A post lunge Post

Ok, I know I've finished lunging but I just had to add this video to my blog. I found it on the Ausfood website. The graphics are just sooo cute. It's the Japanese governments solution to the food crisis. They are urging the Japanese people to go back to their traditional diet in order to help the Japanese economy. Oh, and because its apparently better for them nutritionally. Take a look!

Lunge 21 Finished, Finally!! Reflections

I really enjoyed doing these lunges, even the yucky ones. I think it was great exercise in getting us to learn new things. Well done RMIT for making leaning fun!!
My favourite lunge to complete was learning about semantic web – what’s coming next. I’d never heard the term before and was kinda surprise these concepts aren’t already in use some where.

I also enjoyed learning about Mash-ups as I’d heard the term before but had no idea what it meant. And you don’t always have the time to investigate things off your own bat, life gets in the way some times. Although I’d highly recommend attending VALA events not just the conference but the meetings too as that’s where I initially learned about Podcasting.

As for what I think can be applied in the workplace, I think some things already have been. The facebook lunge was fantastic in bringing up together. I especially found it useful, as a newish staff member, I got to ‘meet people’ and get to know my co-workers a bit better and that’s always good. I’ve applied RSS feeds via my lib guides and am thinking about how to apply a video too. Personally YouTube recently taught me how to create a French seam which will help my sewing no end and has opened the door to a new way of learning for me. I’ll be visiting YouTube again.

Overall a really great experience – incentives or not, very worth while. I’ll look forward to the next PD initiative. Thanks to the organisers!

Lunge 20 The Semantic web – Pie in the sky or possible? (Web 3.0)

Ok I think I understand the concepts here and my first thought is ‘Wow that sounds useful’ and my second though is ‘That sounds like a security night mare!’ I definitely think it’s possible technologically to mix multiple bits of data like bank statements with calendars as described on the ‘WC3 Semantic Web Activity’ page http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/. However it would involve data sharing across non- related organisations like my bank and the people who created the online calendar for me to over lay my bank statements onto. Or even my water or electric bill with my calendar (was I actually at home in order to be using so much water on that day they say I was???? I guess it would also be an excellent tool for accountability.)

So that’s a Yes to “Is it possible?” but a maybe to “are we ready for it ?”. I’ll be watching to see what happens but probably slow to follow the flow.

Lunge 19 -Part B - 43 things list - heretis!

Lung 19 - Part 1 -PollDaddy - Sowhatdoyathink? Tellme, Tell me.

Lunge No.18, IM, Skype, chat

I’ve used Skype before. It’s a great idea and keeps the cost down when communicating internationally. Also used instant messaging both in a personal capacity (msn version and via facebook)) and a professional capacity (groupwise has an instant messaging capacity) and think both initiatives are great.
While I was with a previous employer, I was working within a network with multiple campuses. We regularly held remote meetings using Instant messaging. It was a very efficient means of coming together to share ideas but not having to suffer the inconvenience of travel.

Lunge 17: forums, groups, marketing and professional networking

I like this idea too. (Is there anything I don’t like ? – Yes, installing RSS feeds)

I’m already a member of a Google librarian group, which really isn’t very active. I had a look at Spoke which I found very U.S oriented. But really, isn’t most stuff?

Same with LinkedIn. Also they seem very people to people ish. Ie. You need to know who you’re looking for. I don’t really find this very useful. Google Groups however, very effective and worth a look.

Lunge No. 16 tools, applications, image generators

Ok I love the idea of Sclipo but there wasn’t much content there. I did find a video on ‘how to create darts’ (in clothing) for a better fit. Apart from my foodie interest I’m also interested in clothes making / sewing. Check out the video

how to properly dart your clothing for a better fit
Uploaded by THREADBANGER

I also really liked survey monkey. It looks like an easy was to obtain feedback from others. I can definitely see the applications of this to the workplace. Actually I’ve already participated in such surveys conducted by others from my workplace.

As for Pipes, I found this site a bit less user-friendly or maybe I just wasn’t searching for ‘popular’ / common stuff. Who knows. Although I did find a great site with a feature article all about Brad Pitt. Do I really need to say any more about why I like it? Ok I like the mash up part cause I can read the story, look at the pictures, give feedback on what I think, buy tickets to stuff on the same site, enter competitions…what’s not to like? Check out the site.

http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/news/index.php?news_id=4983

15 : Photos - I choose Flicker

MMMmmmmm chocolate.....and in Melbourne too!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/missmoon/2579450097/

14: tell us what you think- do you really want to know?

