The Days are Ticking By...

So we're winding down for the year, winding down for 23 Things and I'm winding down in energy! Though I think that is predominantly the heat that is causing the energy lag.

Two weeks from today, this project run of 23 Things will end. I hope to see the majority of people have finished the training modules, because this is an awesome opportunity we are being given to learn a lot of useful tools. Particularly as unlike most formal training, you're not being told how you have to use the tools once you've learnt about them. You learn what they are, how they work and then apply them to your own work and life. None of us will use Web2.0 technologies in the same way or even use the same tools.

Already I've seen some wonderfully creative and innovative ways to use Web2.0 technology from my colleagues. I've seen that you are artists, musicians, gamers, cooks, storytellers, fashionistas, model makers, writers, poets, travellers and so much more. Working in public libraries we need to draw from a really broad knowledge base to help our customers, and this project has really highlighted that we HAVE a broad knowledge base right at our fingertips. With a bit of collaboration using these great connective tools that we now have, we can share that stuff easily, and save ourselves so much time and effort. Plus it's fun to find out what our colleagues are interested in, and share common interests. I haven't found any fellow Mythbusters fantatics amongst BCCLS yet though!

It's been a huge learning curve for me too. Maybe not as much in the tools themselves, because I've been tinkering around with them for awhile now, but in the way people can use them and how they apply to libraries. I think we're probably at a huge tipping point right now into a whole bunch of innovations and shifts for the way we do business. WHAT we do isn't going to change, but HOW we do it is morphing into new territory. It's pretty exciting times, particularly as it's influencing things like telecommunications infrastructure, education methods and entertainment.

I for one am looking forward to being part of it.

Wanna Collaborate?

I have officially finished 23 Things some time ago, but I realised I needed to take a little time to revisit a few things that haven't fully gelled with me. Online applications were something that I knew what they were, but didn't really think about using them myself.

So I've gone back for a play and have decided to create a document that any of you, my readers, are welcome to join and co-create with me.

Fabulous New Things I Have Learned from 23 Things

The link above goes to a document I created about the cool things I've learnt, specifically that I like to use, not generally for what they CAN do. So if you want to co-collaborate with me on this document, and share the groovy stuff you have learned, let me know and I'll hook you up with the access.

For those of you friends who aren't doing the 23 Things but are reading this blog too, you are also most welcome to collaborate. The subject is about those cool Web2.0 things that are out there. What ones do you use (eg Facebook, blogging, YouTube, Flickr, mashups... all that stuff) and what do you do with them. I'm interested in hearing all the innovative, cool and fun stuff people do, and when we get going I'll turn the document into something I can publish here on this blog.

Let's play!

Two Hundred and Fifty Four!!

I just looked at my blog subscriptions in Bloglines, and I've subscribed to 254 blogs, and that number climbs every day.

Of course, well over 75% of those are library staff blogs. If you're registered in 23 Things with your blog, I'll have subscribed to you, or will soon. Just so you know you've got one reader out there, someone holding your hand so to speak! When I can, I will leave comments on your posts too.

People kind of look horrified at me when I say I read everyone's blogs, like that's all I must do all day. But using Bloglines (or any other RSS tool), I find I can usually spend less than an hour per day catching up on everyone's blogs. That's because of course, not everyone posts every day, so there's only a certain percentage of new material to look at, and also, when people post pictures or videos, they're really quick to peruse. I've got it all down to a bit of a fine art now - I've had to or I'd go bonkers. But tools like Bloglines, or Google Reader using the RSS feed technology has enabled that. It all kind of intertwines eventually.

I've absolutely loved reading my colleagues blogs. So many people tell me their blog is boring, or that they don't know what to say, but I've discovered so much about people. I've discovered that we're full of artists and musicians, folks who've travelled, people with adorable pets, fascinating hobbies, great memories, interesting tastes and often just new perspectives on things. It's been a really steep learning curve on just how diverse and full of knowledge and skill and talent we all are.

Plus it all helps me do what I do... which is help you, my colleagues. That's what I'm passionate about in this whole 23 Things - not the technology itself (though some of it is lots of fun and really cool), but in helping you guys all learn what is happening in our library services and the big wide world, and helping you all find ways that you can streamline your work so that the day is just that little bit smoother. I figure if you save 10 minutes per day, that's time to have a cuppa that you might not have had before, isn't it?

