Week 6 : EnCompassCulture - the global bookclub

Work in Progress...

• Now that you've mastered the knack of searching for readalike titles/authors, explore this function more (you can search for adult, teen or kids readalikes)
• Create a post and tell us how this site can be used for readers' advisory purposes, consider: how might customers find EnCompassCulture useful? What would library staff get out of this site? Would you promote EncompassCulture to customers? Why/why not?

slideshow

This week it's slideshow, which is an online slide hosting service. As with facebook and other such sites, slideshow allows us to share slide shows privately or into the public arena.
It was easy for me to use, so I think that it would probably be easy for our customers to use. I like creating slideshows and sharing them with my whanau, so I probably would use this site again.
I would definitely promote SlideShow with among our staff as a way for us to create, store and share information among ourselves. However, as a training tool for staff, I find that youtube would is better, especially the "creative commons" series. Considering that one of the major highlights of the social site facebook, is that of sharing photos, I would promote SlideShow to our customers.

Tastespotting

I registered with Tastespotting and found some awesome recipes...so many! Where do I start? I chose Vietnamese Gingery chicken wings, because it filled three of my criteria, it had to be a simple dish, easy to put together, fast to cook and therefore eat :) The site is easy to use and I have used it before, because there are some great recipes and would probably continue to use it. However, there are other sites, one for example is Allrecipes which is easier because I can find recipes by the ingredients that I know I have at home, as well as relating to recipes from NZ and Aust.

It would be beneficial to learn about 2.0 web activities that relate directly to libraries and our customers. Although I think that we get to learn so much more as well, that may not be related to work only. What did I always get out of looking at the beautiful pictures of food... is the drawling effect :)

Feed my Inbox

Joined "Feed my inbox" unfortunately I couldn't open the video that explains the concept (at the moment)....and so I've opened up a vid on youtube and discovered that 'feed my inbox' is exactly that. I've got the latest updates of

• Te Karere Ipurangi
• Christchurch City Libraries (non-fiction, just ordered books)
• Christchurch City Libraries (new non-fiction)

I'm still waiting for The New Zealand Herald and The Gisborne Herald updates, so I've added the urls.
Videos, News, Blogs, Shopping, Search, Twitter and many more websites can be added and sent to one's inbox.
This would be helpful to me when focusing on Library and or Maaori sites, however, with huge amounts of information already coming through my work email, I would need more time to read and to clear my emails. :(

Picapp

PICAPP,
what an awesome site. Because I really do love images/photography I love it, love it, love it! The two images I chose, were of a ballet, I love the colour and life in the photograph, and I liked the 'circular-ness' in the image of the great wall of China. This site would be so easy to use by both staff and customers alike and I would definitely use it again. What I did like about Picapp was the choice of using either 'creative' or 'editorial' photos. Although, it did disappoint me that under the search 'Maori' there were only 2 photos to chose from under the heading, Maaori.
Aside from that the benefits to Manukau libraries and our customers would be the use of up-to-date, high quality and 'legal' photographs, and yes I would recommend this site to our customers.

Box.net - online file storage

So what was I suppose to be doing with Box.net? I was to visit Box and create a Lite account then upload a file of any kind from my pc? Unfortunately, I have to use the Learn.net in the main library because our work room ones can't access Box.net. :( and my files are on my workroom pc...now how do I sort this out??? ok create a file on the learn net. Yeehaa.
So that done, now to answer the questions. I think that 'box.com' could be used for work purposes/personally for sharing info...however, I think it is rather slow...could it be the learn.net or the young men watching what I'm typing whilst breathing over my shoulder hehe.
It was easy to set up an account although I found it frustrating that I had to do this on the learn.net (fighting among the hoards of customers wanting to use the learn.net :) and away from my work room pc. (creating files etc)...and I guess I'll have to use my home pc to fix this all up...in other words to prettify it :) Ok what was the next question...I don't know if our customers would find filesharing useful, I would think that sharing files would be more for work files and why wouldn't one do it at work and not in a public library? Having said that, I would promote box.net if there was a call for it.

ps just accessed box.net on the workroom computer :)

Back again with web - round 2 - yeehaa

Yes, here we go again, on a magical merry-go-round :) Web 2+ - bigger and brighter.

Final Post

Yep my final post...hehe. I think I will be forever doing this blog :). From the creation of this blog through to my placing comments on a lot of the other blogs...and there were a many, so many that I ended up 'befriending' everyone in the end...well those who had the friend application. Twitter, Facebook and downloading mp3 files weren't new to me and the benefits/and or otherwise, I have mentioned in previous posts. Zamzar was by far my favourite, because of the benefits to myself and to our customers, and GoodReads I found exciting because it was new to me and I found out so much info about books that I would have otherwise not looked at.

A huge negative with web 2.0 was the fact that I never had enough time as well as working in the main library (customers still thought I was on call and I ended up spending more time helping them whilst losing track of my work). So I ended up doing most of my blog at home.

A huge positive is that I really did enjoy doing web 2.0 and I am looking forward to continuing this training. As I have previously said, "I do love learning."

Found this awesome video.

FINAL WEEK - Week 6 - FACEBOOK - Yeehaa!!!

