Mahee's Slot

The Final blog!!

2010-09-23T21:08:00.000-07:00

Well here I am at the end of another Web 2.0 tutorial and pondering the great mysteries that are still out there in the wonderful world of cyberspace!!!
This time I have to say I really did enjoy most of the activities that we had to do. All except the RSS week which took me a bit longer to complete. Otherwise I have to say I liked this tutorial. I don't think I could pinpoint a favourite but I did like Tastespotting a bit more than the others!! As always the matter of time spent on this and the time at hand had to carefully weighed out and balanced.
I must say I felt more relaxed with the activities and sites we had to explore this time because we had already looked at similar things before. I really did enjoy learning new things and sharing what I learned with my colleagues.

Week 6 - EnCompassCulture - the global bookclub

2010-09-23T19:30:00.000-07:00

Two weeks later i finally managed to get some time to have a look at the rest of my WEb 2.0. EnCompassCulture seems to be quite interesting and exciting!! I went and did the search for the Humourous Travel books and found some pretty cool stuff there. Then I went and did some more searches of my own. The children's section was quite enlightening and so was the teenagers section. This seems to be one of those sites that have people like me in mind, book lovers!!
I think this maybe very useful to those customers who come and ask us, "Please do you have a book for my 8-year old who only likes adventure books?". This would be the ideal site to guide them to. Library staff who want to help customers find alternate titles or genres for customers would also benefit hugely from this. Not only would staff be able to point out good reads but recommend if they want to join the site and submit reviews, take part in online reading groups and chat amongst like minded literary enthusiasts. I would definitely try to promote this to those who are as excited about books and reading like me!!

Week 5 - SlideShare

2010-09-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

Another week gone by. So I sat down and had a look at SlideShare, not a thorough look but just went in and searched for a few things. It was interesting the amount of online presentations that are out there. It makes me think that this world is getting smaller and people are finding new ways to sharing ideas and products online!
SlideShare should be relatively easy for staff to use if they have access to the right computer. We would find all sorts of stuff to up skill ourselves and keep informed of what is out there. the customer, I'm not exactly sure how it would benefit them. I suppose a professional who is after something specific and requires an online presentation as a resource might find this helpful. Maybe it's because I didn't get an in depth look at the site that I think this way!! I would definitely have another look, preferably on a computer which is a bit faster!!
I'm not sure I will promote this to customers because I'm not exactly sure who would gain from it. However, if someone does ask questions about it I would be only too happy to help. Me, I'll be having a better look later and posting about that experience later.

Week 4 - TasteSpotting

2010-09-01T17:11:00.000-07:00

So I went in and joined with TasteSpotting and what an amazing feast of recipes greeted me!!! It was like I'd died and gone to food heaven!!
This site looks so cool and fun, it made my mouth water at all the lovely pictures and I felt very hungry!!!
After trawling through the site for a whole 5 minutes without running off for my lunch, I found a great looking rice dish. It was Nasi Goreng Indonesian Fried Rice with Chicken Satay. I chose this particular one because I had actually eaten this a very long time ago at my Indonesian friend's house for lunch and I wanted to check out the recipe!!
This site is by far the easiest to navigate and mouth-watering to look at. I would keep on using it to get ideas for recipes and amaze my family and friends. This task is the most exciting one to date, no offense!! All those awesome recipes at my fingertips just blew me away. I don't think all the web 2.0 activities should be related to libraries. It's good that we have a variety of sites to check out because every one's interests differ, especially the customers!!
I personally enjoyed the selection of recipes and looking at all the awesome photos of gorgeous looking dishes!!

Week 3 - FeedMyInbox

2010-08-26T20:58:00.000-07:00

Another week's worth of Web 2.0 completed, hopefully on time!!
FeedMyInbox seems to be an interesting site. I was unable to watch the short video on how to actually navigate my way round the site so I had to ask my colleagues for some help, but I soon got the hang of it.
It's not that bad and I would rate it reasonable easy. If customers were interested in such a service they could find it somewhat simple to use. I guess it's up to the individual person to want to use it so I can't see how useful it would be in the workroom. I mean, not everyone wants updates on things all the time.
I personally do intend to use this again. I hope I can find that long forgotten webiste I was on last month on a random search so I can add it.
As for promoting it to customers, well, if someone came up to me and asked for such a service I would definitely recommend it to them and promote it to those younger customers.

