Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

I read most of the articles on this resource list. In "Away from the icebergs" Rick Anderson says "We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need" and "if our services can’t be used without training, then it’s the services that need to be fixed—not our patrons." I think that is very true, our services need to be more user-friendly if we expect all our customers to be able to use them.

Technorati

I found this a very frustrating exercise to do - spent a lot of time with no results. Didn't have much luck with the discovery resources. The Technorati tour wouldn't load for me. I did get very different results searching for the term "learning 2.0". When I searched in all blog posts, there were 9,706 results. Searching in the blog directory I got 685 results, and searching in tags I got 397 results. The most interesting thing I found, was when I randomly searched for the term "Piha", most of the results were of a new lipgloss being released by Lancome - it's black.

Tagging

I read through the useful beginners' tutorial for Del.icio.us, but the other two suggested resources were blocked. Had a look at the site and can see some people would find tagging better than bookmarks. But it doesn't suit me. I like having my favourites all neatly organised into folders so I can find them. I can see some people would find it an advantage to be able to access their favourites from home or work.

PBWiki

Finally finished adding to Manukau's wiki. Added my blog to favourite blogs, and an entry to favourite music. Seem to be getting further and further behind. Can't really catch up by doing some at home, as we're between broadband providers at the moment, and have to make do with dial-up!

Wikis

I learned more about what wikis are and how they work. I was of course familiar with Wikipedia, but hadn't really come across any other wikis. They have advantages and disadvantages, and the fact that anybody can edit comes under both. However, I enjoyed playing around with BookLoversWiki by the Princeton Public Library. I notice other staff have too, as any book I found that looked interesting, had already been requested by other Manukau Library staff. Book reviews on a wiki would be something we could look at doing.

Technology

At our branch we've just had installed onto one of our computers the 3M conversion station. It's really cool to use, much better than the machine Botany Library have for their old system. I had a drawer full of books that had lost their barcodes, but had already been tagged. I have learnt how to reprogramme the tags to the new barcode. So my drawer is clear at last!! Yay!

Flickr Color Pickr

Here is my picture I chose from all the great range of colours on this site. I really love deep purples and blues. Had a play with montagr too, and that was clever. Fun isn't it when you click on a link (such as libraries that flickr) and you get the message "Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn't here"