And after the cruddy day I had yesterday, today I had two people who said the NICEST things to me. It really makes a difference when someone just says "Thanks", it makes the times you feel a bit run off your feet or tired or whatever really worth it. So to those people who have made a point of thanking me or complimenting me... I thank YOU. It's the positive, upbeat folks who really give me the warm fuzzies while I'm working on this project.

Multiply Your Intelligence

I've needed a wee break from blogging for the past week, things have been kind of intense with me dealing with a close friend who has recently been diagnosed with cancer, and I've needed some time to process that before I got talking about other stuff. As you may have been able to see from my last blog post, my tolerance level had dropped considerably!

But I'm back ready to blog!

I've found a wonderful subject to talk about today. Mythbusters! Ok, it's not directly Mythbusters, but the lads have cropped up with regards to the internet and Web2.0, that I think is VERY relevant to our whole 23 Things journey.

Being the solid Mythbusters fan that I am, I have Google alerts (where you get an email that tells you if there are any new pages/blogs about whatever subject you choose) on them. One of the alerts pointed me to this WONDERFUL interview with Patti Schiendelman from Makezine online magazine of Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage from Mythbusters fame.

It's such a comprehensive interview it's split into two parts, if you'd like to read all of it go to:

Make with Mythbusters: Part 1
Make with Mythbusters: Part 2

The part that particularly stood out for me as relevant to our 23 Things journey was this quote from Jamie:

JH: Well, the strange thing is that I'm finding it just as entertaining to read non-fiction. In particular, the thing that I've realized, especially recently - people talk about the impact of the Internet, and I'm sure different people use it, obviously, differently, but for me, it's just absolutely fantastic because I have no end of questions and I can answer those questions almost instantly. Obviously a lot of it's crap that you're going to run across; if you learn how to filter it, you're better off. I was halfway through my master's in Library Science, had a degree in Russian Language and Literature before that, I was
already really into Information Science, way before Mythbusters, before getting anywhere near where I am now. But the Internet - I think of it as something that's practically mind-altering. The amount of power that you have for advancement and development of technology - I don't think we've really seen the impact of it quite yet - people may not realize the potential of it. But when one learns how to really use the Internet, it's like you've multiplied your intelligence, your abilities by huge factors.

I knew I liked the guy! Not only is he a prolific reader (and if you read the whole article, some of his favourite fiction titles are a delight to discover), but he was also studying to be a librarian before he got into the career he is in now. How cool is that?

Now his point on the internet and it's potential really impressed me. This is not a man who jumps on to technology because it's new and cool, he's known for always taking the unadorned, elegant approach to problem solving. This is also not a young man (he just turned 52 in September), and this is also one of the most phenomenally intelligent men in this world. And he completely sees the potential of learning how to use the internet and it's tools (which is what Web2.0 technologies are, internet tools) to multiply your intelligence and as a source of information if you learn how to use it effectively.

Web2.0 is very much a buzzword, and unfortunately people are naturally adverse to buzzwords. I know I am. That's why I really loathe the term myself. But I don't want to see us tainted against these tools simply because the hype has overshadowed them a little. Think of books you've read or movies you've seen that have been hyped up, and you were a bit over the whole lot, but when you DID find out for yourself, you've been so glad you did so. Harry Potter was like that for me. I avoided reading those books because of all the hype, but when a trusted source convinced me to try them, I found them truly wonderful and regretted that I hadn't picked them up earlier, that I'd let hype turn me off them.

The whole point of 23 Things is that we are leading you into learning what the tools are, how to use them effectively and then YOU choose how they apply to you. Once you are armed with the skills and knowledge, your intelligence multiplies and you're able to do so many things more effectively and efficiently.

I really urge you to read the whole interview with Jamie and Adam, you won't regret it, they're both fun and fascinating. And as a treat, here are a couple of my favourite YouTube vids of the Mythbusters in action.

Jamie shooting fish in a barrel, Mythbusters style:



Adam demonstrating the power of lighter and heavier gases on the human voice:

Just Start Typing...

Ok, I have no idea what I am going to blog about tonight. I'm too lazy to get up and get my little ideas book that I keep in my bag, for jotting things down that I want to write about. But I did read somewhere that with any kind of writing, if you just sit down and start, then something will flow and you'll find yourself writing something interesting. At least I hope that's what will happen!

