The Killer's Tears by Anne-Laure Bondoux

Great new read. It has a fable-like quality that reminds me of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. If you liked that then this will appeal too.

Torchwood and Channel 10

It must be years since I have watched Channel 10. That was a decision brought on by not being able to tell when a programme was due to start! I did a two-hours stint once as friends asked me to watch Australian Idol because their son was on it. I dutifully did as asked - it was the very first series.

So it was with GREAT horror that I saw Torchwood was on Channel 10. But lo and behold, and congratulations to them, it all ran smoothly in timing for the first episodes. I even snatched a bit of a look at Australian Idol and thought "I can cope with that. Might watch again."

BUT - first Torchwood started at delayed times, and now has been relegated to a midnight spot. So again I ask for the the fleas a hundred camels to infest that TV channel; or perhaps some of the dark forces of Torchwood itself.

Tuesday Surprise

Thanks for the gift for finishing the 23 things. Just what I wanted to show my photos of the holiday.

Web 2.0 - perhaps we could start here?

I was really impressed with Western Springs history site shown at the Web Conference - just love the possibliies that you can have a photo of a house/street etc and then have people put their comments about the history etc. (It was a collaborative effort with the Historical society.) Also demonstrated on the day, was the Darebin Historical Encyclopedia - much more input and development seemed to have been done by library staff.

http://www.westernspringshistory.org/ - not via the library website
http://www.darebin-libraries.vic.gov.au/ - found it right down the bottom on the left

And today I saw in the local paper an article on Heritage Grants for Victoria. I thought that Bayside Library Service we could look at two areas - local govt. heritage studies and advice, or the community collections management.

http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/page.asp?ID=399

I think it would be great to think about this for the future. If it were done through a library initiative, it would be give great cred to the library service from the community AND the Council. That was Darebin's experience. (Imagine all that champagne at the launches!)

Overall impressions of the conference

These are the things that grabbed me.

1. Web - based catalogue - FANTASTIC
2. Interactive Local History files.
3. Blog-based teen pages
4. Patron reviews and Patron tagging
5. Video story time
6. Videos made in libraries - or even bayside photo competition
7. Email notification PRE overdue.
8. Imaginon

It was a wonderfully inspiring day; though felt a bit inadequate with all the technology. I have not even considered implications - that is for others.

However, as Cavafy suggests, Ithica is not a place , it is a journey.

Session 9 - Imaginon - Helen Blowers

So we had come the full circle.

Imaginon is a building in Charlotte which combines a children's/teens library with a theatre. What a space it is. A 500 seat theatre, 250 seat perfomance space, arts/craft area, cartoon/ film-making space.

The main idea is the BRING STORIES TO LIFE.
And it is to DELIVER AN EXPERIENCE, NOT A SERVICE.

http://www.imaginon.org/

They also have photos on flickr - go check now that you have your account.

I'd love to have seen what they did with Fairy Tale Gone Bad! The mind boggles.

No description can do the place justice - even her slides and talk were almost inadequate to get a feel for the space.

One word EXCITING and another might be expensive... shows what you can do with foundation funding.

Session 8 - Darebin Historical Encyclopedia

An online historical resource presented by Katrina Knox (Culture and Leisure)and Jackie Goddard (Library service)

I was really impressed with this. It made me think of the start we have with the photos already on our catalogue. It might also be a challenge in 'letting go' ownership. It is a great way to preserve, as people do not have to disturb the original. I'm sure there would be people willing to scan photos, articles etc

http://dhe.darebinlibraries.vic.gov.au

The mantra - access - develop - interact - participate

It is more than photos - it has around 850 articles associated which librarians mainly inputted. The team is gradually putting on newspaper items from the Northcote Leader. At the moment, the historical talks are there as transcripts, but obviously these could be podcasts in the future.

It turned out to be a larger project than first thought. IT needed to be more involved and it needed separate IT plan to be developed. As it was done inhouse, it took a lot of time - 2-3 years.

Usability was tested - esp for older users.

Positives were -
* access with preservation
* great reference tool for students, general public , and library staff
* increased awareness
* positive reaction from both the local community and beyond.

The SECOND STAGE will include wikis, podcasts, epostcards, blogs and increased interactivity.

MOST EXCITING

Session 7 Virtual Gateway Real Challenge (Wynlearn Portal)

Kerri Sidorow of Wyndham City Library gave a presentation about the use of one of the grants to create a more accessible and comprehensive virtual focal point for learning opportunities in the area - eg daycare, libraries,

It can be seen at http://wynlearn.net.au/.
There are some great statements at the top of the screen which come from interviews with people.

