One Last Post

The world’s oldest marathon runner Fauja Singh (95)
Originally uploaded by SMNDA

Well I've entered the stadium with just one lap to negotiate before I break through the tape and end this marathon that is 23 Things. This journey has slightly resembled a marathon. Sometimes a grind or test of endurance; juggling usernames and passwords, technology failing me, me failing technology, finding that what I envisaged would take one hour takes four, feeling entirely exhausted with no end in sight. At other times completely 'in the zone' playing with Flickr photos and Image Generators, YouTube videos and Hairmixer, the hours seemingly rushing by effortlessly. Just, as I can only imagine, like a competitor at the end of a marathon I'm experiencing a feeling of satisfaction, achievement, contentment and even elation that I've completed this learning activity (surely I'm not going to stumble with the finish line so close?). But honestly this hasn't really been like a marathon. Surely marathon runners don't experience pleasure, don't enjoy themselves and without doubt never laugh out loud uncontrollably? Because at times during this exercise I have experienced these things, mainly due to the blogs created by the UniSA Library's other 23 Things participants. Sometimes it was Simpsonizer images, another time a James May video, or on more than one occasion the Death Star Canteen video link. The images either created or discovered and added to everyone's posts have been, on occasion, spectacular and beautiful.

This has been a most worthwhile exercise and I recommend it to all. Strangely I think I'm going to miss it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/smnda/166360343/

NetLibrary Audiobooks

First things first I must confess that I can't ever see a time when I would prefer an audiobook to a version in print format (despite the joys of new technologies that the 23 Things Discovery Exercise has introduced me to). Give me the smell of ink and paper, the crinkle and rustle of pages, the texture of binding anytime.

Time to create my account to NetLibrary through the PLCMC website. Surprise, surprise the message I receive is:

"We apologize, but the page you have requested is currently unavailable". Hmmmmm.

Even though the UniSA Library doesn't subscribe to any eAudiobooks through NetLibrary I did still search for audiobooks on NetLibrary and out of the 1,300+ available items discovered some titles of interest:

Gullible's Travels: The Adventures of a Bad Taste Tourist

Mr. Chickee's Funny Money

Keep Your Brain Alive: 83 Neurobic Exercises to Help Prevent Memory Loss and Increase Mental Fitness (could be very valuable at my time of life)

Beating Back the Devil: on the Front Lines With the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service

My Tank Is Fight!: Deranged Inventions of WWII

CrazyBusy: Overstretched, Overbooked, and About to Snap: Strategies for Coping in a World Gone ADD

and my personal favourite...................................

Temporary Sanity

Podcasting

Time to discover searchtools to locate podcasts. Yahoo Podcasts seems to have disappeared into the ether. The only trace left behind is the "Sorry the page you requested can't be found" message. Accessing Podcast.net only produced the infamous "Internet Explorer cannot display the webpage" message. OK, hopefully third time lucky. Hooray Podcastalley.com works! As with many of the Web 2.0 technologies the choice is immense. I thought the Tourcaster site could be useful. "Tourcaster is a free service that provides downloadable audio tours of locations around the world." I couldn't get this podcast to work on the UniSA Library's VLC Media Player or Windows Media Player (technology doesn't like me) so I downloaded a podcast aggregator onto my home pc. I listened to the feed below to compare the audio tour to my experience of Valletta almost 20 years ago. Seemingly, not much has changed.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/Tourcaster-Malta-VallettaAudioTour

After much browsing I concentrated on the Food and Drink podcast genre (how predictable). I eventually subscribed to the Napa Valley Wine Radio by adding it to my Bloglines account. Hmmm now I'm thirsty.

YouTube and Libraries

Here's an obviously inappropriate example of YouTube being used in a Library.

The technologies used by YouTube can easily be applied to libraries. Instructional videos for library clients demonstating how to use the EasyLoan machines, scanners, photocopiers, booking laptops and study rooms online, how to search the Library catalogue, video tours of campus libraries, etc. The University of South Australia Library have embedded a number of online videos on the Library homepage under the heading of Online Training, for example, tutorials for efficient search strategies in various databases. These technologies can also be used for staff training and development.

YouTube

I really enjoy browsing YouTube. Many an hour or three has been spent viewing old video clips of my favourite songs, sporting highlights, timelapse videos (see my post from Week 4), skits from comedy shows, etc. I know my daughters love watching bloopers from their favourite movies and tv programmes.

I had trouble trying to decide which YouTube video I thought most worthy to use for this post: the choice is immense. I finally settled on Collaboration with Nature featuring some great examples of Andy Goldworthy's art. The music isn't completely to my taste but most of the works depicted in this video certainly are. I think they appeal to my inner hippie.

And the winner is............

The Web 2.0 Award Shortlist included many already discovered Web 2.0 technologies: Del.icio.us, Vufind, Google Earth, Zoho, Flickr, Google Docs, Bloglines, Technorati, YouTube, Google Maps and Rollyo. It also featured software that I've sworned a blood oath to avoid for all eternity: Facebook and Craigslist. (Obviously said blood oath has prevented me from making an informative, objective judgement of any kind but a blood oath made can't be retracted).

I began this Discovery Exercise with the supposed 'fun stuff': Hair Mixer (mostly disappointed with the results), Doof (the 'Top Members'' photos put me off), Threadless (the designs didn't really appeal), iFoods (the photos made me too hungry to concentrate), Cocktail Builder (not one match for that leftover, 14 year old bottle of unwanted Advocaat) and One Sentence (the stories in the main weren't at all interesting). Nothing really appealed.