Well I think this was a great survey and I think the lunges have been very worthwhile. I can see how most featured medias can been applied to the library context (and have applied some of them in my Libguides). I've also really enjoyed creating a blog, checking out YouTube, Myspace and Delicious cause I probably wouldn't have done that without this prompt. Although I really do love reading blogs, it would never have crossed my mind to create one. Who would be interested in my opinions on stuff? Apparently at least one person is as I seem to have a blog follower. I bet I can guess who you are though ;)

Enought babbling, Lunge number 15 here I come!

Lunge 13 Mash ups

I like the idea of mashups. When I first hear that term I had no idea what was meant by it, but now I realise I use sites with mashups all the time. My favourite are the restaurant review sites which contain Google maps of the restaurants location and instructions on how to get to them. They also, in most cases include a section where the public can ‘review and rate’ the restaurant. They are all very user-friendly and encourage interactivity.
http://www.restaurant.org.au
http://www.bestrestaurants.com.au
http://www.yourrestaurant.com.au


A second example is a sewing blog I like to read. http://www.missceliespants.blogspot.com/
I know, I know, but I like the name.
On her blog she embeds (? Right term?) pictures from flicker, and surveys she’s created using online software (I think there’s a future lunge that covers these) as well as rss feeds from other sites, now and then she includes video’s and links to vodcasts she’s created. All very impressive! Check out her site if you’re interested.

Lunge 12 Articles of interest

I’ve just check out Buzzle and found a great article on Healthy food combinations. Did you know your not supposed to eat Carbs in the same meal as Proteins ? And there should be only one type of protein in each meal ? Interesting, but I don’t think I’d adhere to this authors ideas. Speaking of the author, I’m wondering what she’s basing her ideas on ? She does mention prominent American scientific studies, but doesn’t give any further detail. The author lists her credentials as follows, “Sufficiently educated to be able to read, write and tell good writing and good reading from bad writing and BAD reading.” Mmmm
I don’t mean to sound too critical but I’m just hoping students aren’t using these articles in their assignments, especially some of the more technical sounding topics. Although I really like a Black forest cake recipe I found.

Not sure why but I like Ezine better and didn’t really feel the need to be critical. Maybe it’s the layout and that it didn’t feel like it was pretending to be more creditable that it was. I stuck with the foodie theme and found some great articles. Overall I like the idea of these sites but again hope students don’t take the info too seriously.

Lunge 11.) Social video and entertainment!

Check out this video!
I don't mean to be advertise the opposition but it was way too funny not to use.

Looks like they allow the consumption of food in this library too.

Lunge 10: Blog Guides and catchers

Well I looked at Technorati and the Google Blog search which was fun. I found some great blogs on fashion (personal interest) and technology to do with information lit (library oriented) I even added some blogs to my feed reader in Google. But could i get RSS feeds to add to my Blogs? No, I'm sorry to say I couldn't. In this case technology has not allowed me to bend it to my will. I was attempting to do this along side three other fellow lunges and the consensus was that this is not an intuitive process. For previous lunges I managed to add RSS feeds from the RMIT library site to my blog - EASY ! There were step by step instructions on the RMIT site for doing this so it wasn't a painful process.

But not so with random blogs. Maybe it's due to assumes tech savyiness, I don't know. But you do know what they say about assuming....

I will not let this defeat me. I will have a second (or rather fifth or sixth) go at this. But for now I feel satisfied in my understanding of how and why, so 11, here I come.

Social Bookmarking - IT issue (Lunge 9)

Ok I have an account with delicious and I've even added some bookmarks relevant to my liaison area. But I couldn't get the 'button' to appear in my toolbar to make this process easier. I think this is an RMIT issue rather than a delicious issue.

Oh well, I guess this is something I'll have to have a go at from home.

I love the idea of labels and see the benefits from an indexing point of view. I also love Word clouds and will investigate creating one in my new look subject guides. Anything that makes it easier for non-information professionals to manoeuvre around the web and be able to locate what they're after is a positive development.

Yea delicious!! More to come if, sorry I mean when, I can get past the IT issues.

Social News page Done!

