#20 I too can youtube!

This was harder than I thought. I’ve used youtube before but mainly looking at stuff people send to me, and usually it’s funny or interesting. And obviously I’ve used it a little during the learning 2.0 program. But when I had to find something on my own to post in here I had a bit of trouble. There is so much rubbish out there!! I browsed randomly for a while and found nothing, and then I typed in “Christmas humour” thinking that a nice funny Christmas video would look nice on my blog. They weren’t funny though. Not one. I also found some “vlogs” which I guess I can see the point of but I didn’t see anything that interested me. Not something I could do myself, I’m not that interesting. I enjoy looking at youtbe for the old tv show themes that I used to watch but can’t remember. A while ago I found the opening credits to Pugwall which was a show I used to like, and Supergran, another show and book/s that I loved. But these weren’t really something that I wanted to post on my blog. I was surprised that I actually learnt a bit about youtube during this task. When I started searching for music videos I found videos of people with guitars showing how to play various songs. I liked this and didn’t know stuff like that was on there.

After looking at a lot of videos that were just made by random people and weren’t very good, or were live and didn’t sound great, I found some good ones. I have decided to post one on here from Belle and Sebastian, another favourite band of mine. I chose this video since it sort of combines music and books, which the library does now quite often with bands playing every couple of months or so. Libraries never used to be noisy with bands playing but I guess it’s just another aspect of libraries 2.0 – the way libraries will be in the future to relate to the people of today. I know web 2.0 is all about information technology, but I think libraries 2.0 is a bit more than that.
It turns out that I did find a couple of non-official music videos that weren’t too bad so I’ve added them below. If I knew how to upload videos to youtube I could put up a couple of the music videos I’ve worked on but I don’t have the equipment.

This first song is one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, I had to go through a lot of different videos on youtube to find one that looked ok and sounded good, but I couldn’t not put this song on – it’s too great.

This other video was just another that caught my eye. Another great song with some great images.
When posting youtube videos onto my blog I have to adjust the width and height settings otherwise the video is cut off a bit on the right hand side. For these videos I also tried adjusting the colour settings to make it green like my blog template.

#19 Web 2.0 tools

I recognized quite a few of the sites mentioned in the web 2.0 awards. The first category I clicked on was music. I saw that last.fm was one of the sites mentioned so I will talk about that.

Last.fm is great for people that love listening to music. I’ll explain it for those of you that don’t know much about it - when you download the software, the site is able to see what music you play on your computer. On my home computer I have about 10,000 songs and constantly play them in my winamp application. Each of these songs registers with last.fm, even when not connected to the internet, the software remembers what has been played and sends it off to the site next time it is connected. Each week the site updates and tells you who you’ve been listening to the most with weekly charts. There is also an overall chart. It also lists your ‘neighbours’ (people that have been listening to similar music) You can see my last.fm profile here.

I had a look at some other web 2.0 award nominations and found the one sentence stories. I really didn’t think this was too great. Didn’t really see the point in it. There were a couple that were almost interesting but if I’m going to waste my time on the computer I’d rather be doing something fun (like playing hobowars on facebook) or something interesting. One sentence stories get boring very quickly.

Speaking of facebook, the video below is a song about facebook, which I found quite amusing.

Google Docs

Google Docs looks a lot simpler than zoho. A lot less buttons. I think this is the one I will continue to use after the learning 2.0 program is finished. It doesn't seem to show you page margins with a ruler across the top so I don't know if I'm writing to the edge of the page or not. I also don't see as many functions as zoho uses but I don't need smiley faces. I just had a look at the other tabs (insert and revisions) and have found that it seems to cover all that I need.

I think this would be very handy for school groups writing assignments. Last year a group I was in emailed so many versions of the same file to each other that it wasted a lot of space in my inbox, and after a while some of us were checking and editing the wrong file. Google Docs would have been a much more simpler way to do things. I didn't know about it back then though.

I found it interesting that the word 'zoho' isn't in the google docs spell check, and the word 'google' isn't in the zoho spell check. I liked that in Zoho you could publish a document to your blog as a draft. That doesn't seem possible in Google Docs.

