I have claimed my blog

Still don't fully understand Technorati, but give me time and it will become clear. Anyway I, LibraryLover, do hereby claim my blog! My link to Technorati is LibraryLover

Technorati & LibraryThing

I checked out Technorati tonight. At first I looked at it and thought 'What the...?', so I went back to the learning 2.0 thingy and had a bit more of a read about what Technorati was, then went and looked at it a little more closely. I was interested to note that the 'rising' tags are dominated by American issues, so I guess they are the dominant posters at the moment. There is also a large amount of blogging about tecnology and gadgets, totally out of my realm of understanding, but probably very handy for those that are in the know.

I am having issues with my computer and so I couldn't join up, but I will do so soon.

LibraryThing - WOW! This would be so great for advertising our events! I took the tour - lovely and simple and very clear about how it is run and what you can do on it. I joined up and found it remarkably quick and easy to add some books to my library list.

I have fallen in love with del.icio.us. How great is it to be able to take your links with you. I had to laugh at myself, I had signed up to it a fair while ago and had put a link on there, but not in my favourites. So when I went to go to this website that I couldn't remember the name of, but knew i had bookmarked, I couldn't find it because I had forgotten all about putting it in del.icio.us! And there it was, three months later, waiting to be rediscovered by me (lol). If you are interested, my del.icio.us site is here - My Favourites

So my falling in love thing happened when I rediscovered del.icio.us through this web 2.0 learning thingy I am doing. I have now found so many more sites to add to it, and favourite blogs too, so that when I go away on holiday I can still get my fix of other peoples lives while enjoying my own! Yay! Blogs are such a great way of killing time.

Youtube, lol! The Librarian Song

Wikis

I delved into the world of wikis tonight (by the way, did you notice my RSS feed to the left of the screen? Yay, I did it!). I think the idea behind Wikis is good - everyone going to one page to place and edit information. You could use this to create library newsletters, say for a teen group, they can work on it from home and collaborate. It would also be useful for distance uni students to use when they have to collaborate on an assignment, no more of the toing and froing of emails.

One concern I have is noted in the 'Library success: A best practices wiki'. People can put in false information or use it to satisfy a personal vendetta, thereby making it necessary for someone to be responsible for monitoring the content and cleaning up where necessary. If there are ways of securing a wiki so that only certain people could access it to edit it then it could be used in the ways I mentioned above. I did think the 'Library success' was a great wiki, full of information of value to librarians everywhere. I noticed that they now require email confirmation, this is a good security measure and hopefully will limit any damage that can be done by mischief makers.

The 'Book lovers wiki ' is good value and could be used as a readers advisory (in a limited sense). Borrowers or prolific readers would be able to post their views on books, almost like a mini bookclub! There are blogs out there that provide a similar concept, but are limited to one persons opinion, whereas this wiki is open to many opinions.

'Wookiepedia', hmmm, what can I say....well, it is certainly a Star Wars lovers dream and entertaining reading. I do have to wonder why the people who post here haven't got something better to do, but each to their own I suppose. The info is out there in a galaxy far far way (LOL). Actually, it's rather close - the WWW galaxy, where all newcomers can find something to waste their time on, or expand their knowledge in ways they never expected. Ahh, now, that is the Jedi way.....

RSS

Well, I braved the world of RSS! I think I have the hang of it, but time will tell. Haven't quite worked out how to add an RSS feed to this blog, but I know someone I can ask.

Using RSS in the work place would be very time-saving. I love the way updates are automatically sent to you as they happen. Libraries that use this technology can keep more in touch with updated information which will certainly benefit library patrons.

Dropping By

It is very busy in the library at the moment, now that school holidays have descended upon us. It seems to be prime time for new memberships and parents looking for something to do with their children.

I am planning a trip to New Zealand later in the year and have been working out my itinerary and my budget. I have located little gems like http://www.standbycars.com.au/ which offers campervans and cars from as little as $1 per day. Wow! It simply asks that you deliver the car/van to another destination within a certain time frame. You can use this in Australia or NZ, so if there is any of you looking for a budget option for a little travel in Oz, this could be your answer.

I may decide to go with the Flexipass system instead. You buy a certain number of hours to access coach travel around New Zealand and if you prefer to sit back and let someone else do the driving then this is a good way to go. You can hop on and off as you please.

For information about New Zealand you can't really go past www.newzealand.com