Marisa Ramirez of the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records presented on the use of Podcasts in libraries at the 2007 Best Practices Exchange. Here are some of the highlights of her presentation:
Definition of Podcasting
The method of distributing multimedia files, such as audio programs or music videos, over the Internet using RSS syndication format, for playback on mobile devices and personal computers.
Methods of Distributing Podcasts
Method 1: Host everything yourself
1) Host MP3 files on your own webspace
2) Provide link to MP3 file on your website
2) Post titles, summaries, archives on your website
3) Create your own RSS feed (written in XML) by hand or using an RSS generation tool
Pros: Allows for more customization and format flexibility.
Cons: Requires you to purchase webspace and generate the RSS manually.
Method 2: Utilize free services (Blog + RSS) + Hosting
1) Create a blog
2) Upload Podcasts to the blog
Pros: RSS is automatically generated so no expertise is needed. Online blog services are available free.
Cons: Because this is an "out of the box" solution, it is not as customizable as if you had created everything yourself.
Resources Required:
Marisa described the resources necessary to establish a podcasting program in your library.
Planning
Determine your target audience: who is most likely to use this technology?)
Clarify your mission: what is the purpose of the podcasts?
Figure out logistics: What topics will you address? How long will each Podcast be? How often will new Podcasts be created? What staff will be involved in created the Podcasts? How will patrons access them? Will copyright impact the Podcasts at all?
Technology
PC with audio input capabilities
Audio recording and editing software such as Audacity
Inexpensive condenser microphone or headset
Hosting of the audio files (requires streaming server)
Roles
Project Coordinator
Digital audio editor
Webmaster / Blogger
On-air personality / interviewer
Interviewees
Time
Set up
Gather and plan episode ideas
Record
Edit
Publish
Promote
What Can You Do With Podcasts?
Marisa listed various ways that Podcasts could be used in a library setting. I supplemented the list with examples of Podcasts from real libraries:
Library Tours
Instruction on Information Resources
News and Events
Presentations/Lectures
Library Programs/Services
Book Talks/Reviews
Audio Magazine/Newsletter
Audio Books
How to...
Other Resources
To learn more about Podcasting, Marisa suggested checking out these resources:
About Podcasting and RSS: A Beginner's Guide to Podcasting
School of Podcasting
And Finally...
For a list of libraries with Podcasts, visit: "Podcasting". Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
For a list of federal and state agencies with Podcasts, visit:
the Free Government Information (FGI) blog
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
2007 Best Practices Exchange: Web 2.0
It was with great excitement that I attended The Best Practices Exchange 2007: Libraries and Archives in the Digital Era on May 2nd-4th. The conference was hosted by the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records and offered a forum for librarians, archivists, and records managers to discuss challenges and best practices when dealing with digital government information.
During the conference, I facilitated a discussion session on Web 2.0 Technologies. Specifically, I was interested in how State Archives and Libraries were using Web 2.0 to facilitate access to digital government information.
It was a very lively and dynamic discussion, and I learned quite a bit. Here is a brief overview of the talk:
Introduction to Web 2.0:
I basically gave an overview of the North Carolina Government Libraries--Web 2.0 brown bag lunches led by Michelle Czaikowsi and Beth Crist from the State Library of North Carolina. I emphasized how these brown bag lunches were based on the blog Learning 2.0: 23 Things created by Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
Blogs:
Not surprisingly, the very first thing we discussed during this session was blogs.
Examples:
The Colorado State Publications Library has a blog maintained by reference staff. Posts cover a current topic or news story and then links to relevant state publications that offer more information about this topic. I thought this was an exciting and unique way of marketing a government documents collection. You can view their blog here: http://cospl.blogspot.com/
The Government Publications Library at the University of Colorado--Boulder also maintains a blog about government information. It can be viewed here: http://cubgovpubs.blogspot.com/
Wikis:
Wikis were another popular topic of discussion. Some attendees were adding links to their projects/programs into Wikipedia and Library Science wikis. They felt this was another access mechanism for patrons. A few attendees expressed great concern over how quickly and easily wiki content could be changed. How do you undertake digital preservation efforts on such a dynamic document?
