#23 Summary of my Learning 2.0 Journey

I have had a lot of fun making new discoveries on the internet, it sure is a world wide web! My first highlight was to create a blog - what an achievement and easier done than I would have thought possible! I find it unbelievable that I have created, blogged, pasted, stored, tagged, bloglined, catalogued, flickrd, podcasted, uploaded, downloaded (and nearly anything else ending in ...ed) through this Learning 2.0 journey without needing html knowledge for any of it! I never thought this was possible either! Just how easy have they made it for us all - well dead easy if I can reach the end of it!!!

Or is it really the end? NO, definitely not. This is just the start of a journey of discovery for me. Lifelong learning is what it is all about, and thanks to this training program I have made a step in the right direction. No going backwards from here on in. Thank you to all those behind the scenes that made this learning journey possible for me and all my fellow library colleagues out there in "library land".

Not only has it helped me personally to use the internet to a greater capability than I did before, but I will also be wiser to library patrons who have specific needs where Web 2.0 can be of help.

The reknowned French physiologist, Claude Bernard, once said : "It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning." This is so true! I had thought using the internet on a daily basis that I was familiar with all that went on - well now I know that was not the case! I have learnt so much and aim to continue being a lifelong learner on a web 2.0 or web 3.0 or web 4.0 journey!

Good luck everyone on your journey also.

#22 Audiobooks

I had a look through Gutenberg's Audio e-Book Collection and was pleasantly surprised to find some children's literature amongst the titles available. For example, The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen, The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter and Rumpelstiltskin by Brothers Grimm, to name a few.

I couldn't then help but gravitate to the Historical Children's eBookseMovies site. There I found a pot of gold! I liked the way you could seperately search children's books, young adult books or my first book collection to gain the right level for the right child/person. I decided to look further into the Young Adult e-audiobooks but to my dismay I had to pay the subscription to listen! Nevertheless I enjoyed finding titles like Beowulf, Heidi, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and more.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

First of all I searched Yahoo Audio for a podcast on Paul Jennings and what do you know, I found one! Here it is :

http://www.audiofilemagazine.com/earshot/2007/07/undone-by-paul-jennings-read-by-stig.html

It is actually a reading from Undone!, narrated by Stig Wemyss.

Then I decided to go on exploring in Podcast.net and searched under library and children. On the second page of results I found childrensbookradio which is a podcast about children's books. Very relevant for me!!! So I decided to add the RSS feed into my bloglines account and naturally placed it under my Youth Literature folder, that I had previously set up.

As for relevance in the library situation, wouldn't it be great to have podcasts made of author talks (with permission of course!), parenting seminars, or other such events held in the library for people to taste after the event.

#20 You can YouTube

I find this video hosting site fun and interesting. Some of it is educational, some edutainment and other parts just downright funny!

During my exploration of YouTube I came across this advertisment for storytime at the McCracken County Public Library :


I hope you had a laugh like me!

On a more important note though, it just shows you how maybe we could be having YouTube videos to help with customer service in libraries. Maybe one on how to use the catalogue, or an advertisement for our much more interesting storytimes(!), how to use the online databases available via the website, etc. - I could just keep on brainstorming forever!

Another positive I liked about YouTube is how easy it was to search, thanks to tagging.

As a TAFE teacher, as well as a librarian, I now have a great avenue to get some lighthearted videos on relevant subjects to feed into a class as well. Adding another dimension and hopefully more enjoyment to some of my classes. If only I had of realised sooner!!!

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

For this discovery exercise I decided to check out Biblio.com which is an online directory, useful for sourcing used, rare, and out-of-print books. It does have some Australian content, but is an American based company situated in Asheville, North Carolina. Biblio.com guarantees a 100% satisfactory shopping experience including 100% transaction guarantee.

One of the things I loved about this website is that you can search just the rare books section and select from various categories such as signed books, rare military books, children's books (my area of interest), rare manuscripts & documents, and many more. A search of interest to me was for the book "Blueberries for Sal" by Robert McCloskey. I was interested in how valuable the first edition published in 1948 by Viking Press would be worth to purchase. Not only did it give me the price in American dollars but it also converted the amount to Australian dollars for me and outlined who the bookseller was, what condition the item was in, and a detailed description of the item with a little history, such as whether any repairs have been carried out on the material. When purchasing from this site you can opt for various shipping methods depending on how urgently the material is required and you can get an accurate costing on these various shipping options (both in American and Australian dollars).

