#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning...

Well here I am at the end of my long trek through cyberspace. Just like the crew of the starship Enterprise I feel that I have explored new worlds and civilisations. Now I think I probably need to go back, take a closer look and spend some time getting to know the locals.

As an awareness raising exercise this program has been invaluable. I now understand terms which were meaningless to me a few weeks ago. There are so many exciting possiblities out there and I'm now prepared to explore some of these.

#22 Audio books

I've known about Project Gutenberg for a long time but I wasn't aware that you could also download audio books. I listened to "Peter Rabbit". The available titles all seem quite old but I guess that's because they're out of copyright. Then I wondered if more current titles were available. So I "googled" "The kite runner" and mp3. I rememberd a colleague saying that her son had downloaded this and there it was.

I'm sure downloadable audiobooks are the future. Imagine no more chewed up tapes and scratched discs!!! The only problem will be making it as easy for people (especially the elderly) to browse online as browse the shelves.

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

I found Podcast.net the most user friendly of the directories listed. My major difficulty, however, was that the network speed made actually playing the podcsats problematic.

I did find the sirsidynix site during one of my searches and it seems to have a huge variety of library related podcasts. It caught my eye as we use their Horizon libray management system. I added the feed to my Bloglines account and hope that I'll be able to get some of them to play.

http://sirsidynixinstitute.com/podcast.xml

#20 You too can YouTube

The most frustrating thing about YouTube is the time it takes for the video clip to start playing. The longer clips are almost impossible to access from a PC using dial up. Nevertheless I enjoyed the little clip below. Something we could do to keep ourselves amused on a quiet day!!!!

The library could use little clips for publicizing events or to train patrons and staff to use use new services.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwihz7iZlx0

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

I chose to look at http://www.begreennow.com/
It is very topical but then I discovered that it's American and so doesn't work for Australia. It would have been interesting to be able to calculate my carbon footprint.

I then found http://www.alldownloadgames.com/ and installed the jigsaws. It's a lot of fun, a bit like playing solitaire on your PC. But there is a catch. You only get a limited free trial and then you have to pay. Probably not very applicable to libraries but you could get addicted.

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

Zoho writer was just like using Word with a few extra features such as the smiley faces and most importantly being accessible anywhere. But I couldn't work out how to publish to my blog.

I wish I had known about Zoho when I had to turn away patrons wanting to access word processing because we haven't got word installed on our internet terminals. I wonder now whether the library shouldn't just direct users to web based applications from now on and not bother to install Office on our machines.


http://writer.zoho.com/jsp/home.jsp?serviceurl=%2Findex.do

#17 playing around with the PBWiki

After the usual diversions (because I don't seem able to follow instructions) this Trekkie has established an outpost on http://plcmclearning.pbwiki.com/Favorite%20Blogs. Not sure what I was supposed to do with the square brackets. Also not sure why my link is in a larger font.

#16 So what's in a Wiki?

Prior to doing this exercise my only experience of Wikis was Wikipedia, which I had found useful on occasion. I had been told that the information was not always reliable but had not understood why. Now that I know that the information can be changed and/or added to by anyone I understand the caution whilst acknowledging that this can also be a strength. However, librarians have always had to be mindful of the authority of the sources being used.

The obvious application for Wikis in the library context is for library users to contribute reviews of books they have read. This could be extended to the formation of Wiki book clubs, both general or specializing in a single genre or age-group. I also like the idea of community information eg clubs, services etc being available on a Wiki as all the information could be kept up to date by the organisations listed. Wikis would also be great for staff discussion and disemination of inhouse information. Genealogy, local history or other specialist subject Wikis could be hosted by libraries and would also allow the sharing of information as it is discovered.

Another exciting region of cyberspace for this Trekkie to explore!

#15 On Libray 2.0 and Web 2.0

Wow!!! What an amazing vision of the future. It gets more like Star Trek all the time. Worldcat will be the ultimate cataloguer's dream. It will mean that eventually everything will be avaiable to everyone.

I am sure that as the technologies develop and information explodes these visions will become a necessary and exciting reality, but they will require far more technologically savvy librarians than yours truly to implement them.

#14 Technorati

Watching those new entries appearing every few seconds is overwhelming.
I searched for "learning 2.0" in blogs, tags etc and yes the results are quite different. If I had unlimited time I'd read some of them.
Can't say I was impressed with BoingBoing. It all seemed very trivial. This Trekkie loves Doctor Who but I really don't care about Dalek cookies.
The tags list ranged from "Britany Spears" to "Iraq". I looked at some of the entries under "Iraq" and it seems to me that you really would want to know who is producing the information on such a serious topic. I guess that's where libraries could play a roll.

#13 Tagging, folksomonies and social bookmarking in Del.icio.us.

The more I try to digest del.icio.us the more I think I have mental indigestion. I think I understand that tagging is like good old subject headings without all the rules and retrictions, and I'm sure that if you are following a particular interest or area of research tags will give you access to huge amounts of information, but I can't see myself using this site.

#12 Rollyo

Rollyo would be very useful if you had a paricular interest or area of research and have several related favourite sites that you search regularly.


http://www.rollyo.com/blogtrek/

#11 LibraryThing

http://www.librarything.com/profile/BlogTrek

For one of the titles I added I couldn't find an exact match for the edition I have. It is useful to be able to try more than one source for a record.

#10 Play around with image generators

Images are a whole new universe for this Trekkie to explore.

http://www.glassgiant.com/rocket/?l1=BlogTrek&size=large

#9 Finding feeds

All of the search tools had fairly straight forward searching but the sheer number of possibliities is almost overwhelming. I was amazed to see new blogs continually appearing on technocrati. It seems to me that you could get an awful lot of rubbish by subscribing indiscriminately to blogs, but it would be great for keeping up with reputable sources if only you had time to read them all. I liked being able to access RSS feeds from Ebsco. I had not been aware that this was possible.

http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs

#8 Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader

I can see how bringing everything together automatically in one place makes life simpler. I can even see how libraries could use this technology to keep up with new releases or ever changing information on any subject you care to name. But, to go back to my theory that what can be imagined will one day be invented, I think I need a direct RSS feed into my clunky human brain.



http://rpc.bloglines.com/blogroll?html=1&id=1902hls@tpg.com.au

#7 Blog about technology

I worked in school libraries for many years. I remember the first computers we had in the school were Dick Smiths, which used cassette tapes, and allowed you to move a few "green things" around the screen. Then we moved on to Apple Macs and later PCs. Eventually I convinced the powers that be that we should computerize the library. It was purely a circulation system and we had to back up each night on floppy disks. Then we upgraded to a proper library management system, and with great glee, I pulled out the rods and upended the catalogue drawers. Thousands of cards cascaded into the rubbish bins. What a long way we've come in a very short time!

#6 More flikr fun

After exploring the various fascinating things you can create using flikr, I decided to make a trading card using a 1906 photo of my library found on the National Library site. So with many digressions and false starts I've managed to navigate my way through and post it on the general flickr account.

#5 flikr

What an amazing tool for organising and sharing the literally thousands of photos those of us who have moved into the realm of digital cameras have now aquired. I think it would be particularly useful to show off your holiday pics without clogging up the recipient's email and it would be interesting to read their comments. I am impressed that it is possible to restrict
access to people who have been invited.

Blast off!! Post #4 Register my blog

Well here I am in cyberspace ready to go where this librarian has never gone before. I have this theory...if someone can imagine developments in technology it will turn into reality one day. As a Star Trek fan I was always intrigued by their neat little communications badges. Now it seems my mobile phone has just about reached that standard. So, "Beam me up Scotty".