AARGH! I have just spent an entire day reading about how to get my website to go from "Trang chủ" to "Trang chủ". Did you know that the version of MySQL that I'm using is non-Unicode compliant? I did, I discovered it last week. I thought that this wouldn't cause too much grief, a random tag here and there not changing or something. I didn't realise that it meant that I could not translate ANY frigging headings/labels/site names/etc. I've got NCRs all over the place (no, I don't know what NCR means, something character something probably, I just know that the ủ thing is an NCR, &# defines it's an NCR, the number is the actual unicode code for the letter and the ; closes it off).
Anyways, what I have to do is convert the entire database into a new format (a unicode compliant one) which sounds like it'll be a nightmare. I read quite a number of articles on how to do it and usually got stuck after it said "step one". Ah well.
On a lighter note, all of you who are using RSS feeds will have just been re-sent ALL of my blog posts. Why this is I do not know, but har har.
Happy Festivus all! It's the festival for the rest of us!
Monday, December 17, 2007
Joomla! content management system
Everyone lately seems very smitten with OpenSource software. I understand the lure, it's free and your support comes from the people who use and mantain it, not from the most holy of holies, the programmer.
I recently became one half of the Online Community Development Officer and, as such, have been having a bit of a look at OpenSource Content Management Systems (CMS). We are planning to use Joomla!.
Joomla is supposedly great. It does everything from a to z and will even wash the dishes (ha!). In reality I'm finding some quite critical flaws in it. The biggest flaw for me is it's un-Unicodeness. I don't know to what level of compliance it currently has, but it's not 100%. I read somewhere that the next version will be fully compliant but, well, I'm not using that one! It's not even doing some Vietnamese characters correctly. Liên lạc ended up as Li?n lạc. Also, the ạ went odd, in the title bar of the page it displays with the coding instead of the character.
Another bad thing is the difficulty in actually putting content into it. I don't know if it's just because I'm used to a different system that has a tree structure, but it's quite difficult for the novice to just enter the stuff they need...and why do they need different terminology to everyone else???
The good things though are very good. I am very easily able install new components that have been designed by others. I even created my own component by following the steps (so now my webpage searches my library catalogue directly). And there are a LOT of components out there that I can download, sometimes I think a few too many (because I don't really know what is good and what isn't). So now I have a website with Google maps, LibraryThing things and an events calendar. A pity it's still in super-beta (alpha?) so I can't show you all...and I'm pretty proud that it translates three words on the site into Vietnamese (hey, I'm getting there).
Hope this doesn't bore you too much until next week! I'll try and be less technical then.
I recently became one half of the Online Community Development Officer and, as such, have been having a bit of a look at OpenSource Content Management Systems (CMS). We are planning to use Joomla!.
Joomla is supposedly great. It does everything from a to z and will even wash the dishes (ha!). In reality I'm finding some quite critical flaws in it. The biggest flaw for me is it's un-Unicodeness. I don't know to what level of compliance it currently has, but it's not 100%. I read somewhere that the next version will be fully compliant but, well, I'm not using that one! It's not even doing some Vietnamese characters correctly. Liên lạc ended up as Li?n lạc. Also, the ạ went odd, in the title bar of the page it displays with the coding instead of the character.
Another bad thing is the difficulty in actually putting content into it. I don't know if it's just because I'm used to a different system that has a tree structure, but it's quite difficult for the novice to just enter the stuff they need...and why do they need different terminology to everyone else???
The good things though are very good. I am very easily able install new components that have been designed by others. I even created my own component by following the steps (so now my webpage searches my library catalogue directly). And there are a LOT of components out there that I can download, sometimes I think a few too many (because I don't really know what is good and what isn't). So now I have a website with Google maps, LibraryThing things and an events calendar. A pity it's still in super-beta (alpha?) so I can't show you all...and I'm pretty proud that it translates three words on the site into Vietnamese (hey, I'm getting there).
Hope this doesn't bore you too much until next week! I'll try and be less technical then.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Pharos - Print management for patrons
I like Pharos. I've used to work for a place that wrote all of the internet bookings on a big arsed piece of paper and then took money at the desk for each printout. If someone claimed they hadn't had their allocated internet time then they would bitch and moan and generally annoy others.
Enter Pharos.
Pharos allows patrons to make their own internet bookings. Currently they can do it from our internal catalogue (looks the same as our external catalogue but doesn't show web results) but not our external catalogue. I think that the reason it's not external yet is due to the fear that it might not work and then people will expect us to make it work (bad excuse I know).
Pharos controls the length of time a person can use the computer (you can have a maximum of an hour service-wide, that means you can have 60 one minute sessions or one hour session) and gives warning when time is nearly up. It also allows us to specify which computers have which length (multimedia PC = one hour, quick internet = 15 minutes) and lets patrons book their own session or just hop on to a free PC.
Pharos also controls the printing. Patrons can put money onto their card via a coin loader (or we can do it at the desk for them) and then, when they print, it subtracts money based on what we tell it. It stores the print jobs in a queue that the patron has to release themself (they scan their barcode on a machine next to the photocopier and enter their pin number). This also means that Pharos controls photocopies, you just scan the card and tada, you can photocopy.
Bad things from my point of view - it doesn't allow you to set limits for branches currently. ie if we set an hour limit, it is service wide. I cannot set an hour limit at Deer Park and then a two hour limit for the Word Processor and have them seperate. It also means we have no coin boxes at our photocopiers so that we have to put money on to a card every time someone wants to photocopy. Similarly, there's no 'guest' login for tourists (although we have a bunch of 'guest' card numbers that we give to patrons on a little slip of paper).
I know there's a whole bunch of these out there, some are better than others. I quite like Pharos (although I find the interface to actually book a computer a bit confusing).
That's all til next week!
Enter Pharos.
Pharos allows patrons to make their own internet bookings. Currently they can do it from our internal catalogue (looks the same as our external catalogue but doesn't show web results) but not our external catalogue. I think that the reason it's not external yet is due to the fear that it might not work and then people will expect us to make it work (bad excuse I know).
Pharos controls the length of time a person can use the computer (you can have a maximum of an hour service-wide, that means you can have 60 one minute sessions or one hour session) and gives warning when time is nearly up. It also allows us to specify which computers have which length (multimedia PC = one hour, quick internet = 15 minutes) and lets patrons book their own session or just hop on to a free PC.
Pharos also controls the printing. Patrons can put money onto their card via a coin loader (or we can do it at the desk for them) and then, when they print, it subtracts money based on what we tell it. It stores the print jobs in a queue that the patron has to release themself (they scan their barcode on a machine next to the photocopier and enter their pin number). This also means that Pharos controls photocopies, you just scan the card and tada, you can photocopy.
Bad things from my point of view - it doesn't allow you to set limits for branches currently. ie if we set an hour limit, it is service wide. I cannot set an hour limit at Deer Park and then a two hour limit for the Word Processor and have them seperate. It also means we have no coin boxes at our photocopiers so that we have to put money on to a card every time someone wants to photocopy. Similarly, there's no 'guest' login for tourists (although we have a bunch of 'guest' card numbers that we give to patrons on a little slip of paper).
I know there's a whole bunch of these out there, some are better than others. I quite like Pharos (although I find the interface to actually book a computer a bit confusing).
That's all til next week!
Monday, December 3, 2007
LibraryThing for Libraries
Whilst doing statistics in Amlib (my Library's management system), I found some data corruption and decided to fix it. Deciding to update the 50,000 borrowers listed as belonging to Sunshine all at once was probably not my smartest ever idea. Due to this, I now have quite a bit of time to kill whilst the system does its thang.
I am lucky enough to be in charge of Amlib at Brimbank. I get to do exciting things like running reports, pulling out statistics and deciding whether or not we have the ability to do x, y or z. I also have the lovely task of fixing it when I screw it up (not if). Due to this, I went to an Amlib usergroup meeting last week at Cheltenham Library.
One of the items I was fascinated with was integrating LibraryThing data into our online catalogue. The demonstration by Kingston Library was VERY impressive. For quite a low cost, LibraryThing will show various 'user-created' items such as tags and links to similar items. This wasn't that impressive (Global Books in Print will do that). What was impressive is that it will only show similar books that are already held by the library. I honestly can't remember if it did this by searching the catalogue for the books (z39.50 protocol) or by uploading a list of the books each week. If it's a list of the books then I might have to get off my arse and get the LibrariesAustralia deletions working (don't ask, LibAust irritate me sometimes).
If you're interested in having a look, head to the Kingston Library Catalogue and perform a title search for the book jPod. If you click on the title of the book, you will be taken to the full catalogue record which SHOULD load the LibraryThing data. Unfortunately Kingston's catalogue is rather slow so it may take you a while to get there (and then, today, it wouldn't load the LibraryThing data). Impressive nonetheless.
I am lucky enough to be in charge of Amlib at Brimbank. I get to do exciting things like running reports, pulling out statistics and deciding whether or not we have the ability to do x, y or z. I also have the lovely task of fixing it when I screw it up (not if). Due to this, I went to an Amlib usergroup meeting last week at Cheltenham Library.
One of the items I was fascinated with was integrating LibraryThing data into our online catalogue. The demonstration by Kingston Library was VERY impressive. For quite a low cost, LibraryThing will show various 'user-created' items such as tags and links to similar items. This wasn't that impressive (Global Books in Print will do that). What was impressive is that it will only show similar books that are already held by the library. I honestly can't remember if it did this by searching the catalogue for the books (z39.50 protocol) or by uploading a list of the books each week. If it's a list of the books then I might have to get off my arse and get the LibrariesAustralia deletions working (don't ask, LibAust irritate me sometimes).