I also did a general book search on Mem Fox and found 965 entries! Another great feature is that you can "filter" or narrow your search to signed copies only, very good condition only, first editions, paperback only , hardback only and even to certain costings that suit your budget. It even mentions if an item is ex-library stock!

In a library setting, I could find use for this when trying to source hard-to-find material for use in youth services. Not so much for general public usage (as we wouldn't often put second-hand stock on the shelves), but more for use in a specialist collection for youth services staff use. It would also be a handy website to access when a patron is trying to track down some hard-to-find, obscure title that isn't on our catalogue or unable to be located through inter-library loans. It would open up another option for them.

I am no expert on ranking websites, but I can see why it was a Web 2.0 award nominee for I found it very easy and friendly to use, as well as having a purpose in our world of literature.

#18 Web-Based Applications Continued

PICTURE FUN

 It's pretty cool once you know how!

 

 I am blurting at all those that thought I couldn't do it!

     I have enjoyed proving them wrong, in particular my brother!

 Most of this learning 2.0 has been as easy as a wink and a nod - almost!

 

  How beautiful learning new things!

 

 

Here's another Zoho Writer entry of mine which I published to my blog also.

Further thoughts on this application are:
What a great way of having access to certain documents or information no matter whether you are at home on your own PC, in a public library, at work or at a friend's house. The beauty is that as long as you have internet access, you don't need to worry if you don't have your disk, memory stick, etc. with you at the time. What a wonderful and flexible application at our fingertips!

#18 Web Based Applications

Introduction to Zoho Writer.

Welcome to my new experience with Zoho Writer!

 
I never new such a thing existed before, but now that I do, I will be able to help give those library customers using old pc's at home some new insight into how to export word documents with ease! Providing they have internet access of course! Then it may be dial-up - what a drama - all that time for money! Never mind, I am sure it will help some.

This was typed in Zoho Writer and then published to my blog. It was much easier than I expected.
To clarify my introductory comments : I am thinking that Zoho Writer would be a good option for those that have old Microsoft Word software when needing to email documents. They would not need to worry about the information not being compatible with the receiving PC.

#17 Playing Around With PBWiki

I, (like others I have noticed), found the instructions on adding my blog to the Favorite Blogs page a little confusing. Brackets and square brackets were both used to no avail. But nevertheless I persisted only to find no brackets at all were required. Just some pasting of my URL blog created the link required. (Once in Edit Page mode that is, after having logged in).

I hope this may help anyone else getting frustrated with this exercise!

I then went and added some favourite TV shows and found similarities with a few others, as well as adding some of my favourite music.

I look forward to playing in a sandbox even more, when I have a little more time on my hands eg. over the Xmas break!

#16 So What's In A Wiki?

Well obviously a lot!

I don't like the idea of wikis being uncontrolled in many circumstances, but then again, that is how they work to keep information current and comprehensive. It will certainly make me more wary when using these sites to obtain information for patrons, as the information could be quite subjective in some circumstances and possibly unsubstantiated in others!

However on a brighter note, what a wonderful way for libraries to be proactive in the world of Web 2.0 for the benefit of their patrons.

I think it would be wonderful in my own library to have a wiki where visitors could obtain information about the nearest accomodation places, or for locals that require emergency accomodation/housing. Both of which I have had to look into for people in the library and yet all the time spent was useful to only one patron, when I could have provided all that information into a library wiki that would have been on hand next time when required. Saving us all the time of searching all over again - probably by a different staff member! This is just one instance I can think of, but there are many more!

A book lover's wiki within libraries is great for people to peruse when looking for a new good read. What a wonderful idea from Princeton Public Library. When someone comes in and asks for suggestions on a great read, maybe I could refer them to a booklover's wiki so they may make their own informed decision about their reading choices without any prejudice or influence by library staff.

It is certainly making me think where and when a wiki would be handy when on desk at the library now!

