Great to see that when I clicked on the links for the library blogs listed, that they had since been updated from Sunday night....so here are just some of my thoughts regarding these blogs...
Southern Tablelands History Matters
I like it! I feel the look is appropriate for a 'history' blog and I thought it was great to see that it is obviously updated regularly as it was different to when I visited the blog on Sunday night - it's now Tuesday night - perhaps I find it interesting as it does cover some of the areas of my descendants. There has been the attempt to attract comments - although I'm not sure of the effectiveness as there are not many comments present - I guess it depends on whether the blog is advertised/promoted or not.
Lo and behold, the WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier has the same 'look' - it too is appropriate for the historical aspect...
Sutherland Shire Libraries News
I like it! It's bright but easy to read with the black text on white. I also like the 'comments' being labelled Reactions and it was interesting to note that the post with the most Reactions was for the Call for Casual Library Shelvers - good to see that staff are responding to the Reactions from young students asking questions! Again, it has been updated recently with Library Lovers' Day - great to see that other libraries were also actually seizing the opportunity to have some fun on LLD!
Alternative Teen Services
OK, I'll admit it - I'm on dial-up at home and this page takes forever to load - so far I've got a dark green screen and if I were a young person (or should I say younger), I would've clicked the stop button and skipped it - so I have not actually investigated this blog as it takes far too long to load....
ACT Public Library Blog
I quite like the look of it - I am curious as to why there are 'riddles' but I think that makes it different to some other library blogs - and the fact that they have the answer the following week probably ensures that people will return to the blog - interesting idea...
It doesn't give too much information away (eg School holiday activities) - rather making people visit the library website (with the hyperlink that directs user to the actual page) or phone for further information.
Thus, it is true - blogs are one of the easy ways that libraries could potentially reach many more people - it is interesting with the above blogs the various ways they attempt to capture people - I do like the local studies option and as my library has a large Local Studies collection, it would be an absolute shame to not start such a blog - the Local Studies staff did in the past write an article for the free local newspaper and for whatever reason, the article no longer exists - our area also have several heritage/historical societies that often use the library resources - so there is a connection there - if only it could be extended further to the community.
Sutherland's example demonstrates that young students are utilising their blog with the 'reactions' for the employment post.
Having said that, I also believe that there needs to be a certain amount of promotion of the blogs to the community - is it enough to just have the blogs on the library website and wait for people to peruse the blogs? - I suspect not.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Monday, February 25, 2008
Week 2 Adventure
Very quickly I did a search in Technorati for Jo's blog but didn't find it on the first 2 pages, so I did a search for "public libraries" and found one blog that caught my attention - Links in the hyperlinked library and then a link to Tame the web....anyway, I've been having a look around Tame the web but now I've got to sign off because my lunch break is just about over and need to go back to work.....
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Learning 2.0
Firstly, how opportune for NSWPLN to officially launch Learning 2.0 - my library saw the need to create an Emerging Technology team to investigate all things 2.0 and we are all going to officially register and investigate so that we can encourage all of the staff at our library to participate.
We held our first meeting in December last year and from that, I went home and created a blog on Blogger so that I could keep track of what I learn etc. And here I am in 2008 able to do exactly that with Learning 2.0 - fantastic!
There are some very interesting technologies in existence - such as Skype and CALL - and Second Life - well what can I say? Then there are 43 things and 5 weeks to a social library and del.ici.ous and it just goes on and on....
I recently did the Enneagram and for the most part of me, I am deemed an Enthusiast...and when I mentioned that upon my return to my library, others tended to agree - yes, bring on the new toys and new technologies....us Enthusiasts like new shiny things and it is very important for library staff (I believe) to know or at the very least, have an understanding of the new and emerging technologies. Stephen Fry spoke about lost moments in his video during Week 1 - well, if library staff don't continually learn (and learning can be fun!), then there could be many lost moments...we can't afford to 'miss out'....
I feel that blogs are probably one of the easiest things for a library to set up - some people may feel that they take up too much time as they need to be regularly updated to keep the interest...there's one member of staff at my library that loves reading but would not participate in a Reading Group (or whatever a library would call their group) as it's just not his thing - however, when I mentioned about an Online Book Club for Men (even as a blog), he said that he would be interested in that....I think one of the first blogs I saw was for insideadog (or website but it was aimed specifically at young people - anyway, I'm attempting to include the link - it'll be interesting whether it works... http://www.insideadog.com.au/ ) and it certainly had the wow factor for me - a brilliant idea that if only.....so absolutely, I can see a use for blogs inside the library - and several types - eg RA, Local History, Young People, Online Book Club for Men (or anybody), etc. I can see libraries aiming to have blogs for children/parents and youth, for readers and perhaps Local History - I wonder if any would bite the bullet and aim to have a blog for their older customers? Would they feel that their 'older customers' would not be interested in blogs - what if the blog taught the older customers how to do some of the new technologies available? Just as we are learning 2.0????
Anyway, I've ranted and raved for too long now - I am looking forward to learning lots of new things - how many things? Hopefully lots!
We held our first meeting in December last year and from that, I went home and created a blog on Blogger so that I could keep track of what I learn etc. And here I am in 2008 able to do exactly that with Learning 2.0 - fantastic!
There are some very interesting technologies in existence - such as Skype and CALL - and Second Life - well what can I say? Then there are 43 things and 5 weeks to a social library and del.ici.ous and it just goes on and on....
I recently did the Enneagram and for the most part of me, I am deemed an Enthusiast...and when I mentioned that upon my return to my library, others tended to agree - yes, bring on the new toys and new technologies....us Enthusiasts like new shiny things and it is very important for library staff (I believe) to know or at the very least, have an understanding of the new and emerging technologies. Stephen Fry spoke about lost moments in his video during Week 1 - well, if library staff don't continually learn (and learning can be fun!), then there could be many lost moments...we can't afford to 'miss out'....
I feel that blogs are probably one of the easiest things for a library to set up - some people may feel that they take up too much time as they need to be regularly updated to keep the interest...there's one member of staff at my library that loves reading but would not participate in a Reading Group (or whatever a library would call their group) as it's just not his thing - however, when I mentioned about an Online Book Club for Men (even as a blog), he said that he would be interested in that....I think one of the first blogs I saw was for insideadog (or website but it was aimed specifically at young people - anyway, I'm attempting to include the link - it'll be interesting whether it works... http://www.insideadog.com.au/ ) and it certainly had the wow factor for me - a brilliant idea that if only.....so absolutely, I can see a use for blogs inside the library - and several types - eg RA, Local History, Young People, Online Book Club for Men (or anybody), etc. I can see libraries aiming to have blogs for children/parents and youth, for readers and perhaps Local History - I wonder if any would bite the bullet and aim to have a blog for their older customers? Would they feel that their 'older customers' would not be interested in blogs - what if the blog taught the older customers how to do some of the new technologies available? Just as we are learning 2.0????
Anyway, I've ranted and raved for too long now - I am looking forward to learning lots of new things - how many things? Hopefully lots!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)