Magpie Girl

FINAL POST

2010-09-27T01:09:00.000-07:00

So I made it to the end unscathed! Actually I enjoyed this series of lessons much more than previous ones - it seemed more fun, less daunting and not so time consuming. Plus I think I have learnt quite a lot that will be useful either directly or indirectly as "background knowledge".
Appreciated that some of it was a bit light hearted - "Tastespotting", life can't be all work(!!)
I found a lot of very worthwhile material on Slideshare and EnCompassCulture - great sites to return to.
Thank you Tosca for your amazing energy and enthusiasm for things digital and for creating such a fun way of teaching those not so "technically gifted" as you!
Right now all staff have a lot of new stuff coming at them with MyCard and still doing database quizzes and the Branch of Origin so it feels like there isn't time right now to do justice to a Web 2.0 Part 3. Maybe later.
PS I need to find the online survey and do that then its bye for now.

WEEK 6 - ENCOMPASSCULTURE - the global bookclub

2010-09-27T00:51:00.000-07:00

One could spend hours wandering about in this site - so easy to use and attractively set out. I really liked some of the reading lists that I retrieved using the compass. Being a non-fiction girl, there were heaps of books I would like to read in the biography and travel sections -love that you can get quite specific by choosing a couple of sub-categories.
I see this as being very useful as a readers advisory tool to refer patrons to, good for all ages and being British based rather than American (my bias showing here) appeals to me also. Could be useful for selecting books for a themed display too.
Good newsletters and current award winners lists (some tantalising children's books in the Roald Dahl Funniest books for children award lists)
I will be back to play in this site!!!
Would certainly recommend it to borrowers - so easy to demonstrate, even the technically challenged bless them couldn't find this hard.
Lovely find!!!!

WEEK 5 - SLIDESHARE - ONLINE PRESENTATIONS

2010-09-25T16:00:00.000-07:00

This is wicked!! What a brilliant service. I looked at some presentations from Librarianinblack (Sarah Houghton-Jan) as I had a recommendation for her website from Mentor Group Training's Joan Giannone recently. I got a bit sidetracked andn spent ages looking at these presentations, particularly liked her one entitled New Technologies that Save Time and Money - amazing what is out there, have noted some of them for future use - Type Faster Typing Tutor would be good to recommend to patrons - Free Online Book Displays in Flickr for staff too use. Will be returning to this video to absorb some more of it. Have put it into my Blog I liked it so much.

New Technologies That Save Time & Money - HLA 2009

View more presentations from Sarah Houghton-Jan.

WEEK 4 - TASTESPOTTING

2010-09-25T02:07:00.000-07:00

What a pretty site (sight). I registered, however unfortunately then there was a hiccup and I couldn't access the site again. However did get a brief look at the pictures.
I will revisit it some time later cos I do like recipe sites and use them all the time - you don't need a cookbook these days!!!

Nice to have some light relief in the Web 2 sessions, I don't mind that it has nothing to do withh libraries - although we all know that the way to a Librarian's heart is with some yummy goodies! And we have to keep our strength up to get all that work done.

Roving Librarians - Mentor Group Training Video

2010-09-25T01:50:00.001-07:00

WEEK 3 - FEEDMYINBOX - RSS MADE SIMPLE

2010-09-25T01:28:00.000-07:00

This lesson is well named - it does make RSS feeds simple and Feedmyinbox is very user friendly. I liked this a whole lot more than last time we did it.
Subscribed to Christchurch Libraries' blog and enjoyed reading their book reviews and looking at the photos of their shelves after the earthquake. Also note they are using the blog to encourage people to get out and vote - good!!
Good to understand how RSS feeds work but I probably won't use it again, there is only so much information I can cope with in my life - struggle to get time to read the newspaper!!!!!!

WEEK 2 - PICAPP

2010-08-15T04:32:00.000-07:00

I chose this picture of Matthew because I know him, he is a lovely guy and a great ambassador for New Zealand gymnastics. I was surprised to see so much NZ content especially amongst the editorial pics. Did a search on Auckland - up popped Auckland Supercity and the recent hikoi! Is really good that the pics appear with the most recent first and searching is so simple.
The artistic pics are very extensive but found you have to narrow your search down a lot and even then still get a bit of random stuff included!!
Like this site very much, pity we can't use the photos for creating posters etc, not just online.

