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#23 Final thoughts - it is just a beginning

Great program! Fantastic mentors! Thank you to Helene Blowers, the creator of Learning 2.0 and to Lynnette and Leslie for their guidance, especially to Leslie for her truly inspirational comment at the beginning!. All these flowers are for you, I hope you like them.
What I loved most about the program was tying it up with the concept of self-learning, which is a necessary ingredient of a life long learning commitment. Each of the participants could go through the program according to their own pace and level of interest.

I am just grateful for this learning opportunity and I took every effort to absorb as much as possible.

I always had an interest in technology and was familiar with many features of the program. However, my knowledge of Blogs, RSS feeds, tagging, Del.cio.us, Technorati, Wikis was very basic. The program opened new horizons for me. I even learnt how to make changes to the template of my blog, editing Html ( the background of my posts and sidebar is white, the rest of my blog is navy, something totally new to this template). A favourite part of this process was to take up a challenge and go a step further.

What impact will Learning 2.0 have on Victorian public libraries? Most importantly, it will create an awareness among the public library staff of Web 2.0 technologies and the potential role they can play in enhancing library services and their delivery. It will make staff familiar with technology and encourage them to herald and implement technological change.
I would be delighted to share my newly acquired skills with our patrons. It will be easier for me to further develop these skills and keep on learning.

Thumbs up, Learning2.0!

Writers' Rooms

Colm Toibin
Hilary Mantel

Jonathan Safran Foer

A.S. Byatt

JG Ballard

David Lodge

Siri Hustvedt

Antonia Fraser

Seamus Heaney

#22 Audiobooks: The Big Wave of the Future?

I am familiar with the Gutenberg Project but I wasn't aware that it holds the audiobooks. What an excellent choice of classics it provides. It feels good seeing so many old familiar titles:

Mark Twain is listed there as the most popular Author and his "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" as one of most downloaded titles.

Would audiobooks replace the printed books? Here is a very interesting article on the subject:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Audio-Books---The-Big-Wave-of-the-Future&id=499788

The author of the article, Wayne Leskosky, who is also an owner of the audio book store, argues that audio books have many advantages over printed books. First, we are leading very busy lifestyles and there is no time to read. We can combine listening to the audio book with other tasks: commuting, shopping, computing, travelling, doing house chores. The audio books are portable, downloading is fast and we can keep them forever. There is a great selection of them online and their quality has improved greatly: today's audio books are made into plays, with different narrators, sound effects and background music. They much more affordable. They don't need space, we can store them online.

Well, I don't like the notion of print becoming extinct. I love my iPod but I use it for listening to music. I don't like books read to me. Particularly if this is a novel, a poetry. The stranger's voice takes away a mystery, imposes different meaning, interpretation. I like to feel my book, to live through its story, to imagine.

With all due respect to technological progress, I like to think that print will survive. That reading will survive.

#21 Podcasts

Definition
A podcast is rich media, such as audio or video, distributed via RSS.

I found an interesting article on Stephen's Lighthouse blog, "Podcasts and Libraries", which lists many potential uses of podcasts in the libraries:

• Library Tours (can even be downloaded to smart phones)
• Story hours / Story Time (record your kiddy librarians)
• Information Literacy and Research Help (check out the many already in iTunes, etc.)
• Library updates and library news
• Collecting and indexing good free podcasts (found through the podcast search engines)
• Local history (collected from veterans, pioneers, local characters, etc.)
• Teen book/DVD/Game reviews (collected by the circulation desk)
• Music collections
• Audiobook collections (ON iPods and MP3 players)
• Library events (like Science Fair help, Literacy nights, author readings)
• Library debates
• Archiving class lectures
• Library marketing podcasts (how to use RSS, databases, VR, etc.)
• Training
• Public speaking training (partnering with groups)

The Library of Congress has an excellent collection of Poetry and Literature podcasts, featuring many wonderful writers, poets, and Nancy Pearl!

I also came across a few interesting podcasts on ABC network. The ABC Perth Radio was one of the sponsors of the National Treasures from Australia's Great Libraries Exhibition, which run at the WA Museum in August 2007. Two podcasts, "Toilet roll diaries", "The story of Ned Kelly helmet", are the special podcast tour guide of the Exhibition.

The Perth's Radio Afternoon Program records the talks with its many great guests in the Afternoon Podcasts. They are featuring such interesting people like the author Andy Griffiths and writer cum scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki. Here is my Podcast Roll:

A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto

YouTube - YAY! Funny Animal Videos!

YouTube - YAY! Funny Animal Videos!