Examples:
The user manual for Archive-IT (a service of the Internet Archive) is a wiki.
One attendee said their library had a wiki for department goals. The department heads could update these goals as needed and list how their goals were being met.
Social Tagging:
Next we discussed the ability for users to tag and create their own folksonomies in a library setting. None of the attendees worked at institutions where this is currently done. Most agreed that social tagging would work best as a supplement to traditional cataloging practices such as Library of Congress subject headings. No one believed that social tagging was a practice that should be used by itself, although an attendee wondered if social tagging would force the Library of Congress to adopt new and more flexible terminology.
Examples:
The University of Pennsylvania created their own social tagging folksonomy that offers some level of control. These are called PennTags and you can read more about them here: http://tags.library.upenn.edu/
Second Life:
Only a handful of attendees knew what Second Life was, but many were intrigued by the concept of this virtual reality game. Others found it silly and amusing, wondering why people were hesitant to visit a library in real life yet were all-too-eager to stop by a virtual reality library.
Examples:
Attendees noted that a talk by Brewster Kahle and several ALA presentations were broadcast over Second Life. Numerous virtual people were in attendence.
Social Bookmarking Sites:
I offered a brief introduction to the social bookmarking site del.icio.us. While there were several users of del.icio.us in attendance, they were all using it for their personal bookmarks rather than using it as a means of collaboration or sharing information.
Image Sharing Software:
We briefly touched on Flickr and other image sharing software.
Examples:
Certain libraries/archives are posting photos from their collections on Flickr and soliciting users to help them identify the photographs' content.
And Finally...
If you'd like to read more about the 2007 Best Practices Exchange, visit their messageboard, and also check out the Free Government Information (FGI) blog.
During the conference, I facilitated a discussion session on Web 2.0 Technologies. Specifically, I was interested in how State Archives and Libraries were using Web 2.0 to facilitate access to digital government information.
It was a very lively and dynamic discussion, and I learned quite a bit. Here is a brief overview of the talk:
Introduction to Web 2.0:
I basically gave an overview of the North Carolina Government Libraries--Web 2.0 brown bag lunches led by Michelle Czaikowsi and Beth Crist from the State Library of North Carolina. I emphasized how these brown bag lunches were based on the blog Learning 2.0: 23 Things created by Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
Blogs:
Not surprisingly, the very first thing we discussed during this session was blogs.
Examples:
The Colorado State Publications Library has a blog maintained by reference staff. Posts cover a current topic or news story and then links to relevant state publications that offer more information about this topic. I thought this was an exciting and unique way of marketing a government documents collection. You can view their blog here: http://cospl.blogspot.com/
The Government Publications Library at the University of Colorado--Boulder also maintains a blog about government information. It can be viewed here: http://cubgovpubs.blogspot.com/
Wikis:
Wikis were another popular topic of discussion. Some attendees were adding links to their projects/programs into Wikipedia and Library Science wikis. They felt this was another access mechanism for patrons. A few attendees expressed great concern over how quickly and easily wiki content could be changed. How do you undertake digital preservation efforts on such a dynamic document?
Examples:
The user manual for Archive-IT (a service of the Internet Archive) is a wiki.
One attendee said their library had a wiki for department goals. The department heads could update these goals as needed and list how their goals were being met.
Social Tagging:
Next we discussed the ability for users to tag and create their own folksonomies in a library setting. None of the attendees worked at institutions where this is currently done. Most agreed that social tagging would work best as a supplement to traditional cataloging practices such as Library of Congress subject headings. No one believed that social tagging was a practice that should be used by itself, although an attendee wondered if social tagging would force the Library of Congress to adopt new and more flexible terminology.
