Connecting Librarian

I have been thinking about this subject for weeks, longer probably and I’m not the only one. There’s been a lot of discussion about what social software people are using, people stopping blogging and some restarting and more. In the light of this, I thought it was about time I sorted out all the myriad of thoughts and ideas that are going around my head and totally confuse you about it too.

I have been exploring lots of social software online in the past 3 years or so and I think I am finally settling into a few selected ones that I am enjoying. The places I spend at least a little time everyday are Twitter (feel free to follow me - tango2), Facebook and a gaming site Gold Token, besides the several email addresses I monitor for myself, my work, hubby’s business and my church. I also believe in this blog still, although I am not posting as often, probably for a couple of reasons, which I will go into later.

http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2007/11/

I tried Library 2.0 on Ning, but there’s only so much you can do online and I find that most of the people I want to be in contact with are on Facebook. I never registered for Linked In, never felt the need because of my Facebook connections. And Facebook has great word games, although I could do without the vampires, zombies, knights etc. I use IM mainly at work, but not much at home, probably because I don’t have many addresses yet, so that could change. I love del.icio.us, but at home I am using it more as ‘I want to know where these websites are when I need them’ account. At work however, I am having a ball, using it for our Olympic Games links. And don’t get me started on podcasts and RSS feeds (both of which I love).

I want to do more with my Library Thing account, maybe integrating it more with my blog, like I have with Twitter, the same with my Flickr account and I haven’t gotten into YouTube or any equivalent yet, except as a regular viewer. We’ll see what happens though. Still that’s a lot to be using and trying to keep up with on a regular basis.

I have a feed from my blog going into my Facebook and I have integrated my Twitter feed into my Facebook and my blog because I don’t want to be concentrated in one spot. I like the idea of being able to be seen and heard in a number of places. Exhibitionist maybe, or maybe just a librarian to the core, making it as easy as possible to find that information. Dispersing my twitter feeds means that have to open them up, which for some people is a legitimate privacy concern, but I can live with that. Again, I guess its the librarian in me that just wants as many access points as possible. On the otherhand, it means that I can’t discuss everything that I may want to (ie. the odd rant), as it would viewable by all, including those about whom I am ranting, but that’s the price you pay.

So why 2008 in the title? Because all this will change. Two years ago I just had the blog, email and a bit of IM. Delicious was something new on the radar for me then too. Its only in the last year that I have really got immersed in Twitter and Facebook. So who knows how the landscape and how I choose to use it, will change in the next year.

So I guess I’m saying, that I plan to be found online in these places: my blog, facebook, twitter, delicious, flickr, library thing (getting there anyway) and that’s enough for now. I like being in all those diverse places, but I also like my content coming together in one place, to give a big picture view, so that’s where this blog will still play a big part.

The blog as I said earlier has been quieter, for a number of reasons. Firstly, because I am spending time in the other places I have mentioned, secondly because I have been doing some presentations, writing papers and have just finished a couple of articles (waiting to hear if they will be published). Thirdly, the big changes that seemed to be happening and happening fast with Web 2.0, seem to be slowing down a bit. Comes from being on the cutting edge I guess, we are now just waiting for everyone else to catch up a bit before we move onto to the next big thing - or maybe we’re just waiting for the next big thing to appear? Or is it just me?

So how do I manage to keep up with all this. I don’t know really. But Clay Shirky, author of “Here comes everybody“, has some thoughts on that. I really recommend you take the time to watch this video, where he explains where the time comes from. Its worth the 15 minute investment (and I really must get the book and stick it on Library Thing).

Anyway, so now you know where to find me. And wherever you go looking for me, you can be guaranteed that you’ll be able to find out what I’m up to. Whether or not you want to, is entirely up to you!

We don’t usually get a White Christmas here in Australia (although some places did last year), so the usual Christmas carols don’t work as well here. We have an Australian version of Jingle Bells, called appropriately Aussie Jingle Bells and Six White Boomers, from an ex-patriot Australian son - Rolf Harris.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas - I know Santa will be visiting you, as I know you have all been very good girls and boys, so ENJOY!

Wow, final week of Learning 2.0. Taken me a bit more than 9 weeks, but I’ve been a bit distracted with other things. Having finally completed it makes me all the more enthusiastic about starting it at my library, but only after we have our new ILMS bedded down - so probably later this year.

The first task was to link to a YouTube video, but of course I had to take the extra challenge and embed it into my blog entry. Which once I joined up to YouTube (oh the problem of so many logins and passwords!), was pretty straightforward. I wanted to embed the video of the help desk for the book (monks, Norwegian, funny), but unfortunately the English subtitled version is no longer on YouTube, so instead I chose the Web 2.0 … The Machine is Us/ing Us - which is a clever 5 minute video which gives an overview of what Web 2.0 is. Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE]

So what did I think of YouTube. I haven’t visited the site much as I usually get pointed straight to the video URL via Digg or blog posts. However, my first exploration of it left me impressed. Its easy to search, easy to join and after I did, it was easy to find how to embed a video in my blog. All good! Once we get started on our own videos at my library (goodness knows when that will happen though), this will definitely be the place to put them.

Next was podcasts, I have already listened to quite a few, usually through my computer, although I am downloading a few to my iRiver for when I go overseas. So the last part of the exercise I had already completed - I am subscribed to podcasts from Opal, the Sirsi Dynix Institute and Second Life amongst others.

The first part however, was to check out some podcast search engines. I chose Yahoo Podcasts and Podcast Alley, both of which I had heard of before. After looking at Yahoo’s overview of podcasts, I used their podcast search to find Thomas Ford’s click -a-story, an audio storytime of public domain picture books. Great service, one I hope we can copy someday. I also searchd on some of the other places I am visiting on my study tour and found that OPLIN also has a number of podcasts. Podcast Alley on the otherhand was a bit less user friendly. When I did a search on Princeton Public Library, it did an or search, so I got everything else but. Not very helpful. However, they do have a genre search which could be very useful.

The extra challenge was to add audio to your blog, using Blogger’s Audio Blogging service, unfortunately it was discontinued in November last year.

So that’s the program. I will do one more post to sum up what I have learned and I’m done with it, but not with learning!