Japanese Paper Dolls

Japanese Paper Dolls
Originally uploaded by davegolden

Now, this is my kind of paper doll!

Colors for peace

Colors for peace
Originally uploaded by manganite

As I have mentioned, there are many beautiful images on Flickr - it is quite distracting!

Mitchell Library, Sydney

Mitchell Library, Sydney
Originally uploaded by Christopher Chan

This is one of the prettier images of the Library on Flickr.

Moat night view

Moat night view
Originally uploaded by CRTpaperdoll

I have completed the extra exercise, adding 5 library images of my own to Flickr, all tagged with slnsw2008. This image I am posting via Flickr - it will be interesting to see how it turns out. This reminded me that when searching Flickr under State Library of NSW, the majority of images were of the buildings - some quite spectacular. Some of the non-building images were scans of our gallery guides... interesting in light of the Library's copyright... although I suppose they have potential to increase our exposure.

The Library's Values

I have had a long look around Flickr and found loads of pretty images. Some especially beautiful shots of chiyogami papers (decorative Japanese screenprinted papers). As for finding something that illustrated one of our values, that proved more difficult. I was hoping to illustrate integrity and honour, but gave up when all that turned up were images depicting American flags etc. Also struck trouble when looking up teamwork - lots of cutesy images - not really my style.

About to give up, I recalled an exhibit at a Biennale a few years ago in one of the Sydney wharf buildings. The artist had organised the construction of thousands of small sculptures by the people of a Chinese town. This to me was successful teamwork. Each sculpture was hand-crafted with a simple face and body. No two sculptures were alike. When amassed together the effect was breathtaking - thousands of small faces silently staring up at you. 

You'll need to see a few photos to take in the true impact...  All rights have been reserved on these images, so I will just provide links - to a close up and to an overall shot.

Not knowing the name of the artist, the year of the exhibit, a quick Flickr search came up with answers first time around - very impressive! A work by Antony Gormley, "Asian Field 2003" comprised of 180,000 statues, made by only 350 people. 

It goes to show, if we each do our bit - no matter how small, together we can achieve amazing things.

And here it begins...

Well, I have finally started my blog - better late than never, I suppose. I've struggled to find the time to fit this in, so I worry that I will be able to keep this up.

It is definitely a worthwhile activity though - I can see many applications just within the area I work. My main aim of learning about all of this new technology is to harness it to engage colleagues, improve collaboration and sharing of information. There are many team-based activities that could be enhanced with a blog. We could take a web 2.0 approach in the development of procedures, both within the branch and across the Library.

Similarly, as many other Library blogs have noted, these are useful tools to engage with the clients of the Library. In fact, many of our clients will come to expect the progression to web 2.0 technology from an information-savvy institution such as the Library.