Week 11: e-books

I wasn't clear about joining up to the World Ebook Fair site & paying $8.95 (US) or whatever....there was nothing there that really attracted me. I couldn't find any free downloads there as was suggested in the discovery exercise. The Australian site of the Gutenberg Project is much more interesting http://gutenberg.net.au/#ebookreaders It has a good overview write up on the ebook readers that you can get for portable reading rather than reading from your lap or desktop computer. Pretty pricey... I have a flyer that I picked up at last year's HLI's conference day from DA Information. They can sell you an iRex digital reader that is a bit bigger than A4 size for $1,149. I was also interested in reading on the Gutenberg site that you can become a proof-reader for the Project. They send you scanned pages to proofread because they can become distorted in the scanning process. There are strict guidelines on how you proofread, and another person surveys your work before the book goes online for everyone else to access.
I've just found the "parent" home site for the Gutenberg Project, which is a better place to go to than the World Ebook Fair site for totally free stuff (no $8.95 required). http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page I found some nursing books there written by Florence Nightingale.

Pheew...here is Mr Bean at last

Had to have the Edit Html tab activated in the create posts box. Then cut & pasted the embedded stuff on Youtube. I won't do the same for Chaser War on Everything's Crazy warehouse spruiker guy at the library. You can look up WOE videos yourself...there's a few of them.

Week 10: Glitches

Somehow my links to my embedded Youtube videos do not work ....found this at home and at work, so I'll have to have another go. I was pretty tired when I did them last night but not sure if that's good enough excuse. I notice that others of you managed to get the picture screen up for your videos rather than just a link....I'd like to know how you did that. Will go back to the drawing board but that may not be for a couple of days. OK, I've just found the Add video icon in the compose box here. I'll try using that later, but have to do some work right now. Have a good weekend everyone.
Right, I've also discovered that there's a Youtube gadget in "gadgets".....how hard could it be?
Plenty of options here for me to use.

Week 10: Youtube

Well, I've found a couple of funny library videos & posted their links. I haven't spent too much time in Youtube testing and searching out things and so I'm not really in a place to comment about its features. As usual it seems to be a case of getting used to each site's terminology e.g. their Community tab is about the folks using Youtube rather than the larger community out there. I'd like to have look at TeacherTube too, but it's time to go, ...I've got square eyes & need a good night's sleep.

Week 10: Podcasts...hear, hear!

I found some good, sensible sounding podcasts to do with surviving in libraries in one of the directory links in the homework and tried to get them downloaded into the Juice program that I downloaded, but without any success. I don't have many IT genes I'm afraid. Then I read what Roz had done & so I also went to the Odeo directory type site in search of a simpler solution. http://odeo.com/ There I found that I could directly embed a podcast straight into my blog by using the HTML gadget in the blog customize thingy. I chose a podcast called Peter Cundell & Kostya Iszyu thinking that I'd be in for a bit of garden biffo entertainment! That's when I discovered how the directory descriptions given these podcasts can be a bit misleading. It was actually an ABC conversation hour interview firstly with Peter Cundell and then with Kostya Tszyu...how disappointing....but the LIBRARY link is that Peter Cundell started out his career in Australia as a librarian!
I've learnt that RSS technology is also used to move audio files around...not just headings & text. I was looking for the RSS symbol on the directory page, because the homework said "add an RSS feed for a podcast to your blog reader"....lack of those genes again, it seems. At least now I'm pretty right with "embedding" without blushing.

Coming down the back straight...(though not galloping)

Congratulations to those of you who have finished your exercises...what you've discovered and written about is helping me get on with the last tasks. I'm also happy to see that other bloggers are continuing on and I hope that we all get there in time. Thank you Fiona for persisting with us "late-ies". I've been doing some work on the podcasts and will write up on it in due course. I've gained much more confidence to "have a go" at this web stuff that sometimes seems to have the assumption that you should be able to follow what it's all about...how hard could it be? I've found that it raises more questions and quirky twists than appears on the surface, but ultimately that just adds to the breadth of the learning and a feeling of accomplishment when it starts to make sense and I can identify an actual useful application for the tools. See you later...

