LIANZA Conference 2009

The link below will take you to the feedback I wrote on the LIANZA Conference held in Christchurch in October 2009. It was a very informative and thought provoking, especially the keynote address by Sir Tipene O'Regan and his daughter and the presentation by Richard Stallman. Indeed the latter was a bit scary. Click the link and read all the feedback.

Secret url: http://www.slideshare.net/secret/8ma7M8GyDblakX

Green Day at the Vector '09

As some of you know I'm a Green Day fan and went to their concert 18/12/2009. This was an awesome concert, a real party, from the pink rabbit sucking on a bong and drinking a beer to the acoustic solo last song 'Time of your Life', the place rocked. A couple of videos for you courtesy of YOUTUBE. The first link is the opening song '21st Century Breakdown' is from the concert I attended. The second link is to a video made in Berlin three weeks before the NZ concerts and features the acoustic version and final song sung at my concert, 'Time of Your Life'.

Opening Song 21st Century Breakdown

Time of Your Life

Amends

Forgive me for I have failed to Blog. It has been a month since my last post. Why you ask?? I really haven't had a lot to say but feel the need to commit words (at least) to my blog. I could do something interesting I suppose like add a gadget, random thoughts or something?? Spoiled for choice really but choose I must because to do nothing is to loose the skills I've gained. Always had a soft spot for Spock.

Yet another try

Just can't seem to get my links labled.... Figured it out. Was putting extra bits of HTML in the URL accidentally...Daaa!!

Senior Friendly

Senior web writing checklist

Display ideas

Having another try at this labeling of links.

Seniors on the web

My attempt to create links with descriptors rather than a whole lot of html text. The first two named links provide some information about writing for Seniors on the Web. The last link contains ideas for library displays.


Seniors on the web

Checklist when writing senior web pages

Displays ideas

Displays & Bulletin boards

I was having a look see in Flickr for ideas for displays and bulletin boards and came across the following images. Just need to get the imagination into gear.

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=%22library+displays%22&page=2

Web writing

Having a blog makes it easy to pass on helpful tips. I came across these web sites which look at making web sites senior friendly and thought since our population is aging some of the information might be generally useful.

http://www.nia.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/FF9E472A-8363-4EA0-848E-5AFA56502ECE/12338/Sr_Web_tips_forweb_final_032509.pdf

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/checklist.pdf

Reflection

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
All of it really. Looking back over this blog I am quite pleased to see it (my first ever blog) develop from nothing because I knew nothing to what it is now. I had heard the words, blog, widget, RSS but until I did the exercise I couldn't even have told you what RSS meant or what a widget is. The latter was a challenge that eluded me. I just couldn't get a widget to download to my blog from the 'minis' link.

Did get to use the Blogs gadgets and add pics and an RSS feed to the free library. Piccasa was fun as were the videos though I have got to admit having done all this on my dial up connection has been slow going. I wonder too about copyright when so much is downloadable and transferable to blogs and different authorship?

I now have a face book page and have a few friends linked in. My thoughts on social networking....Penny mentioned the word paranoid in one of her posts. Quite rightly I think. There are some major issues with privacy and the naive among us make it easy for those people with evil intent to access, use then abuse information given in good faith. I think young people are at greater risk primarilly because of the greater social networking they engage in coupled with their need to belong and lack of worldly experience.

I wonder if there are Blog bullies out there, like text bullies? I suppose there are given the ability to make comments on people's posts? What sort of world do we live in?

On the plus side carefully managed, Facebook and My Space etc are great fun and much more than simple email can offer. Privacy is the biggest concern but then the other night on TV there was a documentart on the Number of CCTV cameras up in cities around the world, including ours....I was left wondering if one can actually pee without prying eyes!!!!! Hundreds of CCTV watch us daily, angels or demons over our shoulders I wonder?

How has this programme assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It hasn't made me want to swing into an IT career but it has opened my eyes and broadened my repitoire of skills, understanding and interest in technology.

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this programme that surprised you?
I now have a Blog, Piccasa on my home computer, a face book page,, a Zoho account, a yahoo email and a flickr account!!!!! None of which I had before I started so I guess you could say I've got some take aways. I'll probably keep them to..now I know about them and how to use them. Thats a turn around because at the end of this tutorial I was initially going to delete it all.

