Event Managment

Looking through the uses of Doodle it appears that it may be a very useful tool, particularly when trying to organise people that are in seperate locations. It was very easy to use and has a nice, clean interface.

Google calendar was easy to access and was very easy to use. If the user does not have access to a calendar in their email program e.g. Microsoft Outlook then Google Calendar would be a very useful tool to keep track of tasks. However when the user does have access to a calendar as part of their email it is an incovenience to login to Google Calendar and have that open as well as an email program. Something to think on though.

Looking through Eventbrite, Eventful and Anyvite was very interesting, although these tools has many similarities they appeared to have some unique differences which makes it difficult to determine which tool I preferred. Eventbrite allowed ordering and payment options which may be very useful, Eventful offered widgets and facebook connection, Anyvite appeared to allow a great deal of customisation. I think it would depend on what event you were wanting to promote and if that event was a personal event or professional event as to which tool would be the best option.

More use of the tools may also assist in deciding a preference and I will continue to test these event management tools.

More ways with RSS

I still have my Bloglines account from Learning 2.0,but I must admit that I haven't really looked at it in the last six months. I blame lack of time, but looking at some of the feeds today I realise that I should make time to use the tool as it contained very useful information.

Looking through the Filter tools I preferred the Feed rinse tool, it was relatively easy to use and suited my needs. Filter my RSS was a dead link and Feed Sifter wasn't as useful for me.

The RSS forwarding tools also have the potential to be very useful, I would most likely use the Feed my Inbox tool. If the feeds are appearing in my email I would be more likely to read them, however I would only use a few select feeds to prevent my email being overwhelmed.

Reminder Feed looked like it may have potential, but this would only work for me if I actually remember to visit my feed reader on a regular basis. The link for Spreed was also a dead link.

At the moment I have only subscribed to a few select feeds so lack of organisation hasn't really been a problem, however I can see that with a larger number of feeds it would be necessary to arrange them in a more organised way.

Slideshows, Digital Storytelling & Screencasting

The potential for using online screencasting to educate library users is enormous, prodcing the screencasting would require staff to think carefully about the message they are wanting to communicate and break the task down into logical steps that can be easily followed by a new user.

The digital storytelling site is a great concept that appears to allow children to create their own story relatively easy. Digital storytelling could be run as an event in the library, allowing the children to create their story and have it uploaded with library staff assistance. This interactive participation in the library would give children a sense of ownership.

Slideshare also looks like a good tool that has potential for use by libraries, but its use would need to be promoted with library patrons to ensure that it was viewed by the intended audience.

Nings

Looking through the four nings I was amazed by they were all so different, while being so similar. The overall layout was consistent between all of the sites providing users with a comfortable familiarity. But the content, WOW, the content was unique to each library.

The nings appeared to be extremely useful as a way of networking with library clients in a way that allows them to actively participate and gain a feeling of ownership over the content. I can see that nings may be a useful tool to public libraries allowing many different aspects to be explored.

Google Alerts and Feedburner

After having a play around I quite enjoyed setting up a Feedburner account for my blog, it will be interesting to go back and see how this goes.

The google alert was a bit different and does not instantly provide the results that Feedburner provides. I will stick with it and see what happens and how successful my alert has been.

At this stage I feel I have learnt more about Feesburner than anything about Google alert, but hopefully time will tell.

Web 2.0 evaluaton tools have the potential to be very useful and valuable for library seeking to include Web 2.0 tools on their website.

Delicious

I enjoyed revisiting my delicious account, which I must confess hasn't been updated for quite a while.

Looking through the features I really like the ability to link with Twitter so that you can add to the delicious account while tweeting.
The bundling feature is also great as I prefer things to be well organised and the bundles allow this to occur.

I would suggest using delicious to create links for specific focus groups e.g. an account dedicated to family history research links, or an account of links on children's literacy that could be made available on a library website to share resources with patrons.

Twitter - Success

I have finally joined up with Twitter and I tweet under the name marianb01, not many tweets so far.
Looking through I'm not sure that I like the idea of micro-blogging, it seems to be generating posts that don't have any relevance and appear to have been put up just for the sake of saying something.
Libraries could potentially use twitter to communicate with clients and promote events happening in the library; however I think they need to take care to ensure that each tweet is worthwhile otherwise it may annoy followers.