Well today I continued my soiree into the web 2.0 universe by created an account with Netvibe, a social news site. Ok, well I understand the concept and how to do it but maybe I'm missing something. This particular application just isn't doing much for me. I'm finding it very difficult to personalise beyond creating a To do list and changing the colours of the box's. Apparently my likes and dislikes don't really conform to popular taste. Which I guess is the point of this lunge. So I'll hold out more hope for the lunge and move on.
Happy lunging every one!

Article Review (Lunge 7)

I just finished reading the article “Where do we begin? A library 2.0 conversation with Michael Casey”. My first thought is, that I’m not sure which conferences these two have been going to, but I haven’t recently been to a library conference that has created podcasts of its speakers or wiki’s for that matter. (Although I’ve heard lots of talk about it) But how easy would it have been to do this? I was really disappointed with this years VALA conference in that respect. Although the content is always good. Being a professional library organisation whose catch phrase is “Libraries, technology and the future” I’d have expected a blog at least. If they have one, it’s not mentioned on their website http://www.vala.org.au/ .

But back to the article, I agree with Michael Stephens re: his comments about language. I think some of the technical language may be putting off some new comers (library professionals). A lot of libraries have initiated programs like ’21 lunges’ and the ‘24 exercise’. These are brilliant! I also think there are some great ideas for application of web 2.0 technologies within libraries, (Library 2.0) but I think this should be more user-driven rather than librarian driven, as Michael Casey states. Library professionals do need to know what’s out there and how it works, but we need to be asking our users in what direction they want us to take it. There’s no point us creating these great ideas and them not being interested.

The article talks about giving patrons what they want like a comfy space, good lighting, the right to bring food and coffee in, taking away the barriers or negative rules that may have made people reluctant to spend time in libraries. I think RMIT library is on the right track. If we having overcrowding problems we must be doing something right.

(More) Social Networking

As promised, I spent some time playing around with MySpace the other night. Even thought it was difficult to tear myself away from word twist on Facebook. I even created an account for myself. For which I now feel ok about forgetting the password. I don’t like Myspace. I’m sure I’d have no problem with the content, if I actually got to see much of it, but as it was I had enormous difficultly manoeuvring around and quickly gave up.

Social networking

Well I've had a Facebook profile for almost a year and have become addicted. If you have a profile too add me as your friend! As they say you can never have too many friends:) I already have a few RMITers but would luv more. As per lunge instructions I became a 'fan' of RMIT. (it have something to do with libraries ! - and I'm already a fan of Bayside libraries) I already have the ibook aplications, which involves reviewing books you've read. Although I haven't really kept up with that as well as I could have. I seem to be better at reviewing resteraunts. As that's a good excuse to eat out more at different places.

Up till now I haven't really investigated Myspace. I have have a quick look but after finding I couldn't find what I wanted IMMEDIATELY, I moved on. I can be a little impatient with technology sometimes. Especially when it's supposed to be 'fun'. But tonight, after my class, I will make it my mission to have a investigate Myspace. Who knows, I might even create a profile. Either way I will reveal all in my next post. Till then...

Wiki's away!

Another short post I'm afraid. I just jumped into the Swanston library page of the lunges Wiki and made a short contribution regarding our campus libraries uniqueness.

Like Beck, I thought it felt very odd 'tampering' with some one else's content. I whole heatedly encourage the use of wiki's and can see a place for them but alas, it just feels wrong, for me at least.

Podcast's away!

Check out the Podcasts I just embedded (?) on the right at the bottom. They are from the ABC Radio National site and consist of a series of Biography's.

How can we use this technology to promote the library?

How can we use this technology to promote the library?
Who know, the possibilities are endless

In January (or possible Feb) I was at the Online Information conference in Melbourne. I went to a session on ‘Podcasting your library’ presented by the University of Newcastle library. It was particularly relevant for me at the time as I was Information Literacy librarian with Holmesglen then and we were focused on the creation of podcasts for the Information Commons (Library). If they’re still on the website, you could probably hear me voicing at least one pod their podcasts still. Until then I thought Podcasts were short movies comprising of vocals and visual. Now I know that they are mainly vocal, some times featuring visual. If you’re interested in watching some of the podcasts created by the University of Newcastle go to their website at http://www.newcastle.edu.au/service/library/orientation/index.html and check out their ‘Hear- Do – Learn’ section on the ‘Getting to know the library’ page. Although technically I think they may be Vodcasts. But I’m still a bit vague on the exact detail.