If you're interested in having a look, head to the Kingston Library Catalogue and perform a title search for the book jPod. If you click on the title of the book, you will be taken to the full catalogue record which SHOULD load the LibraryThing data. Unfortunately Kingston's catalogue is rather slow so it may take you a while to get there (and then, today, it wouldn't load the LibraryThing data). Impressive nonetheless.
Monday, November 26, 2007
I won!!!!!
I won! I won!
فزت!
我赢了!
Ooh, and the page even does non-Roman script. How good is today?
Just to gloat a bit further, I just won a joystick, dual controls and steering wheel control set from the Learning 2.0 program. I have not a clue what that really means and I think I may possibly have to 'acquire' some kind of computer game to play it (not that I am condoning piracy of course). I'll take a pic and post it when I get it :)
فزت!
我赢了!
Ooh, and the page even does non-Roman script. How good is today?
Just to gloat a bit further, I just won a joystick, dual controls and steering wheel control set from the Learning 2.0 program. I have not a clue what that really means and I think I may possibly have to 'acquire' some kind of computer game to play it (not that I am condoning piracy of course). I'll take a pic and post it when I get it :)
Are you free Mrs Slocombe?
In my last post, someone left a comment about libraries having Mrs Slocombe type people. For those of you who don't know, Mrs Slocombe was woman in a show called Are You Being Served? (and it's crappy sequel, Grace and Favour). She was rude and rather arrogant and always thought she knew better than the customers.
Unfortunately this seems to be a common stereotype of librarians. Imagine a tiny little old woman with her hair in a bun. A nice calming stereotype. Then ensure that she's a Nazi sadist and that's what some people think of librarians.
When I tell people that I'm a librarian they somehow feel guilty. It is as if, by telling them I'm a librarian, I am secretly saying "YOU DON'T READ AND I CAN TELL BECAUSE I KNOW ALL OF YOUR DIRTY SECRETS YOU EVIL LITTLE NON-READER". I'll often get the 'oh I last went to a library in 1942 and still have the book out' or 'oh I never go to a library, I like to buy my books' or, worst of all, 'oh, a librarian, do you know the book Life as a Vapor as it changed my life and of course you've read it because you're a librarian and...what? You don't know it? How come? It won the Mumphmudge Prize for Literature' thus making me feel as if I've failed in my many years of librarianing because I haven't read some obscure book on the development of my soul.
Oops, lost my point...stereotypes. I wonder if we're the only profession with our panties in a twist over the stereotype of us? As a whole I don't think it's TOO bad (a helpful little old woman is a nice stereotype...of course the evil school librarian stereotype isn't so good, nor is the stereotype that because you have an overdue book we are going to beat you with encyclopædias if you ever step into our library).
Anyways, what does everyone think about our stereotypes?
Unfortunately this seems to be a common stereotype of librarians. Imagine a tiny little old woman with her hair in a bun. A nice calming stereotype. Then ensure that she's a Nazi sadist and that's what some people think of librarians.
When I tell people that I'm a librarian they somehow feel guilty. It is as if, by telling them I'm a librarian, I am secretly saying "YOU DON'T READ AND I CAN TELL BECAUSE I KNOW ALL OF YOUR DIRTY SECRETS YOU EVIL LITTLE NON-READER". I'll often get the 'oh I last went to a library in 1942 and still have the book out' or 'oh I never go to a library, I like to buy my books' or, worst of all, 'oh, a librarian, do you know the book Life as a Vapor as it changed my life and of course you've read it because you're a librarian and...what? You don't know it? How come? It won the Mumphmudge Prize for Literature' thus making me feel as if I've failed in my many years of librarianing because I haven't read some obscure book on the development of my soul.
Oops, lost my point...stereotypes. I wonder if we're the only profession with our panties in a twist over the stereotype of us? As a whole I don't think it's TOO bad (a helpful little old woman is a nice stereotype...of course the evil school librarian stereotype isn't so good, nor is the stereotype that because you have an overdue book we are going to beat you with encyclopædias if you ever step into our library).
Anyways, what does everyone think about our stereotypes?
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Non-Learning 2.0 posts!
Well I've finished Learning 2.0 and I'm going to try and post semi-regularly (unlike Zoya who is posting daily).
This post is actually going to be along the same lines as what Zoya has been posting this week on her blog Zoyasstuff, it is going to be about getting patrons to serve themselves instead of being chained to us.
At Sydenham Library we have implemented self-check units so that patrons can issue items to themselves. This isn't a new concept, I've worked with them at a few libraries (from Narre Warren library where it was a computer in the line at the circulation desk and people had to queue past it, to a private library in Sydney which is unstaffed and had 100% self checkouts). What seems to be the new concept is moving away from the idea of forcing our customers to come to us to be served. Staff seem to be very resistant to this. And it's not that they're resistant to self-checkout, they're resistant to making the customers use it at the cost of using us.
I see both sides of the argument. I've worked in customer service. I liked working in customer service. In fact I take pride on the fact that I can converse with pretty much anyone whilst working in a library (apart from Evil Gypsy Woman of course).
Arguments against forcing patrons to do self-checkout.
- Not everyone wants to do it. Some people are very resistant to the technology and would rather go to the desk. Some just would like a chat.
- We lose the personal touch of physically eyeballing all of our patrons.
- The technology doesn't always work.
Arguments for forcing patrons to do self-checkout.
- It reduces queues. It is cheaper to have 6 self-checkout machines than 6 staff members. In fact, it's cheaper to have 6 self-checkout machines for a year than 3 staff members.
- It gives people more autonomy in what they are borrowing. Although we encourage people to borrow anything, how many people really want a librarian seeing that they are borrowing a book on erectile dysfunction or divorce?
- The staff are not always as approachable as we make ourselves out to be.
See, my three points play off against each other.
Not everyone wants to do it, but most people don't want queues. We lost the personal touch but people don't always want that (and I'll comment on the personal thing below). The technology doesn't always work but, then again, neither do the staff.
With the personal touch thing (which, personally, I think is the biggest issue with forcing people to do self check), this can be acheived in other ways. Staff who are not forced to sit at a desk and wait for people to come to them can be utilised in other ways. Firstly, station someone near the self-check machines to talk to people as they use them. It is like the idea of a 'library greeter', someone whose job is to greet people as they enter the library and direct them to places, except that this person would be able to deal with the machines not working and take money for fines. Also, if someone wanted a staff member to issue their items for them, they can walk to the self-check machine and do that.
Why not roster staff to monitor different areas of the library? Instead of being at a desk, staff could wander around offering help to people who look lost and just generally talk to people (it looks like you're borrowing A Wizard of Earthsea, did you know she has a new book out?). We'd have to teach staff to do this well, we don't want them harrassing people! Also, to make staff approachable in this way (and to differentiate them from customers), we'd need some kind of uniform.
Also, just so people know it does work, the private library I mentioned above is in a member's only club in Sydney. The library is open 24 hours a day and is unstaffed. Most of the members are men aged 50+ and are resistant to using computers. Previously the members wrote their membership number and the number of the book in a little booklet and this was used to ensure everyone returned their books. When they went to using a self-checkout system, there was quite a bit of resistance but, after a while, the members saw the benefits of simply scanning a barcode (much easier than writing it in all honesty). Although there are some members who would rather the good old days, in general takeup was good and it did wonders for advertising the library to the rest of the members (look at the wonderful things they are doing, come have a look at their resources, etc etc etc).
There, I think I've written enough for today. Comments are appreciated, like Zoya, I like hearing everyone's opinion.
This post is actually going to be along the same lines as what Zoya has been posting this week on her blog Zoyasstuff, it is going to be about getting patrons to serve themselves instead of being chained to us.
At Sydenham Library we have implemented self-check units so that patrons can issue items to themselves. This isn't a new concept, I've worked with them at a few libraries (from Narre Warren library where it was a computer in the line at the circulation desk and people had to queue past it, to a private library in Sydney which is unstaffed and had 100% self checkouts). What seems to be the new concept is moving away from the idea of forcing our customers to come to us to be served. Staff seem to be very resistant to this. And it's not that they're resistant to self-checkout, they're resistant to making the customers use it at the cost of using us.
I see both sides of the argument. I've worked in customer service. I liked working in customer service. In fact I take pride on the fact that I can converse with pretty much anyone whilst working in a library (apart from Evil Gypsy Woman of course).
Arguments against forcing patrons to do self-checkout.
- Not everyone wants to do it. Some people are very resistant to the technology and would rather go to the desk. Some just would like a chat.
- We lose the personal touch of physically eyeballing all of our patrons.
- The technology doesn't always work.
Arguments for forcing patrons to do self-checkout.
- It reduces queues. It is cheaper to have 6 self-checkout machines than 6 staff members. In fact, it's cheaper to have 6 self-checkout machines for a year than 3 staff members.
- It gives people more autonomy in what they are borrowing. Although we encourage people to borrow anything, how many people really want a librarian seeing that they are borrowing a book on erectile dysfunction or divorce?
- The staff are not always as approachable as we make ourselves out to be.
See, my three points play off against each other.
Not everyone wants to do it, but most people don't want queues. We lost the personal touch but people don't always want that (and I'll comment on the personal thing below). The technology doesn't always work but, then again, neither do the staff.
With the personal touch thing (which, personally, I think is the biggest issue with forcing people to do self check), this can be acheived in other ways. Staff who are not forced to sit at a desk and wait for people to come to them can be utilised in other ways. Firstly, station someone near the self-check machines to talk to people as they use them. It is like the idea of a 'library greeter', someone whose job is to greet people as they enter the library and direct them to places, except that this person would be able to deal with the machines not working and take money for fines. Also, if someone wanted a staff member to issue their items for them, they can walk to the self-check machine and do that.