Week 9: Rollyo

I've created a search engine called "Aussie recipe sites" in Rollyo containing only 3 sites and managed to get a search box for it up on my blog, but I did find that a challenging task. Anyway, the search engine works to an extent, but I get a lot of irrelevant hits. I searched for "banana cake" and was taken first to actual recipes, but then other hits included pages where the term "banana cake" was mentioned in other contexts, so I will have to refine my search strategy. The big problem seems to be that Rollyo doesn't offer an Advanced Search option whereby you can cut out a lot of the non targeted stuff. Maybe it has but I haven't found it yet.
I can see that at work I can put together Rollyo search engines for the various student groups we have tailored toward their subject specialities and post it onto our learning management system that is coming "soon". Recently a health librarian on our library listserve asked if any other librarians could refer her to good free websites to do with pathology & anatomy with illustrations (I think...I'm working from home & can't check work emails) and she got some responses that she compiled into a list that she shared with the rest of us. I'll have a look at it and maybe it could be the basis of a Rollyo search for our pathology students.

Week 9: Wikis - not as quick as the name makes out

The exploration of wikis has taken me some time . I wondered why as part of the homework we have not been required to start up a wiki, but as I've looked at them, they are a bit more technical than a blog. It seems that special wiki markup language is required when contributing for most of them, and I notice that YPL's wiki has changed into a blog! Does this mean that the wiki editing protocol is a bit too much for the average Jo Blow? Yet, Wikipedia seems to get plenty of input. I think a great use of wikis in the library environment is for knowledge management within the organisation...policy & procedures etc. and general knowledge sharing that would otherwise be stuck in some one's head. A good system of indexing or built-in search engine would make the wikis easier to use. A good, well used wiki is the ALIA "Summer reading club" where public librarians share ideas about program promotions of all sorts (like Library Week). Wikipedia's entry on wikis has very useful tables of comparison of the scores of wiki software providers...it seems to be a minefield with free software & paid for services available. As a tool I think the best application of a wiki is for collaborative works. There seems to be a variety of ways that they can be accessed ...entirely open or closed to just a few people who have the right to edit while other people have read-only access. I haven't had a go at making an entry in a wiki yet...some of them provide a "sandbox" where you can practice & play around with the markup language without fear of messing up anything important. Until I do some playing around in the sandbox I'm not sure if I will be enthusiastically embracing wikis as a tool. I would like to get one going for our family as a place for us to record family history & things that we remember from our childhoods based on subjects. That's a bit further down the track, I think. The spell checker kept on wanting me to change "wiki" to "Kiwi", but I think it's now given up.

Week 8: Delicious - and mostly tasteful.

As with some of the web.2 tools it's taken me awhile to get the point of Delicious. I've transferred my work Favourites to my Delicious account. My Favourites folders are quite well organised, so I wondered what I would gain from having tags etc. What I've worked out is:
1. At least my Favourites are now saved in another place. My work computer once crashed and for some reason my Favourites list wasn't backed up on the server, so I had to start all over again.
2. Sometimes I can't decide which folder is the best one to file an URL in ...a few could be applicable but it seems that in Explorer you can only save an URL once and not in multiple folders. This is where the tags are really useful in Delicious.
3. Delicious can be used like a filtered Google search. The websites that are included in Delicious are ones that other people think are worth visiting and therefore you can cut down on the amount of sites you have to wade through.
4. I have set up an RSS feed from a search I did on a genetic syndrome that I'm gathering information on, so this will alert me if other people having a like interest add a new site to their bookmarks.
5. I like the concept of bundling together tags on a website and I plan to organise this for my library clients when our new website at work gets up.
So this is something that I shall use, but the thought of going through all my Favourites and adding tags for each site is a little daunting. Still, using other people's tags as a basis will make it somewhat easier. Times have really changed since the strict rules of forming correct, hierarchical and consistent subject headings...now we can just use "cool" descriptors like "fun.stuff". How I will miss "Recreation - mental exercises".

Week 7: iGoogle

This was a lot of fun to set up...especially as I haven't gone anywhere near gadgets in Blogger. It was like the lolly shop..I wanted this, that & the other gadget on my site, and I could just have it by clicking. Sudoku, recipes etc....even got the petrol price feed that I couldn't get as an RSS feed from the RACV (but it is disappointing in that it doesn't seem to list the petrol stations I would most go to). There's no problem if you don't like what you choose...you just delete it. I haven't played around much with the "theme" (why don't they say background) or tried editing gadgets yet...had too much fun just grabbing them like a little kid. It's a good tool to gather together the things that I most want to refer to and will think about how I can get some of my "favourites" as links onto the page...I suppose one of these clever developers would have to set it up as a gadget e.g. the rainfall records from the Bureau of Meteorology for the South Gippsland region which I refer to just about daily. Maybe iGoogle could have a setting up type page where they take you through the steps to help you create your own gadget from a favourite website. (How hard could it be??) Maybe there is already a way of doing this that I haven't picked up on yet...can anybody tell me how to do this? Janice, if you know and tell me, you can have a chocolate!

