Librarian army :)

Librarian army :)
Originally uploaded by Laura Klemz

We all march for the good of the cause. Join today and fight the good fight for information. Flickr is a great site, all those photos, and tags of course.

In the most popular tags Librarian should be between landscape light but we don't rate a mention.

Get searching everyone, that's an order, so that we become Librarian

Google roolz!

Here's a house on the Coromandel in New Zealand. It has a light green roof (needs a paint I think) and it's near a lovely beach. It's amazing what Google Maps New Zealand can do. I've even found directions to my friend's house. Who needs Navman! Let's just take the laptop in the car and key in where we want to go each time!

But a word of caution, have you seen this?

Google Earth is amazing too! Check out the night sky or check out the Eiffel Tower (Parlez-Vous Français?), way to go Google! It's no wonder we have the Google generation, look at what Google does, can you blame them!

Hear all about it!

Wow podcasts are amazing! There are podcasts on just about anything even Monty Python (beware not all podcasts are free).
I've been into studio.odeo and had a go at making a podcast but I've had trouble saving the file. I've been in touch with Odeo and I'm waiting for the reply (can't wait as I want to make a podcast). Anyway I've added an RSS feed to receive updates from the SirsiDynix Institute and in answer to your question what is the SirsiDynix Intitute here's a quote from their FAQ.

"Established by Dynix in February 2003, SirsiDynix Institute is an online seminar series that provides free access to industry-leading speakers and events. By providing an ongoing forum for professional development within the library community, our mission is to support librarianship and advance the work of librarians around the world." Very impressive!

You too YouTube!

Okay so I love cats and they've been a lot of cat videos on YouTube. Have a look at About.com:cats and from another blog Look at this with best of YouTube cats.

Cats really can talk!

So it's Meow or is that Ciao for now!

Me me Me me Meme

When I first looked at the word meme I also thought of bandwagon (as in jumping on), The emperor's new clothes (remember the Hans Christian Andersen tale) and of course social morays. However K. Schneider shed some light on memes in the Free Range Librarian blog (love this blog and will set up a feed from it)
One of the quotes from this blog "You cannot change the user, but you can transform the user experience to meet the user" stands out for me. Librarians are (were, have been, will be)concerned with order and control but overiding this is the driven need to provide the user with the information they want. So in commenting on some of the the Learning 2.0 articles I've looked at I believe Learning 2.0 is a way of adopting new pathways (memes) and connecting to the user, establishing dialogue, and collaborating, all of which will transform the user experience and for that matter the Librarian's experience.

Mea Culpa Technorati!

Okay so apologies to Technorati! I've had another look at the site and yes it is pretty good and yes it is helping to tame the old World Wide Web! When I get serious about blogging I'll claim my own site at Technorati. So many people have so much to say and 50 + million blogs say it all!
I've just been looking at the tags on the home page and I would have to say that on the size of tags alone Barack Obama is well ahead of Hillary Clinton.

Delicious!

I had a good look around the Del.icio.us site, even opened an account. What I found interesting when visiting sites was being able to view the common tags as a cloud or as a list. I can see this site's great practical use for educators especially looking up lesson plans that are available for free! Also the ability to make comments e.g. suitable for grades 1-3. I guess I could use this to organise my work bookmarks (favourites) but I already have folders for these. I do like the practical and sharing aspects of delicious though.

Finding Feeds or is this "fed up" once again.

To be honest when I looked at sites like Technorati, Topix.net and Syndic8.com they didn't really appeal to me. I found the sites cluttered and a bit overwhelming. I would rather use advanced search in a search engine such as Google to find what I like. It's a personal thing. If I'm in a blog or site and I want to receive updates from it then I'll sign it up. One of the blogs I check out regularly is the Danish Royal Watchers . I also have a feed set up from Stuff National News (they have many RSS feeds to choose from).

By the way did you know that Helene Blowers of Learning 2.0 has her own blog called LibraryBytes ? Have a look at the person who started it all.

Fed Up

Really Simple Syndication is a neat way of having "things" come to you and I agree that it saves time in checking out what's new out there in favourite sites. I can see a use for this.
Here's what I've subscribed to in my bloglines account.

Favourites

So many faves but here are some favourite places.
Villefranche-sur-Mer's Hotel Welcome
Italy's Umbria and Tuscany

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence is a special favourite

The Coromandel New Zealand

Pauanui Beach on the Coromandel

Wikis

Wikis are a great collaborative tool but one of my concerns about them is the lack of control when it comes to adding content and editing pages. When I looked at St Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides however it was good to see that the editing page was labelled for "librarians only" and required a log in with password. I know this is a means of control but I have seen pages locked on the omnipresent Wikipedia after contentious events.

Wikis and for that matter weblogs (blogs) are a way of providing libraries with outreach to their users and help create a means of dialogue between the user and the library which I think is so positive for all types of libraries and their being part of the communities they serve.

Lifelong Learning

Gosh the 7 ½ Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners ...

• Habit 1: Begin with the end in mind
• Habit 2: Accept responsibility for your own learning
• Habit 3: View problems as challenges
• Habit 4: Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
• Habit 5: Create your own learning toolbox
• Habit 6: Use technology to your advantage
• Habit 7: Teach/mentor others
• Habit 7 ½: Play

... was certainly food for thought and after reflecting on each one I would have to say that the easiest for me would be to use technology to my advantage. The hardest habit would be to "play" more often than I do. At present I am nearing the end of a Masters degree and once my dissertation is complete I intend to play a lot!

Well that wasn't so easy!

Obviously SuzieQ is very popular. I'll tell you my SuzieQ story a bit later. Anyway I've made it to the blog scene as SuzieQ or Suzie Margarita, I'll answer to both!