Blogging Librarian

If you ever had difficulties understanding what a blog is, then the Commoncraft Show has done another wonderful video to explain just that. Sit back and enjoy!

YouTube Text Link

- Ignoring our Digital Community
David Lee King feels that we, as librarians, are ignoring our digital patrons. I guess I have to say in some ways we are ignoring our digital patrons. But we, as in MPOW, have slowly embraced the Web 2.0 wave and are making in-roads in reaching out to the digital community through our blogs. Of course, there are areas for improvement and I believe we are slowly working towards becoming more attuned to our patrons who live in the digital sphere.
(via Library Revolution)

- An Open Letter to the World, From Your Local Librarian
A humorous insight into the life of a 50-something librarian coping in a digital world. However, I must add that some parts of the letter about the behaviors of patrons are quite true even for public libraries in Singapore such as people coming in 5 minutes before the library closes at 9pm and expecting you to show them all the information they need for their assignment due at midnight. Or looking after your children while they going shopping. I guess those are just some of the downsides of working as a librarian. However, there are upsides as well such as when patrons show their appreciation when you help them with an enquiry or find a book that they were not able to find.

- BookSwim
BookSwim is touted as Netflix for books. So, it works by paying a monthly subscription of US$14.99 per month and then requesting for up to two books at a time that you want to read on their website. The books will then be shipped to your house. And when you are done reading, just put it back in the mail box to be sent back to BookSwim. Anyway, this is only available in the US and I’m not too sure if these would work out in Singapore.
(via Read/WriteWeb)

- Kite Runner’s Afghan child stars forced into hiding
A sad thing to read about. Hopefully, the boys and their families are now a lot safer somewhere in United Arab Emirates.

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Common Craft has just created another kick-ass video on the new version of Google Docs, that now includes Presentation in addition to Document and Spreadsheet. If you noticed, they have also made a name changed from “Google Docs and Spreadsheets” to “Google Docs”.

Enjoy the video.

- What’s new in Library 2.0? Shift in power.
Kathryn has written post about what she thinks is the ‘new’ in new media. Interesting! I think I might be able to use her ideas in explaining to my colleagues what new media is all about when I’m conducting the training for new media literacy.

- Under the Hood of Web 2.0: the top ten programming concepts of librarians to understand
I’m not a very technical person and I’m quite bad at programming. However, I do have intentions to pick up some programming knowledge and I guess this list is a good starting point on what I should focus on.

- A Living Library
From the technology aspect of libraries, we move to the human aspect of libraries. And I mean human quite literally. A ‘living library’ allows you to ‘borrow’ a person. This person is either a subject expert, has significant experiences to share or an expert hobbyist. The ‘loan’ is usually in the form of a conversation and the loan period can be half an hour, a morning or even the whole day. This concept of ‘living library’ originated in Scandinavia. Hmmm … actually this is good in allowing our senior citizens to share their life experiences to the younger generation. Sort of an interactive history lesson.
(via Library Stuff)

- 2007 Survey of the Biblioblogosphere: Index of Results
Meredith Wolfwater conducted an online survey of librarians and those working in the library field who blog. She has since collated all the submissions and is slowly releasing the survey results.

- Young reader’s medal effort - AdelaideNow
A eight-year-old boy in Adelaide has read 1000 books since February 2007 as part of South Australia’s Premier’s Reading Challenge. It is reported that he averages about 4 books a day.

- Hottest Facebook Group for Librarians
A very useful list of groups that are relevant to librarians. Am in some of the groups since I joined Facebook not too long ago. If you’re on Facebook, add me as a friend.
(via iLibrarian)

- BookJetty goes global
One of my favorite tools online is BookJetty as it allows me search for books on Amazon and see if we have it available in our catalogue. Now, BookJetty has expanded to more than 300 other libraries around the world. There is also the social networking part where you can share the books you have read with others. And also post reviews. Just waiting for a Facebook app.

