I commenced the program aware that my knowledge of the internet and the tools that people were talking about and using, was starting to fall behind and this would be a wonderful opportunity to gain this knowledge in a structured way.I began slowly (well taking holidays will absorb a big chunk of time and not having access to the internet at home was limiting), but once I really got going I have enjoyed the opportunity to learn about these resources. I'm sure you've noticed by now a tendency to include lots of "fun" elements which kept me amused tracking them down and incorporating them into my blog.
Key learnings
I have learnt that Flickr isn't a horse (ie. My friend Flicka) or a light driving someone crazy and it is an incredible resource for storing and sharing photos. (It also has lots of fun tools associated with it).
Bloglines are a valuable resource and I now check my feeds daily to gain a quick overview of those areas of interest I identified and must admit that it does save alot of time.
There are a lot of reources on the internet that allow you to have fun. It was fairly obvious that I enjoyed play week, as this was when my blog suddenly started sprouting games, pictures, etc. and I loved LibraryThing - a great way to list all your favourites / personal collection and share them with others.
From Rollyo I created my AFL search engine, which I have used and found effective, although in the long term it will probably be more useful for retrospective searches than current issues as they will be picked up via my bloglines feeds.
I love the concepts of Del.icio.us, Zoho Writer and Google documents and spreadsheets as they allow you to operate effectively no matter where you are based. I do think that the web based applications still require some development before they replace Microsoft Office programs, however, I suspect it is just a matter of time before they evolve to something more sophisticated or Microsoft make a big leap and setup their own web based applications.
Wiki's rock and I can see there are signifcant uses for them within libraries. They can be used:
- internally to managed policies, procedures, forms, etc. instead of intranets
- for pathfinders, booklists, etc. which can be opened up to the community so they can share their links
- for socialised community information linked to the library website - what a simple way to make your website a virtual community hub.
YouTube, podcasting and eBooks have all been around for some time with varying degrees of takeup/success in the wider community. These are key tools/resources for us to use to promote libraries to those members of the community who are fully utilising web 2.0.
Final reflection
At the conclusion of the program, I am far more aware of the evolution of web 2.0 and the key resources which are available for all to access, and I've certainly accessed sites/tools which I will continue to use.I believe that in order for public libraries to continue to remain as a relevant resource and a key community hub, we need to embrace these resources and incorporate them into everyday policy and planning.
Web 2.0 and beyond should not catch us unaware, we should be planning now on how we can utilise these technologies to enhance and promote our services, so that our virtual libraries continue to grow to meet the needs of our communities.
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