Why not roster staff to monitor different areas of the library? Instead of being at a desk, staff could wander around offering help to people who look lost and just generally talk to people (it looks like you're borrowing A Wizard of Earthsea, did you know she has a new book out?). We'd have to teach staff to do this well, we don't want them harrassing people! Also, to make staff approachable in this way (and to differentiate them from customers), we'd need some kind of uniform.
Also, just so people know it does work, the private library I mentioned above is in a member's only club in Sydney. The library is open 24 hours a day and is unstaffed. Most of the members are men aged 50+ and are resistant to using computers. Previously the members wrote their membership number and the number of the book in a little booklet and this was used to ensure everyone returned their books. When they went to using a self-checkout system, there was quite a bit of resistance but, after a while, the members saw the benefits of simply scanning a barcode (much easier than writing it in all honesty). Although there are some members who would rather the good old days, in general takeup was good and it did wonders for advertising the library to the rest of the members (look at the wonderful things they are doing, come have a look at their resources, etc etc etc).
There, I think I've written enough for today. Comments are appreciated, like Zoya, I like hearing everyone's opinion.
Friday, October 26, 2007
#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...
I've finished. Woo!
Reflections:
RSS rocks for work-purposes! I was never able to understand what it could really be used for or anything...I love it! I leave it open in a FireFox tab whilst I'm working and check it twice a day (or more if I'm a bit bored).
Blogging is interesting. I tried taking my blog a few different ways and someone had a criticism about each of them (one rather public one too). The only one that everyone seemed to like was me gossiping about myself and I'd run out of ideas too quickly...I'm just not that interesting (although I have to admit that yes, I am the father of Hooba-Jooba Spears, Britney and I did the deed and now I'm forced to pay maintenance to her even though she earns a squillion dollars and I am a public librarian). Honestly I don't think my blog will continue much longer after this program, I'll try...but I couldn't even keep a diary (and I've tried that too). Maybe I should set a time aside once per week to write what I've done and learnt, someone might care (or not).
I've also learnt that history is more interesting than blogs. Out of all the blogs I've read for this program, this is by far my favourite.
Criticisms:
The way that we ran the program left some staff disinterested. I know that we're only half way through the program currently, but there are a number of staff who have made their blog and nothing else (or not even made their blog). Finding time in each day to do the activities is very difficult. Personally I did a lot of the work and readings at home. I think it may have been better if we'd organised some 'groups' of people to go off-desk at the same time and do the activities together. This would have motivated people more and also stipulated a time where they could 'play'.
Part time library staff are also at a big disadvantage, it's difficult to do all of these activities in 15 minutes a day when you work 2 days per week and the entire shift is spent on the desk.
Congratulations:
I'd like to congratulate everyone who made this program possible, especially Helene Blowers for putting it together and Lynette Lewis for going through the 800 or so blogs each week. I'd also like to congratulate anyone who has attempted any of this, just think of all the things you've learnt!
Reflections:
RSS rocks for work-purposes! I was never able to understand what it could really be used for or anything...I love it! I leave it open in a FireFox tab whilst I'm working and check it twice a day (or more if I'm a bit bored).
Blogging is interesting. I tried taking my blog a few different ways and someone had a criticism about each of them (one rather public one too). The only one that everyone seemed to like was me gossiping about myself and I'd run out of ideas too quickly...I'm just not that interesting (although I have to admit that yes, I am the father of Hooba-Jooba Spears, Britney and I did the deed and now I'm forced to pay maintenance to her even though she earns a squillion dollars and I am a public librarian). Honestly I don't think my blog will continue much longer after this program, I'll try...but I couldn't even keep a diary (and I've tried that too). Maybe I should set a time aside once per week to write what I've done and learnt, someone might care (or not).
I've also learnt that history is more interesting than blogs. Out of all the blogs I've read for this program, this is by far my favourite.
Criticisms:
The way that we ran the program left some staff disinterested. I know that we're only half way through the program currently, but there are a number of staff who have made their blog and nothing else (or not even made their blog). Finding time in each day to do the activities is very difficult. Personally I did a lot of the work and readings at home. I think it may have been better if we'd organised some 'groups' of people to go off-desk at the same time and do the activities together. This would have motivated people more and also stipulated a time where they could 'play'.
Part time library staff are also at a big disadvantage, it's difficult to do all of these activities in 15 minutes a day when you work 2 days per week and the entire shift is spent on the desk.
Congratulations:
I'd like to congratulate everyone who made this program possible, especially Helene Blowers for putting it together and Lynette Lewis for going through the 800 or so blogs each week. I'd also like to congratulate anyone who has attempted any of this, just think of all the things you've learnt!
#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")
HAHAHA. Oh you have to do this.
I listened to the start of David Copperfield done by some computer voice. It's rather funny. Click on cprfd001.mp3. It contains the contents of the book. For example; ''Tommy rattles, ex ex vee eye eye" hehehe.
I think that computer-generated voices will need a bit more work. Without tones, the book sounds ridiculous and boringly read. Good audiobooks are read by good readers. Compare the above against Briar Rose read by a human. Her voice and tones aren't fantastic, but at least she knows where and how long to pause.
Anyways, this activity was supposed to be about audiobooks. I think it's a very good idea for them to be online (maybe not in my library's area where home computer usage is very low, but in general they are a fantastic idea). In fact, I've mentioned LibriVox before. LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Unfortunately the files are not streamed like those from Project Gutenberg and I had to download individual chapters to my computer...but it's still free!
I think these would be great in the catalogue. If I could (somehow) link the 505 Contents note to the actual chapters of each of these e-books, I'd love it. I'm listening to Three Hundred Tang Poems, Volume 1 in Chinese. It's recorded in Mandarin and Hokkien, with some chapters in Taiwanese or Cantonese. I wish I could do it...hmmm...nope, not easily I can't. Bugger.
I listened to the start of David Copperfield done by some computer voice. It's rather funny. Click on cprfd001.mp3. It contains the contents of the book. For example; ''Tommy rattles, ex ex vee eye eye" hehehe.
I think that computer-generated voices will need a bit more work. Without tones, the book sounds ridiculous and boringly read. Good audiobooks are read by good readers. Compare the above against Briar Rose read by a human. Her voice and tones aren't fantastic, but at least she knows where and how long to pause.
Anyways, this activity was supposed to be about audiobooks. I think it's a very good idea for them to be online (maybe not in my library's area where home computer usage is very low, but in general they are a fantastic idea). In fact, I've mentioned LibriVox before. LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Unfortunately the files are not streamed like those from Project Gutenberg and I had to download individual chapters to my computer...but it's still free!
I think these would be great in the catalogue. If I could (somehow) link the 505 Contents note to the actual chapters of each of these e-books, I'd love it. I'm listening to Three Hundred Tang Poems, Volume 1 in Chinese. It's recorded in Mandarin and Hokkien, with some chapters in Taiwanese or Cantonese. I wish I could do it...hmmm...nope, not easily I can't. Bugger.
#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!
Hmm, I didn't go so well with this exercise. I am not really an 'audio' person. I don't listen to the radio and would much rather watch something than listen to it (ie I'd rather read a book than have someone read it to me).
I did a search of Podcast Alley for Liechtenstein and came up with a 'school' in Liechtenstein that supposedly does them. I am a tad confused as to what the school is though because, after watching the podcasts (which all turned out to be videos), it looks like it is a school for Jonny Knoxville wannabees. Ah well.
The search engine sucks, I tried finding a podcast on Dana International (an Israeli singer) and ended up with all the podcasts with the word Dana OR the word International in it. I couldn't figure out how to get only the ones with both.
I then just randomly clicked on one of the podcasts on the front page (some Harry Potter one called MuggleCast) and the first entire minute and a half was taken up with ads...one for something called GoDaddy.com with some lecherous sounding man...ugh.
Just a note...the size of some of the podcasts is HUGE. The one I started listening to was 24meg for 44 minutes. I guess that's not too much really...not compared to video files.
If I see podcasts of things I'm interested in then I might listen to them, otherwise I don't really see myself doing this on any regular basis.
For a library, I think it would be good to podcast interviews with local residents for a local history project, or even podcasts of speakers that come to the library (if you can get the permission of the speaker that is). I've seen some libraries do podcasts about their libraries...'the reserve collection is kept on the second floor of the Dumbledoor Library'...that kind of thing (yes, I'm still listening to the H.Potter podcast). I'm not sure about this, I guess for people who are more audio-based it would be a good idea.
I did a search of Podcast Alley for Liechtenstein and came up with a 'school' in Liechtenstein that supposedly does them. I am a tad confused as to what the school is though because, after watching the podcasts (which all turned out to be videos), it looks like it is a school for Jonny Knoxville wannabees. Ah well.
The search engine sucks, I tried finding a podcast on Dana International (an Israeli singer) and ended up with all the podcasts with the word Dana OR the word International in it. I couldn't figure out how to get only the ones with both.
I then just randomly clicked on one of the podcasts on the front page (some Harry Potter one called MuggleCast) and the first entire minute and a half was taken up with ads...one for something called GoDaddy.com with some lecherous sounding man...ugh.
Just a note...the size of some of the podcasts is HUGE. The one I started listening to was 24meg for 44 minutes. I guess that's not too much really...not compared to video files.
If I see podcasts of things I'm interested in then I might listen to them, otherwise I don't really see myself doing this on any regular basis.
