, selecting gadgets can be so time consuming. There are so many of them. I felt compelled to use only those which would be specifically work related but eventually succumbed to kitten of the day and a virtual ferret. I can put my 23 tasks in my "To do List". I've had trouble finding a currency converter that will load. Perhaps I'm a bit odd but it would be great to have a gadget for regnal years. I have a SPLD (Dyslexia) and actually find customising the screen in this way rather distracting and disorientating. Visually, I find a single plain screen with one task at time more helpful. Does anyone else find this? Well anyway perhaps people would like to see what I came up with?

My Blog Is Taking over my Life

Help my blog is taking over my life. It's becoming compulsive. Not only do I feel I have to express my latest thoughts on blogs but how do I stop mine from looking so green? How do I create those wonderful backgrounds that others have? I am so envious.

Do others find the entering text rather limited in colour and font and layout. I also find editing quite cumbersome without the copy, cut and paste functionality. Ease of editing is really important as I have SPLD and the number of times I have edit my text after posting is very time consuming.

Again, as I found with IGoggle, just how many gadgets can one person add? I have however added a search function gadget.

Really getting into this blog stuff now and I have added a couple more blogs to follow. When will I have time to read them. A handy displacement activity for just about everything I should be doing including lunch!

Bloggy thoughts about blogs

Have been having some thoughts about blogs. The exercises have been fun but I think I need to reflect just how blogs can be useful; how they might be used as an information resource and their validity in the wider information environment, and the ethical issues of blogosphere (see I'm developing a whole new vocabulary!)

How do I think the blog could be useful in my library?
I was impressed to see how other libraries had used their blogs to display current information about hours and services particularly during our current snowdays! Yet they also provide a space for more static information about hours, admissions and collections. All this with a functionality that makes the blog quick and easy to update. I like the way it allows the display of more information then can be put on a poster such as upcoming WISER sessions and their content. The opportunities to subscribe to pages encourages feedback. This can only help us improve our services by creating a co-operative community of readers and researchers.

The blog is a great way of getting the library out of the library. It can extend access to resources and services when hours and space are limited. More importantly it promotes the brand that is your library. It's a highly visible way of validating your value as "information provider" and information professional providing, of course, that you avoid comedic flippancy, incorporate good design and keep it current. I feel virtual space can enhance and increase the use of physical space and the role of the librarian.


How might blogs be useful as an information resource?
I think it is useful in the immediacy of opinion expressed and the currency of events. described. It can react far more quickly then printed sources. I think qualitative judgments about the speed and value of the immediacy of the blogsphere are still up for debate. It is for our readers and researchers to decide about the quantity, quality and bias, and the consensus of opinions expressed. They must be able to identify highly personal accounts and propaganda. How, though, do these things differ from the pamphleteering of the 17th and 18th centuries, the opinionated accounts of the nineteenth century reviewer and the letters of "disgusted of Tunbridge Wells"? As information resources I am sure they will reflect new trends of thought, currents of opinion and commercial fads.

I like the way that the blogosphere democratises and globalises information. This can only be positive in a world of intolerence and ignorance. I am an optimist I know! I'm sure someone will comment on the negative impact of the dissemination of unsavoury information. I like the sense of community; however esoteric your interest you are not alone - someone else surely shares your passion. Of course, all this raises fundamental questions about TRUST (very topical!)

My first post to my first blog!

Hello

Here's my first post to my first ever blog. It's far from perfect I know. I am going to waste lots of time personalising it I can see - but what the heck cataloguing can wait! My readers will be shocked as librarians are always good girls aren't they!

As to creating the blog it should have been easy but I managed to create two because my spelling is not very good. So I learnt where the delete function was fairly early on. I also discovered to how to change time fairly early on too. It annoyed me being incorrect. It took a bit of time to find London as the option though I grasped GMT bit immediately. How I wish I was in sunny California. There's lots of potentially here which I'm only just begining to grasp. Wish I'd chosen a more sexy and inventive name for this blog perhaps catalogue girl! Sure I have failed miserably somewhere in this exercise. Comment and let me know. I will endeavour to try and read it - I guess that's the next part of the exercise!


Martha Braithwaite

PS Just discovered I can edit and change the font and stuff ....