Week 9: Podcasts, video & downloadable audio

#20 YouTube - Part of the Web2.0 Revolution

John Naughton, "The Observer's" Net specialist, in his article, "Websites that changed the world", listed YouTube as one of the most influential websites. YouTube, a video sharing site, has grown so much since its humble beginnings in Chad Hurley's and Steve Chan's garage. Today it has become the most popular Web2.0 service. One can spend hours cruising through countless video clips that entertain, educate, manipulate, inspire, or disgust. One can watch, upload or create their own videos.

What can we do with YouTube in the library? Make it a part of technology training for patrons, use video clips in library instruction programs, share them on the library website, use them as a marketing exercise, set up some activities for children or teenagers with them. Perhaps not so fast but I am sure that it will happen in the future - YouTube will became one of the most utilised Internet tools in the libraries.

YouTube- Mr Bean in the Library: Preserving Books

# 19 Web 2.0 Awards

I am very impressed with the list of awarded Web 2.0 sites - hence the inclusion of this link here. There are so many of them. I looked at a few that are most relevant to my interests and picked my own winners.
Here they are:

Books

I have used Biblio many times but Lulu is totally new to me. It will be of interest to these library patrons who would like to self-publish or even have a go at creating family histories, childrens books, family cookery books, and so forth.

Digital photos



Picnik is an online photo editor packed with many wonderful features: you can crop, resize, rotate your photos and use special effects, touch ups and more. You don't even have to register to use this service but access to more advanced features will cost you $24.95 a year. If you are a serious photo fan, it is worth it!

Travel

I like travelling and so do the library patrons. These two travel search engines will be most useful when organising a trip.

Week 8: Online Applications & Tools

#18

Zoho Writer, Zoho Show and more...



Zoho is practical and versatile. The documents can be easily posted to blogs in as many updated versions as one wishes. Fitting Zoho's documents in a blog post is another matter. Depending on the template used, they might not arrive in their original format. I created a few different documents using Zoho: a blank template to write in text and upload a picture, a booklet template and a show template. I struggled to fit a picture into a blog post and the booklet format was automatically altered by Blogger to fit its content into the blog. It looked much better in its original version on Zoho. I am not certain if I can attribute this problem to may ignorance or if this is a true limitation on Zoho's part as far as blog posts are concerned.

However, one should not miss the main point: it is a great tool for word processing, spreadsheets, online presentations, web conferencing, note taking, etc... And for storing your files online!

I was delighted with many templates that Zoho has on offer, although it claimed to have 50 and I was only able to access 13 of them.

Zoho Booklet - Read the Banned Books

Read the Banned Books Sophie's Voice Date 05/11/2007 Celebrating the freedom to READ “[I]t's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.” — Judy Blume

A Masterpiece for a Zoho Writer

Pilgrimage to Esguipulas, Juan Sisay

Juan Sisay, Maya artist of Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala, Santiago Atitlan's first and most famous painter, a master painter

definition: masterpiece

the most outstanding work of a creative artist or craftsman

an outstanding achievement

"Long before masterpiece became associated with the fine arts doing the Renaissance, it meant the perfect piece of work that an apprentice under the English guild system had to make before he was recognised as a master, After he had served his apprenticeship and was able to m ake a piece worthy of a master, a masterpiece, he became a master himself and was no longer required to work under supervision".

The Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, Robert Hendrickson

More Wikis

#17
I added my blog to the Australian Favorite Blogs and sent a post to the Learning Wiki . It is easy, after doing all this blogging.

I checked this post after a few weeks and it is not there anymore?...

I have a little bit of experience with Wikis. Some time ago I created a Wiki for the local bookgroups but as we are planning to develop a new strategy for bookroups I stopped working on it.

My other experience is linked to our Reference Group Wiki. We created this Wiki to work collaboratively on the new information services strategy.

A Free World of Wikis

#16

I love Wikis. It is wonderful that we can go to websites like these to read, write, change, edit, argue, learn, showcase our knowledge, share our expertise, or simply feel free to try something new and exciting. They are fast and working with them doesn't require a great deal of a technical expertise.

I like this brief description/definition of Wiki from PLMC Core Competencies:

"A Wiki is quick-to-build, easy-to-edit website on which all information can be edited, changed, or rewritten by users or members of the site. It is an incredibly useful tool for collaborative writing, pooling knowledge or exchanging ideas, especially on a subject that changes or needs updating frequently".

I have been cruising through many Wikis and am impressed by their versatility and scope, and their varied applications in the library setting . Here are some of the ideas I like most:

• Open WorldCat - patrons annotating the catalogue, although this is purely an imaginary thought on my part.
• Library Instruction Wiki - using wiki to find handouts, tutorials, suggestions, instead of "re-inventing the wheel".
• Book Lovers Wiki by Princeton Public Library: combining Readers' Advisory activities with book reviews, open to volunteers, library staff, authors, in short - library community
• Library Outreach Wiki.
• Wiki in the workplace: how wikis can help manage knowledge in library reference services
• Subject guide wikis: with an excellent example of St. Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guide.
• DIY Wiki: you can choose your own wiki using wikimatrix

However, what works for Wiki, can work against it. The open, egalitarian nature of this tool makes it vulnerable, open to manipulation, missinformation, scams, "editorial wars". Wikipedia, the largest Wiki on the Internet, was a few times the subject of malicious satire, or a hoax. Teachers are cautious with recommending Wikipedia as a reliable resource to their students.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, agrees with them, but adds that if someone finds an error in Wikipedia and advises the administrators it can be corrected immediately. The same cannot be done so quickly with any other encyclopedia. And no other encyclopedia would have such unlimited subject scope, freedom to publish ucensored opinions, and an expertise drawn from a vast, broad, passionate and deep readership.