# 18 - Web based Applications

I opened an account with Zoho Writer and created a few documents. I think it's rather good and will continue to use it. My only problem is that the confirmation email does not appear in my email in-box - even after the third 're-send' attempt - and so, Zoho informs me, my account will be deleted soon. Darn. I will figure it out eventually. I worked out how to publish a document to my blog but the formatting was deranged and I removed it, after having second thoughts. I also had a quick peek at Google Docs. I couldn't immediately see any great differences between the two applications. I would give it three thumbs up if I had enough hands.

# 17 - PBWiki

I have added my blog address to the Learning 2.0 wiki and added a picture of my cat to 'Favourite Animals'.

# 16 - Wikis

Book reviews, reader's advisory, general knowledge sharing between staff, best practice and policy updates: there are a number of ways in which we could use wikis in our libraries to communicate ideas to staff and the public. I suppose the issues we need to consider when opening up a collaborative project involve confidence in the participants and quality control - among many other things. How much do we restrict input and how much are we able to censor or monitor the input without compromising the principle of collaboration? I think it has potential but I have to admit some of the examples weren't particularly convincing as they didn't have the appearance of being well planned or structured. Perhaps the scope needs to be clearly realised at the outset and not too ambitious? The book reviewing and reader's advisory applications seem to work best.

# 15 - On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

This is the web 2.0 wave. I think we need to start paddling hard and catch it...(hopefully it's not as much of a monster as this one)

In order to decide whether or not we want to make the most of web 2.0 and make the transition into a Library 2.0 phase of development we need to reflect on what our role is and how well we want to perform it. I believe that we need to have the imagination to act on opportunities for growth and change. While it can be hard to muster up the energy and enthusiam to make our library the best it can be on a daily basis, if we refuse to recognise this technology as beneficial then we are doing a disservice to our customers as well as ourselves.

I think we can take some inspiration from Michael Stephens' understanding of the librarian's role in a Library 2.0 environment ( as published in the OCLC newsletter)

"Librarian 2.0 also listens to staff and users when planning, tells the stories of successes and failures, learns from both, celebrates those successes, allows staff time to play and learn, and never stops dreaming about the best library services".

# 14 - Technorati

I found some articles through Ebscohost on how to use blogs effectively for marketing. Within this context Technorati makes much more sense. The authors of one particular article (see source below) discuss the sense of trust that exists in the blogosphere and encourage the use of Technorati ranking as a way of increasing the amount of visitors to your blog because the as number of sites associated with your blog increases so does your perceived authority. As they admit : "the validity of these assumptions isn't important for our discussion, simply the reality of the perception". I'm not sure where that leaves us as professional information providers given that our role is to use and refer people to authoritative information sources. While I can appreciate the creation of this tool, I would not personally use something that specifically trawls through blogs.
Dawson, Tasra & Dawson, Ron. EventDV; Oct2007, Vol. 20 Issue 10, p26-32, 5p

# 13 - Del.icio.us

Del.icio.us brought out the stalker in me. I found the most interesting part of this exercise was looking into the sites saved by people who had similar interests, or who had saved some of the same sites as myself. I'm finding that if I can't immediately see a practical purpose for using a web 2.0 tool then I struggle to get excited about it. This one took awhile to grow on me for that reason. After I registered I spent a few days (on and off) playing with Del.icio.us and have started to compile a list of sites. Sites that I use frequently I tend to memorise or are ones that I have bookmarked at home (for banking, booking events or plane tickets etc) and as a result the list that I created for this exercise contains items that I find quirky or interesting rather than ones that I would want to/need to access regularly. I can see why this tool would be useful if you spent a lot of your time online - browsing and otherwise fiddle-faddling around, however, I am not inclined to do this. I think it would also be fantastic for compiling a list of online resources for a research project or work-related professional development, although I chose not to use it this way myself. I found some amazing, creative blogs and sites with beautiful collections of art work by book illustrators and so I slowly began to enjoy exploring this tool as I came to terms with spending my time in a way that I normally wouldn't.

# 12 - Rollyo

Hey, I like it! At first I couldn't quite see what was so special about this but the penny dropped as I worked through the exercise. Instead of doing a world wide web search I am able to search a limited set of quality websites and thereby remove from my results list all of the rubbishy hits that I don't want to waste time with. Cool. I created a search roll called beasts birds and bugs. It includes a selection of websites developed by amateur collectors, conservation organisations, scientific research bodies and government departments. These sites deal with a range of animal-related information from pet care and animal welfare to specific guides for identifying insects. The University of Southern Queensland has developed a particularly good guide for spider identification: http://www.usq.edu.au/spider/index.htm

Little "Charlotte" here decided to have her babies in our shed. I think this species of Huntsman is 'holconia immanis' - they have a distinctive stripe on the abdomen.