Wrap up

Have I really completed this course? I'll send it of with high hopes but am prepared to face the fact I have missed something somewhere. Not enough blogs?

The course has been educational in many ways, primarily in revealing how deficient I am when it comes to many computer applications. That is possibly a feature of this course - if you were already au fait with some of these technologies this course would have been a something of a breeze, and maybe an hour a week a possibility. For those who aren't, and therefore who need this course most, it was at times very frustrating, and let's not mention the time spent! i certainly know more than I did at the start.

Thank you Mel and Mark for the hard work you have put into this course.

Geocaching

I had never heard of this activity before, so was very surprised to find that it seems to be very popular with many people, if the number of comments on caches near me were anything to go by. That was also a surprise, that there were many in my postcode area. Having said that, I don't feel inspired to go down to my local park to look for one!

It's the sort of activity that requires movement, like the Scoot program in Melbourne or at a university with a widepsread campus, rather than within the confines of a smaller library. Somewhere where you actually need a GPS device. As a program it would be perhaps most successful when aimed at a specific group eg first year university students.

Podcasts

Well another way to waste hugh amounts of time looking at your computer (perhaps wasting is not the right word - spending?). Very easy to get caught up in another health report from Dr Swan on the ABC. Some podcasts would be a lot more interesting with the video component - a lecture on maps from the British Museum for example. What would be the difference between a library making a video and embedding it on their website/facebook(as per last weeks online videos) and making a video and calling it a podcast? There is so much information out there ... and so little time.

Online Video

Now this is a technology I can see public libraries being able to make use of. It could be the basic 'how to get the best out of your library' type effort or other uses such as publicising upcoming events, explanations of special collections within the library, showing a storytime session to encourage people to come along or recording special events. Equipment is such these days that it is not that difficult for many people to be able to produce such a video, making it a reasonable financial proposition for libraries.

However - on a lighter note and after after spending quite some time perusing videos that might relate to swimming in some way, and had a bit of humour, I found this one of Mr Bean, doing what only Mr Bean can do at a public swimming pool. I hope you enjoy it.

Tagging/Delicious/LibraryThing

I found this week particularly time consuming and frustrating and having little personal resonance.

Tagging and Delicious
I can see that Delicious may well be of use to those people who have multiple web sites, who use different computers and who want to share their favorite sites with others, but I find my list of favorites on my only computer quite enough. So I thought I'd look at a couple of the other suggested social bookmarking sites. Digg and Reddit seem little more than a voting system for news items - why are other peoples' opinions so important? Onward to Stumbleupon, which did seem a site of interest, containing as it did the news that Delicious was to be closed down. It had an entry '6 solid alternatives to Delicious' and Diigo certainly is a site worth further exploration.

LibraryThing
How difficult can it be to add a widget. Probably for most people not very, but finally success was achieved, and a few of my books that I could find on the the site suddenly appeared lurking at the bottom of my blog. Even managed to and move it to a more appropriate situation. Was it only me who added books that were perhaps thought to be socially acceptable? Whilst I don't feel any personal use for LibraryThing there may be a bookclub out there who would find it useful to keep track of what they've read etc.
My book collection is quite small as I am a fan of my local public library.

Twitter

Two blogs in one day! Do believe I've created twitter account -margaretalle - for all those who don't want to see. Why anyone would waste their time is beyond me. Fair enough is there is an earthquake happening or something that may have some significance, but do we really need to know that much about people, whether we know them or not? Am always reassured when my daughters, who are very socially well-adjusted and connected, don't feel the need to Twitter. And I don't see any worthwhile use in a public library.

Facebook - fact or fiction

And that is the thing about Facebook - who is real? To me it was an exercise in imagination - be become anyone you want. This is a social tool and to my mind should be kept on a social level. I looked at the State Library page and pleeease ... advertisements for a natural bra and the trick of a tiny belly! There was nothing there that wasn't on their webpage, so what is the point. The basic reason for the creation of Facebook was so college boys could rate their fellow female students, and not on their acedemic ability. The lack of privacy continues to be a major concern. From a personal perspective, I see no need to have a page, and I'm not convinced there is any need within the public library world either.