Week 6: Google Maps...still playing

View Larger Map
I think this is the Woy Woy Public Library (at Gosford)..does any one know if it is?

Week 6: Google Book Search

This is a handy one stop site to get various bits of information about books. I searched for "We of the Never Never" and was impressed with what came up. There was about 70 pages of the 220 page book free to read, and I was able to do a term search for "horses" within those pages.
There are various ways that I could use the information in my library. It aggregates various ports of call such as Libraries Australia's catalogue entry for verification of bibliographic details, book shops for comparative prices, web and scholarly sources where the book has been referenced, other books which have included quotes from the text, reviews from readers (may help with book selection) and lists of libraries that have the book available. It seems that in the future libraries may have to pay a subscription to access some of the full text and Google is putting plenty of positive spin on this.

Week 6: Google Maps

Google Maps is interesting but confusing as well as the street view doesn't always line up with the address searched, and the zoomed in street view picture is too grainy to pick up names or numbers of buildings. I tried to identify the Woy Woy Public Library which seemed to be in a different place and I couldn't read the name on the building to confirm this....same went for the Quambatook Library (closest to Wycheproof) which looks like it's probably in the old Post Office, and it had been raining in Quambatook on the day the camera went through there and so the photos were pretty water marked. I had printed myself a first class Qantas ticket from Wycheproof to Woy Woy with an image generator so it was good to have a good look at the street views of both places before hopping on the plane. But I did have serious fun playing with Google Maps, and watching the little Youtube clips that some enthusiasts have put up on the maps....the one nearest to my home was of a street car burnout. The useful application seems to be for finding directions from one address to another, though there are some inaccuracies there too and the maps can be a bit out of date. Also being able to see the address before getting there is helpful...as long as you can clearly confirm it....use as a guide only.

Week 6: Google Docs

I created the entry below in Google Docs and posted it to the Blog. I accidentally found a great list of new features in Google Docs whereby I was able to add the drawing, but then I couldn't find that page again to use other features...very frustrating. The direct URL is www.google.com/google-d-s/whatsnew.html but how you find the link on the site is any one's guess. Still, Google Docs seems to be a useful tool especially for working simultaneously online with someone else. Could it be used for real time conversations? I'll have to think that one through. Now, on to maps, book search..... will get there.

Report on my LibraryThing project at work

Remember during Week 3 I set up a special LibraryThing site for my boss to view books that had been requested for purchase by the library by our various course coordinators. It took awhile for her to respond with her comments about this tool. Eventually she said that she really like the concept, but that she found it time consuming going into the comments page of each book to give her recommendations and comments and that she preferred to have the information in an email format that she could edit. So now what I do is put the books in the LibraryThing site and then print the details off using one of the display options, then I save that & paste into an email. She then replies and edits this document. She misses out on seeing the book covers and bibliographic details of each book, but at least she is more likely to just quickly do the job of approving the various books for purchase.

Comments on Week 5: My Space and Facebook.

Like a few of you I found the YPRL "yoof" MySpace site difficult to get around..the computer had a bit of a hissyfit. Then I tried the Forum tabs - Comedy and was confronted by a rather crude string of comments concerning possible activities involving a young lass's intimate apparel, and I got quite scared...hadn't really started the homework yet! Where would this social networking take me?! I sympathise with those of you with kids who are now up to this, and they haven't yet tweaked about the consequences if you are one of their "friends"! (...it's all part of their learning, tell them). I tried to get serious about the potential of MySpace for libraries...yes, good as a notice board for events & new acquisitions etc....good for small libraries who otherwise don't have a website for informing their patrons. I haven't had a chance to look for more "unyouthful" conventional library use of MySpace....does anyone know of a health library using it for specific purposes?
I opened up a FaceBook a/c with my new Google account which has practically nothing in the address book, so didn't get many people coming up that wanted me as their friend. The only ones that came up were the contacts of the only 2 people I have in my address book. Looking for friends, I searched for the names of some that hadn't so far come up and found some. Not sure that I want to build up a network though, as I'm a pretty bad correspondent at the best of times, and would probably lose interest...I contact friends etc in other ways. There would be certain times this a/c could come in handy I guess, but not sure that it's any better than blogging.
For interest groups I searched for "Blue Hills" appreciation type groups and would you believe, I got zilch?? You'd think there'd be a surging undercurrent in society wanting to thrash out the intriquing relationships and issues that emerged in the radio serial. Everybody else must be over it.
I did find a small group of ex pupils of my country primary school (Bona Vista Primary School which holds its centenary later this year). I was able to copy this info to my FaceBook wall.

