#18 Tragic but true

For my dedicated readers who have been eagerly awaiting my next post. It's a bit difficult to maintain interest in the blog when one's library server and associated systems eg. catalogue, remote patron authentication server, email, network drives are deleted as happened to this unfortunate soul.
So much for VMware.
We are now able to offer to offer a basic library service again but  no reservations, catalogue or access to online resources. And we have lost 36 hours of transactions so you can imagine the mayhem that can cause! Anyone who has coped with similar scenarios - feel free to share your strategies for coping with the data issues.
So where does Library 2.0 fit into this scenario? Using Zoho writer  I have chosen this font to closely resemble handwriting as my small protest against reliance upon computer systems.
More seriously though, I have now used Zoho writer to store some vital documents eg. Outlook contacts and some IT documentation online, so I will have those resources to fall back on next time there is a system disaster.  I really like the concept of web based applications for document storage and sharing, and for collaborative work.  It all enhances mobility. I am looking forward to using all these new tools next time  I travel. The only concern I would have here relates to security. It would also be very useful for our public access users without USB drives as well.
I liked Zoho Writer more than Google Docs. More similar to Office and very functional.
I was quite captivated by the Online Planner and will come back to play with it when I have more time. Except of course for the fear that one shouldn't become too dependent upon IT or online systems be cause they could all be deleted by a simple keystroke!

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

I think the late nights working on Learning 2.0 have addled my brain. Yesterday morning I told a borrower at the circulation desk that she had a book still out called "Overdue Still Out". It was only as I remarked upon the coincidence of the title and looked at her bewildered face that I realised what I had done. And they leave me in charge of the system?!
I added our library and my blog to the Favorites list. See below.
More signs of an addled brain. I could not get the syntax with the brackets right. Somehow we were supposed to enter it so the title of our blog appeared rather than the url but no matter what variation I tried it always displayed both within the brackets. The only way I could get it right was to go in to the source and copy the html of someone else who had done it successfully. Will someone please tell me the secret?
I enjoyed reading the Favorite Books blog and added my own entry recalling treasured children's books, inspired I think by rhumage's paean to school stories.

Byway without the Blog

So I'm home from work feeling less than healthy but I thought I should just pay a bill and maybe check my work email in case there was anything urgent (the addictive personality never rests) and all of a sudden I'm adding more books onto Library Thing - 223 cookbooks at the last count. And then maybe a little peek at my colleagues blogs when I was sucked in by the clever Flickr slideshow generator I found on Anthony's blog.
So how could I resist adding a live slideshow of more of my china (which may have meant dragging the camera out)..... So gratify me and take a look - its down on the left. I haven't quite worked out how to show the full picture but that's because I have to return to my sickbed with my book (Chameleon's shadow by Minette Walters) which is very gripping by the way.

#16 WIKI is for World Individuals Knowledge Initiatives

I had become, albeit relunctantly, a convert to Wikipedia. It can be the quickest way of finding a certain level of information (no definition for “shinboners” though). I am also impressed by the constancy of the updating. In looking at the entries for two authors yesterday I noted that each had been updated within the previous 48 hours. So I thought I understood the concept of wikis but after reading through some of the resources I realised that there was so much more to it.
I liked the Princeton book reviews. I thought we could host one of our book clubs via a wiki. I was amused to see that ratings of titles on the catalogue could also be considered as wikis. (Sort of like the Just Returned trolley). The idea that one can contribute’s one own ideas or information for posterity is tempting.
But I think the real value of wikis for library professionals is not just in the sharing of information but in actually capturing it. As a systems person I am a subscriber to various lists which share technical information. The challenge has always been to store it so that it can be retrieved when it is needed. This is where the wiki would be invaluable. A perfect example of this is the CODI SQLWiki. Codi refers to the Customers of Dynix who have been emailing SQL queries to the list for years and we have all been madly saving them on our own PCs, sometimes never to be seen again. Now they can all be accessed via a simple taxonomy in one location.
The Australian CODA group also used a wiki when planning our recent conference – cuts down the stream of emails and allows everyone to edit. I only wish I had known about wikis when planning my mother-in-law’s 90th birthday recently. It would have lessened the angst and drama of the flurry of emails amongst family members.
Cindy Boke’s presentation on wikis was so effective I had to restrain myself from setting one up instantly (well it was late at night).
Another good resource is the Wiki Toolbox 30+.
And The Cataloging Wiki for our intrepid cataloguer Dogsister.

Who is Pearl Bay?