For a library, I think it would be good to podcast interviews with local residents for a local history project, or even podcasts of speakers that come to the library (if you can get the permission of the speaker that is). I've seen some libraries do podcasts about their libraries...'the reserve collection is kept on the second floor of the Dumbledoor Library'...that kind of thing (yes, I'm still listening to the H.Potter podcast). I'm not sure about this, I guess for people who are more audio-based it would be a good idea.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
#20 You too can YouTube
I love YouTube. I use it to watch music clips and parts of old comedy shows (like FastForward). I am quite glad that they merged with GoogleVideo (as having it compete was a bit silly when they did the same thing but YouTube's interface was better).
For a library website, I really like the 'Related Videos' feature. We could use that in the catalogue for related books. Or we might even catalogue YouTube videos. If there was anything of value to my community, I cannot see any reason we wouldn't catalogue the media. We could possibly even embed the player in the catalogue record (although what MaRC tag I'd use for that I don't know!). Maybe I'll try it and see what happens. Wish me luck!
I've tried to embed one of my favourite YouTube clips below...hopefully it works! All I've done is copy the 'Embed' text below.
For a library website, I really like the 'Related Videos' feature. We could use that in the catalogue for related books. Or we might even catalogue YouTube videos. If there was anything of value to my community, I cannot see any reason we wouldn't catalogue the media. We could possibly even embed the player in the catalogue record (although what MaRC tag I'd use for that I don't know!). Maybe I'll try it and see what happens. Wish me luck!
I've tried to embed one of my favourite YouTube clips below...hopefully it works! All I've done is copy the 'Embed' text below.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools
I was going to pick LuLu as my tool for this activity. It is an online publishing house that (I think) is going to revolutionise the publishing industry. It allows ANY writer to self-publish and LuLu will only print the copies that you pay for (so if you only want to print 12 copies of your work, 12 copies get printed). It will also sell your books for you so, if it costs $5 to print a book, you can charge $10 through LuLu and make a profit. Nice huh?
I've chosen not to do LuLu though because I've known of it before. A friend of mine was looking for somewhere to publish a book that he made and I gave it to him then.
Instead I have chosen Care2, a 'global network of organizations [sic] and people who Care2 make a difference'. My first comment is that the site is VERY full of information, a little too crowded in my opinion. In fact, finding out exactly what the site was was rather difficult. As near as I can gather, it's a 'profile' site for people who 'care' (like MySpace or Facebook where you advertise yourself for friends instead of to find someone who wants to help you change things).
Good things: The interesting search ways. Instead of just 'searching' for something you click on a term which brings up more terms for you to click on. After a while you receive a list of members. http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/tag/books/Gone+with+the+Wind <--that is a link to all people who like the book Gone with the Wind. I clicked on 'find people', then chose 'interested in books' and then 'Gone with the Wind'.
The site itself is very similar to any other profile site (ie MySpace) but you can give other users butterflies for being a Care2 member (ie you earn them for being good).
Finding petitions to sign is also very easy. You can create your own (ie Landrights for gay sperm whales), advertise it and have people 'sign' it online. Most of the petitions seem to be American based (about the US president or US politicians).
Bad things: Crowded, crowded, crowded!
VERY American based. I don't know if that's a cultural thing, but it's a tad daunting.
To do anything you need to sign in (I hate that kind of stuff, but that's a personal thing).
I've chosen not to do LuLu though because I've known of it before. A friend of mine was looking for somewhere to publish a book that he made and I gave it to him then.
Instead I have chosen Care2, a 'global network of organizations [sic] and people who Care2 make a difference'. My first comment is that the site is VERY full of information, a little too crowded in my opinion. In fact, finding out exactly what the site was was rather difficult. As near as I can gather, it's a 'profile' site for people who 'care' (like MySpace or Facebook where you advertise yourself for friends instead of to find someone who wants to help you change things).
Good things: The interesting search ways. Instead of just 'searching' for something you click on a term which brings up more terms for you to click on. After a while you receive a list of members. http://www.care2.com/c2c/people/tag/books/Gone+with+the+Wind <--that is a link to all people who like the book Gone with the Wind. I clicked on 'find people', then chose 'interested in books' and then 'Gone with the Wind'.
The site itself is very similar to any other profile site (ie MySpace) but you can give other users butterflies for being a Care2 member (ie you earn them for being good).
Finding petitions to sign is also very easy. You can create your own (ie Landrights for gay sperm whales), advertise it and have people 'sign' it online. Most of the petitions seem to be American based (about the US president or US politicians).
Bad things: Crowded, crowded, crowded!
VERY American based. I don't know if that's a cultural thing, but it's a tad daunting.
To do anything you need to sign in (I hate that kind of stuff, but that's a personal thing).
#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops
Let's see, signing up to ZoHo was fairly easy. I entered some details and they sent me a confirmation email. I didn't even have to access the confirmation email to use it either (which, as I'm doing this whilst watching tv on my couch, is quite good as I sent it to work).
Saving documents was easy, as was posting them to Blogger (in fact, it was MUCH easier than from flickr which required me to set up a whole bunch of things). I don't know if that means ZoHo has a better working relationship with Blogger or they're just better hackers.
Features-wise...all the standard modern word processing stuff is there; styles, headings, etc. Personally I like Google Docs better, maybe because of their spreadsheet capabilities.
Saving documents was easy, as was posting them to Blogger (in fact, it was MUCH easier than from flickr which required me to set up a whole bunch of things). I don't know if that means ZoHo has a better working relationship with Blogger or they're just better hackers.
Features-wise...all the standard modern word processing stuff is there; styles, headings, etc. Personally I like Google Docs better, maybe because of their spreadsheet capabilities.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Evil Gypsy Lady
Certain people have made comments about my inability to blog regularly. If my memory serves me correctly, these may be the same people who insinuated I have too much time on my hands at work for blogging too much!
Anyways, it is a Sunday night and I am watching the end of Mr & Mrs Smith (average action film starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pit). Whilst watching Brangelina argue and shoot things is fun, I thought I might blog a bit too.
The topic of today's blog is Evil Gypsy Lady (EGL for short). EGL was a patron of mine when I worked at a certain library service. She seemed to take great offence to the fact that I was:
a) male
b) not going to pull every Jackie Collins novel ever published out of my ar$e for her to borrow.
I remember asking someone else to serve her one time. I then felt really guilty for asking Ms. Librarian to do this as I knew it wouldn't end well. EGL proceeded to call Ms. Librarian a 'b!tch' and tell her that she 'hoped she got lost in the desert with no camels or water'. She then proceeded to use a four letter word starting with f (not fork) in front of children at the top of her voice and had to leave. I believe she received a politely worded letter from our CEO telling her not to come back.
EGL is easily distinguished by the tea-cosy she wears on her head and the shawl that she wears. She hates male librarians and is in love with Jackie Collins. Her nickname came about when she 'cursed' Ms. Italian for not procuring an early Jackie Collins novel. Poor Ms. Italian (who, by the way, is living more happily than ever...which just goes to show that EGL's cursing powers were rather bad).
Anyways, it is a Sunday night and I am watching the end of Mr & Mrs Smith (average action film starring Angelina Jolie and Brad Pit). Whilst watching Brangelina argue and shoot things is fun, I thought I might blog a bit too.
The topic of today's blog is Evil Gypsy Lady (EGL for short). EGL was a patron of mine when I worked at a certain library service. She seemed to take great offence to the fact that I was:
a) male
b) not going to pull every Jackie Collins novel ever published out of my ar$e for her to borrow.
I remember asking someone else to serve her one time. I then felt really guilty for asking Ms. Librarian to do this as I knew it wouldn't end well. EGL proceeded to call Ms. Librarian a 'b!tch' and tell her that she 'hoped she got lost in the desert with no camels or water'. She then proceeded to use a four letter word starting with f (not fork) in front of children at the top of her voice and had to leave. I believe she received a politely worded letter from our CEO telling her not to come back.
EGL is easily distinguished by the tea-cosy she wears on her head and the shawl that she wears. She hates male librarians and is in love with Jackie Collins. Her nickname came about when she 'cursed' Ms. Italian for not procuring an early Jackie Collins novel. Poor Ms. Italian (who, by the way, is living more happily than ever...which just goes to show that EGL's cursing powers were rather bad).
#17 Playing around with PBWiki
Hmm, added my link. I like the WYSIWIG editor but it failed on me when trying to add the link (error in the page) and I had to go to the old-fashioned editor.
Our library is going to be using a pbwiki wiki (because of the WYSIWIG editor) for an 'Ideas box' where staff can log ideas and discuss them in an online environ. I am hoping it might get ideas floating across the entire library service instead of keeping them confined to a branch. It will be confined to library staff and password protected, even just to view it. I'd like to have it hosted on an internal server, but I don't want to spend money on something like this if it turns out staff are notgoing to use it (and I can just convert it across if it works well).
Because of the Ideas Box, I've had a bit of a play around with wikis. I even tried setting one up on my webserver (it comes bundled with it) but it had WAY too many options that I had not a clue about (and the server is slow). Honestly, I bought the space just so I could have my email address...one day I might put something on there, but mostly I just use it to test stuff for work.
Our library is going to be using a pbwiki wiki (because of the WYSIWIG editor) for an 'Ideas box' where staff can log ideas and discuss them in an online environ. I am hoping it might get ideas floating across the entire library service instead of keeping them confined to a branch. It will be confined to library staff and password protected, even just to view it. I'd like to have it hosted on an internal server, but I don't want to spend money on something like this if it turns out staff are notgoing to use it (and I can just convert it across if it works well).
Because of the Ideas Box, I've had a bit of a play around with wikis. I even tried setting one up on my webserver (it comes bundled with it) but it had WAY too many options that I had not a clue about (and the server is slow). Honestly, I bought the space just so I could have my email address...one day I might put something on there, but mostly I just use it to test stuff for work.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
#16 So what’s in a wiki?
