Working mum

Second Life & wrap up

2008-05-16T12:06:00.002+10:00

Wow I had never actually heard of Second Life and was blown away by it's concept and popularity. Kinda makes me sad though - why do so many people in the world feel they need a 'second life' or 'alter ego'. Are we that unhappy with what we currently have?
Anyway, enough of my deep and meaningful musings....

I'm not sure about using a social networking site for the library, maybe setting up a Facebook page could tap into that traditionally difficult teen market a little more but I think there are many other Web 2.0 features I would implement before going down this road.

Well, I've finished the course and really enjoyed it. I've got heaps of plans to get underway to start using some of these things I now know about, but in the immediate future at the very least I'll be able to offer much more help to any clients using the Library PCs for their Web 2.0 stuff!
The course was really well organised and I'd recommend it to any person of any position working in any library.

Go swannies!

2008-05-16T10:51:00.004+10:00

Yep, I'm a die hard Swans fans, my whole family is & have always been & will always be. It's almost the weekend so here's a fitting tribute.....

This video captures the mood of the 2005 Premiership win.
I WAS THERE!!!
3 Rows from the front!!!
Without a doubt absolutely one of the best days of my life!!!

And here's the best Club Song ever!

Monster Mashups!

2008-05-16T10:18:00.003+10:00

OK I've checked out all the mashups links & am stunned by how much available free software there is to get creative. This is definitely something I'd love my talented library assistant colleagues to get into more - I'm really over using Publisher for our fliers/handouts/pamphlets and I'm sure the girls are too. They could have some real fun with this stuff!!

Podcasts

2008-05-15T17:23:00.002+10:00

I'm thinking podcasts would be useful for library tours, staff induction, but this also makes these activities really impersonal. I love the thought of recording the stories that are read at storytime each week & putting on our kids webpage as a podcast but think the girls would shoot me at dawn if I suggested it! What about recording oral local history stories & putting them up on our website. I reckon these would generate heaps of interest.

Slammin!

2008-05-15T16:58:00.003+10:00

I think 'Slam the boards' is a brilliant concept for librarians to raise their profile as experts again. With more & more young students using the net for research as their first port of call, they seemed to forget that there is something called a 'book' which is full of the answers they need - and they need our help to locate it! I think answer boards are a great way to get librarians back in the spotlight again as experts in our field, but this time in an online environment.

Did that even make sense?? Sorry, had a late one last night & it wasn't even bubs fault!! I need a caffeine hit if I'm going to keep going with this today.....
I'm a tiny bit competitive & a couple of fellow staff completed this course yesterday so I'm out to prove I can get it done too!

Week 7

2008-05-15T16:19:00.002+10:00

Del.icio.us account up and running, with a link on this blog. I've only added a couple of bookmarks, have to build on that another time.
I'm really keen to set up a "Help Desk" Delicious page for our library, accessible from our staff intranet page. It won't be as detailed as Sutherland Libraries (woooo that was really cool!).

Videos - too many to view!

2008-05-08T18:57:00.003+10:00

How cute is this! For this gorgeous baby, dad going "ding" like a microwave is just the funniest thing ever!

After much ' serious' research on YouTube & Google video I chose this one for my blog. I searched for ages to get my all-time favourite scene from Sesame Street with the Cookie Monster in the Library "No cookies, just books!" but couldn't find a decent version to embed.

I had fun with this week's activities, but at the same time watched plenty of stupid videos that makes me wonder why people waste their time loading the videos up. Maybe I just don't see the funny side.....

Woohoo Wikis!

2008-04-30T15:28:00.002+10:00

I love wikis! Apart from Wikipedia I knew very little about them. I can see HEAPS of ways they can be used in my library.
Some wicked wiki ideas:

develop a wiki to communicate with branch libraries
intranet wiki for procedure manuals (this is my fave idea as it's my job to update all of these!)
use a wiki for specific projects (would have been brilliant to use for coordination with our young Living Books for our "Living Libraries" project just completed)
staff and client book reviews with a link to and from our existing website and catalogue

Now to join a wiki about being a new parent & balancing work and family....... maybe I should start my own!

RSS and all that....

2008-04-17T18:58:00.002+10:00

I found RSS feeds interesting but once again overwhelmed by the volume and scope of feeds available. It took me forever to settle on my 5 feeds and next I'll be tackling adding a couple of them to my own blog.
I have to agree that using RSS feeds at the moment seems to be adding more pressure to my time-poor existence, not reducing it. I really just want to have the one place to go that will deliver everything at my fingertips (email, news, photos etc) so having all these different accounts somewhere is confusing and time-consuming. Hopefully as I become more familiar I'll find a way to consolidate them all into a one-stop-web 2.0-shop.
In the library environment though, I'd love for my library's website to have an RSS feed available. It would be brilliant to promote events and new resources this way.

Thanks Naemick!

2008-04-17T18:51:00.004+10:00

The photographer of this gorgeous shot left me a comment to say he has kindly changed the copyright of the photo I chose last week. So now I can happily post it!

Bring on Week 4!

2008-04-09T15:06:00.004+10:00

I was surprised to find 167 photos of my hometown on Flickr and some of them were beautiful shots. Every image I looked at was Copyrighted though so here's a link to a nice shot of Hot Air Balloons taking off from one of our sports ovals during our 2007 La Festa (Easter Festival). Hope you like it!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/naemick/448885467/

2008-04-09T14:48:00.002+10:00

Well I've had a good look around Flickr and decided to add this picture. It seems to go with the flavour of my first post don't you think?

I did find a photo I preferred which had the most gorgeous cocker spaniel with her two brand new puppies but it had a full copyright on it. I'm still trying to get my head around Copyright vs. Creative Commons.

The volume of images available on Flickr just blows me away! I found it to be a huge time-waster. I think it's a brilliant backup strategy for personal photos, and an easy, inexpensive way to put photos and information about library buildings and events up there for the world to see.

2008-04-02T15:56:00.000+11:00

Life's a balancing act,

and the older you get, the more balls are in the air.

I've thought this for many years, but seriously before becoming a mum I had no clue! I've now ventured into the scary world of working motherhood, so this blog will detail some of my new 'challenges' as I learn to be a working mum.
What's with Web 2.0 anyway? I expected to return to work after taking time off to tend to my new baby, and have to be taught how to use the new photocopier, fax machine, and library system. The last thing I expected was to be completely unaware of a whole new way of using the Internet!
I've never emailed so much in my life as when I was on maternity leave (to the fabulous girls in my mothers group, thank you for keeping me sane), but between these snippets of outside life, singing lullabies,changing nappies, and playing peekaboo, it seems I missed a lot!
Hopefully this exercise will go some way to bridging the gap.....