Margaret Atwood interviewed at TOC 2011

Wrap-up

Ah, the final post! The wrap-up! Moment to collect the thoughts and reflect at the experience. I liked the course although I have done almost all work at home, in my own time. I just couldn’t fit it in my daily workflow. It was interesting learning about new services and thinking about using them in a library. My most memorable experience was Twitter; I am going to continue using it. My initial thoughts about it were not very flattering as I was associating it with shallow celebrities sharing their incredibly interesting thoughts and statuses with the rest of the world. But then I discovered that Twitter’s properties that I thought would be the most irritating are the ones that I appreciate most. Twitter is concise and informative. Then I subscribed to follow Margaret Atwood, one of my favoured authors. And her Tweets are neither frivolous nor superficial. After that I’ve found Christchurch Libraries Twitter. (It just occurred to me that all course references are to US libraries, no links to New Zealand libraries. Hm. I suggest to anybody reading this post to go to http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/ and see for themselves how Web2.0 works there.) For me, Twitter experience was the highlight of the course and I would really like to see Mandurah Library using it in the near future.
I also want to say thank you to people who organised the course and who had to read my posts and follow my progress. You deserve a big piece of decadent chocolate cake and a cup of strong coffee!

Geocaching

I don’t know what to think about Geocaching. It remindes me of some video game transplanted into real life. And I find video games unnecessary complicated and, because of that, boring. At the same time I can see how it can be very popular with young people and children in library as they relate to video-games easily and naturally. I am sure that children and young people librarians will find many ways to engage their patrons and interact with them through Geocaching.

Podcasts

I've checked my Twitter account, checked on Facebook what's everybody up to, listened to Margaret Atwood interviewed at TOC 2011, watched some funny cats videos... And as I've run out of interesting stuff to do seems like I'll have to finish my Web2.0 course. Podcasts. I can see a very broad use of that media in library. Especially good aspect is that can get downloaded as an RSS feed. Short podcasts would be good for use in a library as they do not exceed the time of attention span. I’ve noticed that everybody likes 60 seconds science - because it is so short and informative. Longer podcasts require more time and better concentration in order to follow them and they can be used for a more in-depth stories. I would like to see/hear oral histories available as podcasts. Catalogued,searchable and part of collection.

Twitter revisited

I have to admit that Twitter idea grows on me. Not for sharing my precious thoughts but for informing customers. In staff room I've seen a flyer "Library will be closed on Australia Day". That's the kind of information that I think libraries could use Twitter for. Important notification but short enough to express it with 140 characters. And people can receive it straight on their phones.