Wiki wiki wiki! I quite like wikis, in fact I've editted some things on wikipedia. Not much, but a few things.
Looking at Library Success, there are a couple of things that caught my eye.
Services in a multi-lingual environment.
Very interesting for Brimbank as we're a community that has a very strong multi-lingual focus (we collect in about 16 different languages, the newest being Bosnian). Some of the information about brochures and the like was interesting, I might even make some editings on there if we do anything fancy.
Staff training.
Also interesting, more because of the programs that were implemented (although no mention of the Learning 2.0 model on there)
That's all for now.
Looking at Library Success, there are a couple of things that caught my eye.
Services in a multi-lingual environment.
Very interesting for Brimbank as we're a community that has a very strong multi-lingual focus (we collect in about 16 different languages, the newest being Bosnian). Some of the information about brochures and the like was interesting, I might even make some editings on there if we do anything fancy.
Staff training.
Also interesting, more because of the programs that were implemented (although no mention of the Learning 2.0 model on there)
That's all for now.
Sunday, October 7, 2007
And here's to you Mrs Robinson...
Guess who is pregnant? That's right, it's Mrs Robinson and she's pregnant to me!
I love library gossip. Let's see some of the things I've been gossiped about since I started working in libraries.
1. Who I sleep with (men, women, no-one).
2. That I'm a virgin.
3. That I'm a giant ho (same person who thought I was a virgin changed their mind and decided I was a ho).
4. That I'm dating/sleeping with:
a) Monica (Library Tech Extraordinaire)
b) Tracy (bet ya didn't hear that!)
c) Ruth (80 year old Doveton woman)
d) Perren (a friend from highschool)
e) Paul the shelver
f) Steven the lecturer
g) Suzie (cataloguer at Latrobe Uni)
h) Eda the fashionable librarian
i) Mrs Robinson
Actually, that's about it. Why do library staff need to know who I'm sleeping with? It's not any of them! (I have a policy of never dating a co-worker).
Although, finding out that Mrs Robinson is pregnant was new. And if she's pregnant, I must be the father because we've talked on the phone and I called her Honeypie (Lucy, if you're reading this you'll know that my swear-jar is empty if I'm honeypie'ing people). Just for everyone else, honeypie is what a former co-worker used to call people who irritated her on the phone.
Example:
"Look Honeypie *grinds teeth*, if the power is out then your computer will not work no matter how much you yell at me...no, not even if you plug it into another powerpoint".
I love library gossip. Let's see some of the things I've been gossiped about since I started working in libraries.
1. Who I sleep with (men, women, no-one).
2. That I'm a virgin.
3. That I'm a giant ho (same person who thought I was a virgin changed their mind and decided I was a ho).
4. That I'm dating/sleeping with:
a) Monica (Library Tech Extraordinaire)
b) Tracy (bet ya didn't hear that!)
c) Ruth (80 year old Doveton woman)
d) Perren (a friend from highschool)
e) Paul the shelver
f) Steven the lecturer
g) Suzie (cataloguer at Latrobe Uni)
h) Eda the fashionable librarian
i) Mrs Robinson
Actually, that's about it. Why do library staff need to know who I'm sleeping with? It's not any of them! (I have a policy of never dating a co-worker).
Although, finding out that Mrs Robinson is pregnant was new. And if she's pregnant, I must be the father because we've talked on the phone and I called her Honeypie (Lucy, if you're reading this you'll know that my swear-jar is empty if I'm honeypie'ing people). Just for everyone else, honeypie is what a former co-worker used to call people who irritated her on the phone.
Example:
"Look Honeypie *grinds teeth*, if the power is out then your computer will not work no matter how much you yell at me...no, not even if you plug it into another powerpoint".
Gnoos
I've just registered for Gnoos. It's an aussie blog search engine. Kind of like all of the other blog search engines we've been using but only for Australian content. It's worthwhile looking at if you want some local blogs.
Also, in response to my last blog post, I stick by it all :P Technology is fast advancing and we've not really had anything like this since the industrial revolution. It will take at least a generation for all of the new gizmos and gewgaws to infiltrate right through. I may not see it in my life, but I believe it's inevitable. Inevitably inevitable (Team America quote for those of you who know it).
Also, in response to my last blog post, I stick by it all :P Technology is fast advancing and we've not really had anything like this since the industrial revolution. It will take at least a generation for all of the new gizmos and gewgaws to infiltrate right through. I may not see it in my life, but I believe it's inevitable. Inevitably inevitable (Team America quote for those of you who know it).
Friday, October 5, 2007
#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...
I found this exercise fascinating. The very first thing I noticed was, of the five speakers listed in the exercise, only one was female. For a female dominated industry, I find that quite sad. Why aren't more females spouting the crap that us males spout? Equal rights rah rah. I find it even more pathetic because all of the strong advocates of Web 2.0 technologies in libraries that I know are female. I liase with librarians in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria, and only two male librarians spring to mind who advocate this, the other 20 or so are female. (Maybe it's because the only people talking about this are either academic librarians who have to justify their employment with innovative research or upper management of IT companies wanting us to use their products...or is that just my jaded view?)
Back to Library 2.0. The most interestesting article to me was 'To better bibliographic services' by John Riemer. As a cataloguer, he talks about using existing metadata (our library catalogues) to enhance our collections. This is something close to my heart, I believe that all libraries do way too much duplication and that there should be easy ways of acquiring all kinds of things. Book data is very easy to acquire (log in to LibrariesAustralia, edit my holdings and ta-da, I have a catalogue record for my library) but data for other media are lacking. Even something as commonplace as a Naruto DVD required me to make the record myself (we are a small, poor public library, we do title cataloguing for such works and I wouldn't even bother making it available to everyone else, it would be lovely if someone did full cataloguing with tables of contents, etc). Even better would be linked tables of contents/chapter listings. With audio this would be brilliant and could link to snippets of the music that are available on various CD sites. I understand there'd be copyright implications, even for 10 second snippets of music, but it would still be nice.
Sorry, got distracted (it happens so easily). Actually, the distraction works for me. One of his 'hints' is to adopt web features...things like linking in to data that is already available (ie snippets of music). Maybe even link to reviews. We're hoping to get something similar working at Brimbank Libraries with a link to LibraryThing. Hopefully, we'll be able to get LibraryThing to connect to our data and give suggestions for other books to read. This is currently available in things like Bowker's FictionConnection but, well, this doesn't integrate as easily as LibraryThing would (and costs a crapload more).
I also thought Wendy Schultz's article 'To a temporary place in time...' was interesting, mostly because I don't really agree with her forecasting. Firstly, she assumes that libraries will be a quiet place in the future (ha! I wish they were quiet now...has she ever been in a public library?) and that just got my goat. I don't want my library to be quiet. Quiet areas, yes. Comfortable, yes. Quiet everywhere? No. I'd rather my public library be comfortable and cosy, like a living room. I want couches. I want a fireplace. I want someone to serve me a hot chocolate and bring me the latest Who Weekly and call me sir. Personally, I think libraries are going to end up as entertainment only venues. We'll have free gadgets (virtual reality spaces), free reading material (the latest Virginia Andrews books, sure she'll be 986 years old and dead for 900 of them but she'll still churn them out) and somewhere you can dump the kids whilst you go shopping (storytime 7.1). Our specialist skills will all fall flat, very few people go to a public library to get research done. Academic and school libraries will still exist (if only to help teach scholars proper was to search the Googlenet) but public libraries won't be for that kind of stuff.
I was interviewed recently as part of a research project looking into the library services for Baby Boomers and I think I'm quite jaded. If the physical library exists at all in 100 years, it will be as a data storage centre. Although people say they can't live without books, in all honesty, they're going to all die off soon enough (myself included) and new technologies will emerge that supercede paper. They can already create a screen that is as thin as two credit cards, and technology will only get better. I'm fairly certain that I'll see something that supercedes paper as a reading medium in my lifetime. After all, I'm young enough that I don't need a book to do anything really, sure I don't like reading for fun on a computer, but I'd much rather read a recipe on one than store 600 cookbooks on a shelf in the kitchen.
Maybe I'm just too jaded today.
/end rant
Back to Library 2.0. The most interestesting article to me was 'To better bibliographic services' by John Riemer. As a cataloguer, he talks about using existing metadata (our library catalogues) to enhance our collections. This is something close to my heart, I believe that all libraries do way too much duplication and that there should be easy ways of acquiring all kinds of things. Book data is very easy to acquire (log in to LibrariesAustralia, edit my holdings and ta-da, I have a catalogue record for my library) but data for other media are lacking. Even something as commonplace as a Naruto DVD required me to make the record myself (we are a small, poor public library, we do title cataloguing for such works and I wouldn't even bother making it available to everyone else, it would be lovely if someone did full cataloguing with tables of contents, etc). Even better would be linked tables of contents/chapter listings. With audio this would be brilliant and could link to snippets of the music that are available on various CD sites. I understand there'd be copyright implications, even for 10 second snippets of music, but it would still be nice.
Sorry, got distracted (it happens so easily). Actually, the distraction works for me. One of his 'hints' is to adopt web features...things like linking in to data that is already available (ie snippets of music). Maybe even link to reviews. We're hoping to get something similar working at Brimbank Libraries with a link to LibraryThing. Hopefully, we'll be able to get LibraryThing to connect to our data and give suggestions for other books to read. This is currently available in things like Bowker's FictionConnection but, well, this doesn't integrate as easily as LibraryThing would (and costs a crapload more).
