Welcome back for the next round of learning - I have been working my way through the different units while trying to work out how to get back on to the blogging site - apparently I should have used it more - but alas all is now well and I have lots of blogging to do to show off any new found talents!!

Love working with Google Docs - find it is a great way of sharing ideas so everyone can be on the one page when you can finally get together face to face. The planning stages can be done without all the normal run around so when everyone meets the groundwork is already done. It is great with amalgamation with such a lot of branches and not enough hours for all that needs doing. It keeps everyone in the loop. Found Zoho great as well and will spend more time exploring there. Was great to be able to use the google login - saved remembering another password.

Survey monkey would be a useful tool for creating surveys for different training purposes.

It is great that the online apps are mainly free and most can be accessed from any computer, anywhere. Web Conferencing would be great if you were unable to attend - went to a meeting recently where a staff member was unable to attend a conference because of illness but was able to tap into all that was going on from the comfort of her sick bed.

Zamzar will be a favourite for all staff at our branch when I research it more - we have almost daily a problem with a document presented itself in the wrong format ( both staff and patron) and how clever will we feel to be able to change them and so easily -- I hope!!!

Anyway enough for now and onward we go

Cheers

LIBRARY THING- A -ME- JIGS

Who would have thought all this information could keep me awake so late into the night on a work night - will be bleary eyed again tomorrow - luckily this is the last little bit of our journey - but thanks for the opportunity to explore all these great new sites that I have heard about but never really ventured to far into.

Firstly Technorati - not really that keen on this one. Not sure that I would have would use this site because I found it quite technical and a bit confusing (did I say that out loud!!!!) If you wanted for everyone to follow your blog this would be great - if you used it for a business purpose it may work very well. The exercise on bookmobile was interesting as it bought up different things depending on where you searched it - advanced or not!!!!!

I had looked at Library Thing during some Opal training but went in and picked some books - I really like how you can use the covers. I looked at Shelfari and that looks great - nice clean site and the reviews where good and set out well. I will definitely use these sites more as patrons often ask us if we know anything about a particular book so we could give them a quick run down on a title. This site would also be great for book clubs who are always on the lookout for a new book to read and comment on. This site is probably used by the staff that pick our books too to see what is our there in the big wide book world.

OH SO DEL.ICIO.US

Hi All - Finally got a grip on this tantilising site and worked through it and had some fun looking at the video - was totally lost until I actually went back and followed the Test Drive #6 information. Watched the Common Craft video and that helped make sense of it all and Social Bookmarking.
The notes prepared by Sharon Morris made my job a lot easier and once I worked through the notes I was able to Bookmark several sites and tagged lots of good stuff.

Didn't really like the look of things as a Cloud - must like a more structured look. It looked great on the Sutherland Libraries tag but I liked the list better to organise my tags. Each to there own.

I have set up several tags which I will find useful in our workplace ---We do some simple tutorials for the public and I have tagged Search sites Eg Google and MSN for up to date information for patrons on weather conditions or news stories they may query us about. I have also tagged State Library and other library sites for quick one stop information sources.

Fun and Games in RSS Feeds

Hi have been having great fun looking at the Commoncraft Video about RSS and then looking up and adding several RSS feeds and then going back and seeing how much information is added very quickly. Wow you could spend a long long long time looking at your feeds. I would think you would have to be very selective about what you added or you could accumulate a huge amount of information.

I added Opal Training, ABC News headlines, ACA headlines, Powerhourse Musuem's Photo of the Day (wow some great photos on there) and Better Homes and Gardens (just to see if I could do one that wasn't on the list) - It is hard to think about what you are interested but I will definately add a few more when I get to thinking about it. Not sure how to delete them if I am not interested though - I will endeavour that another day.

We could use RSS feeds in our workplace to advise of new resources, new bookclub titles, upcoming events and well as keeping staff up to date from Library blogs and Booksellers

SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

Have just recently joining Facebook and am amazed at how many friends I now have - have caught up with people I haven't spoken to forever. Once of our staff members are overseas at the moment and that is why I joined originally and she chats away about all the fun things she is doing while we are having fun at work..... I recently heard of another site called WAYN and I am going to join that and have a look around....appears to be a travel website that the kids have put me on to. I am amazed at how much time you can waste on these sites....just disappears doesn't it!!!

I see that a few libraries have social networking pages so I guess we could use it to inform patrons of services or upcoming events or online tutorials. Feedback could be given and I guess patrons may use it as a suggestion (good, bad or ugly) tool. I find it hard to get used to all the banter but guess that is all part of it.

UNDERSTANDING WIKIS

Have been playing around with Wikis for a week or so and looking at lots of different ones and watched the video about how the wikis worked. Also read through the Opal training booklet which I did a few years ago and refreshed myself with wikis and there uses. Shame we don't have a bit more time to play with these things and use them in our workplace because the concept is really good.

I have used Wikipedia a bit and am amazed at how people look at it all the time - I have never edited anything. I think that Wikis could be useful now that we have amalgamated with organising events or maybe it could be used by Book Clubs across the region to access and make there comments about certain books that have read or would recommend to other book lovers. I just looked at Wookieepedia and although I am not a star wars lover found it good for a look around and then looked at Book Lovers Wiki at the Princeton Public Library - not much happening there now but the concept is good.