23 Things - Conclusion

Well, it's over and I never imagined it would take as long as it did to complete and write about all 23 things.

Maybe I have poor time-management skills as I never seemed to find time to do any of the tasks while at work. It could have something to do with working part-time. Most tasks took well over the estimated 15 minutes!

I didn't get much out of the program as I have had previous exposure to almost all 23 things, however, I know that many library staff would have gained enormously out of it which is brilliant and I applaud Swinburne library management for having the guts to go with the program. I told a few non-library friends about it and how it was part of our official staff development and they were in awe of the initiative.

Read about Second Life and how libraries are using it

There is a plethora of information out there about libraries and Second Life. Kathryn Greenhill gave a paper at VALA 2008 on the topic and here is a skating tour of Info Island.

Most major organisations now have a presence in Second Life. I hate to sound so pessimistic but I just don't get Second Life. As one of my colleagues stated in their blog - Second Life - get a first one maybe...

Find and listen to a Podcast or two

While I have never subscribed to Podcasts, I have been downloading and listening to the odd one on my iRiver for a few years now. I wanted to share with you the first Podcast that I ever downloaded - a 2005 BBC Radio 2 interview with my all time favourite artist, Kate Bush, however the BBC have since taken it down. Luckily I have kept a copy on my iRiver! Organisations such as BBC normally only make their Podcasts available for a few months after they are broadcast, however I found another one one from BBC's Front Row programme that aired two years ago.

I agree with my colleague LibOdyssey - podcasting is not a new technology. It has been around for ages and 'simply an old idea repackaged then aggressively marketed'.

Nevertheless, I consider myself extremely fortunate to live in an era where there are no physical barriers when it comes to most information. Today we can easily track down audio files almost immediately after they have aired and re-listen them.

Circa 1994 Richard Kingsmill (of Triple J fame) did a well-researched 'J-File' on Kate Bush and I fell asleep therefore forgetting to change sides on my C90 cassette tape and missed taping the last 45 minutes!! If anyone out there has a digital copy of this J-File can you please send me a copy as I have never quite got over it!!! If only podcasts were made available back then!!

Watch YouTube videos people have made about libraries

A colleague brought to my attention yesterday a library-related video on YouTube. The National Library of Australia has "an annual Xmas party in its public foyer where the unexpected talents of librarians, archivists, stacks staff, communication experts, digital specialists and IT boffins are displayed". Here is 'Surfing NLA' which won first prize at the Christmas Party of 14 December 2007. Enjoy!

Here is another filmed in the Swinburne Library stacks. It's a promotional video for the Bachelor of Arts course in Games and Interactivity at Swinburne.

Read about the Library 2.0 movement

This is all the rage at library conferences at the moment. The aim of Library 2.0 is to transform traditional library services by making them more personalised, more interactive and more web-based along Web 2.0 lines.

Dr. Alex Byrne (University of Technology Library, Sydney) has been running workshops on 'Implementing Library 2.0'.

Play with del.icio.us

I first heard about del.icio.us at the 2006 VALA conference where is was demonstrated.

del.icio.us is a quick way to capture web pages you want to go back to and it's not dependent on what computer you are on, which is great.

The tagging feature is also very handy, although I do still like my hierarchical bookmarks in folders.

iGoogle

Have to admit that iGoogle is the only 23 Things task that has made me cringe so far - I am just not interested.

Anyway, reluctantly added a few gadgets. Maybe I'm too set in my ways - I will never use this as a tool to aggregate my main resources.

Good bye!

Put a photo of your pet on the wiki

Erik the Viking has graced many web pages including the Swinburne Library Staff Wiki. Here he poses wearing a lovely tartan scarf. Don't let Dr. Hugh Wirth see this one!!!

Google Book Search: Making all the world's books fully searchable????

I have known about the ambitious Google Book Search project for ages, in fact, I attended a paper by Daniel Clancy Engineering Director, Google at VALA 2006. Here is the Podcast of his presentation. The size of the project just amazes me. They have a cast of thousands (based at many of the larger university libraries in the USA) working on it.

Play with Google Docs

We have been using this tool to share documents and spreadsheets for the ARROW Project for a couple of years now but I worry about the security of our documents and their safety. While Google Docs is great for sharing documents - particularly if you are part of a large distributed team - using it to archive your documents is NOT a good idea. I would highly recommend keeping a back-up of all files you submit as you really don't know if they'll be there tomorrow!

Google Maps

Have used this a few times to see how long it will take me to drive somewhere and I absolutely love it! Also use it while browsing real estate web sites as they often have maps from Google embedded to show where a property is located.

Here is where I used to work.

Are you on Facebook or MySpace?

I have had a good look at MySpace over the last 12 months but prefer Facebook. I set up a MySpace account back in July 2007 but couldn't be bothered doing anything with it. I wonder if it will self-combust soon given my inactivity!

I read an interesting article by Danah Boyd in The Age sometime last year. Danah talked about class divisions existing between MySpace and Facebook. The possible cause for this is that Facebook came out of Harvard and at first only welcomed people with a .edu email address.

I was a little obsessed with Facebook in the beginning but I think the novelty is starting to wear off. I have reacquainted myself with some old school friends which has been one of the best things - it beats having to pay the annual AUD$50 account fee for School Friends - not that I ever did! I don't know how much longer sites like School Friends can exist now that we have Facebook for free.

RSS feeds and blogs

I have been using RSS feeds for a few years to simplify keeping up-to-date with things of interest to me.

There are a few blogs I subscribe to as well including Peter Suber's which keeps me up-to-date with news about the open-access movement. Very important for us librarians!