Its not really the end. I still use most of the Web 2.0 features every day in my personal life and I constantly come up with ways we can use them at work too. Marketing the library thru the internet seems to me like the way of the future as kids get more and more technologically savvy and their parents try to keep up.
My favourite part of the Amazing Challenge was winning a wonderful prize for my witty blogs. But I also actually like writing the blogs. I think blogging is the one thing i have learnt on the Amazing Challenge that i didn't already do before on a regular basis, which i may just keep up. I don't think anyone by Elle has read them so far, but you never know. its also a good way of recalling what was happening at a certain time. i was so proud of my Social networking blog that i sent it to my friend to read. She was suitably impressed!
I think that twitter and social networking in general could be useful to the TCL - us library geeks must find a use for these increasingly popular websites - whether it is for marketing or just for keeping up with the next generation in a way that they connect with.
When starting the Amazing challenge I wondered how much of a challenge it would be for me - already being a keen technophile. Initially the challenge was finding the time to do it - with study and working part time - however once i got some time I flew thru the challenges. While it wasn't much OF a challenge for me to read about and do the simple tasks, i would still say that I learnt at least a little bit from each thing. Eg i learnt what embedding meant in the you tube challenge, I learnt a little more about RSS feeds and started my own google reader account. So it was very useful in terms of my continued learning. Since we have had the internet on the bus, I have had a lot more time to work thru the tasks and have a play with some of the wonderful technology available. I really like keeping up with what is going on in other departments by reading the Libshare blog, I am thinking it would be great to have a section on there where branches could upload the minutes of their meetings to make the minutes even more accessible to other branches?
On this, my final amazing challenge post, I finally used the spell checker feature on the blog site too, so I HAVE leant something!
Thinking about my goals, I dont remember what they were, but i know one was to finish, so i have accomplished one thing! I have also learnt something, so I am sure that was one of my goals!.
One thing i would say about the format of the Amazing Challenge was the lack of sharing with fellow colleagues. I think it would be great to get together with others of different abilities and to have talked about or done together some of the tasks. I think showing others or talking about technology with others helps consolidate the learning for both parties. That's just me personally tho i guess.
Thanks to Elle for all your useful comments and for reading my blogs!
Claire
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Social Networking
I heard a statistic on the radio the other day that something like 50% of all women in my age bracket check their social networking site before even using the bathroom when they get up in the morning. Okay, so i am not that bad, but I check it as soon as i can and sometimes go on Facebook in my lunch hour when i am in Tauranga Library(as Ele would have noticed!).
Personally I love Facebook, I think the media's interest in privacy issues is just scaremongering. I persuaded Geoff to sign up and then he read an article that scared him from ever using it. For now, this is a good thing untl he improves his computer skills and is then able to play with the privacy settings himself, because they do change a lot and its hard to keep up, but i worked so hard to get him to look at it! Mistrust of Facebook etc is surely a generational thing, he wants me to just pick up the phone to stay in touch with friends, but my toll bill would be astronomical and i would have no time to do anything but ring my friends if i wanted to keep up with what they are doing as well as i do with Facebook.
I think FB also extends your network of friends, people who you have lost touch with from school, or old family friends can be caught up with, without the awkwardness of person to person contact with someone who you only have a little in common with. My partner says that is just being nosey, but i disagree! its nice to stay friends with a lot of people. I reckon its the equivilent of exchanging christmas cards with an old friend, but instead of a once a year staid letter loudly proclaiming the achievements for the preceeding year, you get to keep up with even the smallest of a person's life experiences. Whether this means you learn from someone else's mistakes, find out about an old friend's illness or wedding, or just get to see pictures of their children and dogs and cats and admire from afar, i still think this is a good thing! Maybe i am a sucker for attention, but friends posting a comment on a status when i am sick really helps, and i like to think that an old school friend appreciates my comments about how lovely she looked in her wedding dress and my contratulations about getting married - without having to invite me to the actual wedding!
I also have a Bebo and Myspace accounts, but hardly use these. I joined these to keep in touch with those friends that only used those sites, but even they have come over to the dark side and joined facebook now. My mother, brother, boyfriend, sister in law and heaps of my friends are on facebook. I have a few friends (mainly in the psychology industry, where privacy is very important) that have not joined up in case someone they would rather not contacts them, but even one of these naysayers has joined up - under peer pressure, because of us FBers who constantly put photos including her up on FB and she wants to have a look. We have an agreement not to tag more than one photo (as being her) and she untags once she has looked!
