Things I like

Call me gross, but I really like the Visible Human. It's a great resource for biomedical students and libraries. Ning also looks interesting, especially as they have a Library 2.0 network. And for online books I can never go past Better World Books - good prices and the money raised goes to fund global literacy campaigns.

I have very much enjoyed doing the 23 things, it has taught me quite a bit about common Web applications. I will try to keep this blog going (fingers crossed), so please stay tuned. I can see applications for library wikis, and library blogs are already quite common. Not too sure about Twitter, as I got some fairly strange messages on first signing up! But trying everything out has certainly been worthwhile.

LibraryThing

I really love LibraryThing. Check out my library here. I am working towards getting all my books onto LibraryThing - as I have over a thousand it will take some time!

The LibraryThing for Libraries page has some really good ideas. LibraryThing lets patrons interact with the catalogue, while allowing the library to retain the control it wants. A good example of this can be seen here, with the tag cloud and the reviews. I think partnering with LibraryThing would be worth considering for just about any library.

Google Books

I do not think libraries are in any danger yet from Google Books.

This is an interesting service in that there are a wide range of publications available, however it seemed to me that most if not all of the more recent publications are only available as excerpts or previews, not as full text. I also found their search a little clunky to use. I did like the fact that you can search within the full text of books, however I found that the quality of the scans was variable.

This service may have implications for the retention of older material if perpetual access can be guaranteed and the quality of the scans is acceptable. It could also be useful in selecting new material for purchase, as the material could be previewed along with any reviews. Users could also use the reviews to find an item which may be of use to them.

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More on Technorati

I have just joined Technorati and submitted my blog for inclusion. I'll let you all know how I go...

Technorati

I did a Technorati search for "University of Sydney" in posts - it is definitely a good way to keep up with what the blogosphere may be saying about your company of organization, especially if there has been some recent controversy. Google in contrast tended to come up with a bunch of 'static' pages, with the news results towards the bottom of the first page.

Twitter

Just started my new Twitter account with the username JessamyJane - following the Uni and Stephen Fry.

I would like to get the library onto Twitter, that way we could blog about things like service outages as well as planned events. Also we could have an account for each library and do things like Endnote classes.

SHHH! The Musical

Just found this on YouTube and had to post it:

Stephen Fry on YouTube

I liked this clip of Stephen Fry being interviewed by Clive James (mainly because of the setting):



I did find it interesting that I couldn't seem to see any copyright information on this clip site, and I wonder if that is an issue with YouTube.

I also found a good looking philosophy podcast.

I can see where podcasts are useful in areas such as that covered by iResearch, and could also be useful when training clients in how to search for information about a particular subject or using a particular resource.

Library wikis

More on the use of wikis in the library - just found this good-looking library wiki at
Antioch University New England Library Staff Training and Support wiki.

Thinking about the use of wikis at work - I would like to create a desk procedures wiki for the library, but am wondering if it would be possible to do this within the intranet, as we would not want this out in the open.

Some interesting stuff here - http://technorati.com/blogging/feature/state-of-the-blogosphere-2009/

Flickr and privacy

I was trying to find some new photos to put in to my Flickr account, but most of them are photos of friends and family, and I am not sure they would want their images appearing on the web. Does anyone else have concerns with putting images of people on the web?

My dream ticket

Just finished playing around with the image generators - this is my dream holiday.

My favourite still has to be the Middle Earth Name generator at http://www.barrowdowns.com/middleearthname.php

Just set up my Flickr account and added some photos - please feel free to check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessamyjane - note that the address is now linked, so the linking thing appears to be solved.

Library things on the Web

Found a very interesting site - http://www.librarything.com/ - I am going to give it a go with my books at home (as I have hundreds I need some way to control them!). This also has an interesting-looking blog at http://www.librarything.com/thingology/ which covers ideas about library-related issues.

Welcome

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