The final chapter

Well I think the Library has progressed somewhat when it comes to engaging online. Probably because of all the people doing this course! Social networking - getting the Library and all that we offer out onto Facebook or MySpace is a great idea - again it comes down to resourcing: it will have to be someone's responsibility to make sure it is kept fresh and relevant. It would be good to be able to invite our clients to be our friend and build up that support community online.

Twitter is another tool we could make use of too - for different purposes - our digitisation work for example.

Lots and lots we can do - our only limitation is the usual - time.

Online applications and tools

I believe online applications and tools may have limited use when the collaboration is internal to the Library. Our shared drives/documents can achieve this purpose. However, when we are working with colleagues outside the library, these tools come in to their own. The NSLA collaborative projects are a great example of this. Organising a teleconference timeslot, we were all directed to doodle to nominate our available times on a calendar. Worked brilliantly! As I am working on more and more cross-agency projects, the potential for the sharing of documents is great. What fun! :-)

Mashups

I think the potential for mashups is more in our ability to let the public use our content - our digital images - for their own use. Obviously copyright and moral rights would need to be considered.

I have selected the Energy and Teamwork value - exemplified by this image of Preservation staff working collaboratively to process collection material for a loan. The jigsaw template is appropriate, as it symbolises that each of our contribution together makes up the whole.

Podcasts

The Library is already making use of podcasts on our website for events and exhibitions. I think this is a great way of getting our content out to the public, but as I mentioned in a previous post, it is now looking a little old fashioned compared to the videos you can get on the Art Gallery of New South Wales website. Our events and exhibitions can be quite stunningly visually and I believe we should make the most of that. Again, this will require additional resources - the appropriate equipment and staff to use it.

Answer boards and social searching

Looking at the past answers on the Answer Board Librarians wiki, the ones that were voted best answer etc, often only had one vote. I'm not sure this is really the broad acclamation that is being described. I do believe the librarians need to get their knowledge known and out there, online. But I agree with the comment on Library 2.0 - resources are needed. If SLNSW is serious about this, it will need to allocate and commit staff time.

LibraryThing

I love LibraryThing. I am in the process of adding all of my books to it - much more fun than a simple database. A particularly satisfying element of this is finding not just a catalogue entry for my particular edition of a book, but selecting a cover that matches. As requested, I will attempt to add the LT link to my blog.

Tried the Technorati exercise. No joy with the slnsw2008 search - perhaps now too old? Did the same search in Google, and found Flickr, blogs - the works. Makes me wonder how relevant Technorati will remain... :-)

Delicious

Had some trouble with this exercise, getting the Delicious link into my blog. Finally worked it out though. I'm finding that as I am doing this a year after the course was officially running, that some of the instructions/advice is now out of date. Consequently it is easy to be steered in the wrong direction. The resources we are using are constantly upgrading and improving their services, so the best approach is to just follow my nose as it were.

Delicious has a real benefit for my branch, as we are all scattered throughout two, sometimes three work areas. The majority of people have to share PCs, which means they need to re-set their desktop, bookmarks etc for every PC they are likely to use. This is a major time-waster. It also means when you add a new bookmark to one PC, you then need to remember to add it to all the other computers you may use in the future....

It also has great potential for the sharing of relevant websites. However, we do need to consider the fact that we are creating more and more online content for people to study, and yet there are no more extra hours in the day. In addition, a large number of staff spend little of their working day at a PC. After checking their emails, the intranet and the library blogs, what time is left to them to explore...?