Examples:
The University of Pennsylvania created their own social tagging folksonomy that offers some level of control. These are called PennTags and you can read more about them here: http://tags.library.upenn.edu/
Second Life:
Only a handful of attendees knew what Second Life was, but many were intrigued by the concept of this virtual reality game. Others found it silly and amusing, wondering why people were hesitant to visit a library in real life yet were all-too-eager to stop by a virtual reality library.
Examples:
Attendees noted that a talk by Brewster Kahle and several ALA presentations were broadcast over Second Life. Numerous virtual people were in attendence.
Social Bookmarking Sites:
I offered a brief introduction to the social bookmarking site del.icio.us. While there were several users of del.icio.us in attendance, they were all using it for their personal bookmarks rather than using it as a means of collaboration or sharing information.
Image Sharing Software:
We briefly touched on Flickr and other image sharing software.
Examples:
Certain libraries/archives are posting photos from their collections on Flickr and soliciting users to help them identify the photographs' content.
And Finally...
If you'd like to read more about the 2007 Best Practices Exchange, visit their messageboard, and also check out the Free Government Information (FGI) blog.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
Library 2.0
I'm a week late with my homework, but better late than never, right?
I've read the recommended articles on Library 2.0, and I think the best description of it as a concept comes from the article "Web 2.0 Where Will It Take Libraries?" published in the OCLC Newsletter: NextSpace.
I liked Dr. Schultz' description of Library 1.0 as a Commodity "Books are commodities, collected, inventoried, categorised and warehoused within libraries. Libraries represent a resource base, contributing to educating the labour force, to supporting innovation processes fueling growth, and to informing the present and the future--whether in the neighborhood, in academia, or in business."
Contrast this with the idea of Library 2.0 which involves disseminating information beyond the limits of the brick-and-mortar library and harnessing user intelligence by offering social services such as tagging, annotating, or commenting.
Wikipedia's article describes one of the many assets of Library 2.0 as the ability for "Library users [...] to craft and modify library provided services".
Thinking about the State Library of North Carolina, I am forced to admit that we are far more Library 1.0 than Library 2.0. This doesn't mean we can't evolve into a 2.0 Library, though. We already possess a lot of the knowledge and enthusiasm in-house necessary to do so. All we need is a little time and effort to shift our focus away from the commodities that we possess, and onto the ways we can distribute and enrich these value-added commodities for our users (both in-house and remotely).
I've read the recommended articles on Library 2.0, and I think the best description of it as a concept comes from the article "Web 2.0 Where Will It Take Libraries?" published in the OCLC Newsletter: NextSpace.
I liked Dr. Schultz' description of Library 1.0 as a Commodity "Books are commodities, collected, inventoried, categorised and warehoused within libraries. Libraries represent a resource base, contributing to educating the labour force, to supporting innovation processes fueling growth, and to informing the present and the future--whether in the neighborhood, in academia, or in business."
Contrast this with the idea of Library 2.0 which involves disseminating information beyond the limits of the brick-and-mortar library and harnessing user intelligence by offering social services such as tagging, annotating, or commenting.
Wikipedia's article describes one of the many assets of Library 2.0 as the ability for "Library users [...] to craft and modify library provided services".
Thinking about the State Library of North Carolina, I am forced to admit that we are far more Library 1.0 than Library 2.0. This doesn't mean we can't evolve into a 2.0 Library, though. We already possess a lot of the knowledge and enthusiasm in-house necessary to do so. All we need is a little time and effort to shift our focus away from the commodities that we possess, and onto the ways we can distribute and enrich these value-added commodities for our users (both in-house and remotely).
The Marriage of Digitization and Web 2.0
My blog is called "Digitization Diva", so I figured that it's about time I start talking digitization!!
When I attended the DigCCurr conference in Chapel Hill last month, I attended a presentation given by Elizabeth Yakel of the University of Michigan. She spoke about the "Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections" which is a digitization project with Web 2.0 functionality.
