Social networking and libraries

Facebook and my space are the sites that the younger adults often use. Its rare or even impossible to find some teenager who have not had an account in facebook or myspace. The normal questions one would ask an adult in earlier times this generation uses answerboards and their network friends. I also discovered that there is a profile that people create for their pets in my dog space. I've created one for my dog here and it was fun to see the other dog owners response to your doubts and questions. Its amazing to share views and no wonder the younger generation is hooked on to technology. I was thinking this is a wonderful way to network with support groups - with people with similar interest without having to travel. Good way to plan a seniors group meeting. Having said that, I think these sites prove as important advertisement tools to target this audience. I am sure if we as librarians join this group we could market our programs and also raise our profiles. We could increase our usage by regularly posting new books etc. and also put out lists which are timely like during the HSC times publicize our HSC talks that we plan advertise our collection. Why we an even form groups of networking librarians and discuss concerns and ask for ideas in resolving issues. Such simple things like when we find out a cheapest way of getting a book processed, or find out how a book supplier has hidden cost in his stock.

I signed up for the 2nd life library project. Its like playing a simulated computer game.These can you used in training as well as planning virtual meetings of various librarian groups. Instead of having to travel to a place to get trained. We could all log in and get trained at our own desks.

Google doc vs. Zoho

Google doc seems easier and simpler. Zoho seems complicated but seem to have certain advanced features like versions of document, reverting the document to whatever edition also group editing of same documents. Though I have not tried all of them it looks like it can be very useful.

Zoho account

I've put our collection development policy in the zoho accountand am planning to share it with staff who are currently editing this. This is a very cool way to edit documents without worrying about the versions and the space it takes up . Also I often work from home, which means I could log in from one computer which has been set up for this. If my husband or daughter is on it, no chance of working. This way I just need internet access and can even work from a laptop or any where. This will be my first real attempt to use what I've learnt here in Web 2 in real work environment.

Social networking sites

Social networking is increasingly becoming popular. The teenagers of today trust their peers for information and rely greatly upon their feedback. By b
eing part of the social in-thing is one way to advertise and attract the younger generation to programs designed for them at our libraries. I can also think of various support groups that can be facilitated. People who have similar problems can discuss about the various concerns that they have. This can be facilitated by the public libraries. Libraries always had womens group and seniors groups etc and have programs for them. This is another virtual world to be explored. Meeting people is one thing and chatting to many is another. These social networking sites could be used as a tool to link people with similar interests. These may be used by local history librarians to record oral histories.

I am trying to create a document on a shared site. A policy that we are currently updating atwork. I'll talk about my experience with it in my blog tomorow.

Voice thread on Databases

I found an interesting voicethread video on databases. But am unable to add this to my blog. Will try again tomorrow

mashup exercise

This is a cool exercise. I really enjoyed doing this. Good advertisement tool to showcase our library programs.

Podcasting

Some libraries are already using podcasting in interesting ways. I liked the idea of using podcasts for storytime sessions. Also, advertising of events planned for the library may be Libray & information Week events or book week events etc. May be recent additions to your library could be a podcast or even book talk where the librarians choice is discussed.

Technocrati

Searching in advanced pulls more results I think. For eg when I searched the nswpln2008 in keyword search it did not pull up the flicr sites. Where as the advanced gaveme the option to search in entire post of blogs with any authority in English. This search pulled all our flickr sites.

Posting del.icio.us link

http://del.icio.us/Gayatrik

Answer boards - Wk 8

I did log on into Yahoo7 and posted a question.

Week 7 frustration

I've not been able to do the Web 2.0 for 3 weeks now. I've forgotten most of the pass wordsand it was a struggle to figure out. finally I could log into. With Del.ici.ous I am unable to post it on to my blog. I've created an account and am able to go only that far.

Library thing

Gayatri's test post

Just trialing the labels

A very professional clip

This is a professional clip for selling amazon kindle. May be we should look at teaching our clients how to use our OPACs or even how to use the different databases the library subscribes to. Safe driving practices and other things wewant to promote to the young adults would be great. After all they are the users of this technology and the only way we can get their attention is by talking to them through this media.

As a mum of a teenager - may be I should start communicating to my daughter through this media. May be I'll have a better response!! worth trying. At least, now she knows that her mum is learning the technology that is so natural to them....

Video embedding - wk 5 task

Hi this is a lot of fun. I really think its a very effective way to promote your library.I liked the orientation video.

Wikis

Wikis are interesting technology. Social networking seems to be the "in thing" with this generation of tech users. A good way to get our teens insterested in our books and lovely resources is to provide a space for them to chat about it to their friends. They want to be heard and not told...the Booklovers wiki is a great way to promote new books. The Montana History wiki is a great way to put your localhistory information.
Setting up of book chats, may be a topical wiki site - say HSC times when students or parents can exchange information on a shared space might be a great way to facilitate community engagement.

photo trial - Final success

At last I've learnt it with some help from my daughter. Who said that teenagers waste their time on the net. They can teach us sometime.So my recomendation if you have a teenager at home ask them their opinion on your problems they might have a solution.



A photo of my daughter.

trial 2

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2046/2326523166_5f907216bb_s.jpg

Photo of my daughter

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24434640@N06/2326523166/in/photostream/

Patch again trial 2

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNNS9vXIneFMlAY3WkujAkBZAamPOyGPF0H_o4bjnIs_eV_1OSGs7szJ5WXa3znf4Pyf_QZ-cKiaI2BOSHp8xgx65ckH8E7fUimcUilRf7zNxwWS8T9QMziI23hx2AHLfk_9_Lp_xr73E/s1600-h/IMGP0001.JPG

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24434640@N06/2326523166/

trial subscription

http://api.flickr.com/services/feeds/photos_public.gne?id=24434640@N06&lang=en-us&format=rss_200

RSS feeds

The technology is interesting. Amazed at what the web is capable of . At the same time what is frustrating is for each of these sites you have register and sign on, which means one has to remember so many login ids and passwords. A world full of letters and numbers in various permutations and combinations.

http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

My hobby

Here's a picture of my show in Sydney May 2007.

[URL=http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2015116990103152940coqNda][IMG]http://thumb0.webshots.net/t/63/663/1/16/99/2015116990103152940coqNda_th.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

The only problem with this pic is I did not know how to turn it around. I'll figure that out some time.

I could'nt get this working !!!

Phtosharing sites

Today I learnt about photosharing sites. Its cool way of keeping your photo album really. As for tagging it correctly have to be careful.

this is my dog patch....i wanted to share this picture with you guys because i thought he looked rather cute in it....

My first experience with Web 2.0

This is really amazing!! How easy it is to have your say. This is a new trick I've learnt and will see how far I go with this one.