Week 9

Podcasts and vodcasts...Wow! What a range of resources presented by this technology, and its significance in circumventing the traditional restrictions of broadcasting (for both producers and consumers).

Via British Library, I listened to a talk about Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, and then via the ABC, listened to a report on Australia's best loved play competition. The podcasts linked to the 'Library Success' wiki were an inspiration - I sampled author talks, teen webcasts, library tours, book reviews, and even a 'new books in the school library' session!

I also visited the 'Online education database', and was impressed by the range of resources (tertiary level)in various disciplines, from prestigious universities such as MIT and Stanford.

I can certainly see a wide range of library applications, including professional networking, library promotion, author talks, user education and library tours, staff training/induction, and more. As a library officer who's done a lot of children's work in her career, I'm particularly impressed by the ability of pod/vodcasts to 'capture' storytelling performances and make them available beyond the library walls. I remember back in the 80's wanting to share a performance at a children's book week conference in another city that I couldn't attend - I had all the effort of arranging for a Council media person to video my performance, which was then sent to the conference, which then had to be timetabled in to a schedule to ensure it would be seen (and I'm sure some attendees would have missed it). With podcasting - problem solved!!

Week 6

Week 6 - video time! As you can see, I managed (finally!) to embed a favourite YouTube video - this beautiful cat Duslo reminds me of my beloved Mista Petie Schweets, another British Blue shorthair, who sadly died aged 16 in 2008. RIP my beloved boy.

I did find this adventure a little difficult. The challenge in embedding the video was that I couldn't get the entire address to copy to my blog entry - I eventually did it using a tip from one of the other students (ie via using the 'more share options' path). I also found that the layout template I originally selected for my blog meant that the size of the video screen, when embedded in my blog, only allowed part of the video to be seen (some was cut off). So I selected a new layout template, and also played around with new colours for my blog (text and background) at the same time!

As instructed, I also viewed a range of videos on YouTube and Google video, including the 'We love our NJ libraries' clip (excellent promotional material for a library). It is easy to see the many uses of video in the library environment eg oral history from members of the local community; documenting library buildings, layouts, and events; staff orientation and training; library user education; and marketing/promotion.

Week 3 (library cat!)

library cat, originally uploaded by Lumi*.

I couldn't resist including this image of a 'library cat', having just read Dewey: a small-town library cat who touched the world by Vicki Myron. I adore cats!

This third week of the Learning 2.0 course has been a revelation - I hadn't previously ventured into the world of photo sharing. I can envisage library uses such as sharing images of library layouts, display and promotional ideas/events, competitions, and of course local history image collections....among others!

I did experience problems when attempting to use the Blogger photo upload tool - whatever I did, I ended up with a blank page (no photo!). After a couple of frustrating attempts, I proceeded using Flickr's blogging tool (and I'm hoping it's going to work!).

I was interested to note the group tagging guidelines set forward by the Libraries and Librarians Flickr group, which included mandatory, conditional, and optional tags. I imagine that with our backgrounds in cataloguing and indexing, most library staff would be quite attentive to (and proficient in) tagging!

I was also interested to note the advent and development of Creative Commons - the concept of less restrictive copyright seems more in tune with the new ways of working, networking, and interacting that have been engendered by the online environment.