#15 On Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

How amazing it is that all this was going on before my very eyes as I accessed the Web daily; and yet I had no idea of Web 2.0's existence before this e-learning journey of mine began thanks to Public libraries of Victoria-Learning 2.0 Program.

After reading a few of the eOCLC Next Space Newsletter articles a few things came to mind.

1. Yes - it is great to have all these extra resource sharing tools available to us all - whether we are librarians or not. And I certainly agree this can enhance the way public libraries, or in fact, all libraries deliver information services to their patrons.

2. I do believe, therefore, that libraries should embrace Library 2.0.

3. Even though Web 2.0 allows more up-to-the-minute information in some cases, I still think one will never be able to beat a book in the hand! As my eyes trudged through these eOCLC articles, I felt tempted to print them out to make it easier on the eyes. Am I alone? Or are there plenty of others who feel the same way? My guess is that I am not alone and that therefore our library existence is not as threatened as Rick Anderson in his article "Away from the Icebergs" suggests in his opening comments.

4. People can search Google, Del.icio.us, Technorati, Flickr, etc. but often they still can't do as good a job at fine-tuning their exact searches in a lot of cases as us library professionals who can combine our searching techniques and knowledge of Web 2.0. Have I just opened a can of worms? Feel free to comment!!!

#14 Technorati

After doing a basic search on "learning 2.0" in Technorati I found 6,548 posts on my search term. However I don't know that they were all entirely relevant! I also found 804 blogs in the same search, and 20 videos as well as heaps and heaps of photos. Interestingly, looking at some of the photos, they did not ALL look entirely relevant to "learning 2.0" either! However maybe this is because people have posted these photos as part of their e-learning on Web 2.0 and tagged it accordingly.

When I went into the Advanced Search section this is where I found the ability to not only search on tags, but also search URL's and the Blog directory.

When searching "learning 2.0" in the advanced section I got very different results. The number of posts reduced, and the number of blogs increased. Videos and Photos remained similar. In my tag search on "learning 2.0" I still found 655 posts.

However I thought I would try limiting my search like I do when Googling. That is, I put talking marks on either side of my search phrase, and the results were very interesting. I was able to limit the number of posts down to just 107. So through this exercise I have learned more exact searching of blogs than I thought would have been possible.

For a little fun, I thought I would see what there was on preschool storytime.

Here is an example of a preschool storytime video I found through using Technorati :

#13 del.icio.us

I am not quite sure why this would be tasty! However I can see it's usefulness in tracking regular sites no matter which computer you may be sitting at!

For my fun and exploration of del.icio.us, I decided to check out other library blogs. The tags column is located on the right, so I clicked on "Library Blogs". There were 8 items shown. I decided to select the 4th on the list ie. "Public Libraries - Blogging Libraries" to see if ERL (my own library service) had been listed. Scrolling through the very long list - there it was!!! I also found a couple of other Victorian Public Libraries, those being Yarra Plenty Regional Library and Casey-Cardinia Library Corporation.

However I was a little baffled at first about the second part of the exercise! Then I discovered that I needed to click on "saved by ... other people" to see posting histories and user notes.

I also discovered that beside this link, there was also a "to __________" link which does the same as though I had clicked on the name of the tag on the RHS of the del.icio.us webpage.

I could see myself finding this useful in a professional manner to track what was happening in the way of library programs in public libraries around the world, not to mention my personal interests that I could be tracking also through this bookmarking or tagging system.

My only concern would be as a cataloguer to adjust to free-form tagging when I am so used to having stringent rules!!!

#12 Roll on Rollyo!

Well I'm at it again! At this stage adding others search rolls is easier. But when I have a little more time, I will sit down and create my own. I have decided at this stage to start my own recipe search engine - as an avid cook, I am forever surfing the web for new recipes!

#11 Library Thing

Well this could be handy for those of us with a cataloguing fettish!
Library Thing is something new to me, but I can see potential for myself as a YSL as I start collating lots of storytime favourites. I wonder if I can start creating themes - nothing is impossible - I'll just need to keep playing to find out! How amazing if I could share theme ideas for storytime favourites on the web through Library Thing!

I have even been able to create my own Library Thing Widget!!! YEAH !!!