Grey again!

I'm obsessed with all things grey at the moment, can you tell!

Wikis

I'm back. I've been away but now I'm back. Just looking at the library Wiki "we" created and I like it. I can see how this could be very useful. I was recently collaborating with colleagues from other libraries (NUI Galway, DCU, Houses of the Oireachtas) trying to plan a conference. I asked my colleagues to discuss an issue via e-mail and then asked them to contribute using the "Reply to all Button". I was trying to collate the discussion yesterday and it was a great big mess. A wiki page would have been perfect.  Library staff across Ireland all know each other and they collaborate and share ideas in a very selfless way. Its a great profession for that I think. This tool is very useful and I will be using it.

Cartoon Strip

Sorry! The joke is beyond awful! But the Software is great and I have created my first comic strip so yippee!

Grey! Just for you buttonbeano!

Feeds

This is all new to me.  After watching the Common Craft video I realise that I am that person who wastes valuable time searching all my favourite websites & blogs to see if there are any updates. Set up my 3 RSS Feeds - The Library Association, The Man Booker Prize and my Union. What a useful tool. I imagine I will find the Topic Search very good for keeping up with a particular news story in the short term i.e. The Croke Park Deal or Numeracy and Literacy in Ireland. It could be very useful in the library - as a Current Awareness Tool for the Information Service. Sending mails to academic staff could earn us some brownie points...."did you see the latest development in numeracy skills assessment from Australia..." type of thing.  People feel overwhelmed by the amount of information out there (we work in a library and we feel it) -and we could use RSS feeds in a way that could potentially help our users to navigate their way through it. The ideas on the blog from Newcastle are fascinating and I definitely think we should try to do some of them here in our library.

Dating Librarians

Simple

Library 2.0

Take a look at diagram above [I can't remember where I got this but I will find out and reference correctly I promise. Apologies to the creator]
It captures the spirit of Library and Web 2.0

I'm just sayin...

Peter Blake I love Vintage Print

Book Stacks...

Not the traditional library way but doesn't it look good!

Kahlo & Rivera @ IMMA

I am really looking forward to Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at IMMA. Not usually one for art exhibitions but having read and really enjoyed Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna I can't wait. She brought Kahlo and Rivera to life. I would recommend reading the book before going to the exhibition.

Vintage Scandinavian Fabric

I love Scandinavian design. I love this vintage tea towel. I bought it on e-bay. Dare anybody use this for drying the dishes in my house.

Week Two

All done....phew!

Diigo

Imported all of my delicious bookmarks into Diigo. That was handy! I bet Diigo is better than Delicious but I think whatever application you use first will win out...

Getting there with Wordle

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/3434982/Untitled

ok getting there - but how do I change the link to picture?

Cloud Tags and Wordle

I LOVE Wordle. Possibilities are endless. I have wordled my blog but can't save or copy? Help?

Can't resist

Delicious again!

Ok I've shared my bookmarks. To date I have bookmarked my favourite online shops. Will bookmark more later. I don't like the way its just a list  - a list that just goes on and on - can't I group into folders on the first screen - so with 4 or 5 folders on first screen  - i.e. Library, Shops, Books, etc. with relevant book marks inside the "folder". I know you can group by grouping tags but.... I like a neat front page. Am I doing something wrong or is it not as sophisticated as us librarians would assume it should be. Catalogues and sub catalogues anyone?

Tidy Clutter

There is something so restfully messy about this home work station.

Folksonomy versus Taxonomy

"Somebody explained folksonomy to the librarian..."

This is hard for librarians. We like our guides and standards. I was a cataloguer at one stage so letting go of Dewey and Library of Congress and AACR2 is scary. I think allowing students to tag on the catalogue is a good one but librarians will need to let go...The example that sticks in my head was someone seeing a picture of an elephant on the web and deciding that it was the perfect grey to paint their front door so they tagged the elephant "front door"...For the love of God I hear all the cataloguers around the world shouting.....i know, I know.  Web 2.0 = Radical Trust. What about the idea of banking €25,000 with an e-book supplier and allowing the students to order whatever book they want (via the catalogue) from the supplier directly.

Delicious

I've just set up my delicious account. A bit confusing - whether or not to sign in with my Yahoo or google account, how to set it up on my menu bar - failed to do this but added to my favourites in the end. I have started to add my favourite online shops that I have bookmarked on my computer.
I can definitely see how this site will work for me. I don't have a laptop or access to a computer at home at the moment so once I'm sorted I can log into Delicious without having to add new bookmarks. I can see who else has bookmarked these sites and can see what they have bookmarked. Will post later about how to apply in a work context.

Just becuse I like it...

Smell of books

Fear not! Now that libraries are all about cafes and computers, e-books and the web - you can buy the smell of a book in a can:
http://smellofbooks.com/

Spell Check

I can't get my spellcheck to work? I click the button and nothing happens? Any ideas? Belieeve mee i neid a sperl cheeeck.

Using Web 2.0 in the library

Following on from some of the blog chats and how we can use Web 2.0 in the library, I read an interesting article in Panlibus Magazine (Issue 13 2009) by Damyanti Patel, the team coordinator at Royal Holloway, University of London. She writes that the introduction of RFID in the library had a big impact on the enquiry service. Self Issue meant that where they once had an Issue Desk and an Information Desk, they now merged into one point of contact / a single service for all enquiries. To date they had collected the usual statistics at the Information Desk but she wanted to see if Web 2.0 could assist in gathering more detailed data on the type of questions asked at the desk.  They set up an Information Service Team Blog and they started to note all of the questions by tweeting them and annotating each tweet. By tagging the queries they were able to search Twitter. This allowed comparisons and discussion and a community of learning evolved. They found that very few subject specific queries were dealt with at  the service desk.  The most common requests from users related to fines and overdues. They found that physically coming to the service desk was not how staff and students were getting answers to their academic queries.

Reading...

Kitchen shelves

These shelves belong to Elaine Prunty. She lives in Drumcondra  - has a great house and is a great artist. She blogs at www.jaboopee.blogspot.com

Bring it on!

The sense of achievement after completing Week One was great - then I remembered Week Two! The blogging so far has been great and allows great freedom. You can see how the community of learning has been established already. The labeling is important, isn't it? Allows for searching the blog later and the grouping together of topics.