Oh, I know what I wanted to talk about. RSS feeds. I keep getting people saying to me "I don't know why I would bother, it's just more stuff to read." Or "I can't see how I would use it, I just go to whatever I want to read." What I'm thinking is that many folks just don't "get" the usefulness of RSS feeds at all. So I'm gonna tell you how I use them and why they work really well for me.

Think of all the magazines in your local newsagent. Say there's about 500. Now you're not going to be interested in every single magazine there right? Out of that 500, maybe 20 of them are something you'd like to read. So you buy a copy of each.

Now some magazines are weekly, some are monthly, some bimonthly, some seasonal, some totally sporadic. We know that from trying to catalogue the damn things. If you want to read them regularly, you need to keep going back to the newsagent to see if there is a new issue out. OR, you can subscribe and get them delivered to your door, whenever there is a new issue. No more multiple trips to the newsagent, it just shows up ready for you to read when there is a new one.

Think of RSS feeds as being subscriptions. Of course there are millions of things out there on the internet available for you to read. But you choose the ones that interest you. Now you can either go back to those websites every day, to see if there are any new posts (or issues) and waste all that time visiting sites with no new content, OR, you can subscribe via RSS feed, and have the new posts come to you. You get notification that there is new content, and then you can go and read it.

In my case, I'm finding it a Godsend when it comes to keeping up with all the 23 Things blogs. When I tell people that I read ALL of the staff blogs, they look horrified at me. But then I explain that I do so in usually less than an hour each day. That's because a) not everyone posts every day, and b) I subscribe to them all, so that I just go to bloglines (my subscription reader of choice) and it collates all the new posts for me. Easy peasy. And trust me... there are over 240 of you who are blogging so far, so that's a lot of trips to the newsagent so to speak!

But when I'm not 23 Thing-ing, there are other blogs I subscribe to. Friends of mine are blogging, and I love to see their photos and stuff, so I subscribe to those so I don't miss anything. There are a few fun things I subscribe to, like Cake Wrecks, Cute Overload, Ugly Overload, Shorpy, PostSecret and Photoshop Disasters. Then there are the informative things that I like to keep up with. Mythbusters website, some writers blogs, some library industry stuff and some women's health things I'm involved with.

The point is, what you subscribe to is what YOU find interesting and useful. Just like the magazines you read. We're not all going to be reading New Scientist, or Women's Weekly, or Patchwork and Quilting. It's all about collating what you read and getting it to you in an easy, timely fashion.

Subscribing!

Mmmm.... Mashy...

I'm finally making a little time to actually do my own 23 Things. I feel like I'm way behind because I actually haven't had a chance to do the modules myself, I've been so busy making sure everyone else is plugging along.

But today I decided to dedicate some time to it, as I really wanted to have a go at some of the things I'm not really up on.

One of those, is mashups. I knew already what mashups were, and was used to using other people's mashups, but hadn't really done anything along the lines of creating my own. So using http://www.bighugelabs.com/, I made this wonderful poster:



Whaddya reckon? I'm over cuteness at the moment, I'm going for some HOT! Ole Cedric Diggory up there does well as a vampire. Absolutely can't wait until the Twilight movie comes out, that's going to be awesome. Mind you, I need to catch up and read some more of Stephenie Meyer's series. I just haven't had a lot of reading time which sucks. I'll have to do something to actively change that. I don't buy the whole "There isn't enough time." schtick really. My belief is that if something is a priority to you, you'll make time for it.

Right, I'm off to play with some more mashups!

Petting the Sweaty Things

Why do we get ourselves so worked up, and so stressed, and so frustrated over things that shouldn't really bother us. I get a lot of emails or read blog posts that are simply "venting", and I don't take them personally, but I do wonder why we let things work us up so much. Because when you let yourself get worked up, you send out all those worked up stressy vibes out and the person you're venting at gets all worked up... and it just snowballs.

Is the world really going to end if we can't embed a video on our blog? Will your house fall down if the link to a page doesn't work? Is a policeman going to break down your door and haul you off to the big-house if you have to do a module of 23 Things again to "get it"? Are you going to lose your job if your blog comes out all funny with gobbledy-gook? I think not.