The world is divided into those who immediately recognise the significance of the allusion and those who have no idea where Pearl Bay comes from.
It is the imaginary location of my most favourite TV show ever.

Blogging and Byways

A wonderful thing about this course has been the diversions down the laneways of the blogosphere. Quite randomly I came across Stephen Fry’s blog. (I think I was checking out a Rollyo search constructed by Dogsister) and he was so amusing and erudite that I had to subscribe. Imagine my surprised and sort of gratification yesterday when the subject of his “blessay” (his combination of blog and essay, not mine) was Addiction. I felt he must be speaking to me, considering it was the subject of my own post earlier that day. I couldn’t resist making a comment (yet another registration!). I have been impressed with the thoughtfulness of the many comments.
And in my frequent reading of Dave Pattern's blog - see last post, I thought I would also share this amusing cartoon found on his blog but sourced from Salon, about how the Dewey system in Libraries is destroying publishing. Have a laugh.
And lastly, in today's update of Tame the Web Michael Stephens talked about his excitement at his prospective trip to Australia. Apparently he will be running a very relevant sounding seminar called "The Hyperlinked Library".

#15 Library 2.0

It is a sign of these digital times that there is no dearth of material about Library 2.0. But what to extract from this for ourselves and our libraries?
We have to decide (again)what is our core purpose and use Web 2.0 Tools to achieve those goals. Our focus should be on adding real value to the user’s experience.
I know only too well (see last post) how easy it is to become sidetracked by the range of online stuff that one can do. How do we preserve the balance between enriching one’s life with online engagement and forgetting to have a life altogether?
So if our core goals are loosely based around notions of providing access to the resources and knowledge that people want and need, we need to focus on applications that contribute to those ends, not just do something clever because we can.
Be user centred – thinking about the tools that we have used so far on this course, I have become even keener to offer rss feeds from our catalogue, and the capacity for users to add their own tags to it and also to have the opportunity to engage with other readers via a blog or wiki.
I have been really impressed by what Dave Pattern in Yorkshire has done with his catalogue. Users can subscribe to rss feeds, email alerts, contribute ratings and comments and more. He uses the same Horizon Information Portal as do we so I emailed him to find out how we could do this but was crestfallen to hear that he used a second server, and some technical programming. Still I am pursuing the conversation with him.
And similarly with Library Thing for Libraries – they responded to my email query but again we do not have the correct database structure to easily do it. However, they are prepared to experiment with other ways.
So, the core goals can be there,and the will to change, but technology can let you down. The challenge is to try not to be daunted and to persevere.

Confessions of a Not So Secret Addict

How will I ever get to the next exercise if I don't stop playing with my fonts and colours? I'm being sucked into a vortex again - is that the real meaning of Web 2.0? One becomes more tangled in the spider web and is eventually consumed?
Or maybe it is just because that's what I am - an addict -whether it is to eating chocolate, or to buying china on Ebay (and it's possible I have slightly slipped off that wagon), or cataloguing more cookbooks on to Library Thing.
I've had to become a lifetime paid up member so that I can add more of my collection. I became so carried away last week with adding books that I neglected to tag them but I am glad to report that I have found that it is possible to add tags in bulk after the event.
Addictions has its upside. Look at how lovely this Paynsley Jug with Tulips looks this morning. You can see more of my china in the slideshow on the left.

#14 Technorati trails

I had already stumbled across Technorati or rather it had stumbled over me (see 2 posts ago) but I was amazed to see how extensive the blogosphere was. Technorati seems to be a great tool for mining the wealth of other people's thoughts, knowledge and ideas.
I proudly claimed my blog. I carried out the comparison searching exercise on Library 2.0. The results seem consistent with any keyword vs. more targeted search but what a treasure trove of blogs I found! I restricted myself to adding feeds for only 2 of them but just fancy, quite coincidentally one of them was Helene Blowers. I looked at the adding of Technorati tags stuff but decided it wasn't strictly necessary as my blog had already been sourced on it.
Some great widgets under Tools. I added My Favorites above - you can even search it, and a button suggesting people (which people I'm not sure) add my blog to their "fave" list.
I will use this again when searching for the sort of discussion that you would find on a blog. I am most likely to search the Blog directory for the more dedicated blogs. Must go and add Technorati to my Delicious bookmarks.

#13 Delicious or not?

