George's Library Tales

Gaming in libraries course

2009-09-14T17:01:00.001-07:00

Wanted to be able to share with others the Gaming in libraries course I am taking.

Here is the link

http://www.gamesinlibraries.org/course/?page_id=117

Am learning lots, so far the focus has been on educating the audience on the types of games that are available and comparing their similarites and differences.

Week 11 - Online Applications and Tools

2009-08-30T23:08:00.000-07:00

Well, for my thoughts on how the online applications could be utilised at work, click on the link to view and/or edit my document created on Google Docs.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0Abwrf9SLzlqDZG54bWRxNV8wY3Iyam5wZ3M&hl=en

Thanks
George :-)

Week 10 - Mash Ups

2009-08-30T22:24:00.000-07:00

Oh what fun - it makes you realise that all those 'clever funny' things you see floating around the internet are not that hard to do.

It would be useful to use mash ups for local history to compare regions now to then. To explain who or what you are looking at in our picture Wollondilly collections or just to have fun with some of the images taken during our activities and events.

Week 9 - Podcasts

2009-08-30T21:48:00.001-07:00

Podcasts can be very useful for a variety of informational and recreational needs. For instance Podcasts could be used for Storytimes, staff training and author visits. More accessible, versatile and portable than just relying on You Tube videos.

Week 8 - Slamming the boards

2009-08-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

Yes, I was aware of Librarians slamming the boards and I think it is fantastic that librarians are rated so highly when they answer questions on Yahoo Answers etc. I logged into Yahoo Answers with every intention of answering a baffling research conundrum or a long uncovered mystery however I did seem to get a little sidetracked answering those all important questions such as:

Brett Lee : Will we win the next Ashes Test?

Will Brett play in the next Ashes Test?

Who was the highest run scorer in the last Ashes Test?

Who was the ... oh heck... you get the idea!

As to having our patrons rate our collections, we have Library Thing functionality attached to our on-line catalog and patrons use this well to rate our collections.

Trying to get You Tube link onto blog

2009-08-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

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Library Thing Link

2009-08-09T18:54:00.001-07:00

Week 7 - Part2 My Library Thing

2009-08-09T18:48:00.000-07:00

What a great idea - we really should be promoting this to our users, especially our book groups. I can see applications for storytime, book week sessions, readers advisory, etc.

Week 7 Del.icio.us

2009-07-27T17:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, confession time, have known about Delicious for a while now but always resisted using it. Whilst My Favourites are an unorganised mess, they are MY unorganised mess and I am comfortable with them. Yes it takes me a while to scroll through and find the website I am looking for but I trust it, know it, feel comfortable with and most importantly FIND the site I want. But, ok, the time has come to embrace a new way and so I have set up my delicious account:

http://delicious.com/GeorgeCanstandya

And have added the tags that I think will be most useful and know all that remains is to wait and see if I actually use it. As they say in the business "I'll keep you posted."

As for use in the library, of course it would be very useful for research enquiries and even readers advisory enquiries. It would be very useful for our students I'm sure if we could tag and house together all the great sites for projects etc.

Week 6 - You Tube and Google Videos

2009-07-06T16:54:00.000-07:00

Having a 13 year old means that I am already far too familiar with you tube. I see now though that the uses and applications for this technology within a library setting are far reaching. We recently held HSC lectures that (due to our geographicaly diverse community) that not all of our students could attend. We could have (with the lecturers permission) recorded the lectures and then made them available through our website.

Week 5 - Wiki's

2009-06-15T16:40:00.000-07:00

Wiki's are fantastic. We here at Wollondilly Library and Information Service have been using a 'private' wiki for about a year now so I am familiar with them and the uses they have. We use our Library Wiki to mangage projects, discuss promotion ideas, update procedures etc it ensures that everyone gets to comment and make suggestions and improvements. It is very useful especially for our part time and casual staff to stay up-to-date and for us to not miss out on their knowledge, experience and expertise. I also contribute to a Childrens Librarian Wiki, this enables us to share programming ideas and even project manage a grant application over a vast geographical area.

Interesting RSS Feeds

2009-06-09T23:50:00.000-07:00

Wow - I enjoyed this week. I really learnt alot. I have been hearing people talk about RSS feeds and now I realise how fantastic they are! Managed to subscribe to the New Scientist Online RSS feed and will now no doubt while away countless workhours learning about all things new in the world of science.

I initially chose from the top 1000 sites listed but then 'ventured out' and visited the sites I would normally be interested in and low and behold the little orange logo thingy had been there all the time!

This is going to be very useful when our library Youth Blog is up and running - I will be able to add RSS feeds into that blog (as per Adventure section of Week 4) so that our blog has the latest uptodate news regarding teen reading, movies, music etc! Awesome.

Future Storytime Reader - FOUND!

2009-02-17T21:46:00.001-08:00

I just love this photo. It reminds me so much of myself when I was a child, reading to my dolls! I guess my future as a Children's Library Officer was born.

I found this photo on Flickr Commons at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/george_eastman_house/3123694484/

Isn't Flickr fantastic?

1st Post!

2009-01-28T19:25:00.000-08:00

Happy to have arrived here in the land of Blog.
Now, where do I exchange my money and did anyone bring a translation phrase book?
Hoping to use these types of social networking and communication tools to establish and extend dialogue with our library users (and non-users). We here at Wollondilly Library and Information Service are delivering library services to a geographically vast audience and are hoping that these tools will help us bring our library community a little closer together.
I am hoping to establish blogs that I can use to further engage our community with our library. Sharing dialogue regarding collections, events, programming etc. Hopefully using these tools to inform and entertain our patrons and ourselves!