There is a variety of stakeholders - Vicnet, City Council, Education, EDNA, Short Courses Victoria, community houses etc

There was need for training and ongoing support for all involved.
A great opportunity for connectedness as they have 81 users and generate a substantial number of hits.

Session 6 Presentations.. see SLV Libraries Building Communities

We saw some the previous initiatives later in presentations.

Session 5 Virtual Libraries, Real Librarians - Second Life

Presented by Kathryn Greenhill, Reference Librarian, Murdoch University.

I couldn't really get my head around implications for librarians of Second Life ( an imagined digital world where you have an avatar). I felt that it would be a third or fourth life for me and I haven't got the time. World One = personal life, World Two - work life, World Three = choral/greek dance life. It is no wonder that I only get to see Dr Who and Torchwood on tv - and even that's videoed for watching after rehearsals.

And I'm not really a gamer. Yes - I do play on-line backgammon for a couple of hours a week, but that isn't quite the same in gaming terms I suspect (PS. I do put aside a couple of hours per week to play it with a real person - and that says it all for me! )

I have two pages of notes on Second Life, but I want to get to another of my worlds, so I'll leave it up to others to describe the experience.

Or go check it out - it's free, unless you want to pay for things. Apparently over a $1.5 million US was spent last month. It's your chance to be part of an online world that is shaped by the residents' creativity. There is an InfoIsland. which has a reference desk, outreach programs etc And your avatar can be as goth as you want. So, go dance with the librarians.

http://secondlife.com/

(Is there any Greek dancing ? Just a little too Twee.)

Session 4. SLV 2.0 Thinking it through. Kelly Gardiner, Web Services Manager SLV

One of the most interesting talks for me. She really stressed that it more than just about blogs - it is about connecting and interacting; and we need to do it with the ease of a Google interface.
Things for me to check out from her talk are WorldCat, LibraryLabs, and Simple Search for kids to use for searching - seemingly a simple site, but in reality a highly sophisticated search engine. Also, for secondary students from the SLV comes Learning Zone. (not sure if it is up yet - ie more to check out)
SLV will be introducing SLV 2.0 for all to do.

Session 3 - Michelle McLean - Serving the sphere

Michelle was granted an award to study last year and she toured US libraries which were Web 2.0 based, had virtual services.
Princeton - used pbwiki, though now have an inhouse tool; have put on widgets, have music streamed and podcasted; databytes program for staff and users, flickr acount; pre-overdue email notice application
Darien Library uses blogs - see the children's, teens' which are posted weekly; Meebo instant messenger used for information services; playaways - self contained audio so that you don't need to download to your own device; teen book reviews are podcasted too; equipment lending - eg laptops; a home office set-up in the library.
PLCMC - has 16 domain names. Mentioned homework assistance; storytimes are videoed - is this the future for Jenni M's TV career; gaming for adults too
Ohio Public Library Information Network - like Gulliver; also connected to Universities and Schools; Specialist Resources - eg what tree is that? ; developing mobile phone access.
WebJunction - is an online community where library staff meet to share ideas, ... EqualAccess was developed by Libraries for the Future. What's New? ea.webjunction.org
St Joseph County Public Library - http://sjcpl.lib.in.us/ has gaming tournaments, blogs, blog-based teen page, RSS feeds, Subject guides, ipod lending. The feeling was that this was changing the attitudes of teens to libraries.
Ann Arbor District Library - WOW - the catalogue is totally blog-based - amazing! Gaming tournaments, patron reviews and patron (subject) tagging
Hennepin County - has public comments on the catalogue; polls; and subject guides are web-based.
Thomas Ford Memorial Library - has a library history blog where people can comment - eg on pictures of houses where they might have lived; extensive book reviews, MySpace, Flickr accounts are used too.

Great to see practical applications of the web 2.0

She also mentioned a lot of ideas from the Computers in Libraries Conference .
Twitter, PEW/INTERNET, screen castin, world digital library archive to be launched this year possibly, mobile applications, podcasts of story times, podcast local history interviews, booklovers wikis, Booklists,
She suggested looking at these sites
Cuyahoga County Public Kibrary
Second Life
Tagging websites
Her details:
michelle.mclean@cclc.vic.gov.au
connectinglibrarian.blogspot.com

Session 2 Lynette Lewis Learing 2.0

Lynette gave a great account of the Yarra Plenty Regional Service experience in doing Learning 2.0

Libraries, Web 2.0...Session One: Helene Blowers

Please note the sessions will appear on INFONET.
This is a record of jottings to be looked at later and pondered.
And it is appropriate to put these notes on the blog, though I suspect that there may be better formats. But at least you can comment! You may have to visit other websites to see the examples and I'll get the links put in later.
They really do show what things can be done with all the 'theory' you are learning.

