I <3 You Tube

I am a YouTube fanatic, it is a great resource for anything and everything. I even have some videos of my own on there :)
YouTube and Google Video have a broad range of information that varies from extremely useful including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator (etc) tutorials, to the weird and wacky including Daft Hands:


I had never considered using YouTube or Google Video to promote my library, but it might be a nice idea. They could be used for Informational Videos, Tutorials or even promotions like the "Geek the Library" campaign, where people record what they "Geek" and Embed it on the www.geekthelibrary.org website. I love seeing what people "Geek" and have even considered posting my own video.

I wonder if it is worth having something like this connected to our blog so that as staff we can post items and allow for the community to contribute. It would also be useful for instructional purposes, short videos on how to Locate items in the catalogue, reserve items, and access many of the research databases available. People tend to learn through the use of visual aids, and although many of the people in our region do not have extensive internet capabilities, it may be worthwhile having a DVD or CD-Rom that they can take home and view.

Wiki Wiki Wiki...

Wiki's are something that i am very familliar with, and love the concept of. Having said this i often find myself not creating a Wiki when i really should, and in the past have sent out group emails when i realistically shoud have built a collaborative Wiki, or added to a currently running Wiki rather then filling my friends and associates Inboxes with information that they would in turn need to reply to and send back out to the same group of people.

I chose to look at the Princeton Public library Wiki, and although i appreciate the effort they have put in to have this wiki up and running, i was confused by the navigation. The navigator bar in the right hand side has a folder named "unfiled items" and within that folder exist all of the pages. Some of the pages are incomplete and have not yet been added to or finished. If i look past the navigation and delve into the content of the Wiki i am pleasantly surprised. The Wiki contains some great reviews and the amount of anonymous contributions are fantastic.

Having just started watching the original Star Wars trilogy i decided that Wookieepedia was a good Wiki for me to explore. I found it quite interesting browsing the articles and reading about the planets, people, weapons and technologies in the Star Wars Saga. There is a descriptive page for newcomers which welcomes you to the site and explains how to edit the pages. There is also a "sandbox" page in which people can practice editing, and no one will be upset if the data is lost. For those browsing Wookieepedia who aren't sure what they're after but just want some interesting information on Star Wars, there are the "Random Articles" which tend to be a short sentence about a character, but still offer a great introduction to the information available.

The Final Wiki that i looked at was the Mint Museum Library Wiki. I tended to focus on the article "The height of Fashion: platform shoes then and now" The expanse of information in a single article is extensive with references to other resources and websites that readers can explore. the Mint Wiki is built on the same platform as the Priceton Public library Wiki, the same issues occur in the navigation. I understand that many users would find this form of navigation easy to use, but i tend to find it difficult. When i click on the "unfiled items" in the MintWiki i am presented with quite a long list of articles, the instructions to creating pages, editing pages and articles on the current exhibitions are all stored in the same location. The only way i would improve this Wiki is by structing the navigation into clearly defined sections so that information on how to add and edit pages would be stored under "Maintenance" or a simialr menu, and so on.

Blogging with Bloglines

I tried to look for Blogs that would relate to not only my interests, but to my job role. Because i do a lot of graphic design, and use a lot of online tutorials, i subscribed to a graphic design blog. This will hopefully give me a central point to start from when i am lost, or cannot find the information i am after on Google. This is also a great opportunity for me to find ways in which the graphic design world is changing. The What's Hot and What'd Not of Graphic Design!
I have used the same theory in subscribing to a photography blog. Using this more for personal use, but it applies to my work as well. New ideas, different points of view, and what products have come on the market that are about to take the world by storm.
My third Blog is a Marketing Blog, showing what marketing techniques are popular and how they are being executed. Definitely a big one for me to watch and read thoroughly.

My other 2 blogs are quite generic, library Bytes which looks like it will be a very interesting blog, but i am not entirely sure how much i will gain from reading it. My final blog is the Powerhouse Museum's picture of the day.