The podcasts they demonstrated at the conference made me see that it was possible to make podcasts about the library some what entertaining and fun, while imparting relevant and useful information. The podcast they played at the conference was about the library being open 24/ 7. The aspect that made it most entertaining was that the library had asked actual students to help with the script and in performing it. I think they may have been performing arts students too. The script involved a students chatting to another students about the long opening hours then falling asleep and snoring half way through cause he, had stayed at the library 24/7 just to test the theory.

I also discovered a cool Vodcast (mainly cause it’s set in Melbourne) but it is funny. Girl Friday http://www.girlfriday.tv/
Although I haven’t seen all the episodes so can’t vouch for the content. I can tell you that at least one episode is set at the Holmesglen Information Commons in Moorabbin and that while they were filming a piece involving some one complaining to the librarian (an actor) that it was too noise and the librarian of course, goes on to shhhhh some one, there were real life students in the IC complaining to the real life librarians about the film crew being too noise.

The up shot of all of this is that there are many examples of libraries’ integrating podcasts (and other new web 2.0 technologies) into their marketing plans and I think if we investigate a little we could come up with some brilliant ideas. Every one having a go at the 21 lunges and familiarising with the sorts of technologies out there is a brilliant first step!

Podcast to come...as soon as I can choose one I like enough to post !
Although have you seen how long it can take me to choose what to eat!? And this is just a podcast ;)

Work Sponsored travel!

They didn’t quite send me overseas, but to the next best place, the RMIT Bundoora campus! Last week as part of my induction I was given cab vouchers and instructions to meet with loads of lovely people. This I did. Sitting in a taxi, listening to music in the sun and checking out the sites on the way wasn’t a bad was to while away 40 minutes. I know, how sad, but I haven’t been out that way before and found it kinda interesting.

The Bundoora West campus is really beautiful. What a great place to study! It felt very rural after the Swanston Campus. The library was split over three levels, the top two levels consisted of lots of comfortable spaces for students to study including a number of silent study rooms. There were loads of windows overlooking outdoor, green spaces and gum trees. I thought it was a really well designed layout especially the main entrance level which was open plan allowing for maximum natural light to filter in. This was where the majority of students PC's were as well as the loans/ reference desk. Most factors had been taken into consideration when creating the new design including ergonomics. I even liked the ‘basement’ level with its aubergine coloured walls opposite mirrored walls. Basement level reminded me of a night club I used to like in Lonsdale street lots of years ago. It was just missing the shag pile carpet and fish tank (complete with floating goldfish) and I would have felt right at home.

I also had the opportunity to visit the small Bundoora East campus library. The few students in the library were all dressed up in suites ready to do a major presentation. The subject matter over there was interesting too. Very specialised and technical engineering / aeronautical oriented. I think it would be a nice place to work as it had a really welcoming feel. Same with Bundoora West campus for that matter, I met every one I had intended to and a few more to boot. Both students and staff were extremely hospitably. And the hot chocolate out there’s pretty good too. Thanks Velma! I was really impressed with the equipment they had to empty the returns chute very OH&S compliant and very clever. But then they had the space for it.

Overall, it was a very worthwhile visit. I learned a lot about the organisational structure overall, effective utilisation of library spaces, how others are approaching joint projects such as the Libguides and how others in similar roles are getting the best results.

The trip back via the ring road was even entertaining. It was especially amusing when the taxi driver asked me to “just thump him awake if he fell asleep while driving” as he was up partying till late the night before and was very tired. Demonstrated when he rolled down the window and stuck his entire head out into the cold, fresh air to ‘wake himself up’.

And now off to investigate Podcasts!

Welcome.......to me! and you of course ;)

Hello and Welcome to my blog. Who am I welcoming you ask ? Well myself of course. To the new, and hopefully exciting, world of blogging. And of course any one else out there who's reading this.

I guess I should introduce myself. I'm very new to my current working environment but I'm really enjoying it so far. I think because it involves working with people not just being stuck behind a desk and staring at a computer. I do miss my previous work colleagues but I still see them regularly. I haven't completely cut ties with the TAFE world. But the Higher Ed world seems to be a much bigger pond. Well adios for now, lets hope my next entry is more enlightening.