I also thought Wendy Schultz's article 'To a temporary place in time...' was interesting, mostly because I don't really agree with her forecasting. Firstly, she assumes that libraries will be a quiet place in the future (ha! I wish they were quiet now...has she ever been in a public library?) and that just got my goat. I don't want my library to be quiet. Quiet areas, yes. Comfortable, yes. Quiet everywhere? No. I'd rather my public library be comfortable and cosy, like a living room. I want couches. I want a fireplace. I want someone to serve me a hot chocolate and bring me the latest Who Weekly and call me sir. Personally, I think libraries are going to end up as entertainment only venues. We'll have free gadgets (virtual reality spaces), free reading material (the latest Virginia Andrews books, sure she'll be 986 years old and dead for 900 of them but she'll still churn them out) and somewhere you can dump the kids whilst you go shopping (storytime 7.1). Our specialist skills will all fall flat, very few people go to a public library to get research done. Academic and school libraries will still exist (if only to help teach scholars proper was to search the Googlenet) but public libraries won't be for that kind of stuff.
I was interviewed recently as part of a research project looking into the library services for Baby Boomers and I think I'm quite jaded. If the physical library exists at all in 100 years, it will be as a data storage centre. Although people say they can't live without books, in all honesty, they're going to all die off soon enough (myself included) and new technologies will emerge that supercede paper. They can already create a screen that is as thin as two credit cards, and technology will only get better. I'm fairly certain that I'll see something that supercedes paper as a reading medium in my lifetime. After all, I'm young enough that I don't need a book to do anything really, sure I don't like reading for fun on a computer, but I'd much rather read a recipe on one than store 600 cookbooks on a shelf in the kitchen.
Maybe I'm just too jaded today.
/end rant
#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati
Today's post comes courtesy of my friend's laptop and is made using Windows Vista. An interesting experience which involves lots of pretty (but useless) things that slow down my 'computer experience'.
Anyways, today I looked at Technorati. Oddly enough, a search for Learning 2.0 (in the blogs tab) does NOT bring Helene Blowers blog up first. Luckily it's on the first page, but LibraryBytes is down the bottom of the first page when I performed my search. She's lower down because she has less 'Authority' (click on the word to read Technorati's definition).
Because Library 2.0 is kind of boring to search for (I think I've had enough of it for this week), I searched for Liechtenstein (bet you didn't see that coming!). As of today (October 5, 2007), there were 3663 blog posts about Liechtenstein (the first was a Runescape guide of all things), 33 blogs about Liechtenstein (including one called the Liechtenstein National Blog which wasn't in any of the languages spoken in Liechtenstein) and some videos and photos of Liechtenstein which were mostly crap. For some reason, a lot of sites on Liechtenstein are in Japanese...I'm wondering if it's a popular Japanese tourist destination...then again, one of the sites was on getting an internship in Liechtenstein so maybe Japanese bankers want to work there due to the lack of tax.
With the search results, they seem to be chronologically ordered for blog posts and popularly ordered for blogs. Great for blogs I guess, bad for posts. The Runescape thing only mentioned Liechtenstein because Runescape now has more players than Liechtenstein has residents (34,247 residents of Liechtenstein according to the CIA World Factbook entry.
All in all, I think Technorati is probably the best blog search engine of them all (even if it's not the most comprehensive, it was very easy to use) and I've signed up and all so that other people can read the boringness that is my life.
Speaking of my life, hi to all the CCLC readers out there!!!
Anyways, today I looked at Technorati. Oddly enough, a search for Learning 2.0 (in the blogs tab) does NOT bring Helene Blowers blog up first. Luckily it's on the first page, but LibraryBytes is down the bottom of the first page when I performed my search. She's lower down because she has less 'Authority' (click on the word to read Technorati's definition).
Because Library 2.0 is kind of boring to search for (I think I've had enough of it for this week), I searched for Liechtenstein (bet you didn't see that coming!). As of today (October 5, 2007), there were 3663 blog posts about Liechtenstein (the first was a Runescape guide of all things), 33 blogs about Liechtenstein (including one called the Liechtenstein National Blog which wasn't in any of the languages spoken in Liechtenstein) and some videos and photos of Liechtenstein which were mostly crap. For some reason, a lot of sites on Liechtenstein are in Japanese...I'm wondering if it's a popular Japanese tourist destination...then again, one of the sites was on getting an internship in Liechtenstein so maybe Japanese bankers want to work there due to the lack of tax.
With the search results, they seem to be chronologically ordered for blog posts and popularly ordered for blogs. Great for blogs I guess, bad for posts. The Runescape thing only mentioned Liechtenstein because Runescape now has more players than Liechtenstein has residents (34,247 residents of Liechtenstein according to the CIA World Factbook entry.
All in all, I think Technorati is probably the best blog search engine of them all (even if it's not the most comprehensive, it was very easy to use) and I've signed up and all so that other people can read the boringness that is my life.
Speaking of my life, hi to all the CCLC readers out there!!!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
#13 Tagging, folksomonies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us
Maybe I'm too much of a cataloguer, but I like tagging stuff with uniform tags. I understand how tagging works (and I quite like the idea of people tagging within a library catalogue), but I do understand that it needs a wide userbase to work (ie, of the 60,000 active Brimbank borrowers, I doubt any more than 200 would add any tags to our catalogue, this wouldn't be very helpful). Tagging in a union catalogue would be of more use if all of the member libraries had access to the tags.
Anyways, an online favourites thing like del.icio.us might be of use, I update some of my favourites every time I log on (ie for webcomics where I read them sporadically, they have to be updated to the last time I read them) and I didn't see that as very easy with del.icio.us.
Umm, it's rather late and I'm a tad uncaring about this at the moment (bad I kn0w) so I'll natter some more tomorrow.
Oh! I added a 'search Brimbank's catalogue' thing to my sidebar. I always wondered if it would work so I want everyone to search for a book in our catalogue. Go search. Now. (Although it's possibly screwed because our webserver is cracking the irits this week). Try anyway!
(I also have a del.icio.us tag in my sidebar...gee that word is hard to type)
PS Library User Calculator. Cool (although none of our magazines are $2...and who buys a movie for $4? Are they only buying crap?)
Anyways, an online favourites thing like del.icio.us might be of use, I update some of my favourites every time I log on (ie for webcomics where I read them sporadically, they have to be updated to the last time I read them) and I didn't see that as very easy with del.icio.us.
Umm, it's rather late and I'm a tad uncaring about this at the moment (bad I kn0w) so I'll natter some more tomorrow.
Oh! I added a 'search Brimbank's catalogue' thing to my sidebar. I always wondered if it would work so I want everyone to search for a book in our catalogue. Go search. Now. (Although it's possibly screwed because our webserver is cracking the irits this week). Try anyway!
(I also have a del.icio.us tag in my sidebar...gee that word is hard to type)
PS Library User Calculator. Cool (although none of our magazines are $2...and who buys a movie for $4? Are they only buying crap?)
Friday, September 28, 2007
#12 Roll your own search engine with Rollyo
Firstly, let me just say thankyou to Jewinda of Library Shenanigans for her idea to add StatCounter to my blog. S/he doesn't know about me at all but I liked the idea after reading her blog (I'll be able to see where in the world people are coming from!). Her blog is very amusing, I LOVE the review of The Post-Birthday World (The characters were self-indulgent, boring twats...bland, bland, bland).
On to today's activity...Rollyo. Rollyo allows you to create a customised search engine. I had a search using the Public Domain E-Books search engine for Alice in Wonderland...the results weren't anything special and the paid ads that are popped in the middle of my results are hard to distinguish from the actual results.
I registered and, when I went to create my search roll, I found no way to use a generic *.xxx type thing (ie a search roll that would search all Victorian government sites would be *.vic.gov.au). I looked for the non-existant help files for a while...naughty naughty naughty! Help is always good. Finding the search-roll after I'd created it wasn't too easy either.
AHA! If I type in .li as the website, it finds anything in Liechtenstein. Although I just found out that it ONLY searches top level domains, so if you find a subdirectory you want to allow your search engine to search through...tough (ie a wikipedia article or the cia's Factbook).
Rollyo is a good idea but I'm not too keen on the limitations.
PS I do love how I can make the widget search my blog though!
On to today's activity...Rollyo. Rollyo allows you to create a customised search engine. I had a search using the Public Domain E-Books search engine for Alice in Wonderland...the results weren't anything special and the paid ads that are popped in the middle of my results are hard to distinguish from the actual results.
I registered and, when I went to create my search roll, I found no way to use a generic *.xxx type thing (ie a search roll that would search all Victorian government sites would be *.vic.gov.au). I looked for the non-existant help files for a while...naughty naughty naughty! Help is always good. Finding the search-roll after I'd created it wasn't too easy either.
AHA! If I type in .li as the website, it finds anything in Liechtenstein. Although I just found out that it ONLY searches top level domains, so if you find a subdirectory you want to allow your search engine to search through...tough (ie a wikipedia article or the cia's Factbook).
Rollyo is a good idea but I'm not too keen on the limitations.
PS I do love how I can make the widget search my blog though!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
#11 All about LibraryThing
I've used LibraryThing before so it was a quite easy activity for me to use it again. I had 25 of my own books on there already and added a few more so I could write about it on here. I think it's quite a good idea but honestly can't see the practical use of it for most people (maybe apart from the Suggester). I do like how it can link into the opac of a library catalogue and 'recommend' books, and I suppose that really wouldn't work without all of us people out there making catalogues on there.
I did like it how it told me that I had a duplicate in my library already. But, when I searched for new books, there was no way of clicking on the book to see if it was the right one (especially as my covers were different to the ones I found).