Technorati Tags: blogging, reading, bookjetty, survey of the biblioblogosphere, librarians, social networks

Well, today (31 August) has been designated as Blog Day. And I’m supposed to list five blogs that I’ve found interesting (do note that I’ve cross-posted this on my personal blog as well). So, here goes:

• iLibrarian: News and resources related to Library 2.0.
• Smashing Magazine: Lots of tools, resources and ideas for web designers and web developers and designers in general. Though I’m not a designer, I do find comfort in looking at nice designs.
• Feshome: A nearly daily collection of innovative designs of all things home - be it architectural, interior design, furniture, and fittings.
• Lawrence Ripsher’s Photo Journal / Lost in Focus: A delightful series of photos by Lawrence Ripsher.

So, what are your favorite blogs?? Join in the fun for 2007 Blog Day.

Technorati Tags: blog day, blogging

- Web 2.0 Search Engine
Need help looking for Web 2.0 tools? Well, look no further as the Web 2.0 Search Engine allows you to search for any Web 2.0 tool that you can think of. Recently, they released a list of the Top 1,000 Web 2.0 Applications. Go have a look at the huge listing of Web 2.0 tools that you can use.
(via iLibrarian)

- Online Behavior of US Teens and Tweens
Seems like more and more teens and tweens are going online to connect with each other through social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook. A huge amount of them also do their homework online as up to 96% of school districts in the US have some form of e-learning. I know schools in Singapore are increasingly making use of e-learning tools to conduct their lessons as I’ve helped quite a number of students submit their homework online through the library’s multimedia stations.
(via iLibrarian)

Inspired by Ruminations‘ Top 10 favorite learning tools, here’s my top 10 list.

1. Firefox / Safari - I use both browsers interchangeably though my current default browser is Firefox as I like the extensions it allows me to install that helps in my learning. However, Safari seems to be a little faster in processing the pages, but I’ll have to sacrifice the extensions. So, normally, I’ll have both browsers open. By the way, Safari 3.0 Beta is also available for Windows XP and Vista.
2. del.icio.us - A social bookmarking tool that allows me to store my bookmarks online and I’m able to share with others if I want to.
3. NetNewsWire / Google Reader - Most of my learning and reading is through my RSS feed reader. When I don’t have access to my MacBook Pro, then I’ll rely on Google Reader.
4. Google Search - I’m sure everyone uses Google Search, particularly librarians. Just need to know how to use this very powerful correctly.
5. Wordpress - All my blogs run on self-hosted Wordpress. If you are not into self-installing, then they have a hosted version that you can sign up for free at Wordpress.com.
6. Flickr - Since I moved to digital photography about 5 years ago, I’ve got tons of photos that have not seen the light of day as I had no way to display it online. The difficult way was to create a website and put all the photos up there. Or the new and simpler way which is simply upload it to Flickr. However, I’ve also started using another photo-sharing site, Zooomr, which has the same functionalities as Flickr but with a little less restrictions on what you can put up.
7. YouTube - A great place for me to find out what other libraries are doing as overseas libraries, particularly in the States, are quite fond of putting up videos of their events as well as promotional videos.
8. iTunes / iPod - Great place to download podcasts to find out what’s happening. And when I’m not at my MacBook Pro, then I’ve got my video iPod with me.
9. Wikipedia - It’s a good place to find some understanding of any topic so that I can do further searches on Google or NLB’s cataglogue though it can’t be totally relied on for factual information. However, there were some unscientific tests done that showed that the accuracy of information was higher than Encyclopedia Britannica in the subjects of science and engineering.
10. Amazon / Bookjetty - I usually come here to look for the latest books published as well as the bestsellers lists so that I can make informed decisions on the requests to acquire books. And Bookjetty allows me to search for books on both Amazon and NLB’s catalogue at the same time.
11. Gmail - I use Gmail for subscribing to library-related mailing lists.

So, what are some of your useful tools of learning as well as your thoughts on the tools I’ve mentioned above?

Technorati Tags: amazon.com, bookjetty, flickr, gmail, google reader, google search, ipod, itunes, list, personal learning toolset, top 10, wikipedia, wordpress, youtube, zoomr