Week 2 - Picapp

2010-08-19T18:37:00.000-07:00

This is my chosen image from Picapp. I thought it looked so serene and peaceful which is so unlike my mind at the moment!!
Picapp looks like an interesting site and is quite straightforward to use. I'm not exactly sure if it would be useful to a library website but I can see how it might be useful to customers who are looking for images to enhance an assignment or presentation. I might go back and do a bit more in depth searching on this site when time is more easy to find!
I would promote this to customers if they ask for help in finding images like the ones we find here.

Round 2 - Here we are again - Box.net

2010-08-19T01:04:00.000-07:00

Here I am again, Round 2!! Well, I finally managed to get on to it and complete the Box.net tasks. All I can say is, wow, why I have I not heard about this before! It seems like an ingenious site.
I can see the possibilities of using this in the workplace and sharing information that would be useful to everyone. Personally, I do see the advantages of using this site with people I want to share files and such with. It was reasonably easy to use and navigate around. Uploading files to Box.net wasn't that hard. I didn't try sharing anything with anyone because, to be honest, the files I uploaded weren't stuff I wanted to share. I might share some files later on.
I believe that customers would find this quite easy and useful to store their files if they didn't have anything like a USB with them. I think I would promote this to customers because I think they would gain a lot from it.

The Last Blog!

2010-05-29T00:58:00.000-07:00

And finally, the last blog for this term. I must say I found the tasks not too daunting. Goodreads, Facebook, Zamzar (the mighty!) and the cool music sites were interesting to explore and be a part of. It must be my age or something but I wasn't that impressed with Twitter even though I know how cool it is for others. The experience I had learning all these new tools and sites was immensely joyful and informative. I really can't find anything bad to say about anything though. I must comment on the fact that some of these sites I was unable to access from work so I had to rely on my home computer. Time to actually sit down at work to do some was a bit hard to find and I think it might be an issue for others.
All in all, I had a fun time and enjoyed doing most of the tasks. It was also interesting to see the other blogs and see how they found the whole thing.
I hope there's some more interesting things like this for us in the near future!

Week 6 - Facebook

2010-05-29T00:23:00.000-07:00

Finally made it to the last week! It's been fun trawling through the Manukau Libraries facebook page. I really found it very interesting and colourful.
Well, to answer all the questions, I really have to start and say thanks to Facebook I managed to get in touch with friends I had lost track of and keep a friendship going with them to this day. To me personally Facebook allowed me to keep in contact with those dearest to me and hear all their news.
As a public library I think Facebook will help us get news and events posted out there. It could also help bring in more of the youth to the library and keep them interested with posts and updates of events that are happening throughout the Manukau libraries.
Facebook is not that hard to use once you've logged on and made your own profile. It's great to find your friends and send them fun things like hugs and cool links. Ever since I joined up I managed to track down some old friends and even found some of my work mates. I would most definitely continue using Facebook, when I eventually find the time!!
In my experience at work I've had a few people inquire but most of them already know about it and how it works. I think our customers would benefit from looking at Manukau libraries through Facebook and see what a lively bunch of people they have for librarians. They would also be able to keep up with the events happening throughout the system and basically enjoy the libraries even more!
I would promote our libraries page and tell our customers to go and have a look. To me it seemed really interesting and fun. I particularly liked the discussion boards and I think customers would also greatly enjoy them.
I went and had a quick look at other libraries and found the page of the New York public library. They had a very cool looking page with options to chat with a librarian and links to different branches. I thought it was interesting and cool that one can have a look at how other libraries in the world differ from us and see how they work!!