Week 1 - BOX.NET

2010-08-12T00:22:00.000-07:00

Hey I quite liked playing with this!! Very easy to sign up and to use. No trouble uploading a few files either. This wouldn't be difficult to teach to patrons if they were interested. But would need to set them up before it got to the stage of "I only have 5 minutes of time left".
Could be very useful to dump files into if you were going away and needed to access them from elsewhere. Don't know if we would use it at work, we have a great N drive for sharing files.

Have shared my files (pics) with my lovely workmates.

Final Post

2010-07-05T00:33:00.000-07:00

Thought I had finished last week, and just realised I should have a final post.

I don't have anything profound to say, just thank you for the work that has gone into making this learning exercise as easy and as much fun as possible. Certainly a much better experience than slogging my way through the first Web 2 course we did last year! I suppose I am slowly becoming a Web 2 user - have been on Facebook for several years now and just this month used Picasa Web Albums to share an album of holiday photos with some friends. I guess I will just choose what suits me, like GoodReads and forget about what doesn't, like downloading music files.

But at least I feel a bit more savvy now and more able to sound knowledgeable and help our customers with more of our new technology.

But don't go looking for me on Twitter, I won't be there!!!

Week 6 Facebook - playing nicely withh others

2010-07-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

Oops I am a day late finishing all this but have been on holiday for a couple of weeks (a good excuse???)
Became a friend of Manukau Libraries and now get reviews etc on my Facebook page every day. Added to the discussion board with the book I am reading right now.

Have had a look at San Francisco Public Library's updates on Facebook - fascinated to see they have an ADULTS summer reading programme!! Theme is Dive into a Good Book (Jaws by Peter Benchley) with screening film documentaries, paper marbling classes and water related activities all over the city.
They add book reviews and promote events inside and outside the library, poetry readings, author visits etc.

I already use Facebook spasmodically but am wary of it eating too much into my precious sparetime!!
Tata for now.

Week 5 Music files and MP3s

2010-06-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

I had a look at Amazon's free music offerings - 1 song per day(???) and noted that it is limited to US customers only so that didn't seem to be too helpful. Went on to MP3.com and saw that they have a very comprehensive list of free downloads available and seemed to be easy to navigate. Not much that I recognise (my age) and not something I am looking to use at all but I don't think customers would have too much difficulty using it.

Week 4 - Books and Social Networking

2010-05-10T00:41:00.000-07:00

Good Reads is great!! Love it... could definitely use it for reader's advisory, great genre lists and just terrific for browsing for suggestions as to what to read next. Have joined and set up My Books. Will be back visiting Good Reads soon. Do we have a link to this site from our library website?

Very user friendly, my kind of site!

Week 3 - Twitter

2010-05-10T00:04:00.000-07:00

So I am now a bit more educated about Twitter - good luck to all who want to use it but to be honest it's not something I can see myself making much use of. But I am giving it a go and following some things like Lonely Planet, Trip Adviser and Library Journal, will see what turns up. And enjoyed seeing the Pakuranga Library renovation photos! Don't think I would be promoting it to customers but could direct them if asked.

Week 2 - ZAMZAR

2010-05-02T01:45:00.000-07:00

This is all news to me, have never used a file conversion site before. Seemed very easy to use, customers would have no trouble with this. I could certainly recommend it and demonstrate how to use it.

WEEK 1: BLOGGER

2010-04-24T00:15:00.000-07:00

Well here I am again - been off doing other things for the past five months!
Just beginning my second lot of exercises on Web 2 and hoping to learn more new stuff - interested to find out about Twitter because haven't had anything to do with it, also to learn about music files - again a total blank to me at present.
I guess public libraries could use a blog to promote services and events and link to useful sites for customers.

The Last Thing !!

2008-11-01T01:43:00.000-07:00

Such a relief to have finally finished this journey, a few weeks late. I have learnt heaps and am no longer totally ignorant about what Web 2.0 technology offers. Much of it has been fun - the obvious things like the social networking sites, using Flickr and YouTube. Other parts of the journey were hard work, particularly fitting it in with other demands and not being able to access some sites at work. Ended up doing some of it at home in my own time just to get it done.

All in all a very positive exercise though and probably the only way to upskill a large number of people in a huge variety of new skills and knowledge.
Thank you.

