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.

Podcasts

Although i am not an avid Podcaster, i think podcasts are fabulous. Whenever i am struggling with something, an eidting tool in Photoshop, need instructions on crafts, or songs and dances i tend to find my answers in podcasts.

I cannot see my library publishing Podcasts on a regular basis, it doesn't seem the type of thing we could use to promote current events, or new happenings within the Library.

The way i see these being useful is to record guest speakers in the Library, this could have been beneficial for our Greening The Silver City Exhibition, Australian Cookbooks Exhibition and any Author talks or demostrations given in the library.
I also believe these could be useful for tutorial style postings. having video Podcasts on how to renew your items online, Use the online registration form, reserve an item and so on. Sometimes written instructions aren't enough and the use of a video (something the user can see and duplicate on their own PC) would be beneficial.

Slam the Boards!

I love the idea of having specific days where Librarians go and answer questions at online Answer Boards. I do have 2 problems with this however. Do we really need days in which to promote the library and get librarians involved? It would be much better practice to have librarians checking answer boards regularly and getting involved.
My other problem is that people arent't aware that librarians are a direct source for information and the answering of their questions. I am being quite hypocritical here because before working in a public library i wasn't aware of the resources and knowledge that librarians and the services had to offer.
I see posting in Answer Boards a great way to promote the library service and the knowledge of librarians, it just seems frustrating that every post is only reaching a small minority.
I would love to see people just coming straight to their local librarian and asking their questions without having to resort to Answer Boards (and from experience i know answer boards are a last resort when you think you have exhausted all of the resources available to you).
It seems so disappointing to me that librarians have to go out and actively find questions to answer.

Tagging certainly is Del.icio.us

i've started simple with my delicious tagging http://delicious.com/pmr_mrl i've added my Libraries website, the State Library Website, www.geekthelibrary.org and a few others i need to remember for this course (which i had bookmarked in my browser).
Realistically i don't know how a tool like this would go with research assistance, certainly making delicious accounts for people and adding the bookmarks so that they can go home and use them, but otherwise i don't see the real benefit.

It is a great alternative to using the browser bookmarks (although i now have the Delicious website bookmarked in my browser, i doubt even delicious can help me remember that one!). From experience when upgrading my work computer it was frustrating losing all of my bookmarked pages, although i remembered most of them, some were websites that i'd come across randomly and thought would be useful at one time or another.

For me (doing the creation of storytime bags, marketing material, craft activities etc) it would be beneficial as i can tag the websites and then come back to them and just look at all the websites tagged for craft. It will make my life much simpler. But i will now have to do some work and get rid off all the bookmarks i have in firefox and add them to Delicious instead (they are now duplicated across the top of my browser which is a massive waste of space!)

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.