#16 So what's in a wiki?

Before this exercise the only wiki I had really used was wikipedia, and I've only consulted that occasionally. I stumbled across another wiki called wikihow the other day when looking for suggestions for removing a splinter from underneath my fingernail. It describes itself as a "a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual" and covers a diverse range of topics from how to open a door with a credit card to how to keep safe during a house fire. I like the idea of the collaborative nature of wikis and that they are designed to be easy for non IT experts to use. However, the fact that they may be open to unrestricted editing also makes me somewhat cautious of the content in some cases.

One thing I noticed about the wikis that I looked at for this activity was that they are not the prettiest web sites. It would be great if they could look a bit more exciting. Content wise I liked the SJCPL subject guide wiki. I like the mix of information with links to books within the library collection as well as a few select websites. I even added one of the knitting websites to my delicious bookmarks. I found this wiki user friendly and I think it is the sort of thing we could do as a public library that could actually be really useful (and easy to use) for library members.

#15 On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I read a few of the perspectives from the eOCLC Next Space newsletter. At the moment I don't feel as if I have a unified sort of vision of how public libraries can embrace Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 but the articles did give me some idea of the wide ranging possibilities.

Michael Stephens' "Into a new world of librarianship" gave me some ideas about the kind of web 2.0 tools that we could be relevant and useful for our library users. Perhaps we could use instant messaging for information requests. At the moment we have a form on our website that customers can submit if they want to request information/reference help but instant messaging would allow more of a dialogue between the information requester and the librarian, which has potential benefits for both. However, I'm not sure if the use of 'instant messaging' may create unrealistic expectations of the kind of time frame within which we would be able to deliver the information. I think that blogs are definitely another tool we could use. We have an events calendar on our website but I think that an events blog might be more effective. People could subscribe to the blog to receive notification about upcoming events. They could also contribute comments about the events.

I think that Michael Stephens' point that "Librarian 2.0 makes good, yet fast decisions" is crucial. I'm amazed by how quickly things are changing in the technological sphere. If we don't speed up our responses to these changes by the time we implement new technologies our customers may have moved on to newer things.

#14 Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

I had a bit of a play/search on the Technorati site a few days ago. I didn't find it very visually appealing but it seemed easy enough to use. I tried a few of the different advanced search options and did get quite different results for each. In the keyword search for all blogs I got 1,155 results when I used the exact phrase "learning 2.0" but 10,280 when I used the "all of the words" and learning 2.0. I got 360 results for the exact phrase "learning" 2.0 when searching tags. A few of the top results in this section appeared to be other Victorian learning 2.0 blogs which was kind of exciting to see. In the blog directory search I got over 800 results. I had a look through some of the popular 100 blogs and found a few of them interesting enough to add as feeds to my bloglines account (how long I will continue to subscribe is another matter). So many of the popular blogs seem to be technology related. I did a few searches for topics of interest to me such as vegetarian cooking and knitting but I didn't find any blogs that I really wanted to subscribe to. However, I noticed that one of the knitting blogs had some you tube videos, which I gave me the idea to check you tube when I am stuck with stitches/techniques in the future. The diagrams in most knitting books and websites leave a lot to be desired. Hopefully a video might be a bit easier to follow.

#13 Tagging, folksonomies & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

I like del.icio.us and I think I will definitely be using it long after I finish the learning 2.0 program. I had a look at the PMCLCM2 account but I've also set up account for myself. I've added a lot of the sites I've discovered through this program as well as old favourites that I use on a regular basis. I still have to add some that I have bookmarked on my old computer. So far I've found del.icious easy to use. It's great that you can access all your bookmarks from any computer. Also, using tags makes it seem more organised than the simple list of bookmarks saved in my browser. I like the way it links things- for example, by clicking on a tag I can then link to sites other people have saved with the same tag. I think del.icio.us could be useful in an academic context as well. At uni most of the course/subject readers included lists of useful websites. How much better would it be if the lecturer set up a del.icio.us account with all of these links and maybe even comments about their strengths and weaknesses. All students could easily access the relevant sites and possibly find other useful sites by exploring tags etc.

#12 Rollyo

I've created two search rolls so far using Rollyo. The first is a recipe search. I actually like browsing through my many cook books or bulging recipe folder for inspiration- when I have the time. However, sometimes it's handy to be able to search for a recipe with just a few clicks rather jumping from book to book, index to index. Rollyo worked well for me for this topic because it meant I could limit the search to just a few good Australian sites, avoiding unknown American terms for ingredients and that pesky imperial measurement system. I also created a search roll related to speech pathology, which I studied recently. I'm in two minds as to whether I would want to use this when actually studying. By carefully choosing sites that you believe to be well researched and reliable you could be saving yourself the time that it takes to filter through a general google search. However, there is the possibility that you might also miss out on valuable information if you create too narrow a search roll. Also with a clinical science such as speech pathology, it is valuable to be exposed to the personal as well as academic texts that are available on the internet (perhaps not to complete a 2000 word assignment on the anatomy and physiology of the vocal tract, but in order to understand the experiences of your clients and their families).

#11 LibraryThing

I enjoyed this activity. While I've only really done the minimum at this stage (I've only added five books so far) I think I will continue to use this in my own time. I may even be tempted to upgrade to a paid membership so that I can add all of my books when I have the time. I think I really need to have a bit of a play before I can say much more about the various features. The next step is to try and add one of the widgets to this blog.

#10 Play around with image generators

This warning label (which I created using http://www.warninglabelgenerator.com/) illustrates my current feelings towards learning 2.0. Actually, I am enjoying it on the whole but got frustrated with the image generator task as it ended up taking me forever. First of all, there were just too many different things to choose from. I looked at quite a few of the links from the Generator Blog but I wasn't particularly taken with any of them. I created an avatar using http://www.doppelme.com/create/step2.asp but I didn't like the result. I'll have to play around to make it a bit more exciting. I tried the bonsai story generator http://www.critters.org/bonsai.html but it wasn't what I expected. I know this was meant to be a fun exercise but it turned out to be more frustrating than fun for me tonight.