I think that these sites are a great way to keep in touch with friends, especially seeing as most of mine do not live in the same town (or even country) as me. Its become an addiction, and i do not need to look at it every day, but i do, just in case someone has commented on a picture or posting i have made. I try to come up with provocative or interesting Status messages all day and then post them when i get home to see who will comment or 'like' them. However often i forget the status by the time i get home!
I also upload pictures of what i am up to and show off videos and pictures of Ruby winning at agility!
I can see the negative aspects of Facebook, privacy is only one of them. However i do realise that it is a business and it needs to make money, so certain information has to be made available to advertisers so as to target their market, otherwise they wont want to advertise and Facebook couldnt be free any more. I even occasionally click on their ads just to keep them coming back! I obviously have it bad for Facebook because i often start talking to non Facebook friends about something that i assume that they already know about and they stare at me wondering what on earth i am talking about. I then realise they havent read my 5th status of the week and dont know that Ruby won another agility ribbon last weekend (or whateva)!
I make sure all my photos and videos that i upload to FB are 'friends only' and have a completely private account. I try not to sign up to to many FB pages or applications (which can then download your information) and if i stop using any i have signed up to i delete their access. I was shocked to learn the other day tho, htat my profile pic cannot be made private - not much of an issue as it is currently of Ruby - but something to note for future pics!
Facebook is not only about keeping up with friends, but you can follow news and tv programs and other interesting things that are happening in the world.
So in summary, i am a Facebook fiend, and if you dont have an account, i will try and convert you and am i not prepared to listen to anything negative about it! For every negative point, i have a positve!
C
Addendum: Check out this amusing article http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/blogs/connector/3934697/Sorry-my-friend-quota-is-full about making and breaking facebook friends
Personally I love Facebook, I think the media's interest in privacy issues is just scaremongering. I persuaded Geoff to sign up and then he read an article that scared him from ever using it. For now, this is a good thing untl he improves his computer skills and is then able to play with the privacy settings himself, because they do change a lot and its hard to keep up, but i worked so hard to get him to look at it! Mistrust of Facebook etc is surely a generational thing, he wants me to just pick up the phone to stay in touch with friends, but my toll bill would be astronomical and i would have no time to do anything but ring my friends if i wanted to keep up with what they are doing as well as i do with Facebook.
I think FB also extends your network of friends, people who you have lost touch with from school, or old family friends can be caught up with, without the awkwardness of person to person contact with someone who you only have a little in common with. My partner says that is just being nosey, but i disagree! its nice to stay friends with a lot of people. I reckon its the equivilent of exchanging christmas cards with an old friend, but instead of a once a year staid letter loudly proclaiming the achievements for the preceeding year, you get to keep up with even the smallest of a person's life experiences. Whether this means you learn from someone else's mistakes, find out about an old friend's illness or wedding, or just get to see pictures of their children and dogs and cats and admire from afar, i still think this is a good thing! Maybe i am a sucker for attention, but friends posting a comment on a status when i am sick really helps, and i like to think that an old school friend appreciates my comments about how lovely she looked in her wedding dress and my contratulations about getting married - without having to invite me to the actual wedding!
I also have a Bebo and Myspace accounts, but hardly use these. I joined these to keep in touch with those friends that only used those sites, but even they have come over to the dark side and joined facebook now. My mother, brother, boyfriend, sister in law and heaps of my friends are on facebook. I have a few friends (mainly in the psychology industry, where privacy is very important) that have not joined up in case someone they would rather not contacts them, but even one of these naysayers has joined up - under peer pressure, because of us FBers who constantly put photos including her up on FB and she wants to have a look. We have an agreement not to tag more than one photo (as being her) and she untags once she has looked!
I think that these sites are a great way to keep in touch with friends, especially seeing as most of mine do not live in the same town (or even country) as me. Its become an addiction, and i do not need to look at it every day, but i do, just in case someone has commented on a picture or posting i have made. I try to come up with provocative or interesting Status messages all day and then post them when i get home to see who will comment or 'like' them. However often i forget the status by the time i get home!
I also upload pictures of what i am up to and show off videos and pictures of Ruby winning at agility!
I can see the negative aspects of Facebook, privacy is only one of them. However i do realise that it is a business and it needs to make money, so certain information has to be made available to advertisers so as to target their market, otherwise they wont want to advertise and Facebook couldnt be free any more. I even occasionally click on their ads just to keep them coming back! I obviously have it bad for Facebook because i often start talking to non Facebook friends about something that i assume that they already know about and they stare at me wondering what on earth i am talking about. I then realise they havent read my 5th status of the week and dont know that Ruby won another agility ribbon last weekend (or whateva)!