#18 Zoho blog publishing follow-up

Well, it looks like it transferred across to blogger ok. It seems like the smiley faces seemed to stay (although now they take up a whole line, I don't really mind though - I don't really use smileys), and the links look ok. I noticed though that my one line spaces between paragraphs were a lot bigger when sent to blogger and I had to delete a couple of blank lines so the paragraphs were not so spaced out. Now it's time to have a look at Google Docs.

#18 Zoho documents

Zoho writer

This is a task I've been looking forward to. I didn't skip ahead like some other people have because I like to do things in order. I was actually looking forward to learning about Google Docs but I realise now that this task is more about Zoho. I think I'll try google docs later anyway. One thing I've noticed already about Zoho writer is that it doesn't automatically capitalise I's when typing the word "I" - I guess I've become used to this from writing in Microsoft Word. I'll have to go back and capitalise them all before i try publishing to my blog.

Online word processing is a great idea and would be very handy for many of our customers here at the library. Currently our internet computers don't have any software for creating document, and our word processing computers don't have any internet access. This makes it hard for customers that wish to email resumes, open attached files, etc. Also, our word processing computers have a feeand zoho and google docs are free to use. I think it would be a good idea for us to run a class or a session on using these web applications.

As you can see above I've tried linking to a couple of website from this document. Hopefully that will all transfer to my blog ok when I post this on there.

I'm not too sure how to post to my blog but I'll give it a shot. I think I'll try the publish link... It's odd that the words google and blog aren't in the spell check....

#17 Contributing to a wiki

I thought this would be more difficult than it was. I tried doing it without reading all the tips and watching all the videos. The PBwiki tour site wasn’t working so I didn’t even look at that either. I just had a look at the actual Favourite Blogs page and hit ‘edit’. It then asked me if I wanted to steal the page from another user who was currently editing it. I felt a bit mean, but I did steal it. The other user had apparently been in the edit mode for 27 minutes so I assumed that they weren’t doing anything but had just left it open. I tried to do my editing quickly because I didn’t want anyone stealing it from me!

I added my blog. Instead of adding [brackets] and typing out the url I just added the link the same way I do when typing in blogger. I just wrote the name of my blog, highlighted it, clicked on the create link button at the top and then cut and pasted the link into the box, and selected URL instead of new wiki page or whatever the other option was.

I then went to play with changing some other entries. I added my favourite book at the moment. When I got to the bottom of the page I realized how messy wikis can get and it didn’t really look like something I’d like to read through. It would be nice if it was a bit more organized, and also would be good if you could tell who write what. But I guess for a wiki like this with so many people contributing to a page it’s bound to get messy. After I got to the bottom of the page and started adding my entry I thought to myself “Why not put it at the top?” so I did. I went back to the top and made my entry the first one that would be seen. I just wrote a short entry about how I like Diana Gabaldon’s books. I was actually quite proud of myself that I figured out how to do this, and it was fun to put my own little bit in.

I also added in a link to my favourite music (The Salteens) and saw that other people had added pictures so I tried that too. I’m not sure if anyone will read it but it was a good way to find out that contributing to a wiki is not that difficult. It will be interesting to see how long my entry stays at the top of the page.

#16 Wikis

Wikis seem to be interesting tools for sharing information, and allowing others to share their information as well. They’d be useful for student groups working on group assignments/projects and could be useful for use in libraries. I had a look at some of the library wikis linked from the learning 2.0 exercise and found how they can be useful, and I can see how it would be useful for our library to adopt some of the ideas. I particularly like the book lovers wiki which allowed people to review books. If our library did this, I’d probably write reviews for it myself, as well as read other people’s reviews.

Currently our library is involved in creating a wiki – Wikinorthia – which should be up and running soon, and will involve three different library services and include local information which can be added to by anyone in the community.

A good example of the usefulness of wikis was on Saturday night when the election was being counted. Soon after the result was known, wikipedia entries for John Howard and Kevin Rudd were updated to include the events of the evening. Someone out there had nothing better to do than update wikipedia entries late on a Saturday night… though, I guess I didn’t have much better to do either since I was checking to see how quickly it would be updated….

