THING 17!

Social networking (SN), love it!
I voyeuristically check out mate’s photos online and was absorbed by Facebook before it took over the world (now I’m no longer absorbed and am at times slightly irritated by it). SN is a great thing but like everything online it has it’s hassles; what is with people who want to befriend you simply because you have a mate in common? Sorry Joel in Canada, I don’t know you and don’t want to be your friend!

I actually have a Bebo page but I never use it. In my head Bebo is forever associated with teenagers and I am no longer a teenager. Maybe it’s age but I prefer Facebook, it's cleaner, easier to use and the layout is user friendly. That said Manix will have a Bebo presence next year, the teens have demanded it! And it’s because the teens want it that we are offering it. If they want it they’ll use it! If library staff wanted it the teens probably wouldn’t use it (I think Auckland’s Bebo page is illustrative of this). Obviously when it comes to library social networking pages, I'm in two minds

1. I think we'll eventually end up there as that's where the population is at, and I'm all for taking the library to the people not forcing the people into the library BUT
2. we have to be careful how we do this. Sometimes libraries try too hard to be cool, we try too hard to be everything to everybody. So let's use social networking sites as a way to communicate and connect with people but let's do it a manner and way that truly represents ourselves without trying to be something that's too cool for school (or the library) and is because we think there is true value in doing it. I hate it when we do things to keep up with the Jones (or with the Christchurchs). Let’s do things because our patrons want it or we think our patrons will use it!

And on a final thing 17 note, yah for Youtube and MySpace for reconnecting me with the best Canadian music has to offer, Danny Michel and The Weakerthans. Rock and roll mixed with a bit of folk, some storytelling and and the odd bit of pop.

Pump Up the Volume

Podcasts aren't the most inspiring things to blog about. But I'm sure there'll be a whole lot of NZ politicians BUSY sharing their party views and successes and bitching and sniping about the opposition via podcasts fairly soon. Fortunately for anyone reading this I haven't braved the unknown frontier of political party web pages (I'm to scared too!) so I can't share with you the podcast joy of John Key's vision for New Zealand or Aunty Helen's attacks on the blue party with terrible billboards!

Logic dictates that I don't use RSS to sign up to podcasts. I haven't checked my RSS feeds in over two months, so any podcasts I sign up to won't be listened to. So to save the planet by using less power I'm about to delete my bloglines account.

Hopefully one day we'll be able to podcast our wonderful library storytellers via our webpage. Perfect for the Mum and Dad who can't get their child to story times but still want them to enjoy the magic of the written word read aloud. It'd be a neat marketing ploy too!

Final Post, NOT!!

I like doing things the difficult way, so while this is the 23rd thing, it won't be my last post! I gotta few more opinions and ideas to share with the world yet. And I skipped a few exercises, best I go back and fix that!

That said I feel I've really got to grips with Web 2.0 via this course. I feel more knowledgable and confident. I've definitely gained some ideas on how to incorporate 2.0 into the services and programmes we offer teens and children at Manukau. I'm even using a wiki to gather information as opposed to email, and I've embraced Zoho. It's so much easier than worrying about if I've saved the document I need to my USB.
Now all I've got to say is Web 3.0? Bring it on!

Book Yourself!

Having already used Project Gutenberg to track down the first paragraph of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, e-books definitely have their place so I'm not a hater.

But I'm an old fashioned girl.
I like my books in the original form.

• I like the tactile feeling of a book
• I like folding page corner and not using a bookmark (I'm a bad librarian)
• I enjoy the smell of a new book. Therein lies unlimited possibilities
• I like the feeling of progress turning a page gives. There's a feeling of achievement when you can visually see that your two thirds of the way through a title your struggling with. Sometimes there's a feeing of despair as you reach the last pages of a book you've loved and you really don't want the story or reading pleasure to end
• I love library books. I like the odd stain and smudge and scribble in the margins. It shows the book's been used, enjoyed, become a part fo the ritual of everyday life.
• Bookcases packed to the brim displaying their wares are wonderful things. If someone has a bookcase in their living room you can be sure to find me seated next to it, scanning the spines, asking what they thought of this title and that title.
  

But that's enough about real books onto e-books and what I learnt at Project Gutenberg!

• Not only can you download the text of a book for free using Project Gutenberg but you can also download it in audio form. This is brilliant. A story teller for free!
• Great for uni literature students. Imagine this; all copies of Canterbury Tales have been borrowed from the library, you spent the last of your money on a jug at the Hilly so you can't buy the book, help is at hand. Use the free Internet at uni and read the damn thing online. Better yet, read it online while drinking a beer in the comfort of your own home, pilgrim style!
• My favourite feminist text ever 'The Awakening' by Kate Chopin is online. Everyone should read this short novel. It's an amazing piece of work that ruined Chopin's career and reputation.

A totally useless piece on information: The New York Public Library is amazing and gorgeous. It is all things fabulous in the world full of marble staircases, imposing lion guards, and so much information you could die happy. But the really special thing about it is they have a Gutenberg Bible there! My beating heart swooned, I stuck my nose against the glass cabinet that housed it. I REALLY wanted to take a photo of me and the world's very first printed book but the damn security guard wouldn't take his eyes off me! And I'd spent the last few nights sleeping in a back of a van on the streets of Manhatten so he definitely wasn't looking at me becasue I was HOT!

Web 2.0 Awards

I like the options that shopping online gives. I like being able to get stuff in NZ all the way from somewhere else and know I'm likely to be the only pup in Aotearoa who has that t-shirt or handbag. I love that I could buy my favourite autobiographically diary off Amazon when it had been out of print for 20 plus years (it meant I didn't have to steal it from North Shore libraries).

So when browsing through the web award winners I was pretty much all about the retail and the food (love the videos on how to make anything!). And I'm excited that recipe key is overhauling itself. I love the fact they have a shopping cart you can throw stuff in that doesn't require money; it's a great idea that just needs to be tweaked.

And as for http://www.cocktailbuilder.com/, they've got the smarts! And a certain youth librarian (who shall remain nameless) could surely put their recipes to good use!

And it's nice to know I'm not a complete techno idiot as I had heard of or used a few sites listed, anyone want to twitter?