Event Management

I created accounts for the 3 activities in this weeks lesson. I was happy with Doodle, but for the meetings that I attend it is probably not necessary and neither was Google Calendar. I love Event Brite! It is on my list of things to do to get the staff here more interested in running online bookings. It would save tremendous hassels with Computer Bookings, Storytime and School Holiday Bookings! These activities are always busy for us and by eliminating the staff time involved in taking these bookings we are going to be a lot better off.
The issue other staff members see is with the restriction for those without the internet. But participants can still contact the branch, and the staff member can make the booking for them whilst they are on the phone. Great lesson this week, I really look forward to seeing how well Event Brite will work for us.

Keeping RSS Simple!

To be completely honest I have only looked at my RSS feeds a few times since I set them up. It is handy if I am trolling through endless information and suddenly remember to check if something new has been written that my RSS Feeds may have notified me about, but that happens very rarely.

Although I do not use my RSS Feeds regularly, they are extremely organised, I cannot survive with the mess! But then what point is there being organised if you're not using them :/

Beyond my laziness, for those using RSS feeds regularly, having them organised would be of great benefit. I am considering signing up for 'FeedMyInbox' to see if emailing the Feeds would be more beneficial, but it will possibly be just like all the other Email alerts I receive that once I see where the email has come from, I just delete it because I either don't have the time, or the care factor right at that moment.

On a personal level, Having my feeds stream into say Twitter or Facebook Accounts would be highly beneficial. The history will be there when you need it (rather than deleting the email) and there is the opportunity to look at it, only when you really feel like it, you can skim past the post if you don't have time. definitely something to consider, but not really acceptable on a work level.

Slideshows, slideshows everywhere

I've watched so many of these online Slideshows, more of the Tutorial style ones, and have found them extremely useful. My only qualm is that the quality of them is not amazing. The images are too small to see at normal size and at Full Screen they are very poor quality making it just as hard to read.

the ones I have found that are more images have been wonderful and have helped me out of many a pickle. I have not considered using them within our library service at this point in time. Possibly if we move into online tutorials on using our Catalogue or Online Services at a later date then I will explore them further.

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 :)