Comments on Week 4: Feeling RSSed out (but in a good way)

This was a huge one for me because there is so much potential to find out more, even though the RSS concept is "really simple". I now understand RSS better and can see its potential. I think as website users get used to RSS they will demand more of their favourite sites to provide feeds...it certainly saves time.
I initially subscribed to the built in reader on Microsoft Explorer because it is so easy to access on my work computer as the icon is right there all the time. It does seem to be a "no frills" feeder though. I then subscribed to Google Reader and found that it has other advantages such as access to it from other computers away from work, and it has a lot more features such as organizing the feed list and searching for feeds by subject etc. I set up RSS feeds from searches I did on ProQuest's "Library Science" database using "twittering" and "LibraryThing" as search terms. This is something I can show my library users to do when they access similar databases and want follow-up on subjects of their interest. I hoped that PubMed would supply RSS for searches but they don't seem to. I'm interested in getting the latest articles on a genetic syndrome that affects a family member and I don't have access to Medline which I assume would RSS the search for me. I have subscribed to the following feeds:

Weatherzone (good comprehensive weather report with lots more features) Unfortunately the B. of Meteorology doesn't have an RSS of its own .http://webservice.weatherzone.com.au/rss/wx.php?u=13145&lt=aploc&lc=5594&obs=1&fc=1&warn=1

ABC - local recipes-Australia wide (thanks to inspiration from Janice's blog) This is GREAT!

ABC - News -just in (unfortunately the news is sometimes quite old & not as up to date as their local news page)

ABC - Blue Hills (term search of entire ABC site) - unfortunately this wouldn't take because of "code errors" at their site.

National Library's new books.



I was also hoping that the RACV would have RSS for the cheapest petrol prices etc, but "computer says ...NO00o".

Had a look at Bloglines which seems quite good, but will stick with what I've set up for now.

Twittering (just when we thought we knew it all)

I found this info. on the ALIA PD newsletter. Haven't been game to check it out myself....it's all a plot to totally deprive us of a sense of reality. There was an informative article about twittering in last weekend's The Age's "Good Weekend".

"Tweet! Free. Discover micro-blogging with Twitter
Get a fast introduction to Twitter by video at http://www.howcast.com/videos/149055-How-To-Use-Twitter. Sign up at Twitter and send your first tweet to a colleague then look at 26 charities and non-profits that tweet http://mashable.com/2009/03/19/twitter-nonprofits/ and be inspired to think about how your library or information service could use this technology.
Duration: The video takes only a few minutes but beware, you could become addicted to Twitter"

My comments on the course: Week 3: Image generators & LibraryThing

Interesting to know of the existence of image generators as tools so will keep them in the back of my mind in case I have an application one day. I'm not as visually orientated as some people, so are there sound generators as well?? (I guess that's why I'm into "Blue Hills"). I used Generator Blog for my exercise....so much to scroll through with so little time. This site could be made more useful if their huge list of generating tools were divided up into pictorial and text orientated tools. The names given to them do not usually mean much and who's got the time to check them all out? I went to ones that I could figure what they might be and had fun printing a first class Qantas airline ticket from Wycheproof to Woy Woy, and rewriting President Obama's inauguration speech where I was able to get him to thank librarians for making this historic occasion possible.

LibraryThing was more exciting for me and I've got lots more checking of the provided links to do to see how other libraries use it....I would use it more as a professional tool than a private tool. I've set up one use of it here at my work but so far no feedback from my boss! Will keep you "posted" as they say in Blogland.

LibraryThing is quite the thing!

Today at work I looked at a heap of books (on appro) that have been requested by staff members for the library to purchase and the details of which need to go to my manager for final approval. I figured that I could probably set up a LibraryThing account for us to communicate the details of books without having to write emails & lists as we've previously done. I'm pretty pleased with the result, although my manager hasn't had a chance to look at it yet and to give her input on the concept. Especially good is that my manager can see the book covers and extra publishing details if she wants without having to physically handle the books.
Anyway, I've mocked up a duplicate LibraryThing site to show you what I've set up, so have a look and give any feed back. It is a private site so you will need the login details once you go to LibraryThing's home page.

Member name: GrannyB Password: purchases

In the comments field I entered information about each book's price, initials of the staff member wanting the book and their reasons for recommending the purchase.
Then my manager can use the edit function to reply giving her approval for purchase or whatever else she wants to add. Once a decision has been made about the books, I can delete them from the list and start again with the next clutch of books requested for purchase.
...and it's only taken all morning to do!

