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 ...

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?????