I was thinking maybe not so delicious. I had been looking forward to this exercise - bookmarks I could access from anywhere instead of sending them to all to my hotmail address and having to trawl through to find them, but I was initially disappointed and somewhat confused.
It did not seem not user friendly, maybe if I had looked at the PCML example first as suggested it would have been better but I assumed I understood the principle behind it. So my first mistake was to rush in and import all the bookmarks from my desktop at work.
Suddenly I had 10 pages of uncategorised bookmarks! I couldn't see how to delete them en masse so I had to delete my whole account.
Feeling really out of the loop I looked to vampgirl for guidance. I began to see what you might do with the concept of tags and bundles and then carefully imported some bookmarks folder by folder. By the second folder I realised it was sensible to change the "Imported" tag before importing.
It is still possible I am missing some crucial point of elucidation because the only way I can get it to work effectively for me is to give the tags the same name as the bundles - my tags.
I think I will find it very useful but only if used in a disciplined way. For me the 2 basic rules will be: only use it for sites that I will use when mobile, and tag each bookmark in an organised fashion. (Well, I used to be a cataloguer.)
I'm not convinced of the usefulness of the the networking angle so maybe I'll explore that when more time.
And I think it's possible we could use Delicious to enhance our reference work, if we put some work into creating an rationalised bundle.
I've added my Delicious links to my page on the right. I also added it to my Facebook profile but it doesn't show up there so it seems a bit pointless. In fact Facebook generally seems a bit pointless to me but more of that later.

#12 Rollyo - sounds like Rolo to me but I just love chocolate

Did I say last week that I was now a free spirit who was less addicted to her computer? Hmn....Perhaps before I started making searchrolls. I think these are great and would be useful from both a personal point of view and also on the library website.
I asked various members of my family what they might search for regularly. One suggested art works, and the other who is interested in health gave me some good medicines sites. And following the self-indulgent food theme, I made a recipe finder, just in case there was something I couldn't track down in one of my cookbooks! (142 on Library Thing at last count.)
The challenge, especially with the artworks, was to choose the right part of the site to locate the desired data eg. images, recipes, whatever, and not extraneous material. This perhaps goes against what the Rollyo site said about going to the top of the domain always, but I think it is more useful. You can do a test search yourself - see black link on the right.
Library websites could offer some of the customised searches for users - rather like the pathfinders that we learnt how to build in our library courses.

Self-indulgent sidetracks via StatCounter and Library Thing

In the pursuit of narcissism I installed StatCounter (thanks to the talented Jewinda ). In following the links of who had looked at my blog from Alabama, I discovered I had been included in a Technorati search on the term SirsiDynix. This repository could be very useful to me at work so I have now added this rss feed.
Getting sidetracked again, I saw that someone had clicked on my blog via Library Thing so I found that the perfect late night activity was to start looking at who else had many cookbooks in common with me. I found people who had really similar libraries to whatI had on my real shelves so this prompted another flurry of uploading my books. And to crown this timewasting self-indulgence, I have started editing the entries where Amazon couldn't find a cover to find the appropriate cover from other people who have scanned the image and uploaded it BUT I AM NOT GOING TO START SCANNING!

#8++Making life even simpler - integrating RSS with Email

Becoming even more streamlined - I have discovered I can import my RSS feeds from Bloglines into my Outlook account.(We are on Office 2007). I like being able to see any updates at a moment's notice. To do this, go into Bloglines, under Additional Features choose to export subscriptions and save the file. Then right-click on the RSS Feeds folder in Outlook and choose to import an OPML file. I can also add any new feeds directly into Outlook.

#11 Cooking up Library Thing

OK I've been having more fun, and following the theme of this blog it's been all about self-indulgence and addiction. I have to confess to owning nearly 400 cookbooks (out of a total library that runs to thousands) so I thought I would catalogue my favorite 50 or so. These are all cookbooks that I use - from the trusted friends that taught me to cook and which I have used constantly, to some shiny but very carefully chosen new ones. And I have to admit to being something of a cookbook snob. Yes it's nice to have pictures but the more enduring classics eg. Jane Grigson, Elizabeth David, Claudia Roden ,Elizabeth Luard, Marcella Hazan .... teach you about food in its context and how to really cook. For those other addicts among you you can see more of my collection at
library thing.
I don't really think though that I would use Library Thing much in relation to my personal collection but more as a bibliographic tool. And I would love to add tags to our library catalogue. I've emailed Library Thing to try and set up a test of this.

#10 Generating Bob

Yes, I can see why this is called play week. I made a movie clip! See Bob Dylan pushing Learning 2.0 and this is is how I did it. It's sooo easy and I had fun.
Dylan Message Generator