This presentation piqued my interest and led me to wonder how many other sites have popped up recently that use digitized assets to build an online community. Here are my findings:
Polar Bear Expedition Collection (University of Michigan): This collection allows registered users to post comments about the digitized images, engage in virtual reference right on the site, and also has an Amazon-like functionality that reads "researchers who have viewed this item also viewed..." You can read more about the Polar Bear Expedition collection by reading Elizabeth Yakel's paper from DigCCurr, and reading her article in the May/June issue of D-Lib.
Maine Memory Network (Maine Historical Society): Allows registered users to comment on any digitized asset in the collection.
Walker Art Center: Offers blogs, podcasts, e-mail reminders, webcasts, and RSS feeds as part of their digital collections. To learn more about the site's functionality, read this blog post from Digitization 101.
Digital Collections (University of Washington): UW has started to integrate their digital collections into Wikipedia articles. Their experiment has resulted in a statistically significant increase in the usage of their digital collections. To read more about this innovative use of Web 2.0 to increase access, read this article in the May/Junes issue of D-Lib.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Offers RSS feeds for new content, and also allows registered users to annotate each diary entry to give readers more historical and biographical context about Samuel Pepys.
Everglades Digital Library (Florida International University): Allows registered users to rate resources. These ratings allow the site to automatically generate a list of "recommended resources" for the user. Registered users can also comment on resources.
Ohio Memory (Ohio Historical Society): Allows registered users to create their own customized scrapbook of digitized images. A user can add images to their scrapbook, write up descriptions about the image, and then openly share the scrapbook, so that others can benefit from it. To see a list of scrapbooks created by users, click here.
When I attended the DigCCurr conference in Chapel Hill last month, I attended a presentation given by Elizabeth Yakel of the University of Michigan. She spoke about the "Polar Bear Expedition Digital Collections" which is a digitization project with Web 2.0 functionality.
This presentation piqued my interest and led me to wonder how many other sites have popped up recently that use digitized assets to build an online community. Here are my findings:
Polar Bear Expedition Collection (University of Michigan): This collection allows registered users to post comments about the digitized images, engage in virtual reference right on the site, and also has an Amazon-like functionality that reads "researchers who have viewed this item also viewed..." You can read more about the Polar Bear Expedition collection by reading Elizabeth Yakel's paper from DigCCurr, and reading her article in the May/June issue of D-Lib.
Maine Memory Network (Maine Historical Society): Allows registered users to comment on any digitized asset in the collection.
Walker Art Center: Offers blogs, podcasts, e-mail reminders, webcasts, and RSS feeds as part of their digital collections. To learn more about the site's functionality, read this blog post from Digitization 101.
Digital Collections (University of Washington): UW has started to integrate their digital collections into Wikipedia articles. Their experiment has resulted in a statistically significant increase in the usage of their digital collections. To read more about this innovative use of Web 2.0 to increase access, read this article in the May/Junes issue of D-Lib.
The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Offers RSS feeds for new content, and also allows registered users to annotate each diary entry to give readers more historical and biographical context about Samuel Pepys.
Everglades Digital Library (Florida International University): Allows registered users to rate resources. These ratings allow the site to automatically generate a list of "recommended resources" for the user. Registered users can also comment on resources.
Ohio Memory (Ohio Historical Society): Allows registered users to create their own customized scrapbook of digitized images. A user can add images to their scrapbook, write up descriptions about the image, and then openly share the scrapbook, so that others can benefit from it. To see a list of scrapbooks created by users, click here.
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Second Life for a Second Time
So, I get home from work yesterday, and my husband starts asking me about Second Life!! He works for a medical journal and is investigating ways to build a virtual community from the journal's reader base. As such, he is curious how Second Life actually works, how much it costs, and what is involved with implementing it.
I'm always happy to do a little research, so here is what I found out from the Second Life website.
About Second Life
I didn't really go into this much in my first post about this game, and I apologize. Here is a nice description of Second Life taken from their website:
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 5,868,749 people from around the globe.