Now for something a bit different...using an Image Generator

I've used one of my previously posted images and regenerated it to look like a 100 year old photo using an image generator which you can find at http://labs.wanokoto.jp/olds. And to think that some people spend money to get their old family photos updated to look newer! I think this application could create some really cool images of your favourite photos...like some of those cute dogs I've seen on one of your blogs. I found this generator on the Generator Blog...scroll down the list to "Old-style photo". http://generatorblog.blogspot.com/

My comments on the course: Week 2: Flickr

I'm not sure I could go through that process again! Had to set up a Yahoo a/c, then it wouldn't recognize me, but reluctantly changed its mind and let me in. Then I could set up the Flickr a/c and found all the decision making about who, how & what it should look like and what public account names I should choose fairly exhausting. Then I couldn't find the button to "blog this" photo anywhere...it was pointed out to me by another blogger that I had to click on the picture first to bring all those options up on screen, but this is not mentioned anywhere that I can see on the Flickr site.....bad website design when they don't cater for the complete idiot. Slowing getting over my post trauma and am pretty happy with what I've managed to get up on my blog. I don't think I'll go near "gadgets" yet......

Trevaunance Cove and the Blue Hills, St Agnes, Cornwall

Trevaunance Cove and the Blue Hills, St Agnes, Cornwall
Originally uploaded by Earthwatcher

This is another part of the homework for Week 2...I've found a picture I like on the Flickr site and am adding it to my blog. More Blue Hills, this time from Cornwall from where some of my ancestors come from.

Toora township (and Blue Hills) from Silcock's Hill

Toora township from Silcock's Hill
Originally uploaded by Aussie Spirit

Hey, it worked! So I'm doing another one just so that I can remember how I did it.. Time for a cup of tea...did anyone make some scones?

By the way, these 2 photos were taken by my husband....we are frequent visitors to South Gippsland.

"Blue Hills" of Wilson's Promontory

"Blue Hills" of Wilson's Promontory
Originally uploaded by Aussie Spirit

Week 2's exercise done at last! Boy it's been an effort to get this far with the task of utilizing Flickr. So hopefully this will work and this is my first picture up on the blog from the Flickr source. I uploaded some photos from "My pictures" on my computer into Flickr. Let's see if it works....! (Now, press "Post Entry")

The next episode..... "Where's the time going?"

Yes, as you may have guessed I am old enough to remember "Blue Hills" on the wireless. I grew up on a dairy farm near Warragul and listening to "Blue Hills" was serious business not to be missed or interupted.... and I heard the last episode in 1976 (in New Zealand!), but more of that later. You may like to visit the Landline Archive for journalist Pip Courtney's coverage of radio announcer Ingrid Just's enthusiasm for the social implications of radio serials then and now. I think it is exciting that she is doing what she can do to bring back such programs.

http://www.abc.net.au/landline/content/2008/s2503104.htm

This is a very short week for me and I may not be able to do this week's homework till next week, so no Flickr pictures to accompany this post I'm afraid.

My Comment on the Course: Week 1: Step 2

I've found this week's exercise pretty challenging with unfamiliar terms such as "Followers" and "Dashboard". This is the second go I've had at putting up this comments post.. I lost the first one after looking at the preview of it....then I couldn't work out how I could edit it and lost it instead. I notice that my time zone that appears after each post seems to be out of whack... I seem to be on Fiji time or something so I need to go into customize & sort it out... or I could just relocate to Fiji to fix it. I remember it was challenging when I was first exposed to Email all those years ago so I guess I'm up for the next challenge now. I've still got to check out the wiki and the FAQs which may help me. And I just discovered some "Help" links to one or more of the pages, so I've still got lots of exploring to do just to run my blog in a more flowing fashion. Time constraints mean that Granny Bishop herself hasn't had another look in with more thoughts on "Blue Hills" since the first post.

The beginning....

The reason I've named my Blog "Blue Hills Rolls On" is that I'm stimulated by a segment on last week's ABC "Landline" about a young Qld ABC announcer who has become fascinated by the social history of "Blue Hills". She is too young to remember this daily wireless serial that was broadcast on the ABC Country Hour from the 1960's till 1976, but she is intrigued by how thousands of ardent followers of the serial still have passionate memories of the characters and times. She has even gone on a scholarship overseas to find out if similar radio programs have a similar effect on their listeners... and, should the ABC think about bringing back some sort of radio serial that would meet some need for today's listeners. I've adopted the name "Granny Bishop" as she was the matriarch of the serial, and the one who has the last word when the final episode went to air. More in my next post.....