Delicious

This is a very handy tool. While I was studying I kept coming across some very interesting sites with inspirational ideas that could be useful in our libraries.  I emailed the links to the people who I thought may have been interested in them as that was the only way of passing on the relevant address.  While I also emailed it to myself, that means I have to either mark it as a favourite on my computer, or trawl through old emails looking for the link.  Delicious is obviously a far better way of storing and sourcing these links for both yourself and also others who may be interested in the same sort of information.

Library Thing

I
found this very easy to sign up for and use.  It has been a great addition to the Mandurah Library online catalogue, which, when searching for an item brings up  similar genre titles, provides information and links by either author, title or tags.  Very easy to click links and discover a myriad of further reading items.

Wiki Part IV

A wiki is a good tool for discussing things in a library environment. I am trying to weigh up if it would be better than a Blog site.  The point of difference is that a wiki can be edited by anyone, so you could lose the ‘history’ of the conversation string.  Therefore a blog site may be a better option.  What worries me is that you have to log in to all these different sites.  At least we check emails regularly and they are directed to the people who should be reading them, they just are not the correct forum for a group discussion.

The Best Egytpian photo competition?

Well, perhaps not the best photo ever taken, but different.  Oh it was hot as well.  Similarities are quite striking aren't they, except I still have my nose.  The Sphinx is only on the site of the Great Pyramids of Giza because it was a pile of ugly dirt and they didn't know what to do with it so they carved the beast with the head of the Pharaoh and the body of a lion.

Wiki Pt 3: Antioch University and staff training wiki

This wiki has detailed JIGS or procedures for training staff members on front desk duties.  While currrently all our procedures are available to all staff through the T drive and can be read and edited by all staff, you do have to know what the procedure might be labelled in order to locate it easily in the system.

By placing all procedures specific to the job in one place has its advantages for training and referring to in the future.

I wonder if privacy may be an issue with this form of technology, but then who would care what the procedure for scanning at the Mandurah Libraries would be.

Wiki Pt 2: SJCPL Subject guides

First I liked this, then I didn't, then I did.  Confused yet? 

Firstly I thought it was going to give me great lists of authors in different genres, and it sort of did in the History related mystery section with images of book titles.

Then I looked at Arts and Entertainment and it is all about local events, galleries,  museums, movies and bars. I guess I was expecting it to have relevant books on those subjects.  It did have a comprehensive list of the magazines that the library has on those fields.  I think the info on the page was very relevant to the local community and therefore not a bad thing to have on the site. The same thing with the Gardening page, no books. I would have liked to see the library collection somehow linked to those particular pages.

Very interesting area on writing your own diaries and journals with links to other sites for further information. 

Great section on Genealogy which includes help sheets for the databases that the library subscribe to.  Many links to useful sites and general how to information.

The Business page has direct links to the library catalogue from where you can reserve a book as well as links to journals and databases.

All in all a very good, informative Wiki.  This wiki was only able to be edited by librarians.  I wonder if that is a good thing or a bad thing.

Wiki Pt 1: Twilight Wiki

Wow.  I use Wikipaedia quite a bit so am used to what the site looks like.  Pretty boring really.  I was so surprised to see this Wiki which is colourful, interesting and alive.  Interesting that it has links to other TV shows and movie wikis that would have the same target audience as Twilight. The countdown to the upcoming movie release.  Lots of information on both the characters, actors and the books.  Moving images and clips to watch.  I can see that there would be a whole community of Twilight fans who would return again and again to blog or chat in the IRC channel room.  There is a lesson here on how to make a site vibrant, informative and interesting.

I also had a peek at Wookieepedia which was far less engaging.

RSS Feeds

Well, it seems that I have been using RSS Feeds into my Hotmail account for several years without even knowing what I had been doing.  So while the title of this weeks lesson looked a tad frightening it was a very easy lesson.  I have added some of the suggested sites that were in this weeks lesson.  I have also added a former workmates blog.  She is exactly the same age as I am.  Both born on the same day on other sides of the world.  We job shared, each working half a week and working together every Satruday.  Another thing we shared was a love of adventurous travel with both of us enjoying the back packing type of holiday.  She has recently sold up everything, left work and has just begun a life journey that is beginning in South America.  She has emailed me with her blog address and I am very much looking forward to following her journey.  There have already been some mishaps and they have only just begun.  J