The most important thing about the world of Second Life is that it is constantly changing and growing. Here's why:
* Thousands of new residents join each day and Create an Avatar
* Those avatars Explore the World and Meet People
* These people discover the thousands of ways to Have Fun
* Some people decide to purchase Virtual Land, which allows them to open a business, build their own virtual paradise, and more!
Registration
Over 5 million users have signed up to play Second Life. Signing up involves registering with the following information:
1)your avatar name (you can choose your own first name, but must pick from a list of last names)
2) your birthdate
3) a valid e-mail address
4) selecting 1 of 8 basic avatar looks. Your look can be changed after your registration is complete
5) your real name
6) a password
7) a security question
8) what news/updates you wish to receive via e-mail
9) agreeing to the terms of service
Also, they will probably ask for credit card information even if you sign up for the free basic package.
System Requirements
Minimum PC Requirements
* Internet Connection: Cable or DSL
* Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)OR Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)
NOTE: Second Life does NOT currently support Windows Vista
* Computer Processor: 800MHz Pentium III or Athlon, or better
* Computer Memory: 256MB or better
* Video/Graphics Card:
o nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better
o OR ATI Radeon 8500, 9250, or better
Preferred PC Requirements
* Internet Connection: Cable or DSL
* Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)OR Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)
NOTE: Second Life does NOT currently support Windows Vista
* Computer Processor: 1.6GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon 2000+ or better
* Computer Memory: 512MB or better
* Video/Graphics Card:
o nVidia GeForce FX 5600, GeForce 6600, or better
o OR ATI Radeon 9600, X600, or better
Price/Fee Structure
There are 3 levels of registration. They are explained below:
First Basic Registration
Free! No monthly fee involved. This first level of registration gives you a customizable avatar, a sign-up bonus of $250 of "Linden dollars" or virtual money that you can use in-game (you have to enter a valid credit card number to get the virtual money), and the ability to build objects in "sandbox" areas (free temporary building zones).
Additional Basic Registration
One-time fee of $9.95. The second level of registration offers everything the first level does, so I'm not really clear on the difference between the two.
Premium Registration
Pay a monthly fee of $9.95 + land use fees or island billing fees. (I'll get to the land use and island billing fees in a minute). This third level of registration offers everything from the Basic Registration as well a sign-up bonus of $1,000 Linden dollars plus a $300 Linden dollar weekly stipend, 512 square meters of land for no additional charge, and the ability to build, store, and display projects on your land.
LAND USE FEES:
As a premium account user, you can have 512 square meters of land for $0 of land use fees. Anything over and above those 512 square meters require you to pay a monthly fee. The fee is based on how much land you have (not counting your free 512 square meters):
Amount of land (per square meters):
512: $5 a month
1024: $8 a month
2048: $15 a month
4096: $25 a month
8192: $40 a month
16,384: $75 a month
32,768: $125 a month
65,536: $195 a month
ISLAND BILLING:
Rather than just buying a parcel of land on Second Life, you can purchase a 65,536 square meter island which is ideal for huge projects needing lots of space. Once you own an island, you can give a rating to it (e.g. PG or Mature), customize it using your own terrain, buy several islands and group them to make a demi-continent, and even limit access to the island so that only certain users can visit. The pricing structure for islands appears below:
For typical users: $1675 one time fee + $295 of monthly land use fees
For educators or non-profits: $980 one time fee + $150 of monthly land use fees
However, educators and non-profits are required to pay for at least 6 months in advance when purchasing an island.
Conclusion
Well, that's Second Life in a REALLY big nutshell, folks!! Now that you all know a little more about this, what do you think?
I'm always happy to do a little research, so here is what I found out from the Second Life website.
About Second Life
I didn't really go into this much in my first post about this game, and I apologize. Here is a nice description of Second Life taken from their website:
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by a total of 5,868,749 people from around the globe.