Helene Blowers- designer of the Learning 2.0 ( or 23 things).

Key points for me were:
Web 2.0 is a state of mind, not a thing
Connect/Engage
Collaborate/Share

She showed us what was being done at other leading-edge libraries in the States under the following areas.

1. Cultivating communties - for library as a whole or for small sections
check out Darien Library which has library blogs, Pikes Peak Library District - an online social networking tool, Mint Hill Stitch in (for knitters) was a small community example)

2. Invite Users to Participate - eg Allen County - photo program of the County where users were given a camera; Princeton - booklovers wiki - check it out, it's great (I created BaysideReadersGroup as a test wiki whilst doing Learning 2.0); Hennepin - create own booklists.

3. Human Conversations - aadl.org - everything is a blog where community can respond (nb gaming sites mainly); parma teens hrttp://parmateens.wordpress.com

4. Collaboration - Loudon County - loudonpedia; Hennepin County - allows comments on the books in catalogue; Danbury Library - user generated tags for searching in the catalogue; Wester Springs - history project of phots of even individaul houses and people can add comments about whe they lived there etc

5. Being in their space eg some libraries have their areas on MySpace. Crossett Library has an account on facebook (as does Trevor); Second life is another space and libraries are on InfoIsland. Imaginon - combined library/ theatre space for children and teens - Fabulous photos - see Flick'r.

5. Small pieces loosely joined - the examples here were small widgets (applications) which users can take and add to their own blogs, webpages and toolbars etc . Lander Uni has a library widget, Hennepin - at your library widget, Harris County - users can take toolbar

6. Shifting the focus - use other people, spaces to promote the library. Users saying WHY they love their library. Some libraries have used these as promotional and motivational posters. Foto-fun Gallery. Another example was Denver library had a YouTube contest - videos were made in the library and posted by the creators.

7. Letting Go - this can expand the community, empower individuals and engage users.

She finished with the exhortation TO DO - be a PLAYER. The best way is to be involved.
* 15 mintues per day to just read the literature/ mags/blogs etc
* subscribe to some library blogs
* use your own blog tyo reflect
* tag some play items in del.icio.us
PLAY

A very enthusiastic presentation and some great ideas to follow up.

Monday Musings

Yesterday TWO absolute gorgeousnesseses were seen in discussion at the SLV conference Libraries, Web 2.0 and other internet stuff. In alphabetical order (me being ever the gentleman) they were Paula Kelly and Jill McCallum. They dared me to use the word 'gorgeousness' on the net.

Words were a bit of a feature on Monday, and I loved the golden oldie in one session : "drilling down". For me, it still has too many dentist overtones.

Other words - at the moment the men of the Melbourne Chorale are providing the Miner's backing chorus for the MSO production of Puccini's 'Girl of the Golden West'. The heroine is named Minnie; so, in beautifully pronounced Italian, we often have to sing 'allo Meenie'. I'm sure some of the audience will think they are at the Goons that is on at the moment. BTW - it is great luscious music and some great singers.

On a sad note, I was listening to Life Matters on the ABC and the interviewer was talking with a young student about reading the last Harry Potter book. When he asked where her reading would go from here she said that she didn't know any other books that were like HP. So I will be sending a message to their notebook today with some suggestions. (I'm enjoying it, and for once reading slowly.)

Great day at the conference.

Lesson 23 - the end..

Well, it's not is it? There's are so many things that I would like to go over and become more familiar with. Some experimenting is limited by not having unlimited downloads at home, and blocked access at work. Others I await to see what libraries and clients will do with the features. Certainly Web 2 is the talk of the town...or was that an old Supremes song?

Lesson 22 - e-books

I haven't joined up to download e-books yet. However, I regularly check the Gutenberg site and have even tried to read using a palm reader. Perhaps it was the book - Three Men in a Boat, but it was not the book experience that I wanted.
The project founder, Michale Hart, was quoted today in TheAge Green Guide as saying that "printed books will go the way of the dodo". I rather agree.

Industry people seem to think that ebooks will be "significantly cheaper than hardbacks" in the future.

Some sites to check out...Bruce Preston's Australian e-book newsletter is at www.e-book.com.au
Google book search is books.google.com.au
Project Gutenberg is gutenberg.org and guenberg.net.au

I'd love to work on the latter when I get some time.

Lesson 21 - podcasts

I mainly stream the audio - and play backgammon at the same time. I do regularly check things like the Science Show and Late Night live. Good fun searching.