#15 Learning 2.0, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Task 15.0

It’s an interesting time to be working in libraries. I’ve only been employed in a library for a year and a half and it’s very interesting to see how things are changing, from Library 1.0 to Library 2.0. It’s also interesting to see how other libraries are changing as well. When I did work experience in a library many years ago we used to stamp books with the due date, not scan them. But now that is the common way to do things and kids these days would not even know the way it used to be (unless they borrow a very old book with the stamps still in it). And now the way libraries are used is going through more changes, as technology evolves and Web 2.0 becomes more well known and integrated in to the way things are done, information that used to be found in books (or sometimes on CDROM) can be found anywhere, from anywhere.

Libraries are becoming more integrated with the community, and hopefully will continue to be. Instead of being us (libraries) and them (public/users), web 2.0 is allowing ‘us’ and ‘them’ to come together to just be ‘all of us’. With users contributing by tagging, using their own terminology, they may then find it easier to search for what they are after, particularly the younger users that have grown up with the internet and use terminology like tagging and blogging everyday. I know some people at this library had never heard the word ‘tagging’ before this learning 2.0 program begun.

Google seems to be the first place to look for most students, general public, and even staff here. Even though the online resources that the library subscribes to often more authoritative information, it is more difficult to find, and I’m not sure the effort of educating users of how to find use these resources will make too much difference. The fact is that it’s still not as easy to use as Google. The number of clicks of a mouse to get to the information the user is looking for is, in most cases, much less than the number used when using an online database. Logging in with a library card, then finding your way around the database can often take as many as 4 or 5 clicks. I think the usability of these databases needs to be improved in the near future if they are to be used more often by the members of the library. Anyway, those are my thoughts on Library 2.0, web 2.0, etc. I’m already looking forward to web/library 3.0!! I tried to get into Second Life recently but my computer isn’t good enough and keeps on crashing. I guess I better get more up-to-date equipment before I start using the up-to-date technology.

#14 Technorati

I didn’t like it. I had had a quick look at it earlier during tasks in previous weeks and didn’t like it then. I thought I may be surprised though, as I was with del.icio.us, and find that it’s useful but unfortunately I just didn’t really have too much interest in the results that were returned. It seemed to just display American results. I also did a search for ‘sports’ just to see what results I would get and found blog posts about American football and the national rifle association. I even searched for my own blog name but it didn’t come up. I prefer the google blog search, at least I can find my own blog using that.

I also looked at the most popular searches and found that words like youtube, facebook and google were popular searches. I was a bit surprised to find that ‘goggle’ was a popular search.

#13 Del.icio.us tags and zombies.

I’ve heard of del.icio.us a while ago but never really got into it. I never created an account and forgot about it soon after looking at it. I didn’t think it would be that useful to me. Even now seeing that the next thing we do is del.icico.us I again didn’t think I would use it. After the bloglines set up and signing up to rss feeds I thought that I don’t really need to bookmark things anymore because if I like something I can just add it to my rss feeds.

But then I watched the commoncraft video explaining del.icio.us and it then made too much sense not to use it. That video was great, their site will be the first I tag. I won’t install the buttons on this computer as it’s a work one but when I get home tonight it will be the first thing I do. (Or maybe the second.) I also had a look at The Several Habits of Wildly Successful del.icio.us Users and found that very interesting as well. I’ll be tagging that site as ‘del.icio.us’ and ‘tips’ … I don’t really know what tags I should use but I’m sure I’ll get the hang of it.

I’m planning our travel arrangements for next year (we leave March 8th) and have come across a lot of potentially useful travel websites that I would like to look at again later. If I’d been a del.icio.us user then I could have tagged them and found them easily, wherever I was. But now I have to find them again and then tag them. I can see that del.icio.us will be a useful resource in the future.

I can also see how del.icio.us could be useful in the library. I’m not sure if tagging should replace dewey or LCSH just yet but I do know that kids these days understand the meaning of the word ‘tag’ more than they do the words ‘subject headings’. I think del.icio.us would mainly be useful for library staff to tag sites they use most with enquiries, similar to the rollyo searchroll tool, the tags would link to only the sites we have previously seen and know are authoritative. It could save time when helping customers and when using it personally.