The most important thing about the world of Second Life is that it is constantly changing and growing. Here's why:
* Thousands of new residents join each day and Create an Avatar
* Those avatars Explore the World and Meet People
* These people discover the thousands of ways to Have Fun
* Some people decide to purchase Virtual Land, which allows them to open a business, build their own virtual paradise, and more!
Registration
Over 5 million users have signed up to play Second Life. Signing up involves registering with the following information:
1)your avatar name (you can choose your own first name, but must pick from a list of last names)
2) your birthdate
3) a valid e-mail address
4) selecting 1 of 8 basic avatar looks. Your look can be changed after your registration is complete
5) your real name
6) a password
7) a security question
8) what news/updates you wish to receive via e-mail
9) agreeing to the terms of service
Also, they will probably ask for credit card information even if you sign up for the free basic package.
System Requirements
Minimum PC Requirements
* Internet Connection: Cable or DSL
* Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)OR Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)
NOTE: Second Life does NOT currently support Windows Vista
* Computer Processor: 800MHz Pentium III or Athlon, or better
* Computer Memory: 256MB or better
* Video/Graphics Card:
o nVidia GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better
o OR ATI Radeon 8500, 9250, or better
Preferred PC Requirements
* Internet Connection: Cable or DSL
* Operating System: Windows XP (Service Pack 2)OR Windows 2000 (Service Pack 4)
NOTE: Second Life does NOT currently support Windows Vista
* Computer Processor: 1.6GHz Pentium 4 or Athlon 2000+ or better
* Computer Memory: 512MB or better
* Video/Graphics Card:
o nVidia GeForce FX 5600, GeForce 6600, or better
o OR ATI Radeon 9600, X600, or better
Price/Fee Structure
There are 3 levels of registration. They are explained below:
First Basic Registration
Free! No monthly fee involved. This first level of registration gives you a customizable avatar, a sign-up bonus of $250 of "Linden dollars" or virtual money that you can use in-game (you have to enter a valid credit card number to get the virtual money), and the ability to build objects in "sandbox" areas (free temporary building zones).
Additional Basic Registration
One-time fee of $9.95. The second level of registration offers everything the first level does, so I'm not really clear on the difference between the two.
Premium Registration
Pay a monthly fee of $9.95 + land use fees or island billing fees. (I'll get to the land use and island billing fees in a minute). This third level of registration offers everything from the Basic Registration as well a sign-up bonus of $1,000 Linden dollars plus a $300 Linden dollar weekly stipend, 512 square meters of land for no additional charge, and the ability to build, store, and display projects on your land.
LAND USE FEES:
As a premium account user, you can have 512 square meters of land for $0 of land use fees. Anything over and above those 512 square meters require you to pay a monthly fee. The fee is based on how much land you have (not counting your free 512 square meters):
Amount of land (per square meters):
512: $5 a month
1024: $8 a month
2048: $15 a month
4096: $25 a month
8192: $40 a month
16,384: $75 a month
32,768: $125 a month
65,536: $195 a month
ISLAND BILLING:
Rather than just buying a parcel of land on Second Life, you can purchase a 65,536 square meter island which is ideal for huge projects needing lots of space. Once you own an island, you can give a rating to it (e.g. PG or Mature), customize it using your own terrain, buy several islands and group them to make a demi-continent, and even limit access to the island so that only certain users can visit. The pricing structure for islands appears below:
For typical users: $1675 one time fee + $295 of monthly land use fees
For educators or non-profits: $980 one time fee + $150 of monthly land use fees
However, educators and non-profits are required to pay for at least 6 months in advance when purchasing an island.
Conclusion
Well, that's Second Life in a REALLY big nutshell, folks!! Now that you all know a little more about this, what do you think?
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Technorati
It's back to the Web 2.0 assignments!! I played around a little with Technorati today. Since I don't read that many blogs, I doubt that I will be using it much in the future. Even so, I thought it offered a lot of very good searching options. Not only can you search for keywords by tags, you can also search in blog titles and blog posts. Moreover, you can restrict your search by format such as photographs, videos, music, events, and even users.