I do understand, sometimes it really gets on my quince when something doesn't do what it wants to do. I've got one blog site that "eats" my blogs the minute I hit "post"... which is particularly traumatic when it's a 2000 word blog I've just typed up! But really, is it WORTH getting so irate at it that you find yourself spewing out a big long email or blog post of complaint? I think not. Sure, have a bit of a foot stomp and a curse... and then let it go.

Remember, you can always ask someone for help. That's how Web2.0 and indeed 23 Things works. It's a form of "viral" education. I blog, you blog, we all blog. I post a video, or a link, or some other fun doohickey, and then if you like it, you post about it, learning from what I've done. The same way I have learnt from what someone else has done. I know it is a change to how you normally expect to learn something, but most importantly, it's a far less formal and structured way of learning. There is no real right or wrong with this programme and Web2.0 technology. It's all about having a go and tinkering with new things, and learning as you do so.

And besides, I see all of your odd bits that "don't work" before you get to fix them, and not one of you yet has done anything that's made me go "OH MY GOD!!! Look what so-and-so did! The idiot!!" Sure, I've got a few laughs, but none of them are laughs that I haven't had at my own self at some point.

So, a few pointers in how to deal with things that don't want to do what you want them to do, or don't make sense:

1. Take a big, deep breath.
   
2. Save whatever you're doing so you can go back to it later.
   
3. Walk away... you don't have to finish anything NOW, THIS MINUTE.
   
4. Ask someone. Calmly. If they don't know the answer, don't take it out on them, just ask someone else. Ask one of the "helper" folks, and yes, you can always ask me (just remember I will always get to everyone eventually, but I do get a bit swamped.)
   
5. Take another big, deep breath.
   
6. Have some chocolate, it always works for me.
   
7. When you really want to have a rant, have the rant, but write it down and then save it.... don't hit send or post straight away. Pop it aside until tomorrow. It's more than likely you'll have got over it by then, and besides, the recipients don't really want that big blast of rant coming in their direction.
   
8. Do something different. Ok, so the video doesn't work. Go find an article of interest or read someone else's blog. You can go back to what you were doing later, but still feel like you're doing something 23 Things related.
   
9. And most of all, remember that this is supposed to be fun, relaxed, open ended training. The world won't end, I promise you. Nobody is going to write a big nasty report on you about how you were too stupid to embed a video, seriously. Instead, they're more likely to say "Oh, I couldn't do that either, doesn't that suck?"

And if you're really needing some help in the stress relief department, here's a nice video I found...

No Comment!

Well, just enough time for a quick Friday afternoon blog before I disappear for the weekend.

Does anybody read my blog? I read all of your blogs you know. Well, everyone who has either put theirs on the "Links to Library Staff Blogs" page or have sent me their blog address privately. I subscribe to every single one, that way I get updates when you make new posts.

One thing that is good blogging practice, is to leave a comment when you read someone's blog. Not every time, but as often as you can. Because it means your blogger keeps on blogging, when they have some feedback. They know they have an audience, they get to learn the bits their readers enjoy, and they can hone their skills.

So please, do leave comments if you are reading this blog. Tell me things you like, things you are not so fussed on (be constructive in your criticism though!), make suggestions. It helps me know what works in the blogosphere!

Chocolate... Chocolate would help!

Mate, I'm knackered. For every one email I reply to, twenty more come in. Usually from someone asking me why I didn't answer their first email, that they sent an hour beforehand. I do get to all of the emails eventually, but because there are so many, it takes some time to roll around!

Chocolate would help. Seriously. Look at this chocolatey goodness:




However, that said, I am really enjoying the whole 23 Things project. It's stuff that interests me and that I find really time-saving and useful. I'm thoroughly enjoying reading all the blogs that have been shared with me, watching the Wiki grow, learning new things myself and being led to all kinds of wonderful information and resources. It's challenging and fascinating, despite the fact that I have to reset wiki access and passwords two dozen times per day!

I'm doing the Brisbane City Romp on Sunday. Quite looking forward to that, hopefully it won't rain. I'm in no way interested in winning the event but the challenge will be fun and I also hope we can raise some money for the Burnet Institute.

You know, I just can't take my mind off of chocolate for some reason. I wonder why...

It's not Tuesday today, I know... but I don't care!