Anyways, it's available at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tas666
I did like it how it told me that I had a duplicate in my library already. But, when I searched for new books, there was no way of clicking on the book to see if it was the right one (especially as my covers were different to the ones I found).
Anyways, it's available at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/tas666
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
#10 Play around with Image Generators
Haha I really enjoyed this. I concentrated on 3D Stereogram which allows you to draw a picture, press the generate button and then it does one of those 3D eye puzzle things. I found it really easy to get it to work on my laptop monitor (much better than on paper when I tried doing the in that book thing). It turns out I suck at drawing with a mouse but the below picture should say 'tas666'. Click on it to get the full picture (it doesn't work so easily small). You have to look through the picture...ie look at it unfocused and then slowly bring your eyes back into focus.
PS Bah, just realised that that's as big as the picture gets. Sorry!
PS Bah, just realised that that's as big as the picture gets. Sorry!
#9 Finding Feeds
Hmm, this didn't go so well either (probably because it is to do with rss which stands for either Really Stupid Stuff or Randomly Stuffed Scribble...I can't remember which).
I started by picking websites I sometimes go to. None of them had rss things on them...not that I could find them even if I wanted to as the symbols are always tiny!
I then tried searching Google Blogs thing. It searched the contents of blogs (great for if I wanted to find a post) but not the general topic...all I wanted was a blog on Liechtenstein (maybe just a news blog...I couldn't find an rss feed on the Liechtensteiner Vaterland which just goes to prove that I am destined to be rss-less).
Next step...Feedster. Same problem as Google Blog Search.
Topix on the other hand...I searched for Liechtenstein. Not only did it do the above but it also recommended that I look at the Liechtenstein News page which was just what I wanted. Down the bottom in tiny little letters was the rss area. Did you know that Prince Hans-Adam II von and zu Liechtenstein is worth US$4.5 billion and is the 6th richest royal in the world? Lucky bugger.
With Technorati I did like the tabs that let me filter my search from blogs/videos/etc (even if all the photos were holiday snaps of people I didn't know).
With the database search, I found an orange button and clicked it (which turned out to be an rss button luckily). What I am sent daily is a list of articles relating to my search term. I can click on a button to access the full text (which hopefully means I won't need to log in...I will have to try from home).
I started by picking websites I sometimes go to. None of them had rss things on them...not that I could find them even if I wanted to as the symbols are always tiny!
I then tried searching Google Blogs thing. It searched the contents of blogs (great for if I wanted to find a post) but not the general topic...all I wanted was a blog on Liechtenstein (maybe just a news blog...I couldn't find an rss feed on the Liechtensteiner Vaterland which just goes to prove that I am destined to be rss-less).
Next step...Feedster. Same problem as Google Blog Search.
Topix on the other hand...I searched for Liechtenstein. Not only did it do the above but it also recommended that I look at the Liechtenstein News page which was just what I wanted. Down the bottom in tiny little letters was the rss area. Did you know that Prince Hans-Adam II von and zu Liechtenstein is worth US$4.5 billion and is the 6th richest royal in the world? Lucky bugger.
With Technorati I did like the tabs that let me filter my search from blogs/videos/etc (even if all the photos were holiday snaps of people I didn't know).
With the database search, I found an orange button and clicked it (which turned out to be an rss button luckily). What I am sent daily is a list of articles relating to my search term. I can click on a button to access the full text (which hopefully means I won't need to log in...I will have to try from home).
Monday, September 24, 2007
Daily book installments via rss
Okay, I just got excited. Whilst looking at rss stuff, I stumbled across DailyLit, a site that sends installments of books to you via rss or email. It's really cool! I am now getting Alice's Adventures in Wonderland sent to my rss feed reader daily. I can read a chapter a day! Hmm, 9 books of the bible there and no Qu'ran. Ah well.
Also, I found a free online audiobook service where volunteers read out-of-copyright text into a microphone and then it is made available. LibriVox is the name of the site. I'm considering volunteering...not because my voice is anything special, just because I am quite keen for mass digitising of audiobooks to take place. Although I'm having trouble listening to any of them...it may be due to our firewall at work though...I'll have to try from home.
Lucky last link, Fokus Deutsches - an online video instruction series for learning German. Exciting! There's a few languages there actually, all European though (I guess learning to speak tonal languages wouldn't be so easy online!)
Also, I found a free online audiobook service where volunteers read out-of-copyright text into a microphone and then it is made available. LibriVox is the name of the site. I'm considering volunteering...not because my voice is anything special, just because I am quite keen for mass digitising of audiobooks to take place. Although I'm having trouble listening to any of them...it may be due to our firewall at work though...I'll have to try from home.
Lucky last link, Fokus Deutsches - an online video instruction series for learning German. Exciting! There's a few languages there actually, all European though (I guess learning to speak tonal languages wouldn't be so easy online!)
#8 Make life "really simple" with RSS & a newsreader
It's amazing how you get really excited about something, hit one stumbling block and then all of your excitement vanishes in a puff of smoke. I have that with RSS, I do not know why but even the term makes me want to fall asleep.
Anyway...I set up my account on bloglines and have subscribed to a few feeds: 025.431: The Dewey blog and Librarians' Internet Index being the two top ones. The Dewey blog seems really interesting, they talk about crap and then DDC it. One of the latest entries was about the drought in Australia, the USA and Bulgaria and how you'd assign items to do with it. i.e. I'd assign a work on monitoring and predicting drought around the world at 363.3492963 - Droughts + Surveilance (not that we'd ever use such a longwinded number). Although they do get a lot more longwinded - 796.510979589 which is backpacking in Deschutes County, Oregon, USA.
The Librarians' Index is a tad different, they seem to post an interesting webpage/topic each day. Seems like way too much to read to me but I can flick and ignore at will!
My subscriptions are available at http://www.bloglines.com/public/tas666
Oh, and I found it very difficult to figure out how to create the above, I had to fiddle with my account to make it public, then choose yet ANOTHER username (even though I have one) and then find a way to the bloglines homepage and click on Blogrolls (which I guessed was what I needed). Ah well, all done now!
Anyway...I set up my account on bloglines and have subscribed to a few feeds: 025.431: The Dewey blog and Librarians' Internet Index being the two top ones. The Dewey blog seems really interesting, they talk about crap and then DDC it. One of the latest entries was about the drought in Australia, the USA and Bulgaria and how you'd assign items to do with it. i.e. I'd assign a work on monitoring and predicting drought around the world at 363.3492963 - Droughts + Surveilance (not that we'd ever use such a longwinded number). Although they do get a lot more longwinded - 796.510979589 which is backpacking in Deschutes County, Oregon, USA.
The Librarians' Index is a tad different, they seem to post an interesting webpage/topic each day. Seems like way too much to read to me but I can flick and ignore at will!
My subscriptions are available at http://www.bloglines.com/public/tas666
Oh, and I found it very difficult to figure out how to create the above, I had to fiddle with my account to make it public, then choose yet ANOTHER username (even though I have one) and then find a way to the bloglines homepage and click on Blogrolls (which I guessed was what I needed). Ah well, all done now!
#7 Blog about technology
Hmm, a technology blog? What to pick? What to talk about?
I think I might talk about IMDB. Personally, I LOVE the Internet Movie Database. I get lost in it. All I want to do is find out who Joe Bloggs was and, after 3 hours of clicking on different names and going 'oh, he was in THAT', I realise it's possibly time to go back to what I was originally looking for. It's also helpful for verifying things, whoever is entering these entries normally enters tonnes of information. Unfortunately they rarely enter the caterer (the poor forgotten caterer).
Not only does IMDB have information about the movie, there are also reviews from people who have seen the movie...not paid reviewers but everyday people.
If I'd been smart enough to look at the IMDB entry for Lady Chatterley, I would not have wasted an hour of my time seeing it (and yes I know the movie goes for three hours, after nodding off during one of the 'love' scenes, I left). At least one person mentioned that I would have fallen asleep if I didn't like DH Lawrence (which I don't...but some of the movie adaptions of his novels have been good).
Hmm, as I'm typing this I just realised that technology could be outside the internet realm. In that case then I want robotic vacuum cleaner...one of those ones that sense furniture and vacuum around it. Sure it wouldn't do the corners well but it would do the rest of the carpet. (Although, if the Choice Magazine tests are anything to go by, it doesn't do that so well either). Ah well.
I think I might talk about IMDB. Personally, I LOVE the Internet Movie Database. I get lost in it. All I want to do is find out who Joe Bloggs was and, after 3 hours of clicking on different names and going 'oh, he was in THAT', I realise it's possibly time to go back to what I was originally looking for. It's also helpful for verifying things, whoever is entering these entries normally enters tonnes of information. Unfortunately they rarely enter the caterer (the poor forgotten caterer).
Not only does IMDB have information about the movie, there are also reviews from people who have seen the movie...not paid reviewers but everyday people.
If I'd been smart enough to look at the IMDB entry for Lady Chatterley, I would not have wasted an hour of my time seeing it (and yes I know the movie goes for three hours, after nodding off during one of the 'love' scenes, I left). At least one person mentioned that I would have fallen asleep if I didn't like DH Lawrence (which I don't...but some of the movie adaptions of his novels have been good).
Hmm, as I'm typing this I just realised that technology could be outside the internet realm. In that case then I want robotic vacuum cleaner...one of those ones that sense furniture and vacuum around it. Sure it wouldn't do the corners well but it would do the rest of the carpet. (Although, if the Choice Magazine tests are anything to go by, it doesn't do that so well either). Ah well.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Putting internet images in your blog
I have also created a document on linking to flickr images in your blog. You can use this process to link to almost any online image available. Remember to mention where you got the image from though and don't claim it as your own!
