Here comes another bubble- Comes highly recommended

Enlightment

For some people, knowledge is sharing, quickly becomes learning and is highly treasured.
To a special lady who watches from afar, many thanks for educating me.

LibraryThing, del.icio.us

I enjoyed using these sites. I can see the advantage for library services such as Reader's Advisory, new book lists, who writes like, post a review etc. Link them with the library catalogue and engage borrowers well and truly. Would also assist ILLs. I like the way the information can be retrieved and individually organised. I plan on revisiting these sites. Just as a postcript, I had no trouble adding the tag buttons at home, but found it was harder to add them on my toolbar at work. Could be because Mozilla is default at home.
Glad to see that I knew what a "widgett" was on LibraryThing

Great reads- highly recommended

Serene Sea Dragons

Many thanks for the gift of education

Thank you to NSW Public Libraries Learning 2 for the opportunity to engage in all this fantastic learning. Yes I have my Wiki key, have added to the Library Wiki, (more than a few times) have also added more RSS feeds. Still experiencing a few problems with loading images. Could be the prehistoric computer I am using at home. If I was doing this at work, there would be no output.
Really excited as long last I have a comment from a fellow Blogger!

Wonderful Wikis

Really enjoyed the video clip and learning about all the possibilities when using Wikis.
Marvellous to think how interactive they are. Learnt a new term "Widgets".
I look at three wikis that were suggested and the difference was clear. Found 2 good ones and one not so user friendly. SCIPL was my first choice. the use of subject guides reminded me of directories, which I usually find cumbersome, however the guides worked. Was amazed to find that links included Credit card payments (just how BIG are their fines?), and Online Borrower Registration. Yes you did have to leave home to pick up your card! Glad to see the use of multilingual text on the site. Out of 5, I rated this wiki a 3. It was okay, and easy to use.
Wiki number 2-- Wisconsin Heritage Online-- boring!!! Hard to locate where to enter search term. Did manage a search using drop down box for Oshkosh and retrieve photos on the Main Street
The best was left to last. Yep, it got a 5/5! Book Lovers Wiki-- very easy to navigate, good links. I did a search for Lisa Scottoline, was taken to Mysteries writers, quickly figured that entries were alphabetically by title, found the review. A click on the title took me back to entries on the catalogue. Decided this might be useful for Reader Advisory stuff, so did a RSS feed!-- would not have been able to do that two weeks ago!!
Wonderful stuff-- just waiting for the secret key.

RSS feeds

I like the idea that using RSS the information comes to you, however I find it annoying that to receive this information you have to be signed into something like Bloglines. This means if I had really good feeds I would be all the time signed in at Bloglines. Because our IT department monitor internet usage and report back to Council who are the highest monthly users, I don't like the idea of doing this. Is there a better way to receive RSS feeds, i.e direct into Outlook Express?
I also found this session frustrating with the searching. I wanted to get away from State Library suggestions and be a little more adventurous. One search term that I used was for Australian convicts, this was disappointing with the results, as it returned American results. I also used the term family history with the surname, again no luck. I decided to broaden the term to Australian genealogy, which wasn't really what I was after. However anything is worth a go when learning. An Australian genealogy blog was returned however as it was last updated in Aug 07, I thought it wasn't really up to date so it was discarded. In the end my feeds ended up being ABC news, ABS blog for Librarians (yes I forwarded the training dates to the Manager), Power House Museum picture of the day, Quotes of the day (I enjoy this one), and The shifted Librarian.
I also learned that AskNow! was actually Web2 technology, and I had used it without knowing this.
I don't know if our library will embrace Web2 technology, as it is impossible to even get a link on our Webopacs to State Library databases (even though other Libraries have managed to achieve this) Again this comes back to having our Webopacs open to Internet connections.
Again no comments have been post on this blog, so how useful are blogs anyway.

European holiday

European holidays

I found it much easier to copy the URL in and go from there. this picture was obtained from Shutterfly photos, and I found it a lot easier to use than Flickr, where the earlier photo was downloaded.

Regarding my previous photo entry--Flickr required my Google log in details, and required multiple attempts, because there was trouble linking it to my blog address. Even after selecting the Blog tag. I had to go into Settings etc to ensure that the blog address was there.Finally it was accepted, but I agree with other comments listed-- it was almost like some steps were missing. Another thing I have noticed is, because this tutorial is adapted from an American Library site, the time is wrong, again there were no instructions on change to do this. However, again I figured the settings must be on the blog site somewhere, so after choosing Dashboard, it was simply a matter of changing settings. Sometimes it is really frustrating to assume that users know where to go to fix settings when a lot of us are on a steep learning curve. Perseverance pays off, as I have just learnt how to use the spell check that appears under the highlighted word! I think if photos were uploaded from a camera directly to the desktop it would also be a lot easier. At least this time I remembered to add the tags. I have also found out how to edit previously published posts

Shelley Beach North Coast

Originally uploaded by pennygraceand amanda

This is the first attempt at loading a picture from Flickr.
Have a guess where this fantastic place is. Are you planning a holiday? It's very layback, has great surf, good fishing, no aircraft noise, and very affordable! If you need to know more, send a comment!
This scene has been painted as postcards by local artist Margaret Klein. Her art works are also for sale at the local gallery.
Thanks to Penny Grace for the original upload!

Outside the Library

Okay, so this is good-- it works
I can see how the information contained within the library walls can be put out into cyberspace. The library can advertise, promote and sell itself in www. land. However my concern is how do people find your blog? Maybe this will become apparent in future sessions. I can see how links from webopacs, catalogues etc can be created. These would need to be managed, updated and revised constantly, in a small library, who has time to do this daily? Are people going to find your blog? Does it replace or supplement library "traditional" material? How do both co-exist? In educational institutions, where the learning process is more interactive it would obliviously be linked to student areas, such as tutorials and study notes.
In all honestly, is the public library user going to look at blogs, rather than browsing stock and shelves. I can see how book clubs and RA services could benefit from them. As blogging is about sharing information, it will be interesting to see if anyone finds my blog and posts a comment

Well, I managed to get the "blog" going, so will see how this "added entry" going. You guessed it, an old cataloguer!

DragonLady Reminisces

Years ago, in the 1970's, libraries used card catalogues( remember all that filing?), used date/stamp pencils, had paper files etc. Back then, I remembered thinking "thank heavens I am leaving before computers come in".
Well I was very young then and very naive. Many years later, I returned to work and worked in a small Branch library, where we were required to back up data every night, had basic computer operations, and no Web access. Even then, little did I imagine that one day I would be teaching clients how to use the Internet, or problem solve with our library management system.
Still further down the track, there have been more upgrades, new systems, and yet still we have ways to go. I'm glad to be part of this new learning experience and look forward to all the challenges. However, nothing beats the interaction with library clients. I think with Web2 is it easy to remain in touch, yet still isolated.
I look at my kids and their technology gadgets, their mobile phones and how they have upgraded to new mobiles with additional features, have changed their "walkmans" for ipods, and wonder just where things will be in a year or so. All very exciting, especially if Mum can keep up with them