Below is a video I found on the commoncraft website explaining what a zombie is and how to survive an encounter with one. And also, if you’re interested in zombies, I’ve also added my friends’ short film below that – Undead Ted.

#12 Finding music with Rollyo

At first I didn’t think I would find rollyo very useful. I’ve had a look at what some of the other staff here have done but it’s all knitting and cooking and things that don’t interest me a bit. I’m happy to search using google, sure I have my favourite websites that I like to use, but I don’t feel the need to combine them into one searchable engine.

That is until I had a look at some of the searchrolls that are on the explore searchrolls page. I saw a search for guitar tablature and then realised that this is a useful tool. I have many different sites in a folder in my favourites on my home computer that I often have to search one at a time when looking for the chords to a particular song. This searchroll would be useful to me! I had a quick try of it but found it’s missing some of the sites that I use regularly so I could make an even better one!!

I registered with rollyo and clicked on create searchroll. I copied the sites from the search I had just looked at but there were only 6 websites included in that search. I added some of my own and ended up with 17 sites. I think if I search for a song using Rollyo and I don’t find it, then at least I’ve saved a lot of time by not having to type it into each of the sites separately.

I can see how this tool would be useful in libraries. You could have searches for different subjects, or aimed at different user groups. At the moment we have a useful links link on the library website. This could easily be replaced by rollyo search boxes that include all the sites we currently have listed in each of the categories. The employment category search box could include all the major job sites in one (eg. My Career, Seek, jobsearch.gov.au, etc.)

Did I use too many links in this blog?

#11 The LibraryThing Thingy

I liked LibraryThing. It was easy to use and understand. I started by adding some of my favourite books and series and could easily spend a lot of time adding a lot more, which I may do later. At first I didn't really see the point of it. If I wanted to see what I had in my library I can check my shelf, everything is in order there and easy to find. Though after some playing around I decided that there was more to LibraryThing than just adding books. I quite liked the LibrarySuggester and the UnSuggester was interesting but a bit random. I think I'd like the Suggesters a bit more when I have more things in my library.

I already use a similar thing to the LibraryThing on my facebook page (Visual Library) which includes books that I'd like to read. It would be nice if there was a way on LibraryThing... I just realised I could probably add 'read' and 'unread' tags but I imagine that would take a lot of time. I'm not sure if LibraryThing will be something I continue to use in the future. I added random books from my library onto my blog. Not too random at the moment as I only have books from two authors in my library at the moment. I also added a search box to search my library on my blog. I had to adjust the size a little as it went off the page at first, but it's fitting nicely now.

While on LibraryThing I joined the group Librarians Who LibraryThing which looked like it had a lot of interesting topics and discussions. I'm sure when I have more time I will have a look at a few and possibly subscribe to the rss feeds that are available (am loving bloglines by the way!)

It would be nice to have a MusicLibraryThing. I do have a last.fm account which is great but to have my own music library online would be interesting. Is there a site that does that? If anyone that reads this knows - please comment.

#10 Generating images and wasting time.

I've spent a little time today working on task #10 playing with online image generators. I've found some good ones, but there are also some stupid ones. I liked the graffiti one above which was done at LetterJames Image Presonalisation. The picture below that was done at Church Sign Generators. I thought this was a good one to do, especially after seeing Chasers War on Everything last night do similar signs of their own.















Another one I looked at but didn't like was the Christmas Disaster Generator. That one was really just a waste of time. The Will Ferrell Movie Generator looked interesting but that got boring very quickly. It's amazing how many are out there and it would be very easy to spend a
lot of time playing on them. While looking at the Generator Blog I only made it down to "d" before stopping. There are just so many! The crossword generator looks fun (I've been known to make crosswords by hand in the past). I think I will actually use that one in the future.

So I guess next I will be having a look at the library thing. I probably won't get a chance to do that today because I should finish some work. I have a customer who wants to know the history of a brick that she has - yes, a brick. So I better get onto that. I will hopefully be back soon to write a quick blog about the Librarians. It's had some mixed reactions here at our library.