Week 5 - Music files and MP3s

2010-05-20T18:29:00.000-07:00

And another week has gone by in the land of Web 2.0!! Music and MP3's was one task I took a little longer to finish because I'm not that clued up about all the latest trends in this area!! I know, it's a bit pathetic!!
Anyway, I did manage to have a look at a few sites from the list of sites provided. I found that basically they must all provide music from all genres of music and links to what's popular these days and new releases. I had no idea music had so many genres! It was interesting to listen to Blues and Hip Hop from the same site! The website I used was Amie St, and I found it quite easy to navigate. I think others would also find it not that difficult. I suppose allowing customers to use such sites will always pose all kinds of questions. If I had all the trust in the world I would obviously allow them to use it but in this day and age it's hard to suss out people so I think we should be wary of promoting such sites to customers. I've had a quick look at some of the other sites on the list and I think the Amazon site is also another good site. I wouldn't mind promoting that to customers though!

Week 4 - Goodreads

2010-05-12T01:38:00.000-07:00

Wow! Goodreads is by far to me an amazing Reader's Advisory tool!! I mean it has everything from book lists, new titles, to even online book clubs. We can even read about what new authors review!! I thought that was really awesome. I'm pretty sure even most customers would think Goodreads is an amazing find with all these useful lists of new titles and book clubs literally at their fingertips!!
I don't know why library staff who already know of this aren't promoting it already. It's such an amazing tool. I mean once you've taken the tour and maybe signed up and made your own bookshelves etc, then showing it to customers would be the next obvious step. Not only would it give them access to all that Goodreads ha to offer but it would help them keep posted with all the latest literary happenings so to speak.
I would most definitely promote Goodreads to customers who I think will benefit from it. It is such a great readers advisory tool and an amazing website. What's not to like!!!

Week 3 - Twitter

2010-05-07T00:57:00.000-07:00

Week 3 is almost gone and I finally managed to get on twitter and send a 'tweet'! I must say it was a bit confusing for me and I had to watch that video at least twice but I got there in the end.
However, I'm inclined to be honest and say that I don't think all the customers would find Twitter a handy tool. It looks like any other social networking site and I can see the potential it has, particularly with the younger patrons, but I'm not sure of the whole concept of it will be too much for the other older patrons.
I'm not sure if using Twitter in the workroom is a good idea but there's no harm for it to be available for the customers to use and tweet to their friends on the Learn.net.
Using Twitter for library promotions and events is a good idea as we'll be able to catch those younger kids and teenagers.
I'm not sure if I personally will be using Twitter that frequently as we all have busy lives and even busier jobs, but if and when I do get a moment I might just check it out once in a while to see what good ol' Manukau Libraries have got up their sleeve!!
All in all I'm sure it won't hurt to promote Twitter to customers and it's up to them if they want to join or not, isn't it? Twitter is just another way of meeting and keeping in touch with friends!!

Week 2 - Zamzar

2010-04-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

And week 2 has rolled on by already.
Using Zamzar to convert files is a new step for me. I was a bit apprehensive and thought I'd done it wrong but it seems I'd done multiple file conversions without thinking. It was reasonably easy for me to use and I'm pretty sure other staff would find it easy too.
This would be a great tool for the workroom and especially for the Learn.net's as people are always moaning and groaning on how our computers can't read their files and documents.
Now that I've had my eyes opened to the wonder of Zamzar (kind of sounds like a superhero!) I would most definitely be using it for my documents.
It wouldn't be a bad idea if we promoted it to the customers as I'm pretty sure they would benefit from it mostly.
I also had a nosy around the site and you can convert videos and music files as well. I think this is so cool and useful!

Week 1 Blogger

2010-04-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

Well, it turned out I did remember my password, so here I am, for the second time!
I must say, the course set up this time doesn't look that daunting. I'm expecting to be mildly surprised instead of being gobsmacked like last time. I'm looking forward to learning new things, as expected and maybe even facing new challenges.
As for the library having a blog, I would say it's not the best thing, but maybe an essential asset considering the generation of today.
My view is that a library can keep in touch with them through a witty and funny blog of daily occurrences in the library and give them a positive image of what a library can mean to them. In my experience, most people are daunted by all the new technology we have and I think it's our job to gently ease them into it. Show them first through the website and then take them to the library blog!! If I were such a customer, I would like to see, instead of jargon, some funny anecdotes or witty remarks of our daily battles with irate and impossible customers!! It would show that your friendly librarian is also a human being!!

