Week 5 Collaboration

My only experience with Wikis is Wikipedia, which is generally the first site that pops up when I am searching for information for an obscure answer to a quiz puzzle. When I first looked at Library Success Wiki I was a bit overwhelmed with the whole thing. There is an amazing amount of information on there but I have to confess I found it a little frustrating trying to find things that I was personally interested in or would be relevant to my work. I did search New Zealand as a matter of interest and had a few results. I do think the concept of a Wiki is brilliant though and I am looking forward to sharing a Wiki with other staff.

Week 4 continued

Yahoo, I have also created my Del.icio.us account and have included it on my blog. I can see real benefits for using a Social Bookmarking site on a personal level. The biggest advantage being that you can access your bookmarks from anywhere and sort them using the tags. As far as a research tool I don't really see it being that useful in the library situation. However it's great fun and another option that I can add to my growing list of new tech knowledge.

Week 4

Ok, check out My LibraryThing which is the task for this week. I think this site is fantastic. Currently I have always written down the titles I have read but I will start using this site from now on. I have read a large number of children's material and once I have added these books into LibraryThing I think I will find this useful when suggesting books to customers particularly those dreaded college reading list questions. I look forward to understanding this site better and discovering what other like minded people may be reading. Creating the tags are great for sorting books too.

Week 3 Part 2

Funny Talking Animals
Well that was a little frustrating but I finally got there and have embedded my first video, and wow what a sense of achievement.
I have enjoyed looking at these video sites. I am quite familiar with You Tube which seems to be a free for all offering everything from the weird to the amazing to the crazy. Vimeo on the other hand seems to cater for those people who are keen on making their own videos and is a little more sophisticated and professional. Videojug was completely new to me and I thought it was great. Just type a question and Videojug will provide the answer. I think all three sites are fantastic each offering a slightly different bent. They are also great time wasters.

Week 3 Part 1

Well here I am on Module 3, learning all about Photos, images and videos. There was much to look through but I'm glad that I took the time as I have learnt so much. I have used Google images before but Yahoo Images was new to me and I did discover the advanced image search option on both sites which I had never noticed before. I enjoyed looking through the Cuba St Memories and along with the other sites like National Library provide a great resource. This will be something to recommend to library customers. I have created a flickr account http://www.flickr.com/photos/d-pmemory and have loaded some photos. I look forward to becoming more familar with flickr and to date have used tags (I think) and created a collection or set (not sure which). The learning continues!!!!

Week 2 RSS

When I first looked at this module I thought "oh no, am I going to get through this." But much to my surprise I found it really easy to do. I am still navigating my way around Google Reader but I can see that it has huge benefits for those who follow lots of blogs.
I subscribed to the links suggested in the module and instantly I have all these unread messages which can be a little overwhelming as who has the time to look through it all. You have to be very selective.
I particularly like the links on our Easyfind catalogue that allow you to set up a feed on your favourite authors etc. I have already started doing this with my own personal favourites. I think this is a great feature to share with customers.
I think RSS will offer great benefits to libraries as people who can use this technology will be able to have instant updates on all that they find interesting or follow. It's like having your own personal librarian.

Five Sites

Continuing on from week 1, I have finally got around to looking for 5 sites that I might find interesting. I have to say that this was a struggle for me because I have never been one for surfing the net and there is just so much out there. Anyway I have settle on 5 sites so here they are:

http://hubblesite.org/blog/
I have always been interested in space and this site offers great information and amazing photographs.
http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/
I am into natural products so I found this site interesting. Lets save the planet.
http://vegetablegardeningideas.com/
This year I promised myself that I would make a better effort in the vegetable garden - help save some money as well. Lets hope that I have green fingers.
http://awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/
This blog was sent around by a staff member the other day and I thought it was fantastic. Plenty to laugh about on this site.
http://www.wcl.govt.nz/blog/
I have to stay loyal so I have also included one of our own blogs. I also think the kids blog is great too.

On to the next module.

Week 1 Part 1

I have been doing the first section of my blog challenge and have reviewed two New Zealand library blogs. I choose the Auckland and Christchurch City Libraries. Of the two blogs I have to say I preferred Christchurch's. I liked the way it was set out, it was clear and easy to follow. I even found a couple of books that looked really interesting and have added them to my reserve list. I will now move onto some blogs of personal interest. I just want to know - how do people find the time to do all this.

I'm here at last

Hi Guys

Wow I'm here at last. My name is Debbie and all I can say is thank goodness for Techno Whiz Wannabee, she helped me see through all the mud. I'm looking forward to learning heaps, I just hope I can remember it all.