Productivity with RSS

Sigh, I must admit to not even looking at my feed reader since creating and briefly using it for Learning 2.0.

I was using Bloglines and although it was great to receive feeds of my choice which could be accessed anywhere I had internet access, I always found it extremely irritating that I could not delete the feeds once I had read them and decided I no longer wanted them.  It was possible to delete a feed subscription altogether but not an indivdual feed received. 

Despite searching I could not find any information in the help section about how to do this. Google Reader also didn't seem to offer this deletion option either and I so badly wanted to tidy up my feeds list!

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I actually found it easier to simply subscribe to the most desired feeds via my Internet browser and only look at them when on the computer I had used to subscribe on.

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Using a Rss filter like Feedrinse is not required.  I find that when searching for the initial website to see if it has feeds, one can simply use good keyword searches and actually look at the site to be able to decide if it meets your needs.

Slideshows! Screencasting & Digital storytelling

I love slideshows and they are especially effective when one wants to portray an emotion and show the progression of a  story from beginning to end.

You can simply show the picture slides, add text, music or a voiceover to really invove the target audience.

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If only we had a screen near our library's entrance...  We have a perfect captive audience in all those eager members who wait outside counting down the minutes till our doors open.  Our library could do a slideshow showing the year that passed at the library!

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Here is a slideshow I found when looking at Authorstream. 

You can play it here and 

* Simply watch the pics with the volume turned on

* Watch it in full screen mode with the volume turned on to see the factual information about the festival and the information about the individual picture slides in the text box. You can speed up the show by placing your mouse indicator in the text box and clicking on this when you are ready to move on. Simply press ESC to return to the blog.

* Alternatively, you can go to the actual site and play it there. Visit:

http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/Nubiagroup-1233817-nubia-group-diwali-festival-of-lights/

Note: there are 100 slides to possibly see but it is well worth it!

DIWALI Festival Of Lights

More PowerPoint presentations from Nubia

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Online Screencasting looks interesting and I can immediately see one benefit to using tools like Screenr - decreased delays in broadcasting the finished product!

Provided one has a fast enough internet connection, one can play the screencast eliminating all of those nasty pauses while we wait for the website to open up and as the trainer manually works their way through all of the individual steps as sometimes technology can be too slow when in a live training session.

Additionally,  if online access to this screencast is also provided one can revisit and replay as many times as one requires to be able to learn the procedures involved.

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The digital storytelling "Culture Shock" project was also fascinating to read, watch and listen to.

Not only did it provide an insight into the individual people's stories, but it also leaves a great record of the varying accents of the people of North East England.

Visit: http://www.cultureshock.org.uk/home.html to watch and listen

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Nings - What did I like about them?

I liked how they allow you to put so much related content in the one location.

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After looking at each of the suggested nings (some more briefly than others), I can see how, provided it involved something you were interested in, one could really enjoy them.

For instance the Mosman Readers ning - Visit: http:www.mosmanreaders.net 

This ning really was great for promoting the joy of reading and books. 

It offered access for members to:

1. Books reviews - and not just the best sellers which one doesn't always want to read.

2. Book suggestions sent to your email - from the new books just arrived in the library and those anticipated to come.  One could tailor the suggestions received by choosing from a genre list and the handy direct link to the library's catalog allowed one to see if it was available, failing this it could be reserved.

3.  Bookclubs run by the library which you could join and the list of bookclub kits offered by the library.

4. Online magazine subscribed to by the library 

5. Library blog and a teen blog (presumably produced by the Kids/YA team).

6. Library events 

7. Photos of the fun involved at said events

* Members could choose their level of involvement from simply just looking at what was on the ning to commenting on blog posts, registering for email suggestions and attending events.

* Library Staff involvement was also allowed with staff picks for books to read!

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Having this ning means that unlike with the library section on one's council website so much information can be placed in the one spot with hopefully more flexibility as to when content could be added and in what format and by whom....

Evaluation

Evaluate ... analyse and most certainly get statistics for.

Thank god for web based tools as it makes these steps so much easier!

I mainly looked at Google Alerts and Webmonkey and found that 

Google Alerts - Is so easy to use.

Setting up the alert service was extremely easy.  I did one for my work library and got an alert sent to my email that day.  The alert contained a brief summary (including the key words requested) with a link to the main content on the relevant website.

This service could be easily used by a library with the library's email used as the recipient to keep track of comments made by other people, businesses and institutions about our services, programs and council.

It's an inexpensive (free) and undemanding way of getting feedback and can be utilised for a short or long period as required.

Survey monkey - was a little harder to use

It was fairly easy to navigate but it kept having issues with sending out my test survey even when the email receipient really, truly did exist and I had double checked I had entered it correctly and scheduled the email to be sent immediately.

Having previously experienced completing a survey I knew that it was an easy and relatively painless thing to complete but maybe the paid survey monkey option suffers no glitches....