Week 9 - No 22 - E books

2008-11-01T01:14:00.000-07:00

I really enjoyed this exercise, feel I learnt a lot. There is so much freely available both from eLibrary and Project Gutenberg. Also interested to see that electronic audio books read both by humans and computer generated voices are available. Those needing to download these would certainly need help I would think, it doesn't seem a simple process. Is a bit mindboggling just how far the electronic explosion has gone and how much is available at your fingertips now.
Gret to see how cheaply one can purchase electronic books also - tempted to buy Nights in Rodanthe!

Week 9 Podcasts

2008-11-01T00:43:00.000-07:00

Nearly there! Podcasts are now on my horizon... have subscribed to http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/podcasts/newstalkipod.xml (Newstalk ZZB radio) because I don't seem to get time to read the papers nowadays and also seem to miss the TV news because I am cooking or gardening or some other riveting task when the news is on!!

Hopefully this will enable me to know what is going on in the world a bit by listening to some interviews etc that I may have missed.

2008-10-06T01:25:00.000-07:00

Week 20 (No 20) YouTube

2008-10-06T01:18:00.000-07:00

I am a fan of YouTube, you can have so much fun!!! Must admit it's mostly the funnies I look at. Did find some great footage of Gordon Ramsay interviews which had a few too many swear words in to put on my blog. Also a great funny of Gordon as a kid "evaluating" his lunchbox to an exasperated Mother.
But my favourite is the Simon's cat series, if you've got a cat you'll relate to these.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s13dLaTIHSg Follow this link.

Week 8 No 18 (doing it out of order!)

2008-10-06T01:00:00.000-07:00

Had a little play about in Zoho Writer and am a bit familiar with Google Docs through our Learn.net. However I'm sorry can't get too excited about this, would just rather use Word if I want to do some word processing. There seem to be so many ways of doing everything, it is getting a bit overwhelming. Not to mention having log ins for Africa!!!

Week 8 No 19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

2008-09-14T02:36:00.000-07:00

FIXYA

I chose to look at a site called Fixya which offers technical support for all things mechanical, electrical etc which includes household appliances, computer equipment, phones and even cars.

You can search for solutions to your problems and if you don't find one, post your query and see what help arrives (!!!). Someone had a problem with their fuel gauge behaving strangely, another had windscreen wipers that switched on and off at will, solutions were offered.

New Zealand Fisher and Paykel appliances are well represented on this site so it is not just useful for US brands.

It seems this is a useful site for librarians to know about as we don't have repair manuals for appliances and cars any longer. There are also spondosred links to Consumer and to repair companies (NZ).

Week 7 Social Networking

2008-08-28T02:49:00.000-07:00

I have a wee look at Auckland City Libraries Bebo page (am a bit anti Bebo because of all the angst the kids have given us here in the library with Bebo in the past!) Seems a bit juvenile to me.
Looked at Myspace - learnt that you can use it like a dating service (!!) searching for people who fit certain "specifications" like dating sites do. News to me. Otherwise pretty similar to other social networking sites.
My favourite is Facebook mainly because I have my own profile on it and have had heaps of fun for a couple of years with it. This week I added the Books I Read application, kind of like LibraryThing and sent a hilarious video to 3 friends.
Only frustration with Facebook is I can't search for people using my email address because it doesn't support searches using xtra.
Hennepin County Library - good idea having link to their catalogue and website, also able to chat to a librarian.

Week 6 Tagging, Del.icio.us

2008-08-19T04:22:00.000-07:00

Spent a little time exploring Del.icio.us and got horrribly sidetracked wandering about in other people's bookmarked sites, mainly travel sites that take me away from my desk for a bit!! Also found a neat game someone had tagged - doing a three point turn to park a car - I used up 60 sec and the computer told me I was out of time. At least I didn't hit any other cars in the carpark!!
Don't know if I would use this but certainly an interesting concept. The example of teachers sharing teaching resource discoveries was excellent.

PBWIKI Sandbox

2008-08-14T21:28:00.000-07:00

Quite fun reading everybody's favourite holiday places and recipes - why is chocolate everyone's favourite thing???? Might come back to this and read a bit more. Added my favourite holiday destinations briefly and wish I was there now!!!!!