Decision time: I eventually selected a serious option for examination: Biblio. Biblio combines my love of books and my materialistic inclinations. Over 50 million used book titles to browse and potentially acquire. Now I know where I can find a hard cover, 1931, 3rd Impression copy of The Gardener's Year by Karel Capek, illustrated by Josef Capek and printed by George Allen & Unwin Ltd. A "good+" copy that is "a touch musty but very clean". Woo Hoo.

Zoho Writer, an Online Productivity Tool

I am angry I am ill and Im as ugly as sin
My irritability keeps me alive and kicking
I know the meaning of life, it doesnt help me a bit
I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess Im proud as hell of that fact

I know the highest and the best
I accord them all due respect
But the brightest jewel inside of me
Glows with pleasure at my own stupidity

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess Im proud as hell of that fact....

I used to make phantoms I could later chase
Images of all that could be desired
Then I got tired of counting all of these blessings
And then I just got tired

This is a song from under the floorboards
This is a song from where the wall is cracked
My force of habit, I am an insect
I have to confess Im proud as hell of that fact

Zoho Writer is the online productivity tool I experimented with for this exercise. I decided to use Zoho Writer as a text editor, then I selected the Share tab before choosing the Post to Blog option. After a couple of attempts (what was my Google Account username and password again?) this worked well. I did find changing text colour cumbersome compared to Microsoft Word but most of the tool icons were immediately recognisable. Due my familiarity with Microsoft Word, and because this software is already available to me, it is the word processing software I prefer. Some of the positives of Zoho Writer include the fact that it's freeware so that can only be a good thing, no software needs to be installed and documents saved online can be accessed anywhere.

The lyrics used in my experimental document above are from an old favourite of mine; "A Song from under the Floorboards" by the early 80's, English band Magazine. It may be of interest that Howard Devoto the lyricist and vocalist of Magazine later worked as a Librarian.

Learning 2.0 Wiki Sandbox

Creating an account on the PLCMC Learning Wiki Sandbox site was completely straight forward. Adding my blog to the Favourite Blogs page was another matter (see my plea for help on the 23 Things @ UniSA Blog). 3 days after creating an account I still am denied access to any sandpit fun. As I noted in an earlier post I'm not sure if the words 'technology' and 'me' belong in the same sentence.

Wiki

I love the 'open access' of wikis, the fact that anyone can edit and supply information, how egalitarian! Obviously, on the flipside, this also means that anyone with malicious intentions can make unwanted changes.
Library Success was interesting and very reminiscent of Wikipedia.
Book Lovers Wiki promised much but delivered little although I did enjoy reading the contrasting critiques of The Kite Runner. Princeton Public Library's 2006 Summer reading wasn't as interesting as I hoped.
I also browsed the UniSA Library Wiki's notably WikIRT, the Law Wiki: Legal Brief and V_Double_Wiki and noticed (for what it's worth) that the most recent changes were made in May, February and January 2009 respectively.

Web 2.0 Library 2.0

In the beginning of the 23 Things saga I viewed a short video extolling the virtues of Web 2.0 technologies where scenes and characters from Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland featured prominently. I wondered what was the point this marketing exercise was trying to make.

Now after 6 weeks in the 23 Things wonderland I think I have some small understanding and will try to apply this analogy in this post about what Library 2.0 means to me. (If it's ok for Rick Anderson to have his 'icebergs' and 'paddles' comparison, then it's open slather as far as I'm concerned).

Alice in Wonderland begins with Alice nervous about the recital of 'Cherry Ripe' she will be performing for her parents' guests later in the day. So if I use Alice as an analogy for libraries then the song 'Cherry Ripe' is the services libraries provide that meets our clients' needs today. Like Alice libraries need to follow the Web 2.0 White Rabbit down the Web 2.0 rabbit hole, to adapt and stretch themselves encountering, experiencing, discovering, and developing new hybrid technologies to eventually provide the services (aka the 'Will you Wont you join the dance' song) that match the needs of libraries' clients in the 21st century and beyond.

This post is probably as clear as the smokey atmosphere created by the Caterpillar's hookah but imagining the future can be like that.

Attached is a portion of one of Charles Blackman's Alice pictures.

Del.icio.us Tagging and Discovery

Any doubters click here for proof that I've discovered the joys of Del.icio.us tagging.

I'm possibly not quite as enthusiastic about Del.icio.us as some 23 Things participants seem to be. Maybe this is due to the fact that I have only around 10 different tag categories in Del.icio.us at the moment. I've come to the realisation that I don't have that diverse a range of interests; books, design (see Philippe Starck's juicer above), sport, current affairs and gardening about sums it up (something to do with my obsessive personality perhaps?). Nevertheless I can see that over time my range of tag categories could increase substantially.

I initially thought just adding 'favourite' sites to my internet bookmarks was sufficient to my needs rather than laboriously adding and tagging each entry into Del.icio.us. Using Del.icio.us does enable me to access my Del.icio.us bookmarks from any computer with internet access; no need for my favourite bookmarks to be replicated on every computer that I use. The "RSS feeds for these bookmarks" option is also a very handy little tool providing the latest updates of all sites in any selected tag category.

OK, this cynic has been won over.