I make sure all my photos and videos that i upload to FB are 'friends only' and have a completely private account. I try not to sign up to to many FB pages or applications (which can then download your information) and if i stop using any i have signed up to i delete their access. I was shocked to learn the other day tho, htat my profile pic cannot be made private - not much of an issue as it is currently of Ruby - but something to note for future pics!
Facebook is not only about keeping up with friends, but you can follow news and tv programs and other interesting things that are happening in the world.
So in summary, i am a Facebook fiend, and if you dont have an account, i will try and convert you and am i not prepared to listen to anything negative about it! For every negative point, i have a positve!
C
Addendum: Check out this amusing article http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/blogs/connector/3934697/Sorry-my-friend-quota-is-full about making and breaking facebook friends
Embedding You Tube on a blog
This is cool, i'll be able to do the same on Facebook. This is Ruby when she was a puppy, i must upload her latest videos! I dont know if this will work because it is set to private.. We'll see!
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Web 2.0 features, for home and work. What can the Web do for us?
I looked at Twitter because up until this point i had scorned Twitter in favour of Facebook. I have resisted the urge to Twitter because i am sure my computer savvy friends get enough information about me that they didnt really want as it is without "microblogging" 20 times a day!
I can see how it would be useful at work because people say that it can provide new tools, links to websites and quick answers to questions, if the library Twittered and it got enough of a following we could twitter to followers what is happening, where to find reviews, what new books and DVDs we have just got in etc
I didnt actually sign up to Twitter because like i said earlier, Facebook takes enough of my time as it is. And while i am actually bored with Facebook, it still is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends all aroudn the world - it maintains a connection where there otherwise may not be, and i guess Twitter is the same. Twitter has been in the news alot and "everyone" (eg anyone who is anyone) is talking about it. This could mean it is a good tool for the now, but what of the future, will the followers get bored, will sonmething new take over as the new Twitter?
I like this quote from the Top 100 website "Big jump since last year. I learn something new several times a day and stay connected with people that form my most valuable network. This is the one tool I would choose if I could only keep one (as long as everyone else kept it also!). Barry Dahl " He makes a good point, these types of programs and networks rely on being the in thing, there are so many of them that have come about recently, will this mean some will drop off and the people who use the unpopular ones will end up losing their network of friends andHAVE to join another site?
I understand there is a program that you download to your computer to manage your Twitter account so you can see who is following what and who is doing what. Imagine having to have a computer program that manages your social life - and on a computer. Who is getting out and seeing and talking to their friends these days??
Ffrom a job point of view, it would be great marketing tool for the Mobile library to tweet is location add photos of the bus parked in beautiful locations (all taken on nice sunny Bay of Plenty days of course) and it could link to the timetable on the library website like a "where are we right now" sort of thing. Maybe google maps could be added as well so a patron could see exactly where on the street we are!
On second look of Web 2.0 features i looked at Google chrome. I use this at home because its speed and because IE would no longer let me upload photos to facebook - the flash player seemed to halt the process every time. I like Chrome because it saves you from typing in any internet addresses as it is a little like predictive texting, it predicts from a few letters what you want to look at - even if you have never been there before. It also will do a comprehensive search of the Web from the address bar. I often do recommend this to friends because of its psychic ability. Using Chrome at work would be great, i just think its a bit more user friendly than IE - and it lets you use the features of websites that IE sometimes isnt compatible with.
Claire
I can see how it would be useful at work because people say that it can provide new tools, links to websites and quick answers to questions, if the library Twittered and it got enough of a following we could twitter to followers what is happening, where to find reviews, what new books and DVDs we have just got in etc
I didnt actually sign up to Twitter because like i said earlier, Facebook takes enough of my time as it is. And while i am actually bored with Facebook, it still is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends all aroudn the world - it maintains a connection where there otherwise may not be, and i guess Twitter is the same. Twitter has been in the news alot and "everyone" (eg anyone who is anyone) is talking about it. This could mean it is a good tool for the now, but what of the future, will the followers get bored, will sonmething new take over as the new Twitter?
I like this quote from the Top 100 website "Big jump since last year. I learn something new several times a day and stay connected with people that form my most valuable network. This is the one tool I would choose if I could only keep one (as long as everyone else kept it also!). Barry Dahl " He makes a good point, these types of programs and networks rely on being the in thing, there are so many of them that have come about recently, will this mean some will drop off and the people who use the unpopular ones will end up losing their network of friends andHAVE to join another site?
I understand there is a program that you download to your computer to manage your Twitter account so you can see who is following what and who is doing what. Imagine having to have a computer program that manages your social life - and on a computer. Who is getting out and seeing and talking to their friends these days??