What could we do differently to improve upon this programme’s format or concept?
I found it easy to follow, easy to use (except the widget minis link - couldn't get that to work at all) and enjoyable if not time consuming. It has taken a lot of my spare time to complete this. Perhaps future tutorials could be half as long then I wouldn't feel like I was giving up quite so much spare, (really home and leisure), time to complete them. Which kind of answers your last question....It has been fun and YES I'd do more.

RSS feed from the free library

Added a RSS feed which takes you to the http://www.thefreelibrary.com From here a veritable treasure trove of information is at your finger tips.

Widgets be damned

I tried adding a Youtube and a Fortune widget...Don't know where they went. Followed the directions and the messages on screen said they had been added and to go to my blog to see them live.....couldn't find them. I did add an RSS feed from the Herald but decided it was a bit boring so deleted it. Will search for a better one. Using the Picture gadget added the shelving picture. It was a mixed bag of IT successes tonight.

First Zoho effort

Well here I am with yet another account. Note to self... My user name for the Zoho account is
the same as my Yahoo account. This is a cool set of tools. It means that all sorts of documents can be created independently of the computer they were saved on. It means all the work done via this program is accessible anywhere there is Internet. Man cyberspace must be awfully cluttered with documents, pictures, spreadsheets, reports, bloggs etc etc etc. As we rely more and more on the metaphorical big all knowing computer in the sky to store our information, I hope it never goes down... I wonder what it all means and where it will end? "42" perhaps? The great all knowing computer is just as slippery and hard to get a grasp of as the fish this kitten is after.

Blogger Help solved my problem

Blogger help is really useful... If all else fails the old maxim about reading the manual is the way to go. Here are the links to a couple of the sites which I found interesting and which won awards.

http://www.revolutionhealth.com/

http://www.cocktailbuilder.com/

Answering comments

Daaa!! I finally browsed back through my previous posts to see if I had any comments. Jen asked me to make the two sites I looked at and assessed way back on the Web 2.0 revisited week links...here goes

http://www.revolutionhealth.com/
http://www.cocktailbuilder.com/

Well this is my third try and I am doing something wrong, probably something simple because I can't get these sites to be a simple click and link.

I have found out that if you highlight the address and then right click on it, then click the option allowing google to search for the address it is "nearly" a link. A couple of click off!?? Will keep working on this.

Wikis

The article about how libraries could use Wikis was mind blowing really. Another example of what can be done if only we embrace and encourage our imaginations. The Whangarei 2CU site would be ideal for a Wiki, continually updated/edited by the community, recent relevant and local services always at ones finger tips. Indeed the concept of a 'community' Wiki or several with different focus, is very appealing. Social services, recreational events, support groups, sporting clubs etc could all be involved in putting information onto a Wiki that the whole community can acces, edit, update and refresh. A true feeling of community and community endeavour, all for one and one for all, that lets face it has been sadly lacking over recent years.

I thought the idea of subject guides was something the library could use. We have subject headings into which new items can be added and commented on. Book, CD, DVD and other media reviews are another option for adding into subject guides, or on their own. Since the Wiki doesn't belong to one writer but to all who contribute, barring some oversight to prevent chaos, anyone could write a review and make comments. Other users could come along and add their thoughts via the edit tool. This is done to some degree on online shopping sites like MightyApe (you can earn banana points which have financial value if you review a product). I don't know whether we'd want to reward users as such. Their reward could be in the pleasure of having their say..the social reward of being listened to.

I'm not too up on how you go about setting up this sort of technology but it does seem that the options are numerous. I'm not a technophobe but I'm also no wizard at this IT stuff but am a firm believer in, "if you can think it then it is only a matter of time before it happens."

Had to put a clip in from Casino Royale. Just love the Bond movies. This clip is the last hand in a poker game to bankrupt a terrorist arms dealer. James comes back to the table having just been drugged and defibrilated.....all in a days work for 007. Why did I include it, because I can.

It isn't too hard to do and I'm left wondering why the Libraries web site hasn't already embraced some of the web 2.0 ideas. Still when I stop and think about it...computers are a young but rapidly evolving technology. In 1989 I taught Mental Health care for nurses in training at the Northtec. We had computers but they were really glorified typewritters. There was little in the way of publishing programs and e-mail wasn't a going concern yet let alone Intranet or Internet sites.