Back to del.icio.us

In going back to delicious, I was momentarily surprised to discover that my delicious account no longer existed, even though I thought I had migrated it when prompted way back when changes to delicious's ownership was happening... and my user name still existed, as I discovered when I tried to create another account with my real name.

Once that hurdle had been crossed and I had refreshed my memory by reading the help section on delicious I was able to save links again quite easily. 

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One new reason to like delicious (as much time has passed since I last used it) was that it will save me a lot of time saving bookmarks/favourites to the multiple web browsers I have since installed on my computer.

Why do I have more than one web browser?

Because not every browser would let me use all of the tools I had installed on my computer.

When online I would save websites of interest but if I couldn't remember which browser I had saved it on I would have to check what was stored for the browser I was currently using and would then have to save it again, and again until all browsers shared the same information.

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My attempts at searching delicious using my browser address bar just seemed to result in a jumbled mess of sites which were not really relevant to my search terms. for e.g. http://delicious/tag/books+fantasy

got me sites from for e.g. 

http://www.deliciousorchardsnj.com/ --> which offers "baked goods, the finest meats and cheeses with a unique deli, prepared foods, and grocery sections" 

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Searching my links using the search box when logged on to my delicious account also was a bit hit and miss.  Even tags that I could see quite clearly existed sometimes did not appear when searched for!

The steps for finding new bookmarks from the public libraries blog 

(http://publiclibrariesnewtechnologies.blogspot.com.au/2009/11/delicious.html) 

didn't work as the delicious inbox was empty!

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So, although I have rediscovered a use for using delicious, it doesn't really go beyond keeping my favourite website links in one place as I have found that searching the web provides better results than searching delicious.

 

Twitter - Tweets

Quick searches on topics of libraries and public libraries provided the following tweets of interest:

1. Comments on the role of a library - somewhere to go now that bookshops are closing down..

Visit: Can libraries pick up the slack from bookstores? - The Washington Post http://pwne.ws/SkJ1CO

twitted on 2/11/12 by Publishers Weekly@PublishersWkly –> Takes you to: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/all-opinions-are-local/post/can-libraries-pick-up-the-slack-from-bookstores/2011/03/09/gJQAXpn4ta_blog.html

2. Interesting facts on libraries
Visit: Evidently, some ghosts are eternal bookworms: 10 haunted libraries around the world: http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2012/10-haunted-libraries-of-the-us/ … via @mental_floss

Twitted on 3/11/12 by Grace Ioppolo@ProfShakespeare –> Takes you to:
http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2012/10-haunted-libraries-of-the-us/

3. Interesting ideas on where a library can exist - not just inside a building!

Visit: Public phone booths in New York repurposed into libraries http://bit.ly/AoB8k2

Twitted on 2/11/12 by Lost at E Minor @lostateminor –> Takes you to:
http://www.lostateminor.com/2012/03/10/public-phone-booths-in-new-york-repurposed-into-libraries/
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This prompted me to search for another area of interest - Repurposing aka recycling/reusing items

Visit: Coolness!! -> 30 Creative Ways to Repurpose & Reuse Old Stuff
Bored Panda http://www.boredpanda.com/creative-reuse-upcycling-repurposing-ideas/ … via @boredpanda

Twitted on 9/11/12 by Yonela Tananda@yonelatananda
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Twitter to me seems to be another great tool for promoting events, items for sale, people, places and things. Simply send a quick tweet with a link to a website for more information for interested parties.

Searches for my own library shows tweets on upcoming author talks, school holiday programs for the kids and dates for the next book sale.
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Twitter as a loudspeaker to announce what someone is currently wearing, eating, doing on a daily basis is less interesting but can be useful for instance in the event of a natural disaster.  The ability to quickly announce ones location or alert others to a dangerous situation cannot be denied ... as long as someone you know checks your tweets.

Refreshing one's blog

Week 13 begins...

After much consideration I have finally decided on the new template design you see now.

However, I really liked my original design and so have included an image of the original background I used opposite. This was taken from blogger's template designer.

It's from the collection of Abstract pictures andit was designed by "Suprun".

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One thing I discovered when changing my template was that not everything changed perfectly. I had to fix some of the text colours as what was perfectly clear suddenly became either invisible or too dark! I also needed to update my website links and Rss feeds as some of these had changed since I originally posted about them.

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Since finishing L2.0 I have not blogged at all, instead, I have been looking at other blogs and have discovered that a lot (if not most) authors now have blogs. These can really keep you informed as to when the next novel is coming out, if they are doing any book signings, etc.

One blog which I heartly recommend is Gail Carriger's blog which can be found at: http://gailcarriger.livejournal.com

Anyone who is a fan of her parasol protectorate series set in Victorian London involving werewolves, vampires, ghosts and the soulless Alexia Tarabotti will love this.