Ffrom a job point of view, it would be great marketing tool for the Mobile library to tweet is location add photos of the bus parked in beautiful locations (all taken on nice sunny Bay of Plenty days of course) and it could link to the timetable on the library website like a "where are we right now" sort of thing. Maybe google maps could be added as well so a patron could see exactly where on the street we are!
On second look of Web 2.0 features i looked at Google chrome. I use this at home because its speed and because IE would no longer let me upload photos to facebook - the flash player seemed to halt the process every time. I like Chrome because it saves you from typing in any internet addresses as it is a little like predictive texting, it predicts from a few letters what you want to look at - even if you have never been there before. It also will do a comprehensive search of the Web from the address bar. I often do recommend this to friends because of its psychic ability. Using Chrome at work would be great, i just think its a bit more user friendly than IE - and it lets you use the features of websites that IE sometimes isnt compatible with.
Claire
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Google Reader
Its really weird that this was the next task in the Amazing Challenge because i just saw the 'reader' link on Google the other day and had a quick look at it because it was a topic discussed in my current Library paper.
I guess I need to have a better look at how to read it, and if i looked at it every day i suppose there wouldnt be so much stuff to read, but just having 5 or 6 subscriptions meant a lot of scrolling, or to click on the "mark all as read" buttong.
Its good that its just like Gmail which is the email that i use the most, so i know the basics of how to use it. Is it not just like going to those websites yourself tho, I need to find out how to manage the subscription so it only returns those items that actually interest me, cos at the moment it is returning for example from the NZ Herald website all the top stories. I could just go to that website to view those.
If i figured out how to manage these subscriptions it would be good to subscribe to library blogs, websites etc so i can keep up with the latest, it may take a while to trawl thru the internet and find RSS feeds to subscribe to!
I'm really not sure how libraries can use this. can the library subscribe to certain feeds and show that information on their website without having to actually be logged on to the net? Maybe Ellie can enlighten me on that one!
out
Addendum: Just noticed that Library Elf provides RSS feeds too, but they do warn that some readers show these to the general public even if you have set your profile to private. There is a use for RSS feeds for librarians and libraries!!
I guess I need to have a better look at how to read it, and if i looked at it every day i suppose there wouldnt be so much stuff to read, but just having 5 or 6 subscriptions meant a lot of scrolling, or to click on the "mark all as read" buttong.
Its good that its just like Gmail which is the email that i use the most, so i know the basics of how to use it. Is it not just like going to those websites yourself tho, I need to find out how to manage the subscription so it only returns those items that actually interest me, cos at the moment it is returning for example from the NZ Herald website all the top stories. I could just go to that website to view those.
If i figured out how to manage these subscriptions it would be good to subscribe to library blogs, websites etc so i can keep up with the latest, it may take a while to trawl thru the internet and find RSS feeds to subscribe to!
I'm really not sure how libraries can use this. can the library subscribe to certain feeds and show that information on their website without having to actually be logged on to the net? Maybe Ellie can enlighten me on that one!
out
Addendum: Just noticed that Library Elf provides RSS feeds too, but they do warn that some readers show these to the general public even if you have set your profile to private. There is a use for RSS feeds for librarians and libraries!!
Microsoft Excel
Today I was doing a project on Excel for my Information Systems paper. It wasnt going well, but once i got some help it went fine. Did i get any of that help from my tutor? NO! I got it from Dad who got it from someone else. My tutor seemed more interested in making me feel like a school child than giving me any helpful advice! He said i should treat it like an exam and any "collusion" between studens could result in our assessments not being accepted!
what a plonker. The instructions are NOT as clear as he seems to think they are. Each step is broken down into bullet points and what confused me is it seems you dont follow thru each bullet point one after the other, but look at the whole lot together and then do it.
And another thing, they gave us a template to work from to do a report in Word. I HATE using documents that other people have created. I consider myself an Expert Word User and i would format the document differently, so it takes twice as long to type information in, because you have to circumnavigate someone elses bad formatting!
All this is a waste of time, but I am really just practicing blogging!
what a plonker. The instructions are NOT as clear as he seems to think they are. Each step is broken down into bullet points and what confused me is it seems you dont follow thru each bullet point one after the other, but look at the whole lot together and then do it.
And another thing, they gave us a template to work from to do a report in Word. I HATE using documents that other people have created. I consider myself an Expert Word User and i would format the document differently, so it takes twice as long to type information in, because you have to circumnavigate someone elses bad formatting!
All this is a waste of time, but I am really just practicing blogging!
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