Facebook and Libraries

Thinking about libraries and Facebook. Do they play a role? Marketing and promotion, opening up acccess to the online community. Are they time consuming? How is the Facebook presence going to be monitored and kept uptodate and interesting. These are things that need to be considered when establishing an online presence. What are your thoughts...

assessment

As we are covering each topic, keep in mind question 3 of your assessment in regards to professional development. Can any of this applications be used or incorporated into your continual professional/personal development once you have finished this course?

Can any of these applications also be used in section 1 and 2 of your assessment? Keep these thoughts in mind as you work through your assessment.

There are some postings missing from blogs in regards to some of these topics. Please make the effort to post a comment in relation to each individual topic (and how they are or are not relevant or serve a purpose in libraries) as this may help with your assessments. Also remember to comment of other postings as well.

For those who are posting or using some of these applications personally already, thats great. Keep up the great work.

My mate Benji the blue burmese. Peacefully sleeping on a Sunday morning.

RSS feeds - how libraries may be able to utilise them

10 Ways Libraries Can Use RSS
1. Create an RSS feed for new additions to the online catalog.
2. Create an RSS feed tied to a library card account for hold notifications and/or overdue materials.
3. Create an RSS feed for new programs and events posted on the library website.
4. Create an RSS feed for the library’s electronic newsletter.
5. Create an RSS feed for press releases and other media advisories.
6. Create an RSS feed for library closings, including emergency closings.
7. Create an RSS feed for library job openings.
8. Subscribe to a few RSS feeds, such as local news websites, and share the content on the library’s website. This could be included on a page containing other local resources and local links.
9. Subscribe to RSS feeds of interest to library customers and share the content on the customer’s personalized library webpage. Customers can choose to access selected RSS feeds, their library account information, subscription databases, and email/chat with a librarian all in one spot.
10. Subscribe to a few professional RSS feeds and share with library staff on the library intranet.

Reference - Moxie Librarian blog

Journey to the Snowy Mountains on my bike

Road trip 2010 to the Snowy Mountains during the Christmas New Year holiday. A great ride and amazing scenery

Arabian Horse IMG_5257

Arabian Horse IMG_5257, a photo by blackhawk32 on Flickr.

My other passion...horses

panthro the blue burmese cat

panthro the blue burmese cat, a photo by olliethebastard on Flickr.

A blue burmese just like my Benji

Urban Silhouette

Urban Silhouette, a photo by bleudreams on Flickr.

Class of 2012

Morning,

Great to see that you are posting onto your blogs and adding photos. Remember to share your thoughts in regards to our topics and libraries and if they can be incorporated into how we meet the needs of library users and your reasons why.

Hope your enjoying it so far...

Keith Urban

Keith Urban, a photo by Amped Photography on Flickr.

Keith's concerts are a masterpiece in themselves. Always an earth shattering experience.

social interaction

social interaction may be a great idea but first we have the major hurdle of getting beyond IT and their hang ups. this is our major hurdel, and that of many others no doubt, but hopefully the time or day will come when they see this as a positive rather than a negative.

I've enjoyed my time doing this, the only hassle was finding the time to do it...

see you all in the world of 2.0 and beyond...

online tools

microsft must hate this....unless they have their finger in this pie as well....

the benefits of these tools being available free to all and sundry is huge. recently a friend didn't have Word installed on their computer at home so i lent them my copy. If I was more actively aware of this then it would've solved his problem. But, it has solved mine as my laptop has everyother other office program but excel so you can guess where i am headed now...

the benefits of this is people not needing storage devices if they decide to use these programs, but for libraries that charge for word processing do they want this to become more known...?

just a thought.

a little mashed

now this one i find interesting at a personal level, don't get me wrong as all the others have been interesting and useful, but this site i can see myslef returning to and playing with. So many different tools that could be incorporated into library programs, the calendar with local photos to promote upcoming events, id tags/security passess could be incorporated into kids events. I guess its the time to sit down and seeing what we can do with what we have...

I have puzzled two of my photos, one being my backyard the other the local harbour and lighthouse.

podcasts and biographies

Unfortunately I wasn't able to access podcasts due to IT constraints but will give it a go from home. The uses of podcasts would be beneficial especially to those who have remote users and cannot attend library events such as story times, book club discussions, author launches, and other special events.

The family history or local history groups could embrace this technology by recording the stories of people growing up in the area and the likes and make podcasts of these discussions for everyone to have access to. A verbal biography rather than the printed format.

slammin

'Slam the Boards' is a great way to promote libraries and the fact that us librarians are often overlooked as people now see that the only way to source information is from the net, not matter how correct or incorrect the information may be. How a library can use this type of promotional vechile really depends on "management/powers to be" who controls what we can and cannot do. We have a continual battle with IT just to get our library internet system to work let alone allowing access to wikkis, blogs and the likes to participate.

The first hurdle for us is to make our IT department to understand where we coming from and where we are headed....maybe they should be doing this course to understand things better from a library point of few...

YouTube and all

Thankfully I have watched videos on YouTube before. Today they wouldn't play or jumped all around so i guess that's one of the negatives of technology and speed. On previous occasions i have watched videos of music clips i hadn't previously seen of my favourite artists. The benefits for this in reaching people and showing them what you are up to is amazing.

Benefits to libraries or incorporating this sort of technology into websites can include a tour of the library layout and whats on offer, doco's of book launches, guest speakers, I guess the uses are only limited in how you plan to present the activities...

I guess another downside is that your privacy or anonymity is left wide open if people use their phones to film things without your knowledge and throwing them onto YouTube for the greater viewing...

wiki and beyond

i love the idea of wikis. you hear about them and may use them but to actually be actively involved in a conversation, especially planning a holiday, would be great. i can benefits such as book clubs doing a virtual book discussion with other book club members who have read the same book, connecting with youth to find out their wants, needs or desires for a library environment, groups of people getting together to discuss same interests or sharing skills/knowledge....endless really especially outside the library environment. but with most things time constraints would be the only casualty for me to become actively involved to pursue for personal reasons, much to my dismay....

RSS. frustrated???

Bloglines.....interesting, great for people with little time, but to find the time to check it out is limited. I chose feeds that dealt with photography as thats an interest i would like to keep informed about. This can be beneficial to have my favourite blogs (yes i have a few that i am now intersted in) all come to one meeting point to save me going to each individually. I can see how libraries can benefit, very similar to elists, but possibly open to more people....still trying to get my head around it. will comment further when understand better...
like cathy j i have found this a little frustrating in regards to adding the feeds let alone trying to find ones from favourite websites or websites that i want to read from....

time will tell with this one....

flickr...not the horse

The benefits of flickr are staggering. I didn't know a lot about this but know that I do my friends in NY will be bombarded with photos of my 'backyard'. I chose this photo as it reminded me of my first horse when i was seven years old.

lifelong learning and 2.0

learning via correspondence has taken on a whole new dimension with 2.0, if only it was around when i was studying. the benefits would've lessened the distance felt from other students and lecturers....by doing this course i hope to gain a better understanding of the technology, assist customers if required and to further enhance relationships i have on the other side of this now not-so-big world. I currently use Wordpress for other work related activities but will consider this for personal use. Benefits for blogging within libraries can include book clubs putting their views and comments online, various children's activities such as born to read programs and feedback can be posted online for other parents to view and consider before joining, marketing upcoming programs. Looking forward to where this will take us...