Exercise 23#

I truly struggled at the beginning of this task and felt it was beyond me!
But like all learning experiences, with more familiarity patterns began to emerge and practise gave confidence which increased competence.
As a part timer who never feels there is enough time to complete tasks I don't know when I will use these new tools. But think I will return to earlier tasks and explore them further now I have more confidence with how it all works.
Really enjoyed Zoho Writer and will definitely use that again and no doubt will dip into Myspace now I have an account to check out. Need to explore Flickr further!
The most important thing about all this was the wonderful support from colleagues.
Feel lucky to work with such good people and this certainly makes it easier to attempt new things!
Thank you everyone!

Exercise22#

I looked at the articles and can see how useful this networking would be for librarians. Think it would be a wonderful tool for connecting with younger users. My children have very broad networks of friends and keep connected through this technology but being of the "old school" I would prefer to pick up the phone or write a letter!

Exercise 21#

Had a look at the Auckland City Library Bebo, Facebook and Myspace.
Watched the launch of the FQ fashion label and a Nesian Mystic secret concert at the Grey Lynn Library which was really interesting and encouraged me to open a Myspace account.
Don't feel like making cyberspace friends and would certainly not put my own face out there.

Exercise 20#
Searched for Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter"
and found the whole book on-line plus reviews, criticisms
and other readers responses.
Think it would be a fast and easy method for reviewing classics or books
that can't be found in the library.
Really useful, but would always prefer a real book in the hand.

Exercise 19#

Looked at Yahoo audio search and followed a trail to listen to a singer/writer I recently discovered and was able to listen to any tracks I wished. Also read reviews of his work. Think this is a really great tool and can see it would be most useful in libraries.
Looked at Podcast Alley but didn't think it was as user friendly (well this user!)
Think my RSS feed has been added to my bloglines account.

Exercise 18.
Checked out "Conan the librarian". Was curious about what made a cult classic and was not impressed.
I can see that there are many interesting things to view but easy to get lost in cyber wilderness.
Have an aversion to the domination of unattractive North American culture.
Could be a very useful tool for a library website. Can imagine a guided tour of Takapuna Library's Special Collections.

Exercise 17.
I was impressed by Biblio.com and think it would be a very useful library tool.
The format is non-commercial and easy to negotiate. Also covers New Zealand material and has a broad perspective.
Felt this site had integrety.

Experimenting with Zoho

Exercise 16.

I can see how a sophisticated web player would love Zoho.

Particularly like all the options available eg. coloured text.

But not feeling confident about putting posting on my blog.

Will now see if I can do this successfully

http://export.writer.zoho.com/ZExport.do?tstamp=30,9,2008
I hope I have just transfered my meanderings on Zoho to this blog?
Whoops that didn't work, will try again! But at least I can now access zoho from here!
Yippee! This is the best thing so far!

Exercise 15.
I looked at Rollyo and thought the "Quick Quotes" search could be very handy. Tried to do a search on "Search Search" but found that a New Zealand option for searching for people was not available and Australia was the only antipodean option. Find the strong American focus on all these searches rather off putting. The culture of these searches is not something I want to take on board. But it's interesting to know all these things are out there.

http://www.librarything.com/catalog/seymourvanessa

Was interesting the difference in the searches provided by Amazon and Library of Congress.
Library of Congress would be my preferred search and good for older books.
Some older books written by New Zealand authors were not locatable .
Enjoyed reading other readers impressions of the books I entered on my list.
Would be useful for readers advisory.

Found FD Toys the best site in terms of content but took so long to load that I lost patience.

Ended up using an image from the H Drive.

Sandbox offers the interesting potential for librarians to communicate from anywhere to keep in touch with colleagues and work committments.
Book reviews could be moved around and shared very easily.

Find it interesting the information that can be gathered from a Wiki. Of special interest was the Princeton Public Library BookLovers Wiki. Very useful for Readers Advisory.
The index to book reviews covered various genres, although it was very American in content.
Looked at Library Success: a best practises Wiki and noted the problem with vandalism.
Appreciate the caution teachers feel about students using Wikipedia.

Read "Into a new world of librarianship" by Michael Stephens and "To a temporary place in time" by Wendy Schultz which took a different approach. Particularly liked her description of Library 4.0. Sounds like a good future!
Also reread North Shore Libraries Vision.
A reminder of our reason for being!

Found all the adds a big distraction and annoying.
First search brought up 8,296 results so did again with quotation marks and got 469 hits which were more relevant.
Followed tag link on a blog post and it gave a broad result with related subjects.
Found Web 2.0 was listed in the Directory under Technology and found that to be the most relevant and satisfactory search.

Had a look at Delicious and it is appealing to think I could access information that is important to me online rather than depending on my faithful work notebook.
Probably will not use it but at least I now know about Delicious and how it can be used.

Search tools.

Looked at technorati and topix.net and found a great deal of useless, irrelevant, celebratory gossip when I wanted a fiction book review option. Maybe it takes time to get to where you want to go. Looked at NSCC website and found it gave a helpful desciption of RSS.

Bloglines

Found some sites eg. NYT and Guardian book reviews, very useful. Could copy some reviews for Reader's Advisory purposes. Abstract Art is a visually stimulating but would prefer to look at books and magazines. But does give a broader field to explore and more choice than magazines.
Takes time to find relevant material.

Mobile phones.

I cannot imagine life without the convenience of a mobile phone!
Hard to imagine how life worked smoothly without one.

Trip Planner.

Viewed this excellent website and think the maps are fantastic.
Would be a very useful tool while travelling.

Sargeson Map

Sargeson Map
Originally uploaded by van.seymour

Just picked an interesting label from the H Drive and found this handy little map of Takapuna!

flimmery

Hullo everyone,
Its tea time and its taken awhile to get to this point so will sign off until next time. Bye!