In 20 years computers are now able to think as in, anticipate certain needs of the operator. How long before they really start to think and we have a SkyNet problem (the ubiquitous computer from the Terminator movies takes over the world stops people shutting it down all because it has it's own life and agenda to follow) Historically it seems if man can think it up, it will happen....? Jules Verne and George Orwell spring to mind. Scary stuff.

A video perhaps

This is my first attempt at embedding a video in my Blog so who knows what will happen. It is a three min clip about Molly the library bus in Singapore being made. Kind of relates to the part of my job I love, getting out and about. Would be great to have a bus like this.

Embedded videos could be used by WDC Libraries to give short tutorials on any aspect of the use of our online resources. From accessing ones library account to conducting a search on any one of our many online links. Could also do a virtual tour of the library and even follow the journey of one book on its travels from purchase to issue.

Tagging and Folk sonomies

This was a very interesting section. I can see why cataloging is used and is so strict. Tagging is great but what is one persons realistic tag is someone's sense of humor. I have tagged some of my photo's on Flickr but can see I will be in trouble over time as the number of tags I use to organize photos increases and I forget where I put things. I decided not to tag my blog because I'm not sure I want heaps of folk being able to read my musings. While they are not hugely personal they do give away details. I read Michael Connolley's latest book "Scarecrow" and think that the smaller ones electonic footprint the better!!! It is a fictional but probable story of how social networking sites, among others can be used to track a person for evil purposes.

I searched for 'Learning 2.0' and got 383 hits. I looked at a few blogs and there are some very useful teaching points made and suggestions available. It is definitly the way of the future. There are some great possibilities for libraries, where readers can keep lists of what they have read, create unique readers profiles etc. Some of which is already out there. Many media online shopping stores ( amazon, alibris) suggest items to purchase based on previous purchases.

I hope we actually interact personally from time to time as we embrace 'second life'. I don't think coffee tastes as good when you are an avatar. Then again, experimentation is going on with olfactory sensations being emmitted from computers, smell of grass as you walk though a paddock....perhaps taste is next.

Web 2.0 revisited

I read the OCLC newsletter when I began this segment of the tutorial and find myself agreeing and nodding a lot. I believe we will probably always have books and hard resources that people will want to borrow, (it is difficult curling up in bed with a laptop screen to read your favourite novel) but I think the 'we must make sure we have it on the shelf just in case someone might want it ' idea is well past it's use by date. With the amount of information on the planet and the exponential rate at which it is growing, we can never hope to have a little something for everyone, just in case. Instead I think that as librarians we need to be developing an interest within our borrowers to encourage them to embrace the technological world. It never ceases to amaze me just who 'out there' is online and who once they are shown the door to online resources will embrace it. We need to stop prejudging who will and wont use online resources and probably not even use the IT terminology but show instead. If you ask someone do they use a computer they are likely to down play their involvement yet admit to writting letters, storing their photos or sending e-mails. We are all tightly bound up in this information and the only way to feel secure with it is to use it, not let it (or IT) use us.

I looked at www.revolutionhealth.com
www.cocktailbuilder.com
and of course I find I have been using two other sites at least as part of this tutorial.
Revolution health is easy to use and is great for providing profile specific information. Cocktail builder, also a clear, useful and easy to use site is a great way to create a drink where all the components are meant to be together. Flickr and Picasa are both easy to use and most of the photos on my Blog have passed through one or the other. Have put a pic here to show how I cropped and enhanced a picture taken too far away with bad lighting. Initially you couldn't see me behind the wheel and while it still isn't all that great...tis better.

I can see that the library could develop a site which allows a person to put in, their name, email, the genre they prefer, say Romances, with drop downs to select things such as sexy, adventure, love triangles, lost loves or some such... and the borrower could concieviably be given a list of authors whose writing we hold and could meet there needs. Link all that to their Account and they can request from the page as well. Set it up as RSS and invite them to establish a blogline (or eqivelent) and they would be notified of new purchases by their favourite authors as well. The technology is available it just needs putting together. We need to stop living chained to the status quo but use the key of our imagination to set us and those we serve free.

Social networking

I now have a Facebook page and am slowly inviting family and friends to join. I can see that there are pros and cons to this form of networking. Careful postings are a must. Too easy for private information to inadvertently become public simply by just not thinking through the implications of a posting for all those who would see it whether it was intended for them or not.

