Ashfield Library joins with other Australian libraries in support of making 2012 the National Year of Reading. Our ongoing aim is to connect our community to our services and to other things that are already happening around books and reading. Libraries promote literacy and support a range of beneficial programs and events that take place in Australia. The international year of Reading is a key program we support.

Mashup

I have managed to create a calender and use my own photo to frame it. There may be a range of uses that mashups like this could be used for. Photos taken of events maybe edited into a mashup for a blog and this may create interest and colour to a blog. A calender like this might be able to be populated with an events timetable and the photo might illustrate particular library events.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a great way to listen to radio programs. ABC Radio National lists many of their radio shows which can be subscribed to or downlowded. The best thing about podcasts are that you can listen to past programs you may have missed, and combined with RSS, you can monitor and download all programs that interest you. Recordings made by individuls who want to create audio information on an issue that interests them. One example I really like is "New Ausie Tech Heads" which you can subscribe to in iTunes or via the "thesecrethub" webpage. This podcast is a discussion about a wide range of technology related issues, however the program hosts talk about issues such as copyright and the development of technology products, and can be quite amusing. There are so many podcasts and vodcasts that special Search Engines, such as Podscope, have been created to search for then, and Google and Yahoo have this facility as well.

YouTube and Google Video

Online video has flourished around the Internet and really provides some fantastic opportunities to discover and view resources. One recent example was a dicussion about a film called, "Who killed the electric car". This was discussed on a televison interview and It is available on Google Video . While the quality could be improved, the information is there. Technology, including digital camera technology may provide us with more data and information than ever before in history. I have embedded a film here from TED.

Del.icio.us

I have added a bookmark to Del.icio.us today and quite like browsing through the bookmarks. Libraries maybe able to use this took to improve website search on behalf of patrons. While searching the web with key words provides access, a auxillory search useing Del.icio.us may uncover a wider range of websites and therefore enhance the web browsing staff undertake on behalf of their patrons. This website has features I have yet to fully exploit, however it quickly turns up websites which are new and often following the most popular links directs you to very interesting sites. Sharing bookmarks for websites is a very common activity and this takes the sharing out to a much wider scale allowing people unknown and divided by the tyrany of distance to share common and useful resources.

LibraryThing

LibraryThing is a great website for booklovers and is interesting for Libraries. LibraryThing can be integrated into Library OPAC's and this option may permit a degree of social networking and connection among users of LibraryThing. Within LibraryThing, allows users to create an account and to catalogue their books so that other users of the website can view the catalogue entries and see reviews of friends and like minded users. libraryThing has a social aspect to it.

Wiki's and Wikipedia

Wiki's will potentially improve organisational communication and Information Management. The nature of contributing to a collaborative project is by far and away more efficient using a wiki than using email. Email is disjointed and sporadic, a wiki has an observable direction and is easier to to follow. One of the wiki's I regularly dip into is Coda Cusotomers of Dynix Australia. One very useful wiki I have used, albeit irregularly, is the Codi SQL wiki. This is an example of an SQL script I have used off the wiki which allows an administrator to isolate patrons who use email for their notices.

SELECT borrower# FROM borrower_address WHERE send_notice_by=1

This is a fantastic example of how a wiki can be used by a widely dispersed group of people to share knowledge and expertise on a specific subject. Subject specific Wiki's appeal to me and may have the potential to develop peoples information skills. A great tool!

Wiki How is an interesting and useful wiki also.

Ebooks

Ebooks are of interest to Librarians because their potential for distribution and storage may improve on current methods and ebooks, may potentially elliminate and expand possibilities for readers, bookshops and Libraries. As each new book is published, purchase and shelved, it takes the shelf space of a previous book, which ideally should remain in a library collection. Ebooks may provide a part solution to this. Both Sony and Amazon (Kindle) have released device's, both of which are mentioned in Australian Personal Computer Magazine, December, 2008. The interesting thing about the Kindle is the plan to allow ebooks to be proliferated wirelessly because it is an allways connected device, like a mobile phone, While the Sony device needs to be connected to a PC which is Online. Both these devices may be able to support major library funtions such as storage. Sutherland Library have a system called Digital Download, that uses Overdrive software which I have used. I attended the opening last year and now use both the audio and electronic books, both of which are very good. The future has interesting possibilities for ebooks!