#23 The 23rd Thing!!

2008-09-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

Well, that was one exhilarating experience. I must say I have learned more in these 9 odd weeks than I have in the three years I spent in uni doing my degree!!
Web 2.0 has given me tools and access to information that I knew existed but not in that vast extent. I really enjoyed visiting sites like Flickr and LibraryThing.
I'm sorry I didn't put more pictures and stuff on my blog but time is always a factor when doing this. I am glad it's over but happy that I've learned a lot in the process!!

#22 Ebooks

2008-09-21T17:50:00.000-07:00

Project Gutenburg was highly different to what I had imagined it. I suppose the trend now is changing to ebooks and I think this service that they offer is good for those kind of people.
I had a quick search for authors I liked but found a myriad of others who had written much more interesting things. Downloading is probably simple now as most people have broadband and others rely on stuff like RSS feeds and such.
I must say I was a bit overwhelmed by the sheer amount of things that were available there.
They even advertise for proofreaders!! It's so amazing what is there!
I must add though that I'm from a generation where we enjoyed turning the pages of a real book and thrilled at the ability to keep and hold a world of imagination in my hand!!

#21 Podcasts

2008-09-21T17:31:00.000-07:00

Yeah, the end is in sight!!
So I went and checked out Podcast.com and found out that it was a very interesting site with access to literally hundreds of cool and interesting feeds. As requested I just did a search for stuff on book reviews and such and found one called "Book Recommendations, Blog and Podcast: Books on the Nightstand". It turned out to be an interesting place to experience book reviews of latest books which looked really tempting!
I have added this to my Bloglines account and think getting feeds of latest book reviews is helpful as it's already been read by someone else!!

#20 YouTube

2008-09-13T17:39:00.000-07:00

Well I went into YouTube and had a good look at the various videos that were there. I did a search for TV programs I had seen before and I found some really good excerpts from ones I used to enjoy laughing at. I really liked the videos on YouTube as there were so many of them to choode from. Occasionally there were some which weren't to my liking but that's one of the hazards of not refining your search I imagine.
I suppose some videos related to library applications can be posted onto the library websites such as virtual guides to help people locate items can be helpful in the future. But I guess things like these will inevitably enter into the libraries of tomorrow.

#19 Web 2.0 Tools

2008-09-11T18:32:00.000-07:00

I must say this Web 2.0 stuff is really getting under my skin. If only there were enough hours in the day to go through everything with a clear mind as well!!
Well, since I like travelling I looked at the winners of the that category. There were some really good ones there. People can atually compare prices and find the cheaper option. The Honourable Mention site was more like a place for people to share their own experiences and to find stuff like travel guides, hotel reviews and such.
In a library tools such as these could be useful as we can recommend them to people who come to seek our help in finding related information on the Internet.

#18 Online productivity

2008-09-11T16:43:00.000-07:00

Another account created for the sake of higher learning!
I actually think ZohoWriter is an exceptionally interesting tool that will aid people in doing all kinds of work. I can see how students can benefit from such a tool. Especially when doing projects and assignments, ZohoWriter could really help the prospective student who finds it difficult to get started by themselves.
I am also impressed with the other products that are availabe such as spreadsheets and on line presentations.

#17 Social Networking

2008-09-09T20:31:00.000-07:00

I went and had a look at the Bebo page set up by the Auckland City library and I thought it looked ok. Obviously I couldn't see the whole page with all the pictures and things but all in all I thought it was quite interesting.
As for MySpace and Facebook, well I wasn't able to have a look as they are blocked by council. I'll probably have to have a look later and comment on MySpace and Bebo. I actually know a bit about Facebook as I already have an account and enjoy sending messages to my friends.
I'll have a look at that Hennepin County Library link later and comment on it then.
Well, just had a look at MySpace and Bebo and I have to say they are both quite similar to Facebook. Bebo seems to be formatted for the tennagers and such.
I also had a look at the Hennepin County Library link and I actually didn't expect to find a Facebook profile! It looked really interesting and seems to be a very successfull profile as they had quite a lot of people using it. I liked the search bar for the library catalog and the Chat with a Librarian feature looks like it has been used a lot.