A Teeming Social Life

I'm finally getting a little time to work on my OWN 23 Things today. Popular to contrary belief, I'm not an expert on the whole Web2.0 thing and I am learning a lot of this stuff along with everyone else. I have used some things quite heavily already, like blogs, MySpace and Facebook, YouTube and photo sharing, but a lot of other things are totally new to me too.

However, I am an intrepid tinkerer with this technology, and am not afraid to just play with it until I get it doing something that I like. I have no fear at all of any of the technologies that we are using in 23 Things so I guess I am a lot more gung ho than the "newbies" out there who are hesitantly having a go for the first time. I will sign up for things, faff about with settings and profiles, and generally just jump on in feet first. Mostly because I know that there is always the functionality to set it back to the original way, or change it to a whole new way. I'm not at all afraid to make mistakes because I know I can just change it straight away.

So today I have been doing the module on social bookmarking. It was interesting that it put things like LibraryThing in the same category. I guess that they are bookmarking in a sense, but I consider them more social databases or catalogues. Rather than just a collection of links, I feel they are a database or catalogue of my interests and tastes.

I use several of these sites regularly. My favourites are Shelfari, Good Reads, Bookcrossing and of course LibraryThing. I am a member of all of these reading/book sites and if you want to find me, just do a member search for "sleepydumpling". (Yeah and you can stop laughing at the username now, you lot!)

I also find these a great tool for keeping track of my own books, and books I've borrowed from friends. I tag them with things like "loaned to" or "borrowed from" so that I know where they are and who I have to give them back to when they're not mine. It's a great way to track series you are reading, and you can even put in due dates when they are a library book. How cool is that?

Another one I quite like is a music one, and it is Playlist. You can make up "jukeboxes" of your favourite music, and then you can embed those in your blog, Facebook and MySpace, all kinds of places. I make new playlists up with themes. For example, on Australia Day I did a playlist up of great Aussie music, posted it on my MySpace blog and then shared it with all my overseas friends. They loved it because they don't always get access to Australian music - particularly in America.

And if you are looking for a movie one, Flixster is good fun and really useful too.

So socially online, I'm pretty busy. I'm incredibly busy in my real social life too, but I find using some of these tools actually helps me organise myself and save lots of time, as well as a great way to meet new people, find new resources (books and music etc) and share my interests. I love to talk books, movies and music, and these give me another outlet.

Private Eye... Is Watching You...

I've been thinking a bit about privacy and online security. I do know that through this 23 Things process quite a few people are understandably a little nervous about things like privacy and security. Because the unknown is a little scary, and of course we all hear those horror stories, be they true ones or urban myth.

I personally believe that online privacy and security is YOUR responsibility, and mine. I really feel that one has to take responsibility for their own "online footprint" as it is sometimes referred to.

I'm sure many of you remember when Stephanie Rice, the swimmer, got into a kerfuffle over the photos of her in a sexy costume at a party, having a few drinks that were visible on her Facebook account. Or perhaps you heard the story of Kevin Rudd's personal assistant, and how there was fuss over photos he posted on Facebook of sightseeing around London when he was over there working with KRudd.

Now I personally believe neither of these people did anything wrong. Their Facebook account is their Facebook account, and if they want to post photos of whatever they like - go for it. But perhaps it was a little unwise of them to leave those photos viewable to the public. Particularly when they are in the public eye and it is very simple in Facebook (and all other Web2.0 technologies) to set your photos, comments, blogs, you name it as visible to whatever level you like. You can have them set privately so only you can see them. You can set them so only certain people can see them, like your family and/or friends. Or you can set them so only people who are your "Facebook friends" can see them.

For example, I originally had a single Facebook account, and I had some of my colleages listed as my Facebook friends. Because I had photos on there of myself out partying on the weekend (certainly nothing shocking by 99% of people's standards), and I had colleagues that I actually don't know very well as my Facebook friends, I set up the privacy levels so that only my "real life" friends could see those photos. And that was MY responsibility to do so, because they are my photos and my Facebook account. And I have the responsibility to project to the world, in my online footprint, the image I want people to have of me. Do I want complete strangers to see photos of me drinking cocktails at a casino? No. Am I happy to allow my friends and family see these things? Yes.

Later I decided to make two Facebook accounts - one for professional use and one for personal use. This is just so that I could have all the silly, fun, frivolous stuff on my personal one and not clutter up the professional one.

