And now the end is here ...

... so this must be the final curtain??

So what to say about this Web 2.0 learning? Good in principle, but the selection of resources was disappointing. Some had little or no Web 2.0 relevance/content and others didn't really fit with anything I would find useful in a library environment.

That said, Go Animate was fun, and I might use it in future for personal stuff - not at work - far too slow for the amount of time we have available for this sort of thing.

Which is a pity, because I like Web 2.0 tools in general. There are some really good ones out there that could be very useful to us ...

Bigbooksearch allows to browse books by cover - fantastic for those patrons that ask for that "orange book with a yacht on the cover". Eduslide allows you to create your own e-learning or share others. Resolio is a cute online resume builder (and aren't we going to need those if we believe the financial pundits!)

Would I have done this if there was not some incentive - probably not. That said, it was a good opportunity to exercise certain brain cells that don't get much use in my average working day - which is always a good thing.

Ciao

If I had a toolbar ....

... for every cool web tool, then I would need a much much larger screen! I had a look at Reddit & stuff, and have already tried stumble, but I have to agree with the Mad Hamster (I've got to stop doing that!) that they just take up time/room/brain space. While they might be interesting for a 'bit of a play', they're more for surfers, not searchers, and I've always been the latter (and that before I saw Jaws). Give me a decent search engine and a bit of training in search strategy and I'll find things my own way. OK, I do still surf (a little), but it's more like boogie boarding at Piha rather a malibu board at Warnambool - and that tends to be from links on a page I've searched for and liked.

Stumble and stuff have thrown up the odd hit in the past - but they are all sooooo American based (like so much of the Internet) so bear little relevance to stuff I might like or be interested in reading, viewing, perusing, wasting time on. And as for Newsvine?? The blurb said "Newsvine is an instant reflection of what the world is talking about at any given moment.a social news where people can intelligently discuss news stories from mainstream USA sources" How can it be a reflection of what the world is talking about if it only really sources from USA sources? Unless you really want to find out what a hairdresser from Alberqueque thought about Angelina Jolie's dress at the Oscars ...

So call me a Web 2.0 Luddite - but I'll stumble around on Google as normal, having reddit for long enough that I know my way around and really digg it.

Delicious (from the previous web 2.0) will last and endure as a good adjunct to Google - mainly due to the ability to 'cloud' your favourites.

The post about the stuff

So now to write about Animoto and GoAnimate and such things.

Animoto claims to herald the end of slideshows - yeh, right. If web 2.0 is meant to put the user in the drivers' seat where it comes to interaction and creation of web material - then Animoto is a step back towards the olden days of Uncle Jim's slide projector and slideshows of his and Muriel's trip to Surfers - complete with fondue for afters. Apart from selecting your photos and putting them in some semblance of order, it was 'sit back and watch the grass grow' - not my favourite occupation:) And it .... was ..... so ..... slow ....

So onto GoAnimate - well, I did enjoy this - but was horrified at how much time it ate up doing the smallest thing ... sort of like how much time you can waste on Playstation if you've got nothing better to do:) It was not the easiest programme to use, nor the most intuitive - but I might recommend it if I had a patron asking for a way to create a Star Trek/Doctor Who mashup animation for a wedding video. Otherwise, no.

So, all in all, these activities left me feeling less than animated, which I do not think was supposed to be the object of the exercise:) Oh well, c'est la moutard.

Go Animate Go! Gone, Animate, Gone!

GoAnimate.com: Reference Interview


My take on an animated reference interview training ... well, I needed some excuse to have to spend so much time on this thing:)

If a picture paints a thousand words ...

... how many does a widget paint? If a widget can paint that is.

Have dutifully embedded the Bookjetty widget as per instructions from the Power(s) That Be (which, incidentally, is an excellent sci-fi series by Anne McCaffrey - not as good as the Pern series, but not much is)

So that's the end of Week 3 ... and I'm all booked up. Or booked out?

Always look on the bright side of life ...

I am trying to find good things about Bookjetty - really .... it's just not working all that well.

So instead, a small segue ... did you know that Monty Python's Always look on the bright side of life was voted #5 in the list of favourite funeral songs? There, that made you smile didn't it?

Ok , so back to Bookjetty ... umm, positive things to say about Bookjetty ...

Did you know that elephants are the only animals with four knees?

Right, enough of that ... Bookjetty ... well it has a nice font.

Apart from that, not much I can find to like about this site.

• Yes, you can link to Amazon and buy the book - but Amazon is so ubitquitous, you can probably access it from the Foodtown website.


• Yes, you can link to a library catalogue - just not the catalogue for any libraries I belong to.


• Yes, you can "catalogue" your book - but only as read or unread - most other "shelf" sites allow you to categorise by a particular genre/author and add your own shelves.


• I found it hard to search for book by title (i.e. without the ISBN) - until I realised that you could do this using the (unlabelled) search box at the top of the page.

Maybe the final word should go to the Bookjetty website itself - I know how it feels.

Author! Author!

Had a look at Authors on the web and the Author Yellow Pages. I wasn't overly impressed by either site. Authors on the web is a commercial web design service rather than a site that might be useful in any way for readers' advisory. And if there is a search function on the Yellow Pages site, I couldn't find it. And when I want to search, I want to search - NOT browse.

Plus neither sites had listings for the first five authors I browsed for - ok, they were all British authors, but there are some very good books published on the eastern side of the Atlantic ... honest.

There are better options out there to recommend to patrons - here's two

Fantastic Fiction - great range of authors available, searchable, browsable, new books, coming soon, series lists, inks to authors websites, author recommendations, series reading order, soon to be published books, reader recommendations, and so on and so on ...

Overbooked - recommended lists, genre lists, new books, award lists, author sites (includes free webspace for authors)

Book Reporter was slightly better - coverage an issue here also though - the authors I looked for are not obscure - but BR seems to follow very mainstream American lines.

So I'm embedding my favourite book site and one I have recommended to many patrons over the years and will continue to recommend to all and sundry (not that we refer to our patrons as sundry ... honest)