21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I began by shuffling around www.podcastalley.com as got nowhere on the links for the other 2 directories, but there is no shortage of them on the net. I added one to my bloglines from their latest addition called "letters vs numbers" new and classic songs. Moved onto the ultimate in boredom which was the "Great book audio-a chapter a day". I am not overly excited by podcasts as I find I am too easily distracted from audio without an accompnying visual effect. I suppose they could be used in libraries to provide something instructional to the customer. Bombard their eardrums until they give in and join in the activity or club oreganised to meet on a particular day. But, make sure whoever does the talking passes the no mumble/squeaky voice test.

20 You too can YouTube

Found on You Tube and earlier on the Today Show

Possibly not OH&S compliant but, what a saving for libraries. No more expensive trolleys just employ staff with flat heads and super strong necks. You Tube has stuff on just about anything. Found a some live footage of Neil Young singing "Heart of Gold" from 1971.

Enjoy some music from the decade that was music.

19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I started with travel in the hope that Farecast was going to provide a a cheap ticket to Cairns. The best it could do was $574 so i will try again another day.
next was Fun stuff and One Sentance failed to provide any interesting sentances but Comiq could be a bit of fun if you ever feel creative enough to make a comic strip. Understandable that tools such as Google Docs, Flickr, Del.icio.us rate so highly. I finished with a look at Lulu as it was number one. It was frustratingly slow and didn't have any Australian sports artwork but seemed to have a great range of information and tools for assisting those able to put a manuscript together and actually want to market it. Also, interesting top one hundred titles number one this week is "A collective history of Linthicum Heights".

18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Zoho Writer is a simplified version of microsoft word set into the web environment. It has a good range of functions but, I couldn't make the table size I wanted, adding a layer to the document is handy but couldn't find a way of moving it from front to back of text. The help functions are non existent. When posting my document of useless bit and pieces it rejected my attempts. Google docs seems more inviting. The useful application of these documents is the fact that they can be emailed, recieved and opened without caring if its a doc, docx, odt or whatever.

17. Add an entry to the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki.

My entry appears on the "favorite vacation spots" page and reflects on my disappointment at not returning to a small Island off Thailand called Koh Samat. The history of the page shows prior to me it was updated by Peta on september 19 2008. It was easy to add to the wiki and look forward more wiki fun.

16. Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them.

Wiki Wiki Where is the wiki?

Great tool for website creation for all of us who prefer english over computer speak.
We can set up a wiki to share information on just about anything with whoever and have it edited by everyone or protected and edited by the select few.
The examples provided are basically American, highly organised with a multitude of people supplying a lot of interesting stuff.
Checked out Library Success: A best practices wiki which includes the latest conference and profesional information as well as a range of advise on library services such as the provision of library programs, readers advising and reference services.
These examples do demonstrate a wide range of uses for wikis including the provision of a community wiki. The cons are also covered in the resources such as spam and malicious users.
The wiki must meet a purpose and be useful and that will determine many things such as the level of protection it requires.

15. Read a few perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries and blog your thoughts.

The five perspectives provide a unified vision of change. Libraries will need to develop along a new and challenging model.
Many of the old practices and attitudes need to go and make way for the emerging technologies such as Web 2.0.
Our patrons will need and expect ACCESS to virtually everything in a social, attractive, learning environmentthat providing the tools of useful technologies for collaboration and discussion.
There is no doubt libraries are on the cusp of change and we need to be amongst those who succeed.
Libraries have left behind card catalogues and date stamps for computerised cataloguing and circulating systems. The next step in opening up the world of information provision and interaction between customers and library professionals is here.

14. Explore Technorati and learn how tags work with blog posts.

Technorati is a huge gathering point for people to express their opinion on self made blogs that can include chit chat on any kind of topic. Technorati enables you to find that blogger blabbing about what you want to talk about.
Useful to know there are 6455 blogs on fishing with 17071 posts that have a tag fishing. That can lead you into the other useful posts on related tags such as
fish,
fishes,
traffic,
hunting,
fly fishing,
camping,
bass fishing,
ice fishing,
outdoors,
trout fishing
But, if your passion is korfball you have a choice of only 27 blabbing bloggers. Technorati keeps you up todate with what is the most popular search, what has been added to the most favourites and what is the most authoritive authority by looking at all links from unique blogs from the past 6 months.

#13 Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

Delicious is the most popular social bookmarking site. It offers the following.
Viewing bookmarks by tag or cloud
Viewing bookmarks alphabetically or by frequency
Viewing bookmarks by tag. Tagging is a much better organizational tool than folders.
Tag each bookmark with one word descriptions.
Create bundles or groupings of bookmarks. These bundles can have their own tags.
Subscribe to particular tags or users. This will create an alert when a new bookmark has been created with that tag or from a particular user.
At the PLCMCL2 account "Library 2.0" is a tag bundle including the tag tutorials which includes a range of bookmarks some with comments. See delicious see http://www.brimbanklibraries.vic.gov.au/