The L 2.0 program was an interesting and worthwhile experience. Extra comments are contained in exercise 15. I hadn't blogged before and I must say that this is an easy way of keeping a public diary. However, I didn't like the way that posts are listed from bottom to top, rather than vice versa. It's hard to develop a story that way, since we are used to reading from top to bottom. I don't think most people could be bothered going back to the start, then working forwards.
If the exercises were done at work, a lot more time than expected was required. I think that most library staff members don't have a great deal of time to "play", so it would have saved a fair amount of time if all of the instructions were clear, accurate and concise.
As for the technologies, Flickr was a good way to share photos and search for photos through tags. Mashups can be a very useful combination of elements such as photos, maps and text. Trading cards are a fun type of on-line business card and could be used to liven up e-mails.
RSS feeds are very worthwhile and could be added to our library web site. There were many tools to find such feeds. As for Image Generators, the range was bewildering.
Library Thing was a favourite of mine and could be used for booklists, and book discussions on our web site. Rollyo is good for one-stop searches of favourite web sites. Delicious web site tags are very handy for organising and adding to favourites.
Technorati allows you to explore most aspects of blogs. Special purpose Wikis would be good for library project teams, book clubs and other discussion groups. However, it's a concern that non-experts can delete or alter Wikipedia entries, even in a non-matching style.
Zoho Writer didn't work for me. I'd rather use Word. However, there were some very professional Web 2.0 based tools. With YouTube, the reliabilty, quality and speed of the videos was very variable, but some were excellent. Similar clips would make interesting attachments to our website. However, these videos seem to attract many trivial or offensive comments.
I think Podcasts were a waste of time and had more problems than YouTube videos. On the other hand, on-line Audiobooks worked quickly and reliably and could be a worthwhile web-based addition to our collection.
Overall, I learnt a lot and will continue to use some of the above technologies. The program showed that the possibilites are almost endless, but you need particular purposes and enough time, to make the most of them.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
#22 Audiobooks
Netlibrary and Overdrive appear to offer excellent subscription services to eAudioBooks. Access can be gained through a library web site, via a patron barcode and PIN. As well as playing the recordings, I think some patrons would be interested in downloading them to their own portable devices.
While World E Book Fair required username and password access (probably based on subscription)to most titles, it had some classic eAudioBooks free to air, from authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe. Unlike podcasts, they played almost immediately, were very clear, and didn't break down every few seconds.
In addition, whilst listening to the stories, you could watch some very clever and almost hypnotic, on-screen graphics. If the cost was reasonable, and the demand was there (particularly from older patrons), compared to our hard copy talking books on cassette, CD and MP3, I think our library service would do well to subscribe to these products.
While World E Book Fair required username and password access (probably based on subscription)to most titles, it had some classic eAudioBooks free to air, from authors such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe. Unlike podcasts, they played almost immediately, were very clear, and didn't break down every few seconds.
In addition, whilst listening to the stories, you could watch some very clever and almost hypnotic, on-screen graphics. If the cost was reasonable, and the demand was there (particularly from older patrons), compared to our hard copy talking books on cassette, CD and MP3, I think our library service would do well to subscribe to these products.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
#21 Podcasts, Nocasts
Podcasts are not for me. I assumed that you could play them immediately, like YouTube videos, but no, you have to download them. Some were blocked by Web Marshal and others were well over 1 mb and would take far too long to download. Some required the downloading of other (unknown) software to play them.
After a great deal of time, I found and managed to play a short podcast, "Patrick White archives bought by National library," from the ABC's AM radio program. It was slow to load, but the sound quality was good, unlike another unintelligible podcast that I tried.
I added the feed to my Bloglines account, but was not able to replay the podcast, even after downloading extra software, because streaming protocols(!) hadn't been selected. This has been an exercise in frustration.
After a great deal of time, I found and managed to play a short podcast, "Patrick White archives bought by National library," from the ABC's AM radio program. It was slow to load, but the sound quality was good, unlike another unintelligible podcast that I tried.
I added the feed to my Bloglines account, but was not able to replay the podcast, even after downloading extra software, because streaming protocols(!) hadn't been selected. This has been an exercise in frustration.
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
#20 YouTube
Most videos took a long time to load, some didn't play, and others cut out after one or two seconds. The overall video quality was not high, especially when phone cameras were used.
Some clips had soundtracks and others had captions. I didn't hear any talking videos, but no doubt there are many.
