Yo ho ho ho ho ho!

And now for what you've all been waiting for (drum roll please) ...

The Great Mt Roskill Christmas Techtraining Quiz of 2007

And what's more, it's gone all Web 2.0 on us:) Here's the link

Once you submit your completed quiz, it will wing its way through cyberspace and end up on Zoho where I can 'mark' it and send you your completion certificate (no MP3 players sorry!)

The layout is a little strange - so remember to scroll right to see the second column of questions.

You can use whatever method you prefer to find the answers - google, fitch, wikipedia, library resources or leaning over library colleagues' shoulder(s). Collaboration is encouraged.

If you would prefer to do the quiz in a non-cyber format, printed copies are available on request.

The judge's decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into - although bribes are accepted.

Is there life after blobs ... sorry, blogs

I should hope so ... imagine if all this hard work and fun disappears into the ethos once this is over. Facebook profiles decaying on the roadside, rollyo search engines gathering moss, librarything accounts withering away.

All these web2.0 tricks and treats will go the way of that pasta machine and waffle maker you bought eons ago. You know, those must have appliances currently gathering dust in the dim dark recesses of your cupboards. (Apologies for the tautology - who ever heard of a light bright recess?) I blame the Briscoes ads myself - for the pasta maker that is, not the tautology.

Perhaps the proof of the web2.0 pudding will be in the longevity of its toys (whups, sorry ... tools). But I have a nasty suspicion it will have more to do with the attention span of its audience - scary thought that that is:)

Ease of use could ensure that some last longer than others - they could even transmogrify into standard usage. I'm sure that pasta machine would see the light of day far more often if you didn't have to take a day off work just to whip up a round of tortellini.

Mind you, some of those forgotten appliances could be a good way to minimise the old carbon footprint (why is it that I always think of a large dinosaur with dirty feet then I hear that phrase?) No trip to the supermarket, no plastic packaging - and fresh pasta takes a little lest time to cook so down goes the electricity bill!

Web 2.0 can stick its oar into the climate change debate too. What is it about computer stuff that needs more packaging than a 5th century chinese vase? By using web-supported tools, you don't have to buy that new version of software flown in from Seattle with its polystyrene packaging, plastic wrap, installation CDs and 500 page manual in 15 languages. That must be worth at least a small pine tree

So ... web 2.0 - being clean, green and geeky

And now the end is near ...

... can't find any curtains so it'll just have to be a blog post. I guess this is where I look back and wax philosophical about what I've learnt and how this is going to improve my life, and mind. and soul, and general wellbeing ... or not.

Perhaps best way of working this, is to think about which of these delightful and occasionally mind numbing little exercises I might revisit in the future ...

1. Read introduction - probably won't do this again:)


2. Set up own blog - done burger


3. See above


4. Social networking ... highly unlikely to keep this up - I prefer the non-flat screen version of people (you know - real life?)


5. Flickr - I love Flickr - currently doing major family photo project - will revisit far too often:)


6. Mashups - can be hired for mashups on demand for staff leaving pressies, etc


7. See #2


8. Have found bloglines great for keeping up with other ACL bloggers - and Unshelved. Whether I manage to keep this up is in the "still to be determined" category.


9. See #2 again:)


10. Hmmmm ... as previously posted, I prefer the creativity aspect of mashups - but at least I know where to find a Klingon sign generator the next time I need one


11. A rather large no on this one I'm afraid. Thanks to the Mad Hamster I'm a Goodreads convert - maybe it's my Scottish heritage (och aye) but I like that it's free


12. Set up Rollyo, complained about Rollyo, used Rollyo and then forgot about it ... I think that answers that one sufficiently?


13. Still sitting on the fence about del.icio.us (until they hire a web designer that knows what the word font means and get a web address with a little less punctuation)


14. My feelings about technorati are somewhat similar to my feelings about brussel sprouts. Does that answer your question?


15. Will probably try and keep tabs on how various libraries are using web2.0 and stuff - or not


16. The weird wide world of wikis - love the principle, may have a play now and again


17. See # 2 once more


18. Put this into the "will use again and recommend to others" category


19. Nope, nein, non, I don't think so - I have enough weirdness in my life already


20. Keep this one for the days when the sky is cloudy and the patrons are being patronising and you just need something to make you realise that this world we live in is a strange, strange place (oh, and bookmark this video for when you need to smile)


21. Maybe, possibly, potentially ... but probably not


22. Seeing as I love reading in bed or curled up on the couch - it's just takes too much effort to lug my computer around the house and lying in bed with your old 15" monitor on your knees just doesn't cut it I'm afraid. Still will use for locating Aristophanes The Frogs


23. If you're already reading this, then I probably won't have to do this one again. That said who knows what actually happens to all these bizarre ramblings once they are fired out of my computer and into the distant realm of cyberspace.

I would like to thank my parents, the Academy and all those unseen, unthanked (and most probably underpaid) ACL Learning 2.0 blogreaders who have waded through my dross week after week, leaving their witty little comments behind (sort of like modern day tooth fairies ... awww).

