Well, we've reached the end of our 10 week Web 2.0 course.
It's been an interesting experience. Being in EServices I'm already pretty familiar with all of these technologies, but it was still fun learning more about them and getting a chance to play.
I hope that everyone feels more confident with these new technologies and feels that they will be able to answer customer queries about them.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Geocaching
I think Geocaching could be used in a library environment. Using it to help new members discover your library would be one of the most obvious choices.
Another option would be to link it in with library displays. For example with our recent 'Libraries, We Find Stuff' display, we could have hidden items or books around the library that people had to find.
You could really do anything with the 'treasure hunt' idea.
Another option would be to link it in with library displays. For example with our recent 'Libraries, We Find Stuff' display, we could have hidden items or books around the library that people had to find.
You could really do anything with the 'treasure hunt' idea.
Oral History Podcasts
I think that a fabulous way to use podcasts in a library would be to do podcasts from the Oral History Collection.
Short little audio grabs of someone speaking about their life, or about something that happened in the Cambridge area in the past. Link that with a photo of the person, or a photo of the part of Cambridge they're talking about and it becomes a great way to connect people with local history.
Reading about a person or a place is one thing, but to hear someone speaking about their experiences can make history come alive.
Short little audio grabs of someone speaking about their life, or about something that happened in the Cambridge area in the past. Link that with a photo of the person, or a photo of the part of Cambridge they're talking about and it becomes a great way to connect people with local history.
Reading about a person or a place is one thing, but to hear someone speaking about their experiences can make history come alive.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Facebook and Twitter
Now we come to the most contentious part of Web 2.0 - Facebook
Some people love Facebook, some people loathe Facebook. Either opinion is fine.
Facebook has it's bad points, I'm not going to deny that. One of the worst is the fact that they set all privacy settings to public unless you change them to private. If you aren't aware of this you could soon be asking yourself how people you've never met know so much about you.
Like with all new technologies, the only way to avoid such pitfalls is to learn as much as you can about something before you join up. Spend a few minutes on Google and research anything you're interested in joining. Learning about other people's stuff-ups will help you avoid the same fate.
Now on to Twitter.
Twitter posts (Tweets) can be some of the most banal and yet hilarious things you'll ever read. People will post completely pointless comments about whether or not they decided to have fruit for breakfast this morning or perhaps they will let everyone know when they've arrived home at the end of the day.
And at the same time Twitter can give you access to some of the most amazing information. Whenever there is a crisis somewhere in the world, the twitter world will have the latest information on what's going on because it's being tweeted about by the people who are there, we're not waiting on conventional media for news.
If you can't get to a conference, you can bet that someone there will be tweeting about what's being said and you can listen in or even post questions that the speaker may answer.
Some people love Facebook, some people loathe Facebook. Either opinion is fine.
Facebook has it's bad points, I'm not going to deny that. One of the worst is the fact that they set all privacy settings to public unless you change them to private. If you aren't aware of this you could soon be asking yourself how people you've never met know so much about you.
Like with all new technologies, the only way to avoid such pitfalls is to learn as much as you can about something before you join up. Spend a few minutes on Google and research anything you're interested in joining. Learning about other people's stuff-ups will help you avoid the same fate.
Now on to Twitter.
Twitter posts (Tweets) can be some of the most banal and yet hilarious things you'll ever read. People will post completely pointless comments about whether or not they decided to have fruit for breakfast this morning or perhaps they will let everyone know when they've arrived home at the end of the day.
And at the same time Twitter can give you access to some of the most amazing information. Whenever there is a crisis somewhere in the world, the twitter world will have the latest information on what's going on because it's being tweeted about by the people who are there, we're not waiting on conventional media for news.
If you can't get to a conference, you can bet that someone there will be tweeting about what's being said and you can listen in or even post questions that the speaker may answer.
LibraryThing
LibraryThing is a lot of fun!
It's a great way to keep track of all of your books, to get book recommendations based upon the books in your library and to connect with people who enjoy the same books as you.
The user reviews can help you find new books to read, and the links to different online booksellers can help you identify where to buy them from.
I think LibraryThing would be useful in a library environment in allowing staff to create a constantly changing list of new and interesting books for when library users are trying to find something good to read. A link to the list could be put onto the library's website so library members could access it.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/caseymca
It's a great way to keep track of all of your books, to get book recommendations based upon the books in your library and to connect with people who enjoy the same books as you.
The user reviews can help you find new books to read, and the links to different online booksellers can help you identify where to buy them from.
I think LibraryThing would be useful in a library environment in allowing staff to create a constantly changing list of new and interesting books for when library users are trying to find something good to read. A link to the list could be put onto the library's website so library members could access it.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/caseymca
Tagging
The most daunting aspect of tagging is when you import a whole heap of bookmarks from your favourites menu into Delicious. Generally these won't have any tags attached to them and then you have to go through each one and create tags so that you can find them later. This may seem like an absolute pain, but once it's done it will make life much easier and then you won't spend many frustrating hours scanning through your list of bookmarks to find that one website you need to access.
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