YouTube & Google Video

The variety of what is available on these sites is truly amazing. It seems that you can find a video about anything.

I knew that Mosman Library hosts author talks regularly but I didn't know that they were available on Goggle Video for "all the world to see". A wonderful idea to further promote the library service.

I like the idea of a virtual tour around the library being available on the library website. It would be an informative way to introduce people to what services are available in a non threatening manner.

We have recently been talking about trying to make a child friendly brochure to teach them how to search and locate resources in the library. Perhaps a video would be an appropriate introduction, particularly when school classes visit.

I think that videos could also be used as staff instruction tools. They could be embedded in the Policies and Procedures manual (wiki of course!) to show new staff how to perform certain tasks, often visual aids are easier to comprehend than a written description, particularly with regard to a physical task.

I was interested to note that when I searched both YouTube and Google Video for "library public Australia" very little was returned. When I broadened the search and just used "library public" many more results were displayed, almost all from the USA.

Wiki Applications within Libraries

I really like the idea of using a wiki for the library policy and procedures manual. It should be available on the staff intranet site for all staff to access, edit and add to. If this were to occur I feel that it would be updated more regularly and would therefore be a more useful tool to train staff as the policies and procedures included would be current. Its ease of access would also encourage more uniformity between different staff members and branches as the same version of the policy and procedures manual would be accessible to all.

Wookieepedia

I love Wookieepedia! I've always enjoyed the Star Wars films and books but I never new people had so much time that they could create something as all encompassing as this! It seems that every aspect (to my mind anyway!) has a "Featured Article" - there are 354 of them! For example, the life of the character Mara Jade Skywalker, has been compiled from all sources to form a complete biography, many pages long.

Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki

I appreciate the idea of the Library Success: A best practices wiki. The idea of globally sharing information and ideas related "the library world" is inspiring. Because of the area in which I work, I clicked on Programs for Kids & Teens and then progressed to the EZ Library Program Directory created by the Mid-Hudson Library System. This wiki has so many ideas that can be searched in a variety of ways (Topic, Audience, Program Type, Cost). I will certainly be using it as a source for programme ideas at work.

St. Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides

I'm absolutely amazed at St. Joseph County Public Library's May Calendar of Events. How on earth can they offer such a variety of programmes for people to attend?

I followed the link to their Subject Guides (http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_Page) wiki. I clicked on Crafts under the Hobbies heading. This displayed a range of entries, from new books and related magazine titles in the Library Collection, to webpage links and instructions on how to decorate a t-shirt.

But what amazed me even more was what I discovered when I clicked on the link to "the Monthly Calendar of Events for more information about these exciting craft programs happening at all of the Library's branches" and downloaded the Calendar. From movie screenings, computer classes, storytimes (including bilingual), language classes, music classes to book clubs and author talks - it all happens at SJCPL...

News Feed Loaded onto Discovering New Skills

I'm proud of the fact that I have just managed to load a news feed into my own blog! My husband has been advised not to eat wheat so we are trying to learn how to vary our diets, I'm hoping this feed will help!

Week 4 Update

I've only just read the Week 4 update posting! If I'd seen this additional video first it may not have taken me all afternoon to get the RSS feeds onto my Bloglines site. But because I worked this out for myself I guess I'm unlikely to forget it!!

Real Simple Syndication

I knew nothing about RSS before today. I found the YouTube film very informative. I had no trouble creating my Bloglines account but struggled with attaching my selected feeds. By clicking on the incons on the various websites (if I accually found one) I seemed to subscribe directly onto my computer rather than my Bloglines account. To overcome this I started copying and pasting the RSS website address into the search function on Bloglines. I'm very happy to report I now have 8 feeds directed to my Bloglines account!

I used a couple of the suggestions from the NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.0 Activities week 4 list. To add some variety I ran 3 Google searches using the words "rss feeds". One was to find a travel feed related to Australia and the second was for recipies. I suspect I will be looking at these feeds more often!! The third search was to see how public libraries in NSW were using the RSS technology. I quite like the idea of setting up a RSS feed to advertise events happening in the library and other things you would like to inform the public about.