Here are a couple of features that I liked:
1) If you search by tag, Technorati lists "related tags" that you can also search by to help facilitate your search.
2) You can create a "Watchlist" whereby you can save common searches rather than having to generate the search anew every time.
3) You can register your blog on Technorati in a few very easy intuitive steps (it took me less than 5 minutes total).
4) You can easily add Technorati widgets to your blog for cross-pollination between sites. (I added a couple widgets to my right-side bar at the very bottom).
Also, I had an unexpected surprise while exploring Technorati. I clicked on the "Events" tab while looking at the results of a tag search and noticed a link to the site Eventful.
Apparently, Eventful is a site where you can search for events, post event information, and create a list of "my events" in a fairly easy-to-use interface. I was quite surprised to learn that events held at the State Library of North Carolina are listed on this site!! It would appear that someone in-house is using this nifty Web 2.0 technology as a way to advertise events held at the State Library!
What a very cool idea!!!
Here are a couple of features that I liked:
1) If you search by tag, Technorati lists "related tags" that you can also search by to help facilitate your search.
2) You can create a "Watchlist" whereby you can save common searches rather than having to generate the search anew every time.
3) You can register your blog on Technorati in a few very easy intuitive steps (it took me less than 5 minutes total).
4) You can easily add Technorati widgets to your blog for cross-pollination between sites. (I added a couple widgets to my right-side bar at the very bottom).
Also, I had an unexpected surprise while exploring Technorati. I clicked on the "Events" tab while looking at the results of a tag search and noticed a link to the site Eventful.
Apparently, Eventful is a site where you can search for events, post event information, and create a list of "my events" in a fairly easy-to-use interface. I was quite surprised to learn that events held at the State Library of North Carolina are listed on this site!! It would appear that someone in-house is using this nifty Web 2.0 technology as a way to advertise events held at the State Library!
What a very cool idea!!!
Monday, April 23, 2007
Second Life at Libraries
It seems like over the past couple days, I keep hearing about Second Life and how it's being used by libraries to offer services and programs in a Web 2.0 environment. This led me to wonder "What exactly ARE libraries building in Second Life?" Here are a couple of things that I've stumbled across:
State Library of Kansas: Daniel Cornwall from the Alaska State Library explains how the State Library of Kansas is using Second Life to create a virtual library branch and to dispense reference services including government information such as maps, and statistical information.
Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County: Jill Hurst-Wahl discusses the "Alliance Information Archipelago" which is a group of islands on Second Life dedicated to supplying library services. PLCMC owns one such island called "Eye4You" which focuses on offering public library services to teenagers playing the online game. To learn more about Eye4You click here.
I also discovered a nifty Photo Pool on Flickr that displays images of virtual libraries on Second Life. You can browse the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/secondlifelibrary/
Finally, I found a "tour" of Info. Island/Second Life Libraries on You Tube. The graphics are a little jerky and require some getting used to, but it does offer a really nice intro. to the look and feel of the game. To learn more about Info. Island, click here.
State Library of Kansas: Daniel Cornwall from the Alaska State Library explains how the State Library of Kansas is using Second Life to create a virtual library branch and to dispense reference services including government information such as maps, and statistical information.
Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County: Jill Hurst-Wahl discusses the "Alliance Information Archipelago" which is a group of islands on Second Life dedicated to supplying library services. PLCMC owns one such island called "Eye4You" which focuses on offering public library services to teenagers playing the online game. To learn more about Eye4You click here.
I also discovered a nifty Photo Pool on Flickr that displays images of virtual libraries on Second Life. You can browse the photos here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/secondlifelibrary/
Finally, I found a "tour" of Info. Island/Second Life Libraries on You Tube. The graphics are a little jerky and require some getting used to, but it does offer a really nice intro. to the look and feel of the game. To learn more about Info. Island, click here.
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