The other point is, there is nowhere that you HAVE to share things like photos of yourself or people in your life, your birthdate, any of that information. Most times, you can put your real name in but have your username as something else. For example, on my personal MySpace, my real name is in there for MySpace purposes, but my username that everyone sees, is sleepydumpling (yeah alright, stop laughing you lot.) I've chosen this as a privacy step for myself. Facebook tends to work better with your real name, as it's for networking with people you actually know, but it's not compulsory.

If you want to put a picture on MySpace or Facebook but not a picture of yourself, you can. Sometimes I put up a picture of a cute animal, or a landscape, or a flower. Sometimes I put up joke pictures. Depending on my mood. There is nothing to say that you have to be totally identifiable. It's up to you.

When it comes to online security, use your common sense. Don't put up your phone number or address. Don't put your whole birth date visible to all and sundry. Don't tell people that you don't know information about yourself that can be used to trace MORE information about yourself.

I've had an online presence for about 10 years now myself. I'm involved in web forums for women's health groups and book clubs. I have a very strong MySpace and Facebook presence and I blog publicly. And with all of that... not once have I had any problems with security or privacy.

Yes, I've encountered the odd nutjob out there, but they haven't had any information about me that could lead them to find me in real life. They've just been a nutjob on a website that I've had to hit the "block user" button for. Easy peasy.

But that said, I travelled around the US for three months last year, staying with people I had "met" online, and made some of the most wonderful friends of my life. Not once did I feel unsafe or threatened. Because I took the responsibility to look after my own security. I knew which people were safe to stay with and spend the most time with, because like any other friendship, it had built up over time. I also knew which people who were nice but I still didn't know them well enough, so I arranged to meet them for lunch or dinner, rather than staying with them. I met dozens and dozens of people on my trip for the first time, and did not have a single bad experience.

Well, I did have one slightly weird experience... but that was with people I already knew!! Go figure!

If you're not sure about what you want to show in your Web2.0 accounts, try looking under things like "privacy" or "settings" and exploring how you can set up the levels of viewing of different sections in each one. I think you'll be surprised at just how much control you have of your online presence.

I know I control mine 100%.

Are there Only 23?

Right now I'm wondering if there really are only 23 Things, because for me, it feels like a lot more. Not that I mean that as a complaint, not at all. I just am finding that it is taking up HUGE swathes of my time at the moment, which is fantastic because it means that people are jumping on in to the 23 Things programme, and really having a go.

But I am finding that it makes my "normal" work pile up a bit behind it. I guess it is all about prioritisation, but with 400 people we hope to do this training, it's HUGE. And there are so many technical questions that folks have.

It gives me an awesome perspective though. Other folks find things I may never have noticed, and they bring them to my attention. Lots of "Can I do this...?" and "Is it possible to...?" or "How do I...?" And I'm learning that there is no shame in the reply "I don't know." But I will do my best to find out if I don't already know.

I logged on to the training module a few times over the weekend just to see if anyone was having a go, and was pleased to see that every time I logged on, there was at least one person online there as well. That's amazing!

I am getting out to the libraries to talk to people. In some cases (only a couple) it's my first visit to that library ever, even after almost 10 years working for BCCLS. It's really good to get out there and meet the folks I haven't yet met, see those I have, talk about what we do in here at Systems and Processes and why we do it, and find out what the REAL issues for our troops are.

This week I'm off to CDA, ASH and down to BSQ (for two rather mammoth sessions!) I'm sure I'll enjoy these ones as much as I have the libraries I've already done.

Feeding Frenzy

RSS feeds. I've been using them for ages at home, but I actually had no idea what RSS actually stood for until quite recently. Real Simple Syndication. Makes sense to me, it is real simple!

I'm using Bloglines for here at work because we have an older version of Internet Explorer on our staff PC's that doesn't have the RSS button enabled on it, but at home I use Internet Explorer to do it. I just click that button and it saves them in my favourites, and when there is a new post to read, it bolds them in the list in the favourites.

But Bloglines seems to work quite effectively for a work environment. I've been tinkering around creating folders so that I can have all of the blogs written by my dear colleagues together, other library interest blogs in a folder, a folder for museums and art galleries and photography sites, a folder for fun stuff and so on. It's a little cluttered looking but I seem to be able to navigate around it ok.

