The Dovecot Studios

More Google

多くのツールがGoogle経由で利用可能驚くほど使いやすいです。which translates to "The many tools available through Google are amazingly user friendly". I have used this tool already several times in the library situation and also myself when I was researching an French artist - I needed to know what the title of his works were in English. It is such a quick and easy tool for translations.
Google calendar can be accessed from anywhere in the world. Libraries could make use of this tool to create a central point to assist all staff keep track of meetings, emails and reminders too. Access is via your gmail a/c so it's free and very easy to set up and add to. Book Club groups could also use this feature, combined with Google maps if the meetings of the club were at various locations.

Web Browsers

Where would we be without Web Browsers? They are the software tools we use to connect to the internet. There are many free downloads available out there. Each company's browser offers slightly different (and sometimes radically different with advanced users). These features can save lots of time and frustration so taking the time to get to know your particular browser is well worth the exercies. Google Chrome shows a simple design with technology which makes it much faster than Internet Explorer which I am using at the moment. Security is always an issue and it appears that Firefox offers a very secure browser and their add-ons are amazing. However, Internet Eplorer is the most compatible browser so it is a matter of considering what options you want from your browser and go with that one. It is good to know we have lots of choices.

Podcasts & audio

The beauty of podcasts is that anyone who has access to a computer, mp3 or mobile phone can make use of them. Podcasts would be of particular value to our library service in the area of local history. We have a large collection of local history collections available. A podcast presentation about these collections would be of assistance to locals and visitors alike, who are searching for information and where to go to get it.

Browsing through the podcasts, the Meditation Podcasts available on meditation.org.au caught my eye. This is presented by the Meditation Assn of Australia and has a huge selection of free podcasts ranging in duration from 6 minutes to 30 minutes. There are even podcasts for children. We can choose to either download the file, usually mp3 or there is a 'listen now' option.

Mashups

Mashups appear to be useful when specific information needs to be combined eg. addresses, maps, photographs etc. Mashups can be created in Flickr, YouTube, eBay and many more. I went to Mashupwards.com - filtered by category, I chose 'Art" and checked out 'Gimme Shiny' which is a JavaScript slideshow of today's popular images from sources such as Flickr, deviantART and FFFFound. While I'm not sure I would make use of these images right now, I can see how useful and time saving having a mashup site like this would be when you can search by category and see what's available.

Gogole Docs

Google Docs is a very impressive online application which improves collaboration with others to allow access to a central point. This would be a wonderful tool which will save time and energy however I still believe there needs to be human contact and one-to-one contact between participants. This seems to create a personal bond and understanding. However, in the case of meeting agenda for example, Google Docs and Zoho both provide a simple, quick forum 'prior' to the actual meeting. In the case where distance is a factor, this tool would be invaluable.

LibraryThing

Now I am in heaven. LibraryThing has given access to so many books and I can also look at other like-minded folks lists to check out other relevant books. This would be a handy tool to add to our Libary's online catalogue. It would assist with searching for new books by similar authors or on similar subjects - tags is a very simple tool, just click on the tag to find books on that topic. I can even add a widget that will display titles I have in my catalogue.

del.icio.us

Gosh, it just seems the technology out there gets better - to have learned about del.icio.us has allowed me to organise my bookmarks in a whole new way. Using this social bookmarking site, I can save bookmarks to a central site which I can access from any computer, anywhere! I also get the benefit of being able to see what others are bookmarking and can access new and relevant material from this one central point. It just makes the whole process much more orderly and efficient. Librarians can use this site as a collaborative online reference point, especially those of us going through the amalgamation process in Qld. It is exciting times and to be able to reference others bookmarks on similar topics from just one site is just so time saving and practical. I am also studying Visual Arts - must say I got lost in time checking out just what is here relating to my field of interest, saves me reinventing the wheel so to speak. I am so appreciative of having the opportunity to discover all this great technology and being able to apply it to my own special circumstances, both at home and hopefully, soon at work too.

challenging

RSS has been more of a challenge for me to use. Mainly because I don't allow a lot of time to check on bloglines. However, I can see the benefit of being able to choose particular bloglines to access quickly. Having them available at the click of the mouse is very handy. The time consuming part is that there is so many interesting ones to choose from and I simply doodle along looking at this and that and could spend most of my life reading all these interesting things. Do I really need to know all this information? The answer for me is no. But I do like to have the choice. From this exercise I have added 7 feeds to keep a tab on, and have found the OPAL training & Learning 2.0: 23 things you can do to become web 2.0 savy pretty interesting and above all useful.

Social Networks

Facebook has been a network I have used for some time. It is great to keep up with family and friend, especially with being able to see photos. Seems to be a great networking tool. As I am responsible for the childrens' storytime sessions at our library, I can see social networking, such as facebook or Ning, working very well. It could be a central point to go to, we could update our topics such as 'Pets', what craft activities we are doing, sites/books others recommend - it would be limitless. I will actually suggest setting up a network within our region which is made up of 11 libraries-large and small, to do just this. Why reinvent the whell when we can all work together and share resources and ideas?

I am enjoying the blog experience and have found so many wonderful blogs and ideas. A positive response to the devastating Victorian Bush fires can be found at http://ozgothquilts.blogspot.com/
a quilters group who are expressing their experiences or showing how they can be of assistance by exchanging or gifting quilts. Just shows how we can help in whatever small way we can.

wikis

One of the things I like about wikis is the collaborative aspect - anyone can add info without having to know the 'technical stuff'. And it's free. We just need to keep in mind is that everything is not necessarily 100% accurate. It may also be opn to spam etc. Wiki is a great tool to connect like-minded folk with common interests for sharing nowledge and to collaborate on special interest topics. I'm not sure I'm confident enough to set up my own DIY wiki. I have used Wikpedia heaps when researching but always verify the facts before using as a reference.

As our Regional Council libraries are about to amalgamate onto the one library system, wiki would be one way to communicate - perhaps by setting up procedure manuals on the "how to's and what if's". Wetpaint was interesting and is an easy, user-friendly way of communicating. Wiki has the advantage over blogging in that it is easily accessed by a group with common interests to form an online community.

Wow. I have just discovered to possibilities of "Flickr'ing! For those of you interested in family history and genealogy the Yarra Planty Genealogy site is a must - lots of links to lots of related sites. http://www.ypgenealogy.blogspot.com/. I am a keen tapestry weaver. I spent absolutely hours cruising the images and sites related to the topic. I also availed myself to the upload tool for photos for design ideas for future reference. Flickr is such a wonderful tool. I discovered places that have tapestries I have never known about. It would be very useful when researching for study or pleasure. Another online photo sharing community is Photobucket which offers image hosting, free photo sharing and video sharing. Some of the images are mind-boggling, some plain weird. Though I guess, like everything relating to the web, we have to keep in mind our sense of proportion. It is fun to browse though.

Wow. I have just discovered to possibilities of "Flickr'ing! For those of you interested in family history

Malanda Library

This is a big adventure for me. I consider myself to have fairly basic skills when it comes to the internet and have no experience with blogging at all. I am aware that there is a wealth of information and possibilities out there available to us all and am looking forward to learning how to best take advantage of this. It will be exciting to see just where this will take me and how much I can share with others. This is a wonderful opportunity to discover what this 'new' (to me) technology can offer, both in the workplace and personally as well