Dark side of the Web

Have you ever been the target of a phishing scam? Did you recognize it as a scam right away? What tipped you off? Blog about your experiences with malware or phishing attempts - do not provide any information which may lead to a phishing attempt.

Which web 2.0 tools would you like to find more about?

In the past we have regularly received emails from Banks asking for account details or the emails that offer lots of money if you let them use your bank account.
The bank emails appear very genuine, and it is only that I know my bank does not email for information that I was able to quickly spot them. Unfortunately not all users know this and can easily be caught out.

Malware is also one of those nasties that once on the computer can be almost impossible to remove, regardless of the removal instructions provided on some websites. Again, many malware or phishing attempts appear as genuine items, or popups that users think they are closing correctly. It is not until later that the nasties are discovered and the problem idenfitified.

After working through some new Web 2.0 tools I know I need to look into Skype more and start using it at home. I also need to try and make more of an effort to engage with twitter as it seems so popular. I also want to keep an eye on Nings and see what happens with them in the future.
It has been great working through the 12 weeks of Learning 2.1

Mashups revisited

Browsing through the links displayed some very interesting mashups, although the BookTour link and the the Visual Headlinks link was broken which was a bit disappointing.
I really liked bkkeepr and could see some application within individual library services. Although it doesn't have a particular use it would engage borrowers and create interest among regular readers.


Some potentially useful mashups I found are NSW Crime which could be used to answer information requests. Another useful mashup was Map My Fun, the huge range of sporting locations listed would be very useful for assisting patrons in locating venues in the local area.

Had a bit of fun making a very simple mashup using an old holiday pic.

Instant Communication

Played around with Instant Messaging in Skype, Facebook and MSN Messenger. All of them were fairly simple to use and did not require technical knowledge to setup and access.
They are great for instantly talking with another individual, although your friends/colleagues must be online at the right time.

I can see that they have a use in the library, we have used Skype to run an author talk but that was done using webcam rather than text. I don't think it would work with instant chat only, but the instant chat could be used to ask questions.

Instant Messaging is a great tool for librarians to communicate with patrons, like the Ask Now example shown by the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. It would be important to ensure that once the service was introduced it was always staffed during advertised hours so that patrons would not be disappointed by lack of response.

There may be more uses in the future e.g. notification of events, but this might be starting to cross over with SMS notifications which is not the same technology.

More with Google Docs

Looking through the links for Google Doc Tips I really liked the 100 Great Google Doc Tips
The page was well structured with a very brief description of the purpose of each tip and then a link to more information. The neat structure made browsing easy and did not overload the user.

I also liked the Google Docs Guide: How to do stuff with Google Docs.
This page was more cluttered with Q & A sections with all the information on one screen, the user cannot select the question they have to view the answer. The information given appeared to be aimed at a more experienced user rather than a novice user.

The doc tips I would recommend are all the Time Saver in 100 Great Google Doc Tips and the Integration tips. These were particularly interesting and I can see myself visiting these two pages regularly.

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.

Twitter - Attempt 1

Opened the twitter site all ready to sign up and enter the world of Twitter and the Sign Up page will not open, keeps displaying an error. Tried to reload the page a few times with no success.

Closed the internet browser and reopened Twitter and now that won't open, also displaying an error message.

I will try again in a day or two and hope that it is working.

Learning 2.1 - Templates

Looking through all the amazing templates available it can be easy to loose track of time.
Applying a new template was fun and easier than I thought it would be.

Learning 2.1 - Week 1

Since finishing Learning 2.0 I haven't been doing much blogging. I like that blogging is a good way to communicate in an easy to read format.

Since Learning 2.0 I have been searching out and reading library/librarian related blogs. There are some really good ideas being communicated via blogging and it is a great way of networking with librarians across the world.

Generally I only comment on other users blogs if I am moved by their posts or if it is someone I know. If I do comment on another users blog I try to make it a post that is either constructive or adds something to the discussion. I am not a fan of commenting without purpose.

Bringing my Blog back to life was fun as it needed an update and refreshing. It was good looking through the new gadgets that have been added and I loved the Fish.

Week 12 - NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.0

I can see that if properly planned, social networking could be a huge benefit to my library in increasing it's public profile, access from patrons and the networking opportunities for staff.

The main complaint I have heard in relation to social networking and companies entering that "world" is that they do not regularly update the information on the page and it becomes stale. This discourages people from visiting the pages and the value of social networking has been lost.

I think if a library uses the social networking applications to promote events and information about the library then they need to not try and "act cool" as this is a turn off for teenagers, but at the same time the information needs to be presented in a way that attracts visits to the site, attracts friends, which increases your social network.