I have wandered the wonderul world of web2.0 and be enlightened, enfuriated, entertained, enamoured, enchanted, engaged, enraged, enriched, and enthused. What more could a geeky, cat-loving, knit-happy, computer-addicted librarian want?

And the final word goes to ...

Book book book - as the chicken said

I'm the kind of person that enjoys the tactile nature of books and just the sheer beauty of the binding, cover, typography etc, so prospect of e-books and Netlibrary don't thrill this gal a whole heap.

Could you imagine curling up in bed with an e-book? I don't think so somehow.

That said, I think things like Project Gutenberg, Google Books etc are a damn fine idea - for those rare, hard to find volumes particularly.

The New Zealand equivalent the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre rocks big time. Read the original of Buller's fantastic bird book (and fondly remember the exquisite paintings which used to grace the fronts of school exercise books, Darwin's journal from the Beagle voyage and a facsimile edition of the very first Edmonds Cookbook.

As a 'user friendly' web 2.0-ish database, Netlibrary needs to get with it ... the search is so basic as to be retarded, there is no browse feature and once you start reading a book, the only way to 'bookmark' where you're up to is to remember/write down the page number and re-enter it the next time you sign in .... grump.

That said, the 'search within' feature is slightly more user friendly than google books - which is a bit like saying that a pissed off grizzly bear is slightly less dangerous than a pissed off leopard.

I'll stick to my 'real' books for now - unless I need to dig up a copy of Aristophanes' The Frogs when it will be, hi ho, hi ho, off to Net-Library I go ...

I pod, you pod, we all pod ...

Who knew there was so much gibberish and vague rambling in the world. You never realise. And then you meet podcasts ... blogs for people who can't spell or type, but can still talk.

I suppose it is a lot like blogs - some great ones out there (check out the BBC podcasts here - but I cheated and already knew they were there) and some for which the word dross would be kind.

There are lots of cool audio book podcasts - but if I ramble on about them here, I won't have enough material to write about when I actually have to write about audiobooks ... so I won't.

So the good bits

• being able to listen (and download) unreleased (i.e. not on CD) recordings of Pavarotti from the 1970's.
• brilliant Celtic music
• learn a language

So a lot is not free and most of it is hard to find and get to - each site seems to have a different way of listening, downloading, saving etc.

But still a damn fine way of listening to weird stuff ...

If a picture's worth ...

... a thousand words? Then it should be easier to whack a Youtube vid on your blog:)

I found a way of adding a link to the Youtube page so you can go there and view this cool ad. But then you've got to navigate away from this blog - possibly not the best solution.

I found the html code and stuck it into a variety of page elements - none of which worked very well. The add html/java one worked best - but the element window was too large to fit the right hand column so you only saw half the video.

So I tried moving the page element and stuck it above the blog posts on the template menu. Which was Ok but it meant that that page element would always be at the top of my blog - not what I wanted to do.

I then tried pasting the code into a post - but that didn't work either ... until I pasted into the blog using the edit html tab. Doh! Doh! And Double Doh!




Maybe this will work ... maybe it won't? Oh ... it did!

Not sure how to get rid of the bit at the end - but it doesn mean that you, the reader (all 1 of you!) can copy the url or copy the html or view other cool Dove ads or just ignore them all together.

Time for a cup of tea and a lie down I think ....

Where do they come up with these names?

Zoho, Blogger, Wufoo, Rollyo, wiki ... even Google. It's starting to sound like a Dr Seuss book. Maybe that should be a Weird Name category in the next Web 2.0 awards? Either that or one for the most useless Web 2.0 waste of time site? Just kidding folks, I really like most of this Web 2.0 stuff - but honestly - have you looked at some of the award winners. If those sites won, what the heck must the rest of them been like. Yikes ...

That said, at first wade through Wufoo does look interesting and possibly useful. If you want to set up a database and categorise your CDs or knitting patterns or dinky toys ... which may not be such a bad thing if you have to spend longer than 5 minutes trying to find your copy of Rust Never Sleeps and you're the sort of person that likes categorising things ... like a librarian? I will have a bigger play with it one day and see whether the proof is in the pudding ... whatever that means.

But it is all a way of just sucking your further and further into The Machine? To use a lot of the most interesting/useful/less naff Web 2.0 stuff, you suddenly find you need a better computer, broadband, a webcam, a new MP3 player (that one's sorted!), a new graphics card, etc etc etc ...

One day, will we all wake up and find some ghastly megalomaniac is behind it all?

Or maybe one day, the internet will implode upon itself due to a surfeit of online image generators and the world will go back to the way it was before and we'll all walk around saying "Do you remember the World Wide Web?"

Oh my, a blog post from Zoho!

So, writing a blog post in Zoho and then flicking it onto blogspot ... how very web 2.0! As someone who has laboured through various word processing programmes (and had to shell out the shekels for every time you need to 'update' the bloody thing), I love the idea of 'community' software.

