Well, this post is my last official blog post concerning the State Library of NSW's learning 2.0. This course has been very rewarding and incredibly enjoyable. Once my brain has digested all that I have learn't I will post again regarding further feedback, findings and conclusions.
With regards to social networking, you only have to look at the American Library Association's Myspace page http://www.myspace.com/atyourlibrary to see what great future there is for libraries that utilise social networking. To think that they have 4000 members is outstanding (although not surprising considering America's population), but many rural Australian libraries might be happy with having 4000 library members as part of there service.
Our library could benefit by using social networking because we can tap into different client bases, i.e. for example a lot of youth at our library are not big in communicating with us face to face, they might prefer to do so electronically. For marketing library services, the social networking services have features where you can create and advertise events and invite people, they could discuss the upcoming library events and staff could provide extra information if needed.
Libraries can also be involved in virtual worlds: reaching out to a whole new audience and in an exciting 3D environment. This link http://infoisland.org/2008/10/24/ala-slymposium-on-virtual-worlds-and-libraries-in-second-life/#comment-31290, is a description of the American Library Associations Slymposium on libraries in the virtual world Second Life.
Friday, November 28, 2008
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Learning 2.0 course week 11: Nearly there...
This week I have looked at Online Applications and Tools. Personally I have already experienced the benefits of online applications with online briefcases where you store documents you create on the internet. The benefit is that you dont waste your own storage space on your personal computer and you can access your documents anywhere that you can connect to the internet.
Working at the library here as part of this week's course I have created a document using Google Doc's. There was a good option for sharing the document where I can invite others to collaborate with me in using the document or simply viewing it. As mentioned above I can then go home and connect to the internet and edit my up-to-date document. This technology could be used in a myriad of ways for a library. For example at our library there is various things that our staff inform our patrons when they join to become members of the library, I can create a document and begin to list things that I would like people to be told, then I can invite collaborators to add things to the document. The final result would be a comprehensive list of introductory information to our library (our patrons wont know what hit them!)
I am excited by the possibilities of online applications: especially the Zamzar application, it would be really handy for me if you can convert .pdf documents back into word documents.
Working at the library here as part of this week's course I have created a document using Google Doc's. There was a good option for sharing the document where I can invite others to collaborate with me in using the document or simply viewing it. As mentioned above I can then go home and connect to the internet and edit my up-to-date document. This technology could be used in a myriad of ways for a library. For example at our library there is various things that our staff inform our patrons when they join to become members of the library, I can create a document and begin to list things that I would like people to be told, then I can invite collaborators to add things to the document. The final result would be a comprehensive list of introductory information to our library (our patrons wont know what hit them!)
I am excited by the possibilities of online applications: especially the Zamzar application, it would be really handy for me if you can convert .pdf documents back into word documents.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Mashups
Yet another exciting week in the world of learning 2.0 leads us to Mashups where different internet services or technologies can be joined together or 'mashed' as it were to create feature and detail rich programs.
The voicethread mashups http://voicethread.com/#home could be used to create virtual classrooms, which could benefit people that do not enjoy full physical access to libraries.
The various mashup tools investigated commonly use audio and visual mediums which can really enhance libraries appeal if they are featured in the libraries website.
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