As a marketing tool there is alot of potential, but I think libraries need to look at what is out there and what is working, or not working. Learn from the mistakes of others, but don't be afraid to have a go. If the social networking page for a library is done correctly then it will have a huge impact on that library. At this stage I feel the library I work at is still in the learning and research stage and it would be a mistake to rush in and make a social networking page just to say we have done it, but I hope that by the end of the year we will have ventured into the world of social networking.

Week 11 - NSW Public Libraries 2.0

After viewing the slideshow it was amazing how many free tools are available for creating and editing documents. This will allow staff to create masterpieces without having to purchase additional software. I think the tools are also a great idea for when people are travelling and accessing the internet at a cafe or similar, these tools will allow you to create and share documents regardless of what is installed on the computers, and as a bonus you will be able to access them again later from any location.

I have created a basic document in Google Docs and shared it. My workplace has used Google Docs quite extensively for a number of different reasons. When planning events that involve people from different geographical areas it is easy to share a Google Docs document that they can all access and have input, without having to worry about email, lost attachments or multiple versions. Everyone is accessing the latest version of the document and their changes are instantly visible to other participants.
I can also see Google Docs being very useful when working on PCs that do not have Office or similar installed, documents can still be created in a number of formats without requiring a software installation.

I created a zoho account to compare it with Google Docs, I think I prefer the zoho options, particularly in the word processing application as it allowed a large amount of document formatting which is not available in Google Docs. Zoho also allowed a larger range of formats to select from, but I have not explored all of them to see how useful they are.
I think that I will continue using both until I am more familiar with them and then determine which one I am going to stick to.

NSW Public Libraries - Week 10

The Star Viewer is an incredible creation that must have taken hours of work and research, but it is a fantastic tool for people to look at.

Mashups are alot of fun but they do require some artistic talent, which some of us have in bucket loads and others only have a thimble full. I enjoyed looking at the mashups that have been created and then I had alot of fun selecting which mashup tool I would use and then creating my mashup, hope people like it. I think this definately fits the play aspect of the life long learning.

I have looked at a number of mashups and I think that mashups made using the mosiac maker tool would be most appropriate at work as it enables you to show case alot of pictures in a without taking up alot of room. It would be important however to ensure that you have gained permission from any people in the photos before using them. I think that from the already created mashups the motivators would be the most use at work as they could be used to raise staff morale and to create positive reading messages.

NSW Public Libraries - Week 9

I had a look at the range of podcasts available from the British Library and listened to the Gaiman-Waugh podcast which was very interesting as it described how the content of the CD included recordings of the author through different stages of their life.
On the ABC I searched through the subjects and listened to The Book Show which is aired on ABC Radio National, I listened to the episode from Thursday April 10th 2008. The preview of There will be blood sounded very dramatic!

When I looked at the Library Success wiki I was a bit surprised by the number of podcasts already there and the range of topics they covered. I listened to the BookTalks Quick and Simple, I selected the Artemis Fowl: the Arctic Incident and listened to the talk. It was very well presented with clear speech and voices for the characters. I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast.

Within our library I can see alot of potential for podcasts, bookgroup meetings could be podcast to give other patrons a review of a book. You could also podcast the reading of a childrens book to provide an online storytime.
Although I can see alot of use for podcasts I would be reluctant to use it with staff as I feel it is important to keep the face to face contact, using the podcast to support this contact would be great but it would need to be kept as a secondary means of communication and not used as the primary means of communication.

I had a look at the Online Education Database and there are podcasts for almost any topic you wish to learn. I listened to a Yale Course - Death (Spring 07) - Nature of Persons. The podcast provided the information for learning and is a great way for students that are studying externally to listen to lectures and material that they may not otherwise get access to.

I also performed a Yahoo Podcast search for library, although I received 1082 results there was very little information with the results and I found that most had no relation to library. More refined searching is probably the key with this search engine.

Lake Matheson

Lake Matheson
Originally uploaded by marianb1

Test post for Regional Training Day Demo

NSW Public Libraries - Week 8

I think that answerboards and social searching are a great idea, it allows public input so they gain some ownership over the information and they can get help from Librarians even though they are not at a library.

Allowing customers to rate and review items in a libraries collection is now being incorporated into many Library Management Software packages.
The software allows library staff to allow or disallow a review if it is not suitable for posting, but any library member that can log into the OPAC will soon be able to place a review on an item.
Our library has not yet upgraded to the next level of our LMS, but by the end of the year we expect to have this functionality.

No doubt there will be some teething problems while staff and library patrons get used to it, but I think that it will be a great tool that library readers may come to depend on. How many times do staff get asked - what's a good book to read?

Maybe soon we will be able to give them a list of the most highly rated book - will that be a good thing or a bad thing? Only time will tell.

I answered a question on Yahoo7 by providing some websites that contained information that would help answer the question.