The end is nigh!

After a bit of a roundabout route and a last minute dash I've made it to the 23rd thing!  I'm really glad I tried out all the things, even if it would not use all of them again.  I'm not planning to use LinkedIn in the near future or delicious.  It is good to know they are there and how they work, maybe they will be useful one day.  I'm keeping my iGoogle page and will try to build up my RSS feeds - all the 23 things feeds will disappear so I can add some more library blogs.

It has been useful to find out more about how other libraries use web 2.0 and has made me think about how tools can be used in a library setting.  It was also nice to do the activities as a good and has been a good talking point in the office.  I am grateful for the assistance provided by my colleagues when I got stuck!  Hopefully this knowledge will be useful when I go to study at UWE in the autumn.

Widgets

Rather than add a delicious widget, I have played around with my existing widgets and added a word cloud.  I tried out delicious from home and ended up with a long list of hairdressers, which isn't very useful for this site! I have also got rid of my flickr stream because my photos were not very exciting.  I might add it again if I create an album of photos about my thesis project.

I have had a go with Wordle to make this cloud.  It is not a tag cloud, I have copied and pasted the text from my blogs into the site.  This came up with more interesting results than the option to make a cloud based on the URL of my blog.  Phil Bradley suggests using Tagxedo and I am going to try that from home because it requires a Microsoft Silverlight and I don't want to download things like that to a work PC.

I also tried to personalise my template using Blogger in draft but the page would not open properly - I wondered if this was because the work PCs use an old form of IE?

Wikis

To confuse people further, I am doing another entry out of sync - this time about wikis.  I did not like the format of the OULS wetpaint wiki because I found the animated adverts distracting - I suppose that they allow users to have sites for free, but it's a shame that they are not static.  Also it was a shame that the layout of the site was not more attractive or personal like the format of our blogs. 

I did not contribute to the wet paint wiki but I did add a sentence to the wikipedia entry for the SSL to note our name change.  To edit the blog I had to type in a window with html-type bits which was a bit daunting.  I really like using wikipedia to find out bits and bobs, but I always try to remember that it is not an authoritative source and that I cannot rely on it to be correct or up to date.  As a collaborative tool, the most interesting wiki I have found is the Library Routes Project about library careers. I am glad I tried wikis because I think they might pop up again in future jobs.

Clouds and slow documents

Quite a few other 23 things bloggers have complained about the slowness of ThinkFree Office, especially in comparison to Google Docs.  Another point that I found to add was that I found Google Docs easier to navigate around.  I liked the templates that were available and would consider using them for future projects - eg planners and photo albums.  I tried uploading a few different types of document and found that my Powerpoints even when converted were good but that a Word doc with pictures, arrows and text boxes lost the arrows and text boxes.  When I kept the Word document in its original format it was displayed correctly but I found the text more difficult to read.

I think Google Docs is a good idea, especially for people who have to move about and still access documents but they would need to be confident that they had access to the internet. I know that it is possible to work offline with some sites, but you would need to connect to save changes eventually.  Also more complicated formats don't seem to work when uploaded so I'm not sure what would happen in the other direction if you wanted to save a document created in Google Docs back to Microsoft Office.  Perhaps it would be useful as an emergency back up storage site.  Also I do worry about these things just floating about in the ether, so won't put up those top secret bank heist plans!

LinkedIn

Like a lot of other bloggers doing the 23 things I'm not sure about using LinkedIn because it requires a lot of data input.  I'm not sure if I want to share that much information with people and also would have to make sure that it remained up to date.  Also, I'm not expecting to get headhunted if I put a snazzy CV up.  If I was looking for a job then it might be worth pursuing but for now I have registered and had a nosey round and now I'm going to unregister.  It would not look good to leave a blank profile up either!

Twitter time

I had not used twitter before - mainly because I thought it was for 'old' people ie over 25s who can afford internet phones.  As a pay as you go kind of gal such on the move live updates are beyond my reach.

With my fellow SSL trainee's help I added a twitter widget to my iGoogle page and am mostly following other Oxford trainees.  There have been some interesting conversations about library conferences - who's going, is it too expensive, etc.  I am also following some organisation tweets including one for UWE - where I am planning to study next year.  It's interesting to see what people are talking about but I have not done a lot of tweeting and I think it could easily become a distraction at work.

Maybe this kind of app will become more useful/used when more people use internet on their phones.

Facebook is for friends

I was surprised by how many Oxford libraries have Facebook pages.  I have used Facebook for quite a long time (I remember when you had to be a member of a uni and prove it to join), but have only ever used it for messaging friends, stalking acquaintances and procrastinating during exam revision.  I have been a member of groups normally for invites to friends' parties or because someone has lost their phone and wants to send a group message out to their friends so they can recuperate their numbers.

I was impressed by the effort the libraries have put in to adapting their pages for library purposes.  A page is definitely much more useful than a group because it can be open to people who are not facebook members and accessed anonymously.  Nonetheless, I think it would be better for a library to have its own 'proper' site or page because I would never think to search for work or study things on Facebook and I wouldn't trust it in the same way I would trust an official site to provide reliable information.

