Wikis and YouTube

Wiki

I have explored the use of wikis and the potential for libraries. There seems to be potential for library staff and communities to share content.

I still have doubts for encyclopedias such as Wikipedia - I know that it's popular and well used but as contributors are anonymous it is often hard to verify the accuracy of the information.

One of my students actually 'made up' a person and it wasn't detected for 6 months - what happens if someone used that information in the meantime?

Also, there have cases of slander and court cases have resulted. An interesting article was written in The Guardian, October 24 2005 called "Can you trust Wikipedia?" which is worth a look. Newer reports suggest that interest is waning but I don't think it will ever go due to it's popularity.

Google has gotten into the act by launching Knol which is a reviewed and refereed wikipedia that allows people to post comments. All articles are identified by an author so there is transparency. Will this overtake Wikipedia in use and popularity - time will tell!

YouTube

Here's a fun video called Conan the Librarian which is a good laugh!

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=mZHoHaAYHq8

I'm RSSSing!

I've discovered how easy and fun it is to use RSS feeds!

It only took a few minutes to log onto Google Reader and add a few favourite sites including some newspapers, ABC news and Seek.com job site.

I really enjoyed the Powerhouse Museum's photo of the day - thanks nswpln for your recommendation, I have something to look forward to each day.

Libraries are using RSS effectively in many instances such as News and events - Sutherland Shire Libraries does this quite well. Also for new books the library adds to its collections.

Exploring Flickr

I found this interesting photo on Flickr - it's called "all that was left" and it was posted by Gina D, on October 1, 2008.

I've also included the actual image here. I love the tranquility of the subject, the colours and contrast.

I can't seem to add an image link directly to Flickr, I had to download the image first then upload it.

Our owrkplace has just moved into a new Building, I'm going to try to add those photos onto Flickr and see how it works.

My first Blog!

Everyone is doing it! So I thought I'll give it a go!

It seems very easy to add text and images.

Here is a picture of a werewolf as I recently gave a literature presentation about werewolves.

Everything has worked - how cool!

I have been teaching my students about the impact of Library 2.0 technologies on libraries and I'm doing this to learn more about the 'how to'.