Friday 29 February 2008

On Walking the plank!


Picture33 078
Originally uploaded by osceolalibrary

I think I'll use this in my own Storytime if I ever get the chance. I'm always looking for active and above all interactive things to do at Storytime.

On Creative Commons

I have used resources that were licensed under Creative Commons in the past. I think they do a good job telling you exactly what you can do with a piece of work. This is particularly important for a Children's Librarian as we are constantly looking for craft sheets, stories, rhymes, activities etc.
Often it is tempting to justify illegal use... We're pretty close to being an educational institution... Storytime is basically about education... What are the odds of anyone suing a public library? I can probably come up with a dozen more excuses I've heard for breaching copyright. And this doesn't even include the times when copyright wasn't very clear.
The process of asking for permission can be difficult. It can be hard to determine who actually owns a piece of work. Contacting the person can also present problems.
I hope more material is licensed under Creative Commons in the future. It certainly makes my life easier.
There is a good video explaining Creative Commons available at http://support.creativecommons.org/videos#gc

On Flickr and photos

Of all web technical advances I think photo sharing is the easiest to explain and justify. We've always wanted to share our photos - remember the classic slide night? That most venerable of institutions where you bored everyone to distraction with millions of holiday slides? How about Auntie Mary showing you an album of cousin Jenny's (three times removed) wedding? Sites like Flickr and Photobucket just make this process easier and so much wider. Suddenly you can share with the entire world!
The software is remarkably easy to use. In no time at all I had a large number of photos awaiting my tagging and captioning love. It may take some time to do this for a large collection of photos. The advantage being that barring a catastrophic failure of website (financial or technical) you could caption from any computer in the world.
I think the best feature is that you can choose to share some images and not others. You may decide to keep images of yourself and your family private while sharing scenic images.
It seems the perfect way to store and share images for a library. But I can't see many libraries storing all of their images this way. I can't imagine telling a customer that they can access some of our precious local history images via our Flickr page. I'm not even sure why! It just seems more professional to have our own database. I suppose it offers far greater control of format, features and levels of access. For happy snaps that we're willing to share with the world... What fun!
I think a Flickr workshop could be a viable idea for library programming - even for that notoriously difficult group the Young Adult.

Saturday 23 February 2008

On blogs and blogging

I'm new to blogging in the sense that this is basically the first time I have 'done it'. I have always equated blogging with the idea of a diary. You know, a recording of your hopes, dreams and thoughts. Unfortunately the idea of writing a diary bores me tears.
One of my favourite books describes a young boys effort at 'diarising' It starts with the resolution to keep a diary, plateaus with a statement about 'being a better boy', descends into short descriptions of all meals and snacks eaten each day and ends with the resolution to not keep a diary anymore!
It seems very self indulgent to assume that ones musings would be of any interest to anyone but oneself! However it's a big world out there and by gosh it seems I do have something to say!
I have not found it easy to find blogs I am interested in. I have tried the two search engines recommended IE Technorati and Google. Like all search engines they work on the GIGO concept (garbage in, garbage out). Without very specific search terms I wasn't getting anywhere. Also like the rest of the web there seem to be a lot of 'abandoned' blogs. I guess people get sick of blogging as frequently as they get sick of maintaining any web resource.
My husband suggests visiting the companies or organisations who peddle what you are interested in to look for blog leads. I will be looking to add to this list but here are a few I found interesting

http://www.notquitenigella.com/ looks interesting and locally based too

http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/ is always good for a laugh

http://blog.myspace.com/dianaholquist will be one I keep my eye on

Professionally

http://www.popgoesthelibrary.com/, http://tinylittlelibrarian.blog-city.com/ and

http://kittenpiereads.blogspot.com/

On getting left behind

My husband and I spent some time discussing Web 2.o over lunch. He's in IT and always seems light-years ahead of me so I was interested in his take on the subject. We often seem to come from very different places. He's talking about twitter and Popfly while our problems are mainly keeping an aging fleet of computers vaguely operational.
While we're struggling to provide decent access to the masses he's free to ponder the wider implications of digital identitity. Sometimes it feels like we're in serious danger of being left behind. We discussed the concept of a digital divide. I was interested to learn whether anyone in the computer world was interested in the growing number of people lost in a world where technology is king.
I guess all great inventions have left people behind. Non-readers didn't care for Mr Gutenberg's crazy invention and what was Mr Ford doing for people who couldn't drive a motor car? These inventions which seem to commonplace now were once bewildering for the masses too.
I feel sorry for those who are forced into Cyberspace by organisations who find it marvellously convenient to provide information via the Internet without offering any training or support. There are several Govenment departments I point my finger at. I find the RTA particulary annoying. They have a practice test available via the Internet. Do they provide computers for people who would like try this product? No, in fact they suggest their customers come to the library to use our computers for hours on end. If I had a dollar for every person who was 'referred' by the RTA I would be a very rich woman! And don't get me started on the Inmmigration Department... So ends my rant...
But seriously who is worrying about the people who are being left behind? Technology seems to be moving so fast - I feel in danger of being left behind let alone a newly arrived refugee with limited language skills.
I guess all we can do is keep our knowledge up to date and do our best to share it with those we come into contact with.

Friday 22 February 2008

On Dabbling to drowning

Recently we were told that we were all to complete Learning 2.0. Nothing inspires a person more than being told they have to do something!
Personally I think it's information we should learn which will be useful for our daily work. And if people need a 'little nudge' then I guess it's OK.
I can see the information we learn here being useful in a reference way. Let's face it... you never know what question a customer will hit you with next. That's the frustratig joy of working in a public library.
Purely in a selfish way, you never know what you're boss will want you to do next! So here I go launching myself into a world I've only dabbled into in the past.