4/30/2007

Butterflies

Whew, that's over. I was flattered when asked to be the keynote speaker at this forum but didn't realise that it would involve so much work. Deciding which of all the myriad of Web 2.0 sites to introduce to a body of mostly volunteer language tutors was a trying task. I managed to get my butterflies flying in formation and received good feedback from the delegates with whom I was able to chat during our delicious morning tea. I celebrated afterwards by buying myself a new pair of shoes!

Web 2.0: opportunities for everyone

URLs for websites mentioned in keynote speech (Web 2.0: opportunities for everyone) at Read Write Now forum, Saturday, April 28.

RSS Aggregators

Bloglines www.bloglines.com

Google Reader google.com/reader

FeedReader www.feedreader.com

FeedBurner www.feedburner.com

Digg www.digg.com

Wikis

PBwiki www.pbwiki.com

SeedWiki www.seedwiki.com

MediaWiki mediawiki.org

Blogs

Blogger blogger.com

Technorati www.technorati.com

Photo Sharing

Flickr www.flickr.com

Retrievr labs.systemone.at/retrievr

Picasa www.picasa.com

Tagging (Social Bookmarking)

del.icio.us del.icio.us

Streaming Media

YouTube youtube.com

Podzinger www.podzinger.com

Pandora www.pandora.com

Online Office Tools

Google Docs and Spreadsheets docs.google.com/

Zoho Office Reader www.zoho.com

Others

LibraryThing www.librarything.com

Twitter www.twitter.com

Web 2.0 Starter Kit opensourceculture.blogspot.com

Remember the Milk www.rememberthemilk.com

4/23/2007

Virtual World Librarianship

Now this would be a fascinating way to teach IL - and might even make students aware that not all library staff are ancient fuddy-duddys.

Virtual World Librarianship – Your SecondLife

I've downloaded Second Life but have not yet had a chance to explore it. A lot of people (including librarians) are talking about it and it seems like a fun idea - and SOOO.. Library 2.0.

4/20/2007

When will we be 2.0?

Why isn't our library 2.0 yet? We talk endlessly about the things we want in both the current scene and in the new building planned for the Central TAFE Library, meanwhile other people are out there doing things. See this article from Columbia University Teachers' College Library blog:

Library 2.0: It's All Happening at the Gottesman

Published: 4/12/2007

From book talks to collaborative project management to software development, it's all happening at TC's Gottesman Libraries

4/16/2007

New York to Paris

Marsha Bennett sent me this:

1. Go to Google http://google.com/

2. Click on Maps (click on more >>) to get to Maps

3. Click on Get Directions.

4. From: New York, New York.

5. To: Paris, France.

6. Then, read line #24.

7. Laugh

8. Repost.

4/03/2007

Great article about academic libraries

Libraries at the Cutting Edge. Not only is this a stimulating article but the comments are well-considered and, on the whole, favourable to libraries and librarians. Isn't it odd though that some people still have the idea that Librarians are the people who spend most of their time saying "Shhh!" or putting books back on the shelves.

4/02/2007

A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto

Kathryn Greenhill in her blog Librarians Matter referred to a video on YouTube - "A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto" that she showed at a presentation about YouTube and Libraries. For me this epitomises everything that I am trying to do as a librarian. Sometimes we have great ideas and they may be greeted with skepticism and the powers-that-be pour cold water on them or enthusiasm but the technological framework within which we have to work won't support anything non-standard. Sometimes, however, we have an amazingly supportive group of colleagues and supervisors who try to smooth the way as we try to implement new ideas. I'm blessed/cursed with both of these scenarios and wish I had the persuasive powers and technological skills that are needed to bring these ideas to fruition.

Revish is here

Revish has just been launched. It is an alternative to LibraryThing. I've just registered and will need a bit of time to compare them. In its FAQs Revish claims that it is more about in depth book reviews that cataloguing and, unlike LT it does not have provision for tagging. It provides very readable guidelines for reviewers and, if people abide by these, the results should be worthwhile.
In Revish you can find books (from the Amazon catalogue), add them to your favourites, currently reading or other lists, review and rate them. You can also find out what like-minded readers are reading or have in their favourite lists.
Categories appear to be in LCCRA format or may be taken directly from Amazon.