RSS-My Favourite

RSS is a favourite of mine and one I use regularly use. It is embedded in IE and Firefox, and doing this training program, I just discovered it is embeded into google mail as well, in fact it reminds me of the Vic Bitter adds, Doo du te Do, you can get it walking , You can get it talking, ... Matter of fact I've got it right now. What I like about RSS is that it saves time and lets you choose what you actually look at, and this may also slightly help in conserving bandwidth as you may see a list of updates and choose not to visit as the website is currently not referring to what interests you. Libraries can use RSS to save time for their patrons by making them adware of it, including staff within their organisation.

There are so many good blogs that it's hard to choose? http://blogs.crikey.com.au/literaryminded/

This is Sutherland Library's blog, and i have picked an unknown colleague here just to follow out of interest. I am definitely learning more by doing this process.

Archway

IMGP2726 Originally uploaded by rayruben1

My wife has taken over 3,000 photos while in Japan. I didn't go, but she has given me permission to post a few photo's on Flickr. I picked this one for my blog because it appealed to me. My next task is to find a cheap place to get them printed. Recently, a photographic artist gave me some web links to cheap professional photo printing services which I promptly lost. Doe's anyone know of a cheap photo printing service in Sydney?

My Flickr Posts

My wife has taken over 3,000 photos while in Japan. I didn't go, but she has given me permission to post a few photo's on Flickr. I picked this on for my blog because it appealed to me.

Books that speak to Web 2.0 issues

I thought it might be good to mention a couple of interesting titles that I have been dipping into over recent months. The first book is written collaboratively by Charles Leadbeater with (257 other People). I have always been curious about research, who does it and Leadbeater talks about collaborative Research and how this may help the worlds poorest people.

We-think, by Charles Leadbeater You can read the first few Chapters here!

This is an excellent book also. The author discussed the Media and Journalis and some really interesting ideas about how the Internet has become a basis for the expansion of technologies which allow more people to express themselves more widely than ever before and how this may impact on traditional endeavours like Law enforcement, Education and Journalism.

Here comes every-body by Clay Sharkey The book is reviewed here!

Creative Commons

Today I looked more closely at the Creative Commons (CC) website and found this particularly interesting. In recent years I created a website where a key problem to solve was finding appropriate graphics. While there are some gif, jpeg and png graphics which are free to use on the web, finding appropriate examples is difficult. I solved this by photographing the building myself and then a friend edited the photo in Photoshop. I can see why Creative Commons licensing suits photos so well. On a more general note, managing digital photographs is an onerous task. Recently a family member gave me the task retrieving 3,000 photos from memory sticks of their holiday in Japan, separating 1,500 onto DVD to be printed. So, photos are important to people and these (CC) licensing, Flckr, along with Adobe software and Picassa all provide options for better management and security.

Flckr

Tonight I had a good look at Flickr and found some photos of buildings and streets which I lived in and visited. Having an Online backup does make sense, however information about where the photo's are stored and what security has been added is not immediately apparent or visible. There appears to be no absolute guarantee that just because you upload our photo's to Flickr, that there is ironclad guarantee that the files are secure. I would be inclined to back digital photo's up to DVD as well and store them safely, although there is no guarantee that this is foolproof and that Data on DVD has a limited shelf life as well.

Blogging Questions

Today I set up my blog and hope to learn som new skills. My thoughts and Learning about Web 2.0 started with a previous blog I created while doing my BALIM, at Charles Sturt University. One of the hard things about this for me is the nagging question, do I have anything interesting to say? I discussed my plans for this attempt at Blogging with my colleague, who has created and regularly uses blogs, and he pointed out that Wordpress has a good easy interface and I noticed that Tim had posted a comment on the NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.0 course blog recommending Wordpress over Blogger also. However, I am sticking with Blogger for now because I know it's basic features. What have I learned so for that I didn't previously know, How to delete a blog. Thanks