#16 On Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

2008-09-09T16:21:00.000-07:00

Having read the article "Where will the next generation Web take libraries?" by Tony Storey, I found a myriad of information to answer several questions that had risen during the Web 2.o journey I have been on until now. I can see how the technology from Web 2.0 can benefit libraries in the long run. Sites such as Flickr, LibraryThing, MySpace, Facebook to name a few will be embraced in the near future and will definitely have a place in the virtual world that is created by Web 2.0.
On saying this I also think it will apply to the individual as well because there are still people out there who view things like Internet and the Web with a different perspective. I suppose there are always two sides to the coin and we will always have to think of ths in the times to come.

#15 Technorati

2008-09-04T18:21:00.000-07:00

Technorati looked simple enough until I tried to do the searches as requested by us.
I had no idea that it could be possible to keep track of so many.
Doing a keyword search for blog posts revealed 9,745 in total and the search for tags ended with 1,188 in total. The difference is quite big. I did a serach in what I thought was the Blog directory and got the same number for blog posts so I've probably done something wrong which I intend to clarify when I have more time.
I have managed to do another search for Learning 2.0 in the BLog directory and I got 931 when I put the words in together in apostrophes so I think I wasn't setting it right!! That was a very different result.
The popular blog, searches and tags link was very interesting. It had all kinds of "top" lists of blogs by fans and such. The top videos were very intriguing.

#14 Tagging and Del.icio.us

2008-09-03T18:39:00.000-07:00

I went and had a look at those links at the top first but for some reason it looked so complex.
So I went and looked in Del.icio.us and was amazed to find such an amazing tool was out there.
At first it looked like a huge list but going through the site and reading up what it was about and peeking through the Help gave me a bit more information.
I can see great potential for research assistants from Del.icio.us because then they can get to any number of helpful websites in any field with just a click of a button and a second away.
Yes, Del.icio.us is a very handy tool for librarians in my opinion!!

#13 Editing in PBWiki

2008-09-03T18:22:00.000-07:00

I must say this was a very daunting experience for me. I've never done stuff like editing public sites and seeing my stuff there for all to see, but I think I actually enjoyed it!
I went and added my favourite movies to the others. It was interesting to see what everyone else had liked and had put down. I didn't go to see more as I seem to be a bit behind with my progress.
I'd like to add that I'm learning heaps more and actually enjoying this as the weeks go by.

#12 Wickis

2008-09-01T16:25:00.000-07:00

Just had a look at the wickis included in the course. I just grasped the concept of Wickis and I can see how it can be interesting for some people.
I had a look at the Book Lovers wicki and I can understand how it can be a place for people to place book reviews and access the Princeton Library.
Library Success was more appealing to me as it had all sorts of links to library related processes and procedures.
I actually liked seeing the succcess stories there as well. I think Library Success is a place for librarians to access as much information as possible and add things as well.
I think that patron's own reviews and comments in the OPAC can be a positive that can be considered in the Wicki environment.

#11 New Technology and the global village.

2008-09-01T15:55:00.000-07:00

To begin with I'd like to say that this Web 2.0 really did expand my awareness of all that is out there. I just didn't know how much and to what extent there was.
Now I'm convinced that this is definitely the future.
I thought that Flickr was an amazing tool for not only avid photographers but also for those who just like putting photos together into an album.
I can see how a digital camera and Flickr can benefit anyone with an interest in photography.
Going through the different tools available from Flickr made me aware of all that one can make and create with just a click of a button.
I would definitley say that I'm now a fan of Flickr and hope to use some of it in my peronal life as well.