After spending a lot of time trying to find a clip that played properly, I settled on "Travelling to Ronda". This fits in with my blog theme of travel and road trips. If you want to "hit" the road, Ronda, an historic, high-altitude town in beautiful Spain, would be a great place to go.
Ernest Hemingway visited Ronda many years ago and was attracted to the town's bullfighting. The ring is shown on the video.
The clip also has spectacular photography of the town and its surroundings, and has a relaxing Spanish music soundtrack. It's like taking a virtual tour and would be a good way of attracting real tourism.
Our Library Service could produce some short videos of our collections, services and activities and post them on our web site, for promotional purposes.
My greatest concern with YouTube is the often crude and offensive feedback displayed under the videos. Apparently, people are allowed to swear as much as they like, yet hide behind usernames.
Some clips had soundtracks and others had captions. I didn't hear any talking videos, but no doubt there are many.
After spending a lot of time trying to find a clip that played properly, I settled on "Travelling to Ronda". This fits in with my blog theme of travel and road trips. If you want to "hit" the road, Ronda, an historic, high-altitude town in beautiful Spain, would be a great place to go.
Ernest Hemingway visited Ronda many years ago and was attracted to the town's bullfighting. The ring is shown on the video.
The clip also has spectacular photography of the town and its surroundings, and has a relaxing Spanish music soundtrack. It's like taking a virtual tour and would be a good way of attracting real tourism.
Our Library Service could produce some short videos of our collections, services and activities and post them on our web site, for promotional purposes.
My greatest concern with YouTube is the often crude and offensive feedback displayed under the videos. Apparently, people are allowed to swear as much as they like, yet hide behind usernames.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
#19 Web 2.0 Tools
What a great range of Web 2.0 award nominees there were. In line with my blog theme of "On the Road", I chose "Travel" from the list of winners and selected the very impressive http://realtravel.com
This site is very well presented, easy to use and very comprehensive. Some of the features are browsing destinations by map, top 10 seasonal escapes, popular destinations, hotels and restaurants, deals, flights, hire cars, things to do, attractions and photos.
One of the best features is a forum to ask questions and discuss travel issues. There is also a trip planner and a travel blog, which allows you to keep a record of your adventures, for the benefit of others. The blogs I saw looked very professional, and along with the forum, contained a wealth of useful information and interesting photos.
Our Library Service could certainly include a link to RealTravel on its travel web page.
This site is very well presented, easy to use and very comprehensive. Some of the features are browsing destinations by map, top 10 seasonal escapes, popular destinations, hotels and restaurants, deals, flights, hire cars, things to do, attractions and photos.
One of the best features is a forum to ask questions and discuss travel issues. There is also a trip planner and a travel blog, which allows you to keep a record of your adventures, for the benefit of others. The blogs I saw looked very professional, and along with the forum, contained a wealth of useful information and interesting photos.
Our Library Service could certainly include a link to RealTravel on its travel web page.
Monday, January 7, 2008
#18 Web-based Apps
I typed a story on Zoho Writer, then tried to save it, but the save link didn't work. Then I tried to publish it on my blog, but that link didn't work either, so now my story is lost in cyberspace.
Although Zoho appears to have many functions, the layout of the main screen is untidy and I don't like the way that you type in a narrow column. Also, the right click functions look cheap and don't work as positively as MS Word. In fact, Zoho looks like a cheap version of Word.
The Google applications look more professional.
Although Zoho appears to have many functions, the layout of the main screen is untidy and I don't like the way that you type in a narrow column. Also, the right click functions look cheap and don't work as positively as MS Word. In fact, Zoho looks like a cheap version of Word.
The Google applications look more professional.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
#17 PBWiki
The PBWiki video tips were useful, but very quick. I added a link to my blog on the Favourite Blogs Wiki, but the instructions for doing so were contradictory. The L 2.0 page said add your blog name and URL in square brackets, with spaces next to the brackets.
However, the PLMC Learning instructions showed round brackets with no spaces (and no name was requested), while most of the completed entries had no brackets and still worked fine! Wiki instructions for adding bullet points didn't work either.
In the Sandbox, it was easy to add my favourite movie, but the standard finished text of all the entries was a poor quality light grey. Also, because people could customise their entries, there was no standard format and the very long page looked messy and hard to read.
However, the PLMC Learning instructions showed round brackets with no spaces (and no name was requested), while most of the completed entries had no brackets and still worked fine! Wiki instructions for adding bullet points didn't work either.
In the Sandbox, it was easy to add my favourite movie, but the standard finished text of all the entries was a poor quality light grey. Also, because people could customise their entries, there was no standard format and the very long page looked messy and hard to read.
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