I gave some thought to how Facebook could be used in the library. I think it would be a wonderful tool to keep the Community Libraries and their Volunteers in touch with the Central Library, Mobile Library Services and vice versa.

RSS Feeds

Well I have created a Blogline account and put a few URL's on it....Mmmmmm. Had a look at some of the standard ones on the list available when you first sign up about libraries, shifted librarian etc but don't think I'd ever really look at them again. I can see that having news and events sorted specifically to need would be terrific for collecting current opinion and practices especially if I were in a position to make changes and try things out. It would mean a lot of the thinking and outcomes would already be available, at least anecdotal, and pit falls could be avoided where changes are made. I found all the search tools were OK. Just different but one was no more confusing than the other. I have set up my RSS feeds to update primarily on employment options. It is always interesting to know what is out there...... And of course found a couple of cartoon links which put a light hearted spin on the seriousness of each day.

Finally figured out how to blog a collage directly from Picasa. I knew it had to be a sizing problem because of my previous experience with the scene collage. Found the resize option under tools/options, and made the default picture size 160 pixels instead of 420. Yeah! I've learned something else! Not sure how much it will help me in my job but it is certainly useful for managing my pictures. These ladies are Ashley, Kimberly, Melody, Jessica and Nicole. There is also a picture of the five of them and one of the many other Pussycat Dolls who work in the club in the States somewhere. Their concert at the Vector Arena last month was just terrific.

Managed to create this collage on Picasa but couldn't get it to go to my Blog with the 'Blog this' command. I saved it to my documents and used Photo and Picture Editor software to shrink the image and save it to 'My Documents' then I went to my Blog and uploaded the image from my computer. What do you know....it worked. Probably is a quicker better way to do this but hey, it worked.

Bumbling about

In my infinite wisdom, ie 'Bumbling About' I have managed to create a follower of my Blog. Myself. Must be my alter ego or something. Cannot figure out how to get rid of it, or me.

I think I managed to link to Pams Blog. Will find out tomorrow at work..... Maybe I should read the manual....Na. More fun this way.

Just found the Layout tab. Colour is good.

Ooops. Managed to add a blog called Neverland, nothing on it but it is spooky when tapping keys in an indiscriminate fashion does stuff that can't easily be undone! I guess if I tap more keys it might fix itself...or Not!

A weekend on the PC

Well I spent hours playing on the weekend. The Indezine Tutorials were a great help in finding answers to technical questions in a simple way. I looked at the Librarian Trading Cards and at Mack Lundy's Photostream...what an interesting fellow he is. Decided not to investigate Librarians 2nd life or join the Librarian Trading Cards....Man this takes alot of time. Anyway did have a look at the Popular Tags as well and found some Tags do not really do justice to the image they describe. Finally I downloaded PICASA 3 onto my home computer and 007 is the first image I took from my files and added to my Blogg. I see I have a Follower now to..Hope I'm doing OK Jen? You made this part of the Web 2.0 Tutorial clear, easy to follow and great fun.

007

I managed to create a yahoo flickr account debbiefoote22@yahoo.com and uploaded this picture into Flickr. Flickr URL is www.flickr.com/photos/marciapwoolfe

Me as Scooter at the Onerahi Gala Day last year (Oct 2008). I really can't see that I'd want to use Flickr for storing, sharing and editing my photos...mainly because I don't take many and the editing software and storage I have on my PC is sufficient. I'm also not sure that I want to share my photos with very many folk. I labled this pic as Private share with friends and gave it the tag bird!

Showd Karen F my Blogg today. She was impressed.

Went to see the Pussycat Dolls at the Vector Arena 16th May this year. It was awesome and loud....next concert i will be taking ear plugs to protect my aging ears. You live and learn.

Managed to follow my nose get this pic here. Believe it or not had wanted to put a pic of the aurora australis here. Found the pic on the blog search but something went wrong between trying to post a pretty sky pic and the settling for the PCDs..........next time!

Good morning my blogspot is Deborahs and the name of it is debbie-sherwin, after one of my deceased cats. Sherwin that is not Debbie. It means true friend.

The tutorial is pretty clear and observes the KISS princilple which is quite good being as the last 'S' usually applies to me when it comes to It. S for studid.