It was interesting to spend some time learning about podcasts and audio files, and seeing how libraries have utilised these digital media files.
On the Orange Country Library Service podcasts that I accessed a 5 min. 16 sec. MP3 audio podcast by author, comedian, and former Saturday Night Live cast member Finesse Mitchell when he visited Orlando Public Library to talk about his new book, Your Girlfriends Only Know So Much. It would be great to record talks given by speakers at our own local library and making these available as podcasts.
I also accessed an OCLS Children's Podstory called The lion and the rabbit in MP3 format, that went for 3 min. 50 sec. I did wonder what copyright implications there may be for recording children's picture books, when the author of the folktale was not even mentioned in the description text about the podcast. This might be an interesting way for parents to avoid reading to their young children at bedtime - they could play them a podcast instead. This might be great to entertain young children too when travelling long distances in cars, trains, boats and planes.
It was interesting too to see how differently the British Library and the ABC use podcasts. The British Library's podcasts appear to generally be quite long, and about authors, collections, etc. such as the one I listened to on "Saving St Catherine's Monastery Library" (MP3, 50 min., 20 MB), which was a recorded talk given by speaker Dr Nicholas Pickwoad at the British Library.
The ABC podcasts of course have a different focus, being more topical, and generally on news and current affairs topics - podcasts are grouped by the following subjects: arts & entertainment, community & lifestyle, education, health, kids, news & analysis, religion, science, and sport. I had a listen to the AM, News & Current Affairs podcast 30/4/08 30 min. 13 MB which is updated daily, and plays the morning news and current affairs on ABC Radio. This would be great for people travelling or at work who want to listen to the news where and when it suits them.
On the Library success wiki, I had a look at the Booktalks' quick and simple page, and listened to a MP3 podcast on the book by Hantman, Clea. 30 DAYS TO GETTING OVER THE DORK YOU USED TO CALL YOUR BOYFRIEND (a title that grabs your attention), where Nancy Keane gives a 47 sec. book review on this title.
Libraries could record all sorts of things such as talks by visiting authors, storytime book readings, oral history talks, book reviews, audio or video files on how to access and use library services, and provide these as podcasts to make these more widely available to their clients.
Libraries could also make podcasts available to their housebound service borrowers on topics that were of interest to them e.g. new and current affairs podcasts, or could advise their carers and family members how to find and access these podcasts on an ongoing basis (e.g. through RSS feeds).
On the Curtin University of Technology Library and Information Service page there are introduction to library services podcasts, under titles such as "borrowing", "databases", "internet searching", and "library etiquette" to help people to use the library.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Answer boards, social searching and blogging along
Well...
Social searching sites were interesting - I bookmarked the Taste website for future reference at home - great for finding recipes and readers comments on these recipes! Amazon was interesting too. I have always like the books section's "customers who have bought this item also bought" and the editorial reviews.
Answer boards are an interesting concept, and I have come across them from my home PC on the web e.g. looking for ways to fix computer viruses/adware problems etc. that have sneaked on my PC.
However, as far as "slamming the boards" from a public library point of view, although an interesting concept - especially the view of their being a marketing opportunity as a way to reach non-library users, as people accessing this site could be from anywhere around the world, it's not really a viable way to increase the number of library users through the door of your local public library. Marketing time might be better spent promoting Ask a librarian sites in your local area - where your clients are based. However, if there happens to be any locally produced answer boards then these might be worth while cultivating as a means of reaching non-library users in your local area.
Social searching sites were interesting - I bookmarked the Taste website for future reference at home - great for finding recipes and readers comments on these recipes! Amazon was interesting too. I have always like the books section's "customers who have bought this item also bought" and the editorial reviews.
Answer boards are an interesting concept, and I have come across them from my home PC on the web e.g. looking for ways to fix computer viruses/adware problems etc. that have sneaked on my PC.
However, as far as "slamming the boards" from a public library point of view, although an interesting concept - especially the view of their being a marketing opportunity as a way to reach non-library users, as people accessing this site could be from anywhere around the world, it's not really a viable way to increase the number of library users through the door of your local public library. Marketing time might be better spent promoting Ask a librarian sites in your local area - where your clients are based. However, if there happens to be any locally produced answer boards then these might be worth while cultivating as a means of reaching non-library users in your local area.
Monday, April 7, 2008
LibraryThing and blogging along
How wonderful to be able to have a personal online catalogue of my personal book collection. Setting up some sort of catalogue of my collection of books at home is something I have been planning to do for years - LibraryThing provides a means of doing this.
I created a LibraryThing account and added 5 of my favourite books - these can be viewed at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/hmtmartini
It was interesting to see how many other people also think these are great books. The member reviews, and recommendations for other books to read are great.
I will continue to explore and use LibraryThing.
I created a LibraryThing account and added 5 of my favourite books - these can be viewed at http://www.librarything.com/catalog/hmtmartini
It was interesting to see how many other people also think these are great books. The member reviews, and recommendations for other books to read are great.
I will continue to explore and use LibraryThing.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Del.icio.us and blogging along
Del.icio.us and libraries, how delicious!
A great way to set up reference bookmarks on public access and staff PCs, and not have to have them saved to Favourites on each PC - just link them to the Del.icio.us site (one place to update) and they can all be classified with tags (not sorted into folders), as per the examples of Cleveland Public Library Recommended Bookmarks (linking off to individual subject Del.icio.us sites, and Sutherland Shire Libraries favourites in Del.icio.us.
For our work area in Technical Services, I currently have various cataloguing related websites bookmarked in my Favourites in Explorer - these could be set up in Del.icio.us so that both staff members who work in this area could access (and add to) the same links.
I plan to experiment with it on my home PC, where I have been madly adding sites to my bookmarks related to my family history research - the tagging feature would make it a lot easier to locate the sites in my current Favourites bookmarks relating to individual family surnames I am researching.
I set up an account in Del.icio.us, and copied my bookmarked sites from my Favourites Fiji folder (where my family is going for a holiday in October) and added tages to these links. If anyone would like to have a look at my Del.icio.us bookmarking site, the link is http://del.icio.us/hmtmartini
A great way to set up reference bookmarks on public access and staff PCs, and not have to have them saved to Favourites on each PC - just link them to the Del.icio.us site (one place to update) and they can all be classified with tags (not sorted into folders), as per the examples of Cleveland Public Library Recommended Bookmarks (linking off to individual subject Del.icio.us sites, and Sutherland Shire Libraries favourites in Del.icio.us.
For our work area in Technical Services, I currently have various cataloguing related websites bookmarked in my Favourites in Explorer - these could be set up in Del.icio.us so that both staff members who work in this area could access (and add to) the same links.
I plan to experiment with it on my home PC, where I have been madly adding sites to my bookmarks related to my family history research - the tagging feature would make it a lot easier to locate the sites in my current Favourites bookmarks relating to individual family surnames I am researching.
I set up an account in Del.icio.us, and copied my bookmarked sites from my Favourites Fiji folder (where my family is going for a holiday in October) and added tages to these links. If anyone would like to have a look at my Del.icio.us bookmarking site, the link is http://del.icio.us/hmtmartini
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)