#10 Flickr fun and mashups!

2008-09-01T15:44:00.000-07:00

Flickr has some really interesting and cool stuff to it.
I went and had a look at Flickr Color pickr and I was absolutely amazed at all the colors that are there in the world. Who knew there were so many shades of light blue?!!
Then I had a look at Montagr as well. That took some time to load up, but I was impressed by what I saw as it loaded up. It took forever but eventually I could see that it was a huge mosaic of all kinds of faces! I thought it was made by someone who had a lot of patience!!

#9 Flikr and beyond!

2008-08-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

I was just having a look through Flickr and it has sooo many interesting and funny photos there.
I did a search on photos on shopping and I got over one million hits! That was amazing. So instead of looking through hundreds of them I selected the photos of shops in Asia and found this really cool photo. Hope everyone had fun looking through Flickr. Here's the link to this photo.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/st3f4n/2732413729/

#8 On Rollyo!!

2008-08-19T21:35:00.000-07:00

Well, yet another account created! And wasn't that the most easiest thing to do. The next thing was to get my head around the whole thing. That's not very easy when it's well into the afternoon and your head is very heavy and all you want to do is sleep!!!
No fear, I plodded on to the land of the unknown, the creation of search engines!
I hope I did it right!! It was very illuminating and I'm sure is useful in various aspects of industry, what they are I'm still to find out!
I managed to create my own Searchroll on Rollyo.

#7 LibraryThing

2008-08-19T20:52:00.000-07:00

I had no idea I could share all of my favourite books with the world. What a really amazing idea LibraryThing is!!! I couldn't wait to start adding my books to my own library.

I found the whole site very interesting and user friendly. The forums to chat and talk to groups of peolpe who share your tastes in books looked very tempting to try out but these days the time just flies so I just glanced at these.

Even though I'm fairly new to all this blogging and stuff I would definitely enjoy continuing with LibraryThing once this whole Web 2.0 business finishes.
Here's the link to my initial collection so far.
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/sramacha

#6 Image Generators

2008-08-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

Here it is!! My first attempt at adding images! The image generators are pretty interesting things to have around.

This is the picture I liked the most, partly because I like the patterns my favourite barrista makes on my coffee!!

Hope to have a few more cool stuff on my blog soon.

#5 On Technorati and others

2008-08-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

Several weeks of procrastination later I have managed to complete week 2 on RSS!!
That's what happens when one's annual leave falls during the middle of the year!
Well, now that I'm back and in the full swing of work mode, I managed to put all thoughts of further procrastination aside and complete the tasks set out in week 2.
I had a look at Technorati and Syndic8.com. They were very extensive in what they offered and I'm sorry to say but I didn't find it very easy to navigate. Topix.net, however, is a different story. I am happy to say that I found that to have a better layout and easy to navigate through. It seems to have the more interesting feeds as well. I would definitely check for feeds through Topix.net next time I'm online!

#4 RSS feeds and Bloglines

2008-07-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

I have now completed the steps to create the bloglines account which I might add was a bit confusing at first. However, I'd like to say that if one had all the time and space in the world, one could finish this whole thing in less than a week!!
I managed to locate 10 feeds into my newsfeeder and have managed to finally create my own blogroll. The address is: http//www.bloglines.com/public/suranimah.
I'd like to add that there are some really cool stuff out there!!

#4 Bloglines

2008-07-15T22:29:00.000-07:00

Here I am again trying to make headway in the second week of RSS!!!
I just managed to register myself into Bloglines when I got stuck.
It looks so complicated and confusing. I just hope I can get to the end of it before my hair turns grey!! It looked fasscinating when everyone else was doing it but it won't work for me. I must be jinxed or something. Well, they say third time lucky!!

#2 Blogging

2008-07-02T21:10:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am, putting one step forward into the future. Whoever said blogging was only for teenagers was obviously wrong!!
I have never experienced a more exciting and exhilerating experience in all my years!
This is definitely a first time experience which I will not forget even when I'm grey and frail.
Here's hoping to chat with some of the other first timers to blogging!!