Nings - - - - - ->

Nings are a great form of collaborative information sharing. Although I personally wasn't overly impressed with the sites that I explored, I have experienced Nings before, and they are extremely useful for sharing information between people with similar interests. I do tend to find these sites are more of a phase that people go through and don't end up being a long term committment to monitor and contribute information too.

Bookmarks are... Delicious?

I have been using Delicious regularly since the Learning 2.0 Course. I find it incredibly helpful to Bookmark Websites and Blogs that I like to visit. Bundling the tags into Categories like Storytime, Rhymetime, Lapsit, Design, Marketing are all very handy so that I can find the resources I need easily without having to remember the name of a website to return to it.
Like most things I probably should use it more, there are definitely sites that I will need to use again that I haven't Bookmarked with Delicious, hopefully this weeks session will force me to use them a little bit more :)

This weeks lesson was great!

Tweet It!

Social Networking appeals to me definitely on a personal level, it makes keeping in contact with friends and family very easy.
Professionally I am still trying to decide whether or not our Library is prepared to join the social networking craze. I fear we will become one of the libraries that is using the technology for the sake of using technology and that it will start to deteriorate and not be done well.
I also feel the line between personal and professional posts can at times become blurred and I read things on other Libraries Facebook and Twitter Pages that I don't believe is professionally relevant.
Then I look at the other side of the coin and realise that it is a way to tap into audiences that we have not been able to secure previously... and then the internal debate starts and i wonder if by trying to tap into these markets that don't want to be penetrated are we making their social networking services effectively "uncool"???

So many questions to ask, and they are some that I will discuss with other members of staff and come to a decision on whether we continue to piggy back on the Dubbo City Council Blog and Facebook Page (Dubbo Youth) or whether we develop our own.

Learning 2.1 Begins

I haven't touched my Blog since the completion of Learning 2.0, but tend to have a few work associated and personal blogs that I follow on a regular basis.
As most people have already said, I should blog more, but never have time, etc, etc... but I enjoy blogging, it tends to be a release of stress and whatever is on your mind at the time... most personal blogs tend to be like a public, online diary... has good and bad sides, but some people tend to reveal too much about themselves.
A lot of the blogs I visit for work purposes are:
http://storytimepreschooltoddlers.blogspot.com/ and http://preschoolstorytimeoutlines.blogspot.com
I love Lisa's blog, there are lots of very interesting rhymes and stories availabe, my only qualm is that there is no Search option! Blogs must be able to be searched. Thus the inclusion of a Search bar in the new look for my Blog :)

The Wrap Up

Social networking has been changing the world for a few years now. Facebook was designed by uni students who wanted to stay in contact with each other after the completing of their Degrees. It is now one of the most widely used social networking sites in the world, and connects family, friends and work colleagues. Recently the use of Facebook, Bebo and Twitter has shifted from the YA age group (15-25) and is being utilised more and more by Generation X and the Baby Boomers.
This trend for the older generations to take up social networking has possibly been part of the reason as to why YA's have stopped using the service as regularly.
Having said that primary library users are utilising these social networking sites which makes it easier for libraries to communicate and market to these users. The struggle occurs with the YA as Social Networking provided an avenue to market to this audience.
The potential still exists to use Social Networking sites to promote our library service and connect with library users. We have been bouncing ideas around today and can certainly see the benefits for us, and the community :)

Thank you for this course, i have really enjoyed it... even if it did take me forever to complete!

Online Apps

I have used Google Docs before this exercise, but have simply never had the need to use them. But as I work more and more with people in remote areas (or more remote than mine) I am seeing the need for a collaborative documents. Currently i have .pdf versions of all of our documents on an Intranet but i don't want anyone other than myself to edit these.
I can see this being more beneficial for say a media release, a column or article where there are numerous people who must edit, return it to the original creator, edit again, and on and on the process goes.
I am slightly disheartened that although i believe that something like this would be beneficial, i know that it will not be utilised properly, or if it is the novelty will wear off quite quickly for most people and they will return to creating documents on their PC and emailing them around to the desired recipients.

Mashing it Up

I created a simple Mashup from the MRL Flickr Account. Nothing spectacular, but it got the job done.

What i would love to see implemented on out Library website is a Mashup that incorporates our local history photos and Google Maps. It has already been done for major cities around the world and is quite remarkable when one goes through and looks at the familliar places within their town/city and can view images of how that landmark used to look, or what building existed before. as the world is constantly evolving it is wonderful to create such timelines that show different periods through time by location.

Now i'm bringing myself back to reality which tells me that i cannot possibly code something that complex within a realistic timeframe, and what i want to implement is a remarkable resource now, but by the time it reaches library services around the country and the world it will be a more mainstream practice.