I found this interesting link by iLibrarian about how people are using Facebook, the data is dated (2007), but it is interesting nonetheless. There is also an article about opting out of fb's instant personalization. (April 2010) Scary stuff, it makes me want to end my other fb page. However, I have made a fb page as TeAo Ataahua. Right-te-o, now what were the requirements for this week? I've posted a comment on Manukau Libraries fb about what 'book/magazine' I'm reading right this minute...LOL; what person who works in a library has only one book on the go?? Really?? I was also to find another library and look at the updates that they make. A blog 'by librarians and for librarians' called 'The room of infinite diligence,' led me to Tararua Library . This library has many links to interesting articles such as the usual 'haps in libraries,' council annual plans, author of the week, book reviews, no more bebo, a librarian getting her first aid cert, and the coming of ebooks. One article that I found interesting was how in Baltimore US, patrons order groceries (from the library) and they are delivered the next day to the library LOL. Ooky dookys, in order to answer the rest of the questions I'm to use points;

• fb can (and does) help me keep in contact with my huge whanau, worldwide.
• Our public library fb can be used in much the same way as it is now, by sharing information between those of us who work in libraries and/or our customers.
• I have a personal page already, so it was easy to use and I continue to use it.
• A lot of our customers already use fb, and as yet I haven't been asked about fb. I'm sure our customers will get as much out of fb as many users do at this time. Such as keeping in contact with whanau and friends. As well as the sharing of information, and yes I would promote our page to customers because we do have many customers that would like to be kept up to date with the haps in our libraries.

Ok, so that is the final week and facebook is finished with...yeehaa!!! I've had to really fly through 2.0 because I've got so much on during May, June and July and didn't want to miss out on this awesome learning experience. Because as much as I really enjoy (playing with) my computer, watching DVD's and reading, LEARNING IS MY PASSION.

Week 5 : Music files and mp3s - Pokarekare Ana

Couldn't help myself, after 'in-depth investigation' (playing) with most of the links that were offered, I finally found m3raid. This was one of my favourites because it the only site I found that offered maaori waiata downloads for free. Abet only a few waiata were offered. A close second was eztracks...the gadget was pretty :) and there was the offer of 1000 free songs. A lot of the other mp3 links had music that I hadn't heard of and I got tired of searching. I know if I really liked a song I would buy it. However, knowing of these sites and how to download mp3's would be invaluable in sharing with our customers.

Pökarekare ana ngä wai o Waiapu, 1 Whiti atu koe hine marino ana e. E hine e hoki mai ra. Ka mate ahau 2 I te aroha e. Tuhituhi taku reta tuku atu taku rïngi, Kia kite tö iwi raru raru ana e. Whati whati taku pene 3 ka pau aku pepa, Ko taku aroha mau tonu ana e. E kore te aroha e maroke i te rä, Mäkükü tonu i aku roimata e.

They are agitated the waters of Waiapu, cross over girl 'tis calm. Oh girl return (to me), I could die of love (for you). I have written my letter I have sent my ring, so that your people can see (that I am) troubled. My pen is shattered, I have no more paper (But) my love is still steadfast. (My) love will never be dried by the sun, It will be forever moistened by my tears.

GoodReads - week 4

Wow!!! what an awesome site. It is not only a great Social Networking site where library staff and customers can contact other like-minded readers but a great place to source book reviews. For those very reasons, I have joined and would recommend GoodReads to customers and friends.

Te Ao's book montage

Te Ao Ataahua's favorite books »

Twitter - Week 3

• I found Twitter easy to use and to add to my blog. 
• SHORT messages...and one isn't bored witless with long spiels 
• It is interesting in a voyeuristic way to see what other people are doing in real time. 
• Checking out Trade me auctions, cheap air flights and such.
• Fast links to other interesting places on the web
• Worldwide contact with others
• Neighbourhood contact with others
• Manukau Libraries are proactive in the use of Twitter e.g. book reviews etc
• Yes, I would certainly promote this service to customers
• Use in the workroom??? Haven't got enough time :(

Week 2 : Zamzar - converting file formats

Wow. As easy as 1,2,3,(and 4) :) converting file formats from doc. to pdf for example, or docx to doc, a bmp image into a jpeg file.  Conversions of various image, audio video and document files.  All I had to do was to find a file in my documents (step1), chose what format I wanted to change it into (step 2) sending it onto my email account (step 3) and then clicking 'convert' (step 4), whilst agreeing to Zamzar terms. All that was left for me to do was to get the files from my email account.


Like I said, so easy to use for our patrons or for ourselves, and with all of the various file formats, well worth using in the future ..and it's free as well.

Week 1 - Blogger

This is my second blog, my first blog was when I began my adventure with learning 2.0. I think the only thing I fear about 2.0 is that I would end up spending too much time on it :) Our libraries could use a blog as a form of communication with our patrons, or between colleagues. We could have gadgets; or short librarian bio's; a photo a day in our libraries. We could also include a pb wiki or other forms of access for our patrons, so that they maybe able to tell us how we could be of better service. We could do so much...

Ōtara Ataahua

Wow, another blog in the name of Learning 2.0. This is an online self-discovery exercise, which would help Manukau City Library staff further our 'expertise' and therefore help our many patrons in the various online queries that are presented to us daily.
The programme will cover six weeks and begin with this blog (week 1), followed by Zamzar (week 2) in which I will learn how to convert file formats. In week 3 I will be setting up a Twitter account and in week 4 I'll be signing up with ‘goodreads’ which combines books and social networking. This is followed up in Week5 with learning how to download music and mp3 files where I'll be exploring the various free music websites as well as downloading a mp3 file. I will visit Facebook in the 6th week and finally we've been shown what we could be doing in the future to further our knowledge on the internet. https://outlook.manukau.govt.nz/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://mlweb20.blogspot.com

This would in no way end 'learning through play.' What could follow is Learning 2.1...