The document is available here in pdf format.
The document is available here in pdf format.
Logging in to blogger
Just to let everyone know that webgurl from Eastern Regional Libraries has put together some instructions on getting a blog started on her 23squared blog.
Click on this link to view them.
Click on this link to view them.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
#6 More Flickr Fun
More Flickr Fun was a bit of a lie this week I think.
Link number 1 was to MappR. This might have been nice to use, I don't know though because the page doesn't work (I've been trying for 24 hours now).
Link number 2 was to Flickr Colr Pickr which loaded the page but not the Flash movie (possibly to do with our firewall).
Link number 3 was to Montagr. This loaded a single image in the top left hand corner of the screen and then did nothing else. My 'dog' mosaic was more a dog image (although there were 1032 pages of single images).
This is not fun.
ALTHOUGH...that being said, after about 40 minutes on the phone to the lovely Anthony in IT, he enabled Flash movies temporarily on my computer and I had access to Flickr Colr Pickr. It's COOL!!! (a bit odd in the colours it picks sometimes...but COOL nonetheless). I've seen colour search engines before but this is the prettiest by far (which may have something to do with me not looking at any of them since I was at uni).
And whilst I was on the phone I did this (I couldn't leave the phone and I'd finished all of my spine labelling and I didn't have anything else close...I was working... honest!)
Link number 1 was to MappR. This might have been nice to use, I don't know though because the page doesn't work (I've been trying for 24 hours now).
Link number 2 was to Flickr Colr Pickr which loaded the page but not the Flash movie (possibly to do with our firewall).
Link number 3 was to Montagr. This loaded a single image in the top left hand corner of the screen and then did nothing else. My 'dog' mosaic was more a dog image (although there were 1032 pages of single images).
This is not fun.
ALTHOUGH...that being said, after about 40 minutes on the phone to the lovely Anthony in IT, he enabled Flash movies temporarily on my computer and I had access to Flickr Colr Pickr. It's COOL!!! (a bit odd in the colours it picks sometimes...but COOL nonetheless). I've seen colour search engines before but this is the prettiest by far (which may have something to do with me not looking at any of them since I was at uni).
And whilst I was on the phone I did this (I couldn't leave the phone and I'd finished all of my spine labelling and I didn't have anything else close...I was working... honest!)
Monday, September 17, 2007
#5 flickr
This is my first post uploaded from my new flickr account. I am possibly going to have to edit it when it gets over to blogger.com. It took me AGES to do this because the stupid work firewall kept asking me to authenticate my details in the middle of uploading the picture and, after I'd authenticate, it would crash the browser.
Ah well, it's up now. I hope to never do this again from work, I think I'll just do it from home if I need to upload to here again.
What did I learn? That flickr is tied into Yahoo! so that Yahoo! can have more members who all have useless email accounts that mean nothing (or, if Yahoo! was my major email account provider then all of my services would be linked together with the one username...but I know that is not going to happen because blogger.com belongs to Google).
Oh, and the PictureAustralia site was interesting. I especially loved the picture of Sunshine Library's librarian in 1965. <-- this used to be a link but it died. Bah. Go to Picture Australia and type in 'Sunshine library 1965' as a search term.
Ah well, it's up now. I hope to never do this again from work, I think I'll just do it from home if I need to upload to here again.
What did I learn? That flickr is tied into Yahoo! so that Yahoo! can have more members who all have useless email accounts that mean nothing (or, if Yahoo! was my major email account provider then all of my services would be linked together with the one username...but I know that is not going to happen because blogger.com belongs to Google).
Oh, and the PictureAustralia site was interesting. I especially loved the picture of Sunshine Library's librarian in 1965. <-- this used to be a link but it died. Bah. Go to Picture Australia and type in 'Sunshine library 1965' as a search term.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
My ideal place
http://www.landesbibliothek.li/ *drool* A library...in Liechtenstein. I want to work there.
Friday, September 14, 2007
#4 Register your Blog
I am sorry but my posts are going to have bland titles from now on. Part of the program says that my titles MUST have the name of the activites on them. Pfft (it's probably so they can use a program to only pull out the blogs they want to read in an effort to allow me to win 'Fabulous Prizes'...maybe a trip to Liechtenstein!!! but I doubt it).
This post is about registering my blog.
I came. I made. I registered (and someone left me a lovely comment).
Oh, and an exciting link for you all... BOOK VENDING MACHINES! Woo! Wouldn't they look good at Ginifer Station (pronounced gin like the start of gimp, not gin like the drink).
My first Friday post
Seeing as someone (who will be known as The Lady Scarlett) told everyone about my super-secret blog, I've decided to post another entry. I really have nothing to say but that doesn't matter.
Someone sent me a cool link yesterday (possibly an ALIA list because that's the only place I get library stuff) :
http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/2007/09/a_librophiliacs_love_letter_1.html
It features pretty libraries from around the world. What is it about wood paneling that makes people think something is beautiful? Honestly, the Stahov Theological Hall library has a stunning roof but would you really want to work under that all day? My favourite was either the Handelingenkamer Tweede Kamer Der Staten-Generaal Den Haag (although spiral staircases are bad Feng Shui) or the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (which was mentioned in a post - http://www.bibalex.org/English/gallery/index.htm)
Oh, I also changed the name to Carp diem : Fish of the day. It's a Buffy thing for all you Buffy lovers out there.
Someone sent me a cool link yesterday (possibly an ALIA list because that's the only place I get library stuff) :
http://www.curiousexpeditions.org/2007/09/a_librophiliacs_love_letter_1.html
It features pretty libraries from around the world. What is it about wood paneling that makes people think something is beautiful? Honestly, the Stahov Theological Hall library has a stunning roof but would you really want to work under that all day? My favourite was either the Handelingenkamer Tweede Kamer Der Staten-Generaal Den Haag (although spiral staircases are bad Feng Shui) or the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (which was mentioned in a post - http://www.bibalex.org/English/gallery/index.htm)
Oh, I also changed the name to Carp diem : Fish of the day. It's a Buffy thing for all you Buffy lovers out there.
Monday, September 10, 2007
#2 Lifelong Learning
Introduction
Well, I've just started the '8 and a half' week course Victorian Public Libraries Learning 2.0 Program arranged by the State Library of Victoria in order to teach 1000 library staff across the state about emerging technologies that may be of benefit to libraries and their staff.
Some of the stuff seems interesting (photos & images and podcasting), some rather boring (RSS) and some I have already had a play around with (online word processing/spreadsheet tools...I love you Google docs!) Although it sounds the most boring, I'm hoping to learn a bit about RSS because I have not the faintest what any of it means...here's hoping I learn!
Hopefully I won't embarass myself too much by sounding like a bit of a dumbarse (or a lot of a dumbarse)...I know a little bit of most of the Web 2.0 stuff but nothing in depth.
Week One Work
My first task was to listen to the 7 & 1/2 Habits Online Tutorial which was all about how I could do things to encourage myself to learn.
The thing I think I'll find easiest is the play part (habit 1/2). I'm quite happy to play around with online tools with little or no instruction in what they can do or how to use them. Look at me, haven't read any of the blogger stuff and already I'm typing away (hopefully it'll look good...I'm shallow enough to want it all pretty, even if there's no content).
The hardest part for me will be keeping myself motivated (well, actually it is habit 2 which is 'Accept responsibility for your own learning' which actually means 'Do the work and stop whinging about how boring it is'). I did my Masters degree by distance education and I found that motivation was by far my biggest obstacle. Even when I enjoyed the material, I'd usually find an aspect that I didn't enjoy so much and that was the end of that. Assignment time = clean house. Exam time = mowing/spring cleaning/autumn cleaning/learning how to cook Moroccan food/etc. Hopefully I'll feel a bit more motivated to do this because I'm scheduling some time each morning to do a little bit instead of attempting to write an assignment the day before it's due.
Well, I've just started the '8 and a half' week course Victorian Public Libraries Learning 2.0 Program arranged by the State Library of Victoria in order to teach 1000 library staff across the state about emerging technologies that may be of benefit to libraries and their staff.
Some of the stuff seems interesting (photos & images and podcasting), some rather boring (RSS) and some I have already had a play around with (online word processing/spreadsheet tools...I love you Google docs!) Although it sounds the most boring, I'm hoping to learn a bit about RSS because I have not the faintest what any of it means...here's hoping I learn!
Hopefully I won't embarass myself too much by sounding like a bit of a dumbarse (or a lot of a dumbarse)...I know a little bit of most of the Web 2.0 stuff but nothing in depth.
Week One Work
My first task was to listen to the 7 & 1/2 Habits Online Tutorial which was all about how I could do things to encourage myself to learn.
The thing I think I'll find easiest is the play part (habit 1/2). I'm quite happy to play around with online tools with little or no instruction in what they can do or how to use them. Look at me, haven't read any of the blogger stuff and already I'm typing away (hopefully it'll look good...I'm shallow enough to want it all pretty, even if there's no content).
The hardest part for me will be keeping myself motivated (well, actually it is habit 2 which is 'Accept responsibility for your own learning' which actually means 'Do the work and stop whinging about how boring it is'). I did my Masters degree by distance education and I found that motivation was by far my biggest obstacle. Even when I enjoyed the material, I'd usually find an aspect that I didn't enjoy so much and that was the end of that. Assignment time = clean house. Exam time = mowing/spring cleaning/autumn cleaning/learning how to cook Moroccan food/etc. Hopefully I'll feel a bit more motivated to do this because I'm scheduling some time each morning to do a little bit instead of attempting to write an assignment the day before it's due.