I'm looking forward to when we get the blog links in the 23 Things page up and running, so that everyone can see all of the blogs submitted there. We have had a few little technical glitches along the way, which has meant that they're not all visible yet, but as they are put up, they will go on the BCCLS blog so that everyone can see them until we get the glitches ironed out.

But back to the subject of RSS feeds, I can see a lot of applications for them for both internal use and externally to customers. Already customers can RSS feed things from eLibCat like the What's New lists, What's On, info about One Book Many Brisbanes, things like that. But we could also have blogs for libraries RSS feeding news about events and promotions out to our customers.

Internally, we could have our wiki up and running and if you are working on a certain task, like magazines or AV Incomplete, you could RSS to those pages, and receive notice of any updates on those topics, rather than all 400 of our staff getting an email about it when we don't need to know.

I don't really read straight up library blogs myself, as mostly they're about stuff going on at the actual libraries. But there are some interesting industry ones I like to read. Here's a bit of a list:

Michael Stephens' Tame the Web (lots of Web2.0 information and inspiration)
The Annoyed Librarian - a bit whingey and sour grapey... but raises some valid points.
Librarian Idol
Jenelle.net

There are lots of others, but I can't remember them off the top of my head, I'll share them later.

Flickr

Me - 23 Things Launch, originally uploaded by kath_read.

I've been flickr-ed.

Robert D took this photo. He neglected to tell me that I have the START button projected across my forehead.

Just you wait Robert, just you wait.

If you want to see the rest of the photos, go to:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=39644&l=3203e&id=660897148

Instant Messenger in 23 Things

Have you seen that there is an instant messenger in 23 Things? In the first page you log into, on the bottom left hand side of the page you will see a list of names showing up. These are the people who are currently online.

If you click on one of those names, you'll see a box open up that looks like the one above here.

If you click on "Talk to", you get a strange looking box with arrows either side of it. Click on one of those arrows and you'll see the list of people who are online. Choose who you would like to talk to, click on their name and then click on "close". This will put their name in the "Talk to" box.

Then type in the box at the bottom, and hit "Post". This sends the instant message to the person you have chosen.

If you receive a message from someone, you can reply by clicking on their name, and it will appear in the "Talk To" box, then type your reply in the post box and hit "Post".

If you would like to be notified when you are online of anyone sending you messages, there are a few ways.

Firstly, beside your name in the list of people when you first log in, if anyone has messaged you, there will be a number. This tells you how many people have left messages.

Or, you can just open the message box by clicking on someone's name, and you'll see any messages. Once you open it, it auto refreshes regularly so that any new messages will show up in the window.

And finally, if you click on the "Preferences" button in the message box (it's the one with the two little red ticks in it, in the top right of the message box window), you can go and set your preferences for this to "pop up" when someone sends you a message and you are online.

Happy instant messaging!

I Wanna Be a Mythbuster

MythBusters Encinal High Benefit-16, originally uploaded by kwc.

Well as the "Sharing Images" module of 23 Things calls for me to blog a photo from Flickr, I've chosen this one of Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage from Mythbusters. They're my heroes!

I think if I could do ANYTHING other than what I already do for a living, I would choose to become a Mythbuster. I mean, not only do you get to find out WHY things do what they do, but also you get to blow stuff up and destroy it at the end. How cool is that?

We're Off and Running!

Well, hello 23 Things for BCC Library Services. We're officially off and running and how exciting is this?

Now are you all scared by my blog title? Most folks can't handle Kath x 1, let alone 23 times.

As a first post, I'm not sure what I really want to say and do. I think I want to welcome you all to the programme, shower you with praise for taking the first big step off into the land of Web2.0 and encourage you all to just have a go. Don't be shy, don't worry that you're going to do the wrong thing... just try. Each of us will approach this differently and we'll all learn something from each other. Yes, even from YOU.

Now, if anyone wants to find me on things like Facebook and or MySpace, here are the links to my profiles. Please feel free to "friend" me, it will be my pleasure to have you as my friend.

Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=660897148
MySpace - http://www.myspace.com/kath_read

I am sure that as well as learning HEAPS in a simple and effective way, we'll also have lots of fun and get to know each other a lot better. And we'll find ways we can do our jobs in a much more efficient manner, both engaging with our customers and communicating amongst ourselves.

I've set up comments on this blog so please leave a comment if you're reading, so I get some feedback. Be nice to me though!