Glenorchy on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2008-08-11T05:05:00.000-07:00

Glenorchy on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Tranquility at Glenorchy on Lake Wakatipu

Spanish rooftops on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

2008-08-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

Spanish rooftops on Flickr - Photo Sharing! I made a neat jigsaw with Flickr Toys - would make great gifts at Christmas!

What about Wikis?

2008-08-11T04:32:00.000-07:00

Had a bit of trouble getting my head around these things called Wikis. I am a bit sceptical about anything that can be edited and the changes saved by anybody. Doesn't that leave web pages wide open to people mischief-making? However I watched the You Tube video Wikis in Plain English with the example of the people planning a camping trip and could see how that worked very well, better than email.

Did find something to interest me though - on St Jospeh County Public Library's subject guides pages. Followed a link to the Stone Circle Network, an organization that encourages women to write their life stories!! They are also marketing a great cookbook/memoir which looks really fascinating, think it was called Kitchen Table Stories. Interstingly enough, one of the authors is a New Zealander!
That's it for now.

Olympic Games wizardry

2008-08-11T03:54:00.000-07:00

Found myself mesmerized on Saturday night by the awesome technology used to give the world the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Beijing - no idea how some of the fantastic lighting and special effects were created, how did the writing appear on the enormous scroll of paper as the figures danced over it??? How did they do the sparkling Olympic rings ?? And how will London compete with the spectacle when it is their turn?

Flickr

2008-07-29T21:47:00.000-07:00

Well Flickr is a lot of fun, I could play here for hours - found some amazing pics taken by people with loads of talent and fantastic cameras no doubt.

I like the fact that you can download pics from your computer, edit them, arrange them, store them and share them with friends. Saves a lot of storage on your home PC.

Love this cute squirrel, at first glance he looks like he has the latest spikey 'do' but actually its his very lush tail you he is showing off!

Reminds me of the squirrels in London parks, so tame and so fond of tourists peanuts!

I will return to Flickr I think.....

Rollyo - sort of!

2008-07-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

I decided that I liked the look of Marlowe's alternative to doing the Rollyo thing and have followed his instructions and I have added a Page Element to list the sites I am keeping up with. These are probably a bit depressing and not recommended for entertainment!!

LibraryThing

2008-07-29T19:23:00.000-07:00

I really like LibraryThing, a great way to share books that I have enjoyed with others and to get some recommendations from other readers who enjoy the same kind of books that I do. I have listed some of the travel books and the odd fiction title that I have read and loved over the past year. See my list at http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=sharleenbishop13&deepsearch=

Yummy Icecream Sundae

2008-07-18T04:44:00.000-07:00

I found this great site where you can design your own ice cream cone or sundae - this is the link to my sundae: http://www.cybercones.com/sundae-vanilla-s-ch-2-yf.htm

My feeds

2008-07-18T00:35:00.000-07:00

Check out my feeds at http://www.bloglines.com/public/birdiechick

The way ahead?

2008-07-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

This was fun - I have learnt how to make a fake airline ticket and send it to a friend for their birthday!!! Had a look at Elf Yourself but was disappointed to find the elves are not at home seeing it isn't Christmas of course. Did have some fun last Christmas doing that mind you - a bit bizarre seeing yourself as a singing dancing Christmas elf. Also played about with the yummy cup of coffee and ended up writing on a road sign that looks like it is in the middle of nowhere - going nowhere???? Decided that I would put this one on my blog.

2008-07-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

Just a tad behind

2008-07-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

OK so it's Week 3 and I've just got around to doing Week 2. That's for the very obvious reason that the school holidays started last week, we have had mountains of books to shelve courtesy of RFID tagging, 2 staff sick, 1 on leave and not many left!
I now have a rudimentary understanding of RSS feeds and Bloglines and have managed to open a Bloglines account and subscribe to several feeds. I can see that this could become addictive and save time if properly used.

Found the instructions a bit off the mark and ended up exploring on my own - if kids can figure out how to do all this just by playing about then so can I!!! That's assuming that I've done it all properly of course......

Search and Rescue on standby

2008-07-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

OK here we go - first time into this new world of blogging! It feels pretty strange but exciting too to be learning such new cutting edge stuff - means I can keep up with alll the kids who sometimes seem to know ten times as much as me about the new whizz bang stuff on the net. And great that it can be made fun and we can do it in work time - yay!

If I get lost in here will someone send out a search party for me????? Please!