Lesson 20 - You tube and all that

Unfortunately we can't get it at work. So I missed Little Johnnie's Environmental speech which seems to have been an underrated success. Sync is sometimes out, so I suppose we just have to read his lips.

Reading Harry Potter...the hype and the reality

This is a bit sad. Perhaps we had all hoped that young readers were being lured in to the wonders of reading by this series, but the data doesn't look good. Here is a link the article, "Potter has limited effects on reading habits", in the NY Times. (PS You can easily subscribe on-line.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/11/books/11potter.html?_r=3&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Lesson 19

I had a look around as suggested. I didn't find any sites that whelmed me - but it may be more useful as my knowledge increases.

Library Thing

I've out that on the side bar and people can now check out if I read any books :-). I think I prefer to read to writing them up.

Still trying to get this to work. It won't publish my Lesson 18, won't publish a draft...not to mention the known problem of not being able to put a title. Then it's all systems go for making me need to sign in for a new google account and then a new blog name. So we'll see if this publishes or not.

Lesson 18 - web-base apps

There are even more web-based apps now. 'The Age' had a good review of them a couple of months ago and I am going to try them at home.

And here is the image of string theory which should be Lesson 17.

Lesson 17

I might just get that Wiki Workin'. I haven't joined so many things since Uni days; but there are no free party booze-ups with these online things! SHAME.

I think that I am now with Zoho writer, pbwiki, My Space, Library Thing etc Wow. And not one person has even looked at he blog. Is this all a waste of Cyber Space? Thank God for string theory - it puts it all in perspective. Science Show Rules.

Lesson 16 - Wikis

Agree with Library Lil and I had pretty much the same experience...most sites were not accessible, or shut down.
Could we do a bookreaders wiki for Winter 2007?

Lesson 15 - reading

"Technology is put to the test: Does it meet the users need in a new or improved way? Does it create a useful service for putting users together with the information and experience they seek? These are some of the questions this librarian asks when planning for technology. This librarian creates and nurtures a living, breathing technology plan."
Yes. Great thoughts

And I liked this too - very appropriate with reader development. "Another key lesson that O’Reilly emphasizes is the notion that “users add value.” "

And, how did i live without the word 'meta' in my vocabulary - 'metadata' -well, it's been round for years; 'metacognition'- even older as I used it in the classrooms in the mid90's; BUT, I was glad to see a new one l(for me) last month - 'metafiction'; and I was even more pleased when I heard Margo Lanagan use it at Reading Matters conference. I'm just so metapleased.

Lesson 14 - Technorati

Had a look at this. I found that it suffers a bit (like all search engines) - put in greek Dance and half of it comes back porn.

Though I did find my blog has been crawled within a muniute of posting.

Lesson 13 - Del.icio.us

Not sure that i do enough browsing to use this at the moment. Firefox is great with the bookmarks that I need - cheap flights, greek dance and on-line backgammon. And I just love the tabs

Lesson 12 - Rollyo

There aren't enough Greek Dance sites to put on!

Lesson 10 Images from Imagechef

Library Thing

Couldn't get it to link.

I've played with the image. A very spiritual place. I feel very privileged to have spent time there.

There are over 1,000 columns of jasper, onyx, marble and granite.

Techno things

Whilst doing this course there are various audio feeds that we are to listen to. It makes it slightly more infuriating when the sites come up as BLOCKED WEBSITE. I reckon I need all the help I can get for Lessons 8 and 9.

Step 7 Technology related

For this, I had a listen to the Naxos on-line music site. Incredibly disappointed that you can't download from there
(LOL, I HAVE heard of copyright)
Listened to a Haydn piano sonata, and I thought that the music could be displayed. Being in a hurry as usual, I'm not sure if I am correct in thinking that you can look at the music whilst listening. That would be really cool. Will have to look again.

Reading Journal

Mimus by Lilli Thal

A thrilling and suspenseful read. It has a great medieval feel which comes from a detailed knowledge of the art of war, jesters and the society. Prince Florin is treachorously captured and forced to become a jester at the court of the enemy king. He fears there may be no escape from the humiliation and the threat of death for his imprisoned father. There is treachery, cruelty - very descriptive, and even humour in this great story of SUSPENSE. A page turner. Lower-Middle Secondary boys

Reading Matters Melbourne 2007

Reading Matters...it sure does. It was a wonderful two days of hearing YA authors and catching up with fellow librarians and teachers. You can catch up on some details on Read Alert. And hopefully there will be some podcasts available soon....much better than my notes.

Winter in Thessaloniki

Here is the waterfront in Winter. The reflection is in the melting snow.

First

Got off to a rocky start as my work computer wouldn't set up a blog; but a library colleague got it going on his computer. Thanks Trevor