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Just wanted to say thank-you to YPRL and especially Fiona for organising the course. I've really enjoyed the experience and have learnt a lot about what is out there in web land. Like most people I'd heard of these applications but had not explored many of them. The hands-on nature of the course was very good and I now have a greater appreciation of what's involved. I found most of the applications were user-friendly and easy to set up accounts and could immediately seem like a real info. maven. I appreciate the effort of bloggers who maintain their sites year after year as posting regularly could become quite daunting.It will be interesting to see what applications we can develop in our health library as IT blocks many of the sites (eg. Facebook, Youtube). The Wiki may come in handy once it's established and for my own use I really appreciated LibraryThing. Of course one of the main lessons I take away from the experience is how important it is that time and effort is devoted to maintaining and updating any of the Web 2.0 applications the library may employ. Thanks again for the opportunity to delve into this world.
I can see e-books being very effective especially with regard to textbooks where you can easily search on screen for specific areas of interest. The Gutenberg Project is a great undertaking especially as a lot of texts go out of print. I did look into the audio books at my local library (Port Phillip) - The title Jane Eyre comprised 16 compact discs that approximated to 20 hours of listening time. I must admit though that the tactile reality of the book you can snuggle up to read in bed will always be my preference.
I had a play with both of these this week. As I was using the work computer I didn't like to download any software so could only look at podcasts that didn't require additional downloads. I set up an Odeo account and was able to subscribe to a podcast by Nancy Pearl an American librarian on whom the library action figure is based: http://www.mcphee.com/items/11247.htmlShe presents a show called Book Lust where she interviews authors and I now have access to several of the most recent on my blog.YouTube is fab. I could spend hours looking at all the esoteric fragments from my childhood and beyond which had faded in the mists of memory. But here they were again vivid and slightly cheesy ! I embedded a video showing the opening song to an Australian TV show called Adventure Island which I remember racing home to watch after school. Of course there are also myriad educational possibilities for this technology! It could be very useful in sharing instructional information across the globe.
