#15 Web 2.0, library 2.0

Having been involved in a new library opening incorporating new technology - the first in our area to do so, this is quite relevant. Our library has just installed Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to check-out and check-in. And it is working really well (and can make you lazy!) But we have also installed a self-check-out machine which works on the same basis. I thought that I would come across more patrons unwilling to use it for their fear of 'new' technology, but find most of them are embracing it. Others - well, I have been attacked with "now we have to do this ourselves? (in not so quite friendly terms!) Anyway, its patrons such as these that should in my opinion, be able to access hard copies of certain information. Unlike Rick Anderson's, 'Away from the icebergs' view that we should get rid of the 'just-in-case' hard copy collections. Also, it is necessary for those who don't have computer skills, or who would just like to read it in their own time, with no time restraints put on them for their computer usage.

#14 Technorati

I wasn't all that impressed with Technorati - obviously it depends on what type of search you do. Searching learning 2.0 in posts produced 6329 results while tags produced 621 and blog 746. Whether I searched this accuraetly I am not sure, but could predict the results. Searching the most popular blogs was interesting. I like boingboing! Even the name attracts me.. After trying to decipher how to tag my posts, I decided not to as it looked a little confusing I wasn't too sure about the "manually ping us here" part! Sounds a little daunting..

#13 Del.icio.us

Tagging is a pretty simple and understandable way of alerting vieweers to your blog or info content. Being pretty broad and free-flowing wbich can also be negative point if your're researching something specific. Just like my 'googling' - I end up anywhere and everywhere and some places I don't want to be! I think this wou;d appeal to the younger library patrons. Very visual and attractive.

#12 roll your own search engine with Rollyo

I couldn't really get this to work too well for me - maybe I'm missing something? For those who can get around it, it may be a good thing for keeping tabs on your favourite sites, but I can't see myself delving too much further into it. Given it a good go, but this one's not for me.

#11 LibraryThing

Well this was really easy to use and looks pretty good too! It was good to play around with this and see the different ways of setting the titles out. Quite impressive! I think I will use this to catalogue my partner's 1000+ record collection! Quite a demanding task but when I have a spare few 100hrs, I may just take up this librarything!

#10 playing around with image generators

This site was so much fun to look around - you can certainly waste alot of time! In fact, I was almost late for work from playing around! The best image generator I found was the Bob Dylan music video http://www.dylanmessaging.com/create This was so brilliant! Being a Dylan fan, I was so excited by it that I sent a friend a birthday greeting from Bob! I did play around with a couple of the other sites and found some very cute ones! Might ahve to send some more greetings to unsuspecting friends...

You can check out my Dylan video message at http://tinyurl.com/2d4jvc

#9 Finding feeds

As in my last blog, I am still sifting through many sites, some of which I get totally lost in! For example, the EBSCO publishing site. I found this through a google blog search which was the easy part! Deciphering the info once I got there was a little harder! Google blog is easy to use though and I found a very disgruntled blog from a scorned Ebay buyer! So beware buying such things 'motobecane' road bikes! Whatever that is...There is so much to look at, that with having no definite direction, but just 'surfing' can take up a lot of time. But will add the best feeds to my blogline as I find them. So stay tuned...