Twitter - a fable for the inexperienced

A Guardian paper blog I came across today demonstrates how web2.0 can go wrong.  The makers of a Conservative webpage aimed at attacking Gordon Brown had their site hacked and also their Twitter overtaken by anti-Tory tweeters because the tweet feed was unmoderated.  I'm still getting to grips with Twitter but it has made me think about how important it is to get sites right if you are an institution or organisation with a reputation to uphold.

Podcasts and YouTube

At last we have reached some common or garden Web2.0 apps that I already use! I use iTunes and listen to podcasts during my commute to Oxford. My treat of the week is The News Quiz or The Now Show. 

I think this could be a very useful tool in the academic world, and also youTube to open up lectures to a wider audience.

In a more library specific setting, Bodcasts are a great way of opening up some of the talks and exhibitions put on the by the Bodleian, which require a lot of effort but can only be attended by small audiences.

The SSL has a fun wee induction video on YouTube.  Warwick Uni's library has some really good videos that explain how to reserve books - I would have liked this at my uni and it would be useful at Oxford too - I know at least one trainee who is doing a video project this year.

Delicious but not very pretty

This app would be very useful for keeping a trace of useful links, because I find my bookmarks are full and untidy - and only on my laptop!  Having looked at some of the library delicious pages I can see how they are useful, but I think the layout is rather unattractive.  The sites were easy to navigate by clicking on the tags, but I'm not sure if I would have made the effort to trawl through this when I was a student - especially if I had been an Oxford student using lots of different libraries.

I also don't think many students would know that OULS/Bodleian Libraries has a Web2.0 directory page.  I show a lot of students the OULS site and they usually seem surprised about how much information is available there about admissions and library borrowing rights etc.

Things 9 and 10 have made me wonder about how to promote Web2.0 tools to readers - the SSL has an LCD screen above its issue desk that could be useful for advertising this kind of thing.

The world of constant updates

Just to confuse people, this is a blog about Things 5 and 6 - the RSS feeds.  I have added 2 Phil Bradley blogs ( see Phil Bradley's I want to blog) which are very interesting - they give info about new web 2.0 apps.  Also I have found a blog by some other trainees at Middlesex University.

It's very helpful to group the blog posts together - now it's just a case of finding time to read them!  I haven't added the feed to my Google homepage because I think I'd get distracted by it when I'm at work and should be making room bookings or pricing books for invoices.

Photo Fun

Last week - I'm running a bit behind with my blogs - I signed up for Flickr and Piknik. I normally put photos I want to share on Facebook because my friends and family can see them there (if they don't have Facebook I can send them the link to the album). I'm not sure if I would continue putting things up on Flickr, but I was pleased by how simple it was to use.

Piknik was also very easy and quick. I normally use Microsoft Picture Editor to auto adjust photos and resize them because then I can save them quickly. I think this would be useful at work if I needed to alter photos quickly - for a poster, for example.

With the help of some SSL collegues I have added a flickr stream to my blog but I have been having much more hassle link in photos into this blog entry so I have uploaded a snowy pic from my computer instead!

Blogging

Having has a nosey at some of the other 23 things blogs I have been surprised by how many bloggers were nervous or lacking confidence in their Web2.0 skills. It came as no surprise that quite a few people didn't know a lot about the different tools, but it didn't occur to me that they would be 'scary'. At the other end of the scale are some very experienced bloggers who talk the talk.

I might not know a lot about some of the Web2.0 things we are going to be trying out over the coming weeks but I'm not expecting them to leave me completely flummoxed. This is mainly because once you've got a few of the main things down - signing in, creating profiles, uploading files - most sites are quite easy to navigate. If all else fails there's always trial and error!

In terms of blogging I don't think this is something I would do at an individual level because I don't have enough to say (Susan - the other SSL trainnee - will attest to my love of succinct phrases wherever possible). They are very useful for collective information sharing. For instance, the SSL staff blog is great for sharing information about lost property, IT problems, messages about readers coming to collect books/needing assistance. It is especially good as a way to ensure staff who work mainly on the issue desk are kept up to date and for info to pass between day staff and evening/weekend staff. The Oxford Graduate Trainees blog is also a good way to discuss library things with between the trainees - like the 23 things!

The wonders of iGoogle

I had lots of fun setting up my iGoogle homepage, although I would have preferred squirrels to penguins. The page might take some refinement thought to ensure my tools are useful. My fellow SSL trainee had the clever idea of having two tabs - work and home - to organise two homepages so maybe I'll copy that. The SSL has its own iGoogle homepage which is very useful. It has all the links we need for staff working on the issue desk - to our blog, online diary etc. Sometimes my homepage can feel a bit slow though - maybe it's the penguins.

Thing 3 - Blogging begins

Hopefully the 23 Things will allow me to deal will Web 2.0 things with more confidence and knowledge, especially if I get asked about it in a library school interview! Although I'm happy to pootle about on sites like Facebook and YouTube, this is the first time I've considered Web2.0 tools through a 'library lens'.