The End of Round 2

The end of Manukau City and the end of Web 2.0, two significant events for the second half of 2010!

This Web 2.0 round was better in the time allocation given, with less pressure to complete each activity, especially for us part time staff. And it was great to visit some really useful sites such as Box.net, which will be a useful solution for customers who do not have a USB stick to save work to.

One disappointing aspect was the inability to access some of the video clips and sites due to them being blocked by Web Marshal. Made it a little incomplete for me.

This is a great way to introduce new sites and tools to staff for passing on to our customers, especially for those of us who do not use some of these.

Ready for the next round .......

Week 6: EnCompassCulture

This is a nice site to navigate and would have been a great help with Reader Advisory -- BUT .....
As of 1 November 2010 it was decommissioned! Great timing! So - yes - I would have used this site & recommended it to patrons.

I liked the ease of searching for exactly what you wanted. And the added feature of showing where you could obtain the books, anywhere in the world, with links to various websites. The Booklists were also great - for example "A Celebration of Indian Writing".

A shame it is now defunct, but as long as it is still available on-line it will be of use.

Week 5: Slideshare

Looks like a great site for people wanting to share products/ideas on-line. But I found it very slow to load any presentation - in fact I gave up after trying a few and getting getting bored watching the little circle thing going round & round. But there were quite a few interesting results for libraries, perhaps I might try again at home.

Can't really see a use for me but if a customer wanted to promote something it might be worth a try. Another useful site to keep in mind for the future.

Still having my inbox stuffed - haven't become brave enough to turn it off yet.

Week 4: Tastespotting

As expected from my last blog, my inbox is being stuffed with "news". Not sure how long I will continue but really afraid if I delete it I will miss some groundbreaking news (or some insignificant thing that is really interesting).

As for Tastespotting, the pictures are great. Some weird & wonderful names such as Snickerdoodle Pumpkin Ice Cream Sandwiches (shown left).

Neat that the recipies are from round the world, I found some in French and noticed the current glut of Halloween themed cookies etc. The site is really easy to use & search. I never knew there could be so many recipies for mushrooms (1618 of them).

This is a neat site for foodies. Nice to see something other than a book/library orientated site, but not really relevant to this Web 2.0 exercise.

Week 3: Feed My Inbox

This was relatively easy to sign up to and seems like a good way to add feeds. But I found it annoying that you had to know exactly what the url for the site you wanted to follow was - no search facility. And once you opened a window there was no back button, so using the site overall seemed a bit clunky.

Will see how it goes, no doubt it will start filling up my inbox with useless messages - not sure why there has to be a daily message, would be better just when there was something new (or a selection for a weekly update instead of daily). And I did not get any results for www.manukaulibraries.govt.nz but did get several feeds for Auckland Libraries (are we missing out here?).

Don't think there is too much relevance for our customers, it is a good tool for following specific feeds on a personal basis but we would seldom get the opportunity to promote it (we don't look over their shoulders & make suggestions).

Week Two - PiccApp

This is a neat site for getting free & legal photos, with the emphasis on free. And easy to use once you worked out how to capture the image & get it into your blog. I liked the search function as you could be quite specific as to what you wanted to see & then choose from the thumbnails.
Would recommend to others, but seldom get the opportunity to assist customers who would find this useful, most internet users know what they are doing or just want to do the minimum. Don't know if the images are everlasting as they are a web link, will they disappear in the future leaving the dreaded red cross? Could not find anywhere on the site to answer this.

I liked this photo of a British Zoo Keeper in 1940 with an armful of wee beasties. Needed the gloves!

Web 2.0 Round 2 - Week 1: Box.net

On to the next round of learning!

I liked Box.net - especially the ability to create & store documents on the site. This would be useful for people who do not have access to Microsoft Word or similar, so would recommend it to customers - and it is free! Also, it would be an easy way to share files instead of e-mail, for example if there was a group of people requiring access to a document. The ability to edit (simply), save & print is also a bonus.
Uploading was quick & simple (once over the initial settings glitch), in fact the whole site was easy to use & navigate. Once again I would be hesitant to upload anything personal (as with any site) as I am basically very reluctant to share anything on line that could be used by people of doubtful integrity.

