#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I chose biblio.com, a bookselling site for new, used & rare books. Sites like this and abebooks.com.au are really useful tools in the library. I've often shown patrons how to use these sites as a way for them to get hold of copies of out of print titles when they don't have time to wait for an ILL, or there isn't a copy available for ILL.

However, can I say that I think this whole Learning 2.0 is a trap for people with no willpower? Naturally I had to explore the site, so I searched for a book I've been discussing with the dovegreyreaders, an online group I'm a member of. We've been discussing Helen Thomas' books about her husband, the poet Edward Thomas. This has led some of us to buy the Carcenet Press edition of the memoirs called Under Storm's Wing. I read these books years ago & became fascinated with the friendship between Edward & the writer Eleanor Farjeon (she wrote the poem Morning Has Broken and lots of childrens books). Eleanor wrote a memoir of Edward too, and, what do you know, it's there on biblio.com at an Australian bookseller. What a temptation! Will I succumb? Watch this space. In the meantime, here are photos of Edward & Eleanor.

#18 Web-based Apps

I joined up with Zoho Writer and had a play with adding emoticons to text etc. I can see it would be useful if you wanted a group of people to collaborate on a document. It would save all that posting & emailing of drafts. Everyone could use a different colour to add their content. We've come a long way from typewriters with multiple carbons. Although, if there had been wikis & Zoho Writer around in Dorothy L Sayers' day, a vital plot point in her novel, Strong Poison, could never have happened. The nosy secretary (I've forgotten her name) in the pay of Lord Peter Wimsey, deliberately messes up a document she's typing so she has an excuse to stay back after the office is closed. She wants to snoop around for evidence and if she'd had word processing, the mistakes could have been fixed in no time. No opportunity for snooping! Fatal to the classic detective story.

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

I've had a bit of trouble with PBWiki. The link to the tour was broken, the tips weren't very helpful and I'm not sure I've added my blog to it properly because it doesn't look like the others. Where is the pipe supposed to go? The instructions on the ERL page don't mention a pipe, just square brackets.
I also added my experiences in rereading Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford to the Favourite Books section. All I can say is what's the point? Would anyone scroll through all that text reading about other people's favourite books? It's an incredibly boring looking site. Oh well, on with the next thing, I suppose. It can only get better from here.

#16 So what's in a wiki?

As opposed to my last post, I think this could be an ideal way to create a community with our patrons that will enhance their use of the library & the resources we can offer. I had a good look at our wiki & thought it was an excellent way to bring all our resources together & allow patrons some input. The book reviews feature will be really popular, as patrons enjoy reading library staff reviews so they'll enjoy contributing to the discussion. The layout is really clean & easy to navigate. It led me on to investigate Fiction Connection which is a great resource & AquaBrowser gives it a really attractive look. It will be great once the link to our catalogue is working. I also had a look at the Booklovers Wiki at Princeton Library & found a couple of mystery novels I hadn't heard of so it wasn't a wasted visit!

In honour of my rereading of Dorothy L Sayers this week, my pictures for this post are of DLS & her alter ego, Harriet Vane. They're totally irrelevant but I've remembered how to add pictures to the blog & I want to keep practising so I don't forget. And, anyway, DLS is always relevant.

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

This is something I have strong views on. All this new technology is potentially fantastic & will extend the reach of our library service & the number of patrons we can help. However, library reality has to first catch up to library fantasy. The majority of our library users are still looking for print materials for leisure reading and interests. I think there is a lot of potential for us to expand our online databases to allow remote access to reference materials & allow us to spend less money on hard copies. We're already doing this & it's been successful. But, the reservation queues for popular fiction & non-fiction, tell me that there are still many more patrons out there wanting to curl up with a book & a pot of tea. Academic & school libraries can utilise a lot of this technology for their users because study is their primary goal. Public libraries are different. So, while we need to start using our website & catalogue to make access to our resources as easy as possible with attractive layout; advanced searching covering all our print & online resources in one search; the ability for our staff & patrons to add their own content eg reviews; access to a wide range of online resources, I would hate to see the rush towards technology blind us to the fact that there are a lot of people out there looking for a good novel, or a cookbook. There are some experiences that a computer screen just can't replicate.

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

As a way of keeping up with the blogosphere, this could be a useful tool. On the other hand, the results can be so random as to be useless. I tried to search for Dorothy L Sayers, as I'm rereading some of her novels at the moment, and found mostly just mentions in totally unrelated posts. There was an interesting link to a youtube entry for the movie of Busman's Honeymoon, which I've never seen. I tried Advanced Search and broadened the search terms to English Mystery Novels eg, but found nothing. I was amazed that the top search of the moment is for something called Mocospace! No idea what this is. But, if you were intersted in what the world is blogging about, this is the place for you.

#13 Tagging, folksonomies and social bookmarking

Well, that was underwhelming! I don't have a problem with the way I keep track of my favourites now. I don't have hundreds of them, but I can find what I need. I registered with deli.cio.us, but couldn't load the buttons on the menu bar, which I knew would happen because of the security on the PCs. Social bookmarking doesn't interest me at all, so I'm afriad I don't really see the point of this thing at all.

I also think I should do this Library 2.0 first thing in the morning when I'm fresh rather than late in the afternoon when I'm getting tired.