LibraryThing

I first starting using LibraryThing since 2007 after it was presented at an Emerging Technology session. I thought it was a good way to organsie my books at home, as it is an ever expanding collection. To begin with I was very enthusiastic and quite particular about the information used to describe my books. My use of it then petered out but doing this has got me back interested in it.

I've added some more books and looked at some of the functions that weren't available in 2007. There is one where you can bring up the entire series written by an author, and then add books from this series to your library. I've found this one quite useful because I have a number of series that I began to add, and have since had further books published. It was an easy way to add these books.

I also checked out Shelfari and Gurulib. I found that Shelfari was very similar to LibraryThing. I was impressed with GuruLib because it doesn't just limit itself to books, it also allows you to catalogue music, videos/DVDs, computer games and much more. For someone who likes to keep everything in order I was very impressed with this. If I wasn't already a member of LibraryThing, and I don't want another account, I think I would prefer Gurulib because of the larger range of items you can catalogue.

Finally I had fun adding a LibraryThing widget to my blog.

Technorati

I've had an explore of Technorati. I'm not quite sure how I would use it. It is interesting in the types of blogs that are available and what information people put out ranging from technical such as information about Play Station 3 (PS3), to politics to purchasing metal detecting sandals. The website is actually, to me, a bit too overwhelming.

I di the search for "bookmobile" and got 196 results, including videos, and often it is was just the word "bookmobile" in a blog entry. In the 'Advanced search' you can actually select to search tags, and this gives you less results that are more what you are looking for. Actually connecting it to libraries instead of what might just be someone's childhood recollection.

Del.icio.us

This is the first time I'ved used Delicious, but I have seen it before. It was fairly easy to create an account and I transferred what was in my Favourites. The only annoying thing that happens when you do this, is that each entry then has the tags 'imported' and 'bookmarks' plus whatever name of the folder it was in.

My account can be found at http://delicious.com/kirleaper/. It is a handy way to link together all the websites I use to create family history guides. I can see how it would work in libraries as a guide to recommended web sites, very similar to our NetLinks. I can also see how useful it could be for my personal websites I like to visit, and being able to use them anywhere that I logged in to the internet.

RSS feeds

A few years ago I did a course at the State Library along the lines of Emerging Technology and we covered RSS feeds and setting up an account. I must admit that even then I found it interesting but found I didn't really use it.

I am always willing to give things a go and have set up another Bloglines account. It was easy to do and I found it handy that they already have a number of feeds to chose from. I'm lazy, so not having to do much searching appealed to me.

Of the ones I chose I stuck to my interests, and used both the ready-made feed selections plus what was suggested. They are as follows:
Simple recipes (always looking for simple, easy recipes)
The Shifted Librarian
Quotes of the Day (quotes fascinate me)
Movie Guru from The Courier Mail
LKH Blog (blog of favourite author)
and of course the OPAL Training as per the lesson

It was fun to look at these feeds but whether it is something I will keep up with I don't know.

As for the uses in libraries, I can see how it would help libraries to gain contact with their more technology minded clients and be able to keep clients up-to-date with new items in the collection, new activities in the library and general things affecting the library or its service.

Social networking

I've always had an interest in the social networking sites before they became more commonly used. I was never quite sure how I felt about them and how much info I should be putting on them. I'm already a member of MySpace and Facebook and both sites have provided me with interesting things.

Through MySpace I have access to pages created by favourite authors and musicians that allow me to keep up with what they are doing. I can also access a blog published by one of my favourite authors, and I really enjoy reading this. Through FaceBook I have gained access to friends I had long lost contact with and this has been great because I get to find out about what's happening in their lives and vice versa.

Of all the social networking sites I looked at I felt that Ning and Twitter were two that could be used successfully by the State Library of Queensland. Ning offers a chance for all sections of the library to contribute and is more user friendly for an organisation than Facebook. There are opportunites to have more than one blog going, provide forums for client comments and generally market the library. Twitter would also allow both library staff and clients to interact with the library generally as well as with the collections. It could be used to easily promote activites in the library as well as displays.

Wikis

I looked at the following three wikis: Wookieepedia; Mint Museums, North Carolina, and Slq library 2.0: Emerging Media and New Technology Wiki. They were all totally different and worked from totally different perspectives.

As a big fan of Star Wars Wookieepedia was a must and I was surprised at how detailed it was. It made me realise just how much information there is about Star Wars out there.

Mint Museums was interesting in the way they highlighted their exhibitions. They enabled people visiting the wiki to find out about individuals featured in exhibitions, and linked to other websites that provided more information about the individual artist or where other artworks are displayed. This could be applied to sections of the State Library's collections or to individual items of interest.

Slq library 2.0: Emerging Media and New Technology Wiki was different again.

It was interesting to see just how different Wikis can be from each other depending on what they are trying to achieve. I'm not sure how it could be applied to libraries except where I've already said.

Online photo sharing

Its interesting to see online photo sharing also pushed as good way to back up digital photos.

Had a look at some of the photos of the State Library on Flickr. Was fascinated to see how the library can look when photos are taken from unusual angles. Its interesting to see what people take photos of and then what they upload.

Took a look at Flickr images through 'Picture Australia'. Tried the search 'Brisbane'. I was amazed at the variety of pictures available, from panoramic views to old photos to artistic shots of over-flowing gutters on a rainy night. Very impressive.

Been having a look at the Smithsonian Institution's "Commons" photos. I was interested to see that they have recently uploaded a number of portraits and are asking for help from the Flickr community in gaining more information on these people.

This photo is called Lighting enTrails / Tunnel Trails / Tunnel Vision. It is a photo of one of the tunnels that run under Brisbane. I always been fascinated by this although I have never seen them myself. I loved the lighting effect.