The End

Much better experience than last time around - not as intensive & more relevant sites visited.
Very frustrating being blocked from sites by MCC. Eventually had to complete most of the training at home due to lack of time & available computers. Was impressed by Zamzar & Good reads, will probably use these. Nice to take a look at the other popular social networking sites, but won't be using them myself. Overall, good refresher on Web 2.0.

Facebook

Visited my facebook page for the first time since I created it last Web 2.0! Hope those who wanted to be my friend were not too disappointed I didn't get back to them!

I know it is a very popular social networking site & is great in some situations e.g. keeping in touch when travelling, but - I am not a fan. It is hard to navigate around, there is too much happening - and who gets time to read all the stuff that arrives? Even with only a handful of friends. Can't imagine what it must be like with hundreds of friends as some people have. Full time - kind of what the college kids were saying in the Youtube clip.

Don't think facebook needs promoting to our customers - those that need it, have it. And I think the Manukau Libraries website is a better vehicle for our activities etc - not lost in the other junk.

Week 5 : Music files and mp3s

Well - what a disappointment that was - signed up to Amazon.com only to find that only those lucky enough to live in the good old US of A were allowed to download mp3 from this site.


So I then went & took a look at Free Albums Galore - this would be a great site for those keen on classical & alternative music (strange combination). Not me.

Finally, I signed up to mp3.com & tried to download a song - but - nothing happened. This site is great for finding info about artists & their albums, it directs you to where you can purchase the tunes apparently - but I could not get it to work.

Think I will stick to iTunes - simple, can buy a gift card, no need to put credit card info on-line. But it does lack some of the more unusual artists I would like to download (which I did find on the above sites but could not download - grrrr!)

It would appear that most of the "free"music out there is not the popular commercial stuff, rather tunes that small unknown bands have uploaded to get exposure. You get what you pay for.

Goodreads

Kind of like Library Thing isn't it? This appears to be a website for the serious readers - not for those who are happy to read a book & enjoy it, but for those who want to talk about it & share opinions. A Book Club on-line really.

Would recommend it to those customers who live remotely or are unable to attend gatherings but who would enjoy this kind of thing - and on a global scale. Not something for our regular customers though.

Also would be good for those reviewing books to see what other people thought. And for library staff who are developing Next Reads and such.

Twitter

Have avoided getting dragged in to Twitter up until now. And probably won't use it once Web 2.0 is over. Definitely won't be signing up with my personal e-mail. Was easy enough to join, but can see that one could spend a lot of time just browsing. Found it really annoying that I could not access it through my login, I must have quite a list of illegal attempted accesses against my login name by now!

Who really wants to know about what people are doing right this minute?

Can see the usefulness for advertising events & such as Manukau Libraries do. But I would prefer to send a text or ring my circle of friends for the more personal stuff. And not sure I am happy about being out there in the public domain, even though I set up my privacy settings. Just how private is it really?

Zamzar

Hey - what a useful tool this is! Tried a couple of conversions & they were very quick. A little confused at first as the selected file did not appear in the box, but when I tried to add it again Zamzar told me not to be stupid as it was already there! Worked a treat though.

Can definitely see me using this tool (if I can remember it under pressure at the time). I guess the limiting factor would be if the patrons had an e-mail address already (if not, add another 10 -15 minutes to set them up with one, and also whether they would want to pay to access the converted file?). But it will be a good tool to try just when we are looking stupid in front of the patrons 'cause we can't work miracles, produce just what they want & save the day!

http://www.zamzar.com/

Here we go again.....

What a long time since I looked at this blog (last post Sept 17 2008) - was rather surprised that I could remember my login and password after all this time (and that they actually worked still!)

It will be interesting to see what new developments there have been in the world of Web 2.0 since my last interaction. And hopefully the chance to see some new things. I am also hoping it won't be as time consuming as the last round.

Sometimes I get the feeling that blogs, facebook, twitter etc are already becoming old news - personally I think they are a great way to divert your attention & spend time (sometimes time you can't spare).