Final blog

Well this is it, I think I may have finished. What an information overload. I had trouble with some aspects and sailed through others. Overall it was definitely worth the angst. Particularly Facebook and Twitter. I swore I would never ever join and had no interest whatsoever. I have done a 360 as they say. I now can see the uses for these social networking tools and how it is a great way to get information out to the public. LibraryThing was also a favourite, as it is so easy to use. The one that was really difficult for me was Flickr, I found it hard to download images and links. I somehow managed to do it, however when I went back to add to my blog I couldn’t manage to do it again. Anyway, thanks to Swan Libraries for offering this course it was really worthwhile, however I think that it takes more than 15 minutes per day to do, especially for technophobes like myself!

Blog 13

Just learnt about Geocaching, I had absolutely no clue as to what this was until today. At last a way to get people out into the great outdoors and away from a screen. I think it would be a great way to get more young adults into the library, they seem to be the hardest demographic to attract. The programme could involve a series of books (Twilight) a particular book, or even a combined City programme intoducing all the things Mandurah has to offer young people ie the two libraries (of course)Billy Dower, both of the recreation centres, any other programmes that are running for young people.

Becsiblogs: Blog 12

Becsiblogs: Blog 12: "This blog is about podcasting, which I've just learned about, which I think could be a very interesting and useful tool in our library. We c..."
Not sure if our library has the staff time to do anything like this.

Blog 12

This blog is about podcasting, which I've just learned about, which I think could be a very interesting and useful tool in our library. We could podcast our rhymetime session and storytime session, school holiday activities, also our authors that come and give a talk about their latest books, the list could go on and on. I really enjoyed Virtual Dave's The Librarians Militant, The Librarians Triumphant, it was very funny and very real. I have subscibed to iLibrarian as it seems like it is a good place to start, learning about podcasting etc. It would be great to have a podcast on what our library users thought about their local library.

Blog 11

What can I say about YouTube, love it, love it, love it.  Take a look at this video, I'm sure we've all wanted to say this, and some of us probably have. There are thousands of fantastic and funny videos out there all worthy of a look.  It really is just having the time to be able to watch them.  I guess we could have links on our wiki or blog, relevant to our libraries that could be interesting.  At the moment our borrowers can't access any of these social media tools at the library, if this was to change, the world would certainly open up for those people that don't have a computer at home.

Blog 10

Twitter is either very silly or very clever, can't make up my mind.  I thought I would hate it, but I actually don't mind it.  I can see its use in disaster zones, however to bother to actually tweet about having coffee, going to the gym, going to the toilet etc.. is redic. I probably will use it once this course is over,  for good and not evil.  I'm not sure how it would be used in our library however I'm sure Teena and Debra will think of something unique.  My Twit(ter) name is Michelle Becsi, so follow me, you know you want to.

Blog 9 (related to blog about RSS feeds)

Just going through course requirements and although I had subscribed to some RSS feeds I didn't mention which ones they were.  I subscribed to all the feeds mentioned in the course (only because of time restraints) however I will add to these as I now know what that orange symbol means.  I'm noticing that alot of these things take up so much time, when the course is over i am not going to have alot of time to read and comment on blogs, check feeds and facebook, look at flickr etc.  Really hard to produce 100 words on anything.

Blog 8

I am now officially a member of the 21st century!  I have joined Facebook.  My problem is that I love filling in forms so I may have got carried away with the details and I'm afraid I will be found!! I just found out that Midland Swan is my friend yayy!! So I will now attempt to post a message to them, wish me luck!! This was successful so now I find I’m checking facebook regularly just to see who wants to be my friend – how sad is that. I think it would be a great idea if we could allow our library patrons to come in and use facebook, we might get some of those elusive young adults we all would like to reach.

Blog 7

Well LibraryThing was successfull I now have a widget or was that a wodget or gadget on my blog.  My Nana (God rest her soul) would think I was talking in another language. LibraryThing is really useful in LibraryWorld it is a great way to have your favourite books at your fingertips and your very own virtual library with no yucky books allowed. It also gives me the opportunity to be a book reviewer, which is not an easy job. You think you realise what a book is about, then you read another review and there could have been a whole other meaning that went totally over my head

Blog six

Delicious is delicious, how easy is it now going to be for me to find all my favourite things, wherever I may be.  Being able to have great sites to share with friends and colleagues and to sort through them all using tags is fantastic. Having this sort of tool available to library customers who don't have their own computer would be invaluable. Going back over this tool I realised that it wasn’t really as straight foward as I first thought. You really need to know what you are doing to set this up. At the moment I’m trying to set it up on my home computer and it gave me a few headaches.

Blog five

Having an awful time with wetpaint.  It won't let me sign up and I thought it was just me, now discovered there is a problem with the website.  I shall have to skip this one a come back at the end, if time permits.  Another thing I'm having trouble with is commenting on blogs especially the course participents who are racing ahead.  I don't know what they are talking about, I feel so alone!! Well I’ve had another go and managed to sign up and edit the Swan Libraries wiki, I feel a little better about it now. I still have alot of blog comments to catch up on though.

Blog four

Finally learnt what a wiki is!! Almost my elusive eureka moment I'm searching for.  Checked out some of the wiki's suggested and really liked the idea of having the job instruction guides (JIG's) on a wiki, as these can be updated so much more easily. Working through this course is introducing me to alot of new words of which some are really silly, who came up with the word wiki, I guess I shall google (another stupid word) it. I just googled it and now know that wiki is a Hawaiian word for 'fast'.
I set up my own wiki called Tragic Docker Fan, which everyone knows that i am.

Blog number three

Well, I've just completed week four and have an understanding of RSS feeds and have subscribed to some feeds successfully.  I did find it all very confusing, however I will soldier on and hopefully it will all magically fall into place and I will have a eureka moment, here's hoping.