It gets over the problem of emailing docs to people but them not being able to open it because you sent it in Word and they're still using Works or whatever.

It don't cost a bean (except for internet access - but hey, that's free in the library!)

You want to add something to your magnum opus but don't have a laptop so you can't carry it around with you 24/7? No problem, whack it on zoho or google docs and the latest Great New Zealand Novel can be accessed anywhere.

Okay, it may not have all the various whizz bang features of office and such like - but you don't use most of them anyway and - and this does have cool stuff like tags and comments and a whole bunch of other kit and caboodle that I haven't found yet:)

So I'm a convert and am already thinking of various projects and stuff I can use this for ...

Now I've just got to work out how to upload this --- eeeeek! If you see this post, it worked ...

A great Blog

Found a needle in the haystack and thought I would share it with you

WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier
This blog is made up of transcripts of Harry Lamin's letters from the first World War. The letters will be posted exactly 90 years after they were written. To find out Harry's fate, follow the blog!

http://wwar1.blogspot.com/

If only Harry could imagine where his letters would end up ....

Wee Willie Wiki

It's been a long time since this old girl was in a sandbox ... but I have duly added my blog to the star picks on the ACL wiki (and stuck a naff little 'new' logo next to it - courtesy of trademe icons) and added my favourite book to the wiki book page. And gosh, wasn't that easy! Much much easier than a real sandbox - no wind blowing the sand up your knickers and anxiety about your sandcastle being smaller/rattier/not as fancy as everyone else's sandcastle.

I will confess to being slightly reactionary and adding my favourite Dr Suess book to offset the seeming predomination of weightier tomes on the books' page - you know the ones, that are called Literature with a capital L.

I do love the idea of wiki based writing and co-operation but also see it as yet another thing to 'keep up with' which means it will probably fall by the wayside unless I find it really useful and really interesting. The fitch being a case in point - great way to collaborate and share reference information and stuff - but when was the last time you looked at it and/or used it?

To get deep and meaningful in a political sense, I think wikis and such things rock the world as tools that everyone with computer access gets to use without having to go out and buy x video card or y software program and z hardware add-on and spend time learning html and such like. Bill Gates must hate them ... which is not such a bad thing:) Plus all those people that did go out and buy x y and z and learn html ... bugger!

Sticky Wikis

So the Mad Hamster strikes again and says pretty much exactly what I was going to say about wikis ... what is good about wikis is also bad about wikis.

And for everyone that thinks I should hush my mouth and that wikis are damn fine ideas and the best thing since the Spice Girls' reunion (see above post) - check out Conservapedia, a wiki encyclopedia based on "good Christian values" ... reading their commandments and then their entry on the origin of kangaroos is particularly enlightening.

That said, I do like the idea of a community space that allows everyone to participate without attending a 14 week course on writing computer language and general programming. It's all so, like, free and radical man!

• Patrons could post reviews (as well as ratings) on the OPAC
• Patron interest groups (book groups etc) could set up wikis on our website - posting what they're up to
• Patron could add their own tags to catalogue records, especially self-designing their own OPAC
• Answers and links to resources for commonly asked reference questions could be posted in one place so all library staff could access it .... and we could call it something really cool like the fitch or something!

Never eat anything bigger than your head

So what is Library 2.0? I've read all the proscribed guff and I'm not sure whether I'm any the wiser ... I get that the 'new' library will give patrons the chance of interacting with the library like doing book review wikis or adding reviews/ratings/comments to catalogue records. Does the fact that we already can add ratings on the OPAC mean that ACL is Library2.0? Or even Library1.999?

Maybe it's Monday, maybe it's me ... maybe it's because no-one (and in this I include the guy who first used the term) knows exactly what Library 2.0 is. Maybe it's "all things to all people" ... whatever you want it to be, it is.

I can see the whole interactive, contributive environment going off like gangbusters in some places/libraries and I can also see it doing a very good interpretation of a balloon of the leaden variety in others.

Disagree? How many people have returned an emphatic 'no!' to you when asked if they would like to learn how to use the new self-check machines? And we're offering prizes with that!

So maybe we need to look at offering ways for our patrons to contribute more and have more interaction with the library - but I think we also need to make sure we're not offering customers 23 new toys to play with that they can see no use for and have no interest in using/learning to use.

Just because it's there or it can be done, doesn't mean it's a good idea - I mean to say who on this blessed earth thought the Spice Girls were a good idea the first time around?????

Web 2.0D

So now a post about an online image generator that I found using the RSS feed from one of my bloglines subscriptions and that I've added to a search roll on rollyo and tagged it on deli.c.ious and am now writing in my blog about after I've uploaded the picture to flickr and put it on my facebook page and it's about a really cool book that I must put on my Librarything page (or maybe Goodreads, I'm not sure) and I can't forget to add lots of tags to it so people can find it on technorati ... and after I've done all this web 2.0 stuff I have no time left to actually read the book ... bugger!