Thing 26: Little bits of the Internet, on your desktop

I thought that widgets weren't all that useful until I came across this..... the Chuck Norris Facts Generator..... available for Mac OS X at the moment....... will go and load it now...... yes I do have a Mac just like Webgurl.

If you need more Chuck Norris wisdom go and check out the Uncyclopedia ("The content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit")


Even ninjas are scared of the Chuckmeister!!!

Thing 25: Newsletters in a Pop!

Sorry but LetterPop just doesn't do it for me.... all looks a bit too uniform and clunky although I'm sure that some of the 13 "Christmas" templates will be coming my way in the festive season.

Thing 24: Got file conversion issues?

This from Chris Whyley who co-founded Zamzar with his brother Mike:

"The name that we chose for the company - "Zamzar" - is based on a character from the German author Franz Kafka's book "The Metamorphosis". In the novel Kafka describes the extraordinary story of a young man who is transformed overnight whilst sleeping into a gigantic beetle. The man's name - Gregor Samsa - was used as the basis for our company name because of its' powerful association with change & transformation."

Not only IT wizards but literate as well! This is a really nifty tool for converting files from one format to another. Covers Image, Doc, Music and Video formats. Will be particularly useful converting Word to PDF files...... must go and play some more.

#23 Is this really the end? Or just the beginning ...

Having finished the programme I now feel like I have to go back and really get a handle on some of the tools/toys we have been playing with. It has been very useful as an introduction to what is out there in the Wired World and how folks in Library Land are using the newish technologies. It has got several of us at ERL seriously looking at what ideas we have seen that we can pinch/adapt/utilise/creatively plagiarise in order to add to or improve our services to our customers. We are currently looking at wikis for both staff and customer use; blogs for the branches as well as specialised uses such as reader's advisory and a possible notification service.

A big shout out to Helene Blowers for devising the programme, Melanie McCarten for co-ordinating the State Library's side of things and to Lynette Lewis and Leslie Sharples for jollying us along. Of course I shouldn't forget Stephen Abram who provided the spark. I went back and read his blog posts from 2006 and found the following which I think is sooooooo appropriate:

I've been asked a load of times how library workers can learn all these newish technologies. I don't know why it's easy for me and difficult for others. I do a few things.

1. I play.
2. I surf sites, blogs, and articles that friends recommend.
3. I schedule it.
4. I don't stay committed if it isn't fun or engaging.
5. I don't feel the need to learn every feature and nook and cranny of the site.
6. I share. I don't feel guilty is it isn't directly applicable today to my current needs.

See you in the sandpit.
Cheers, Paul.

PS: If you feel like carrying on with the concept of Learning 2.0 check out the sequel Learning 2.1 - more toys to play with.........

#22 Audiobooks (or "The end is in sight ")

According to a report in "The Australian" iPods command more than 70% of the MP3 market worldwide - estimates put the total number of iPods sold since 2001 as being between 80 and 100 million. Another article based on a Credit Suisse report states that by 2009 there will be over 300 million iPods floating around the world. In a word, or rather a couple of words, that is an awful large slice of the MP3 pie (an Apple pie of course!!). So what I hear you ask..... well OverDrive are one of the largest companies supplying digital e-books, audio books, music and videos to libraries BUT (and yes it is a BIG BUT) you find this information on their website:

Why can't I use my iPod with this service? Our audio titles use Windows Media DRM copyright protection technology from Microsoft Corporation. Unfortunately the iPod does not currently support copyright-protected Windows Media Audio (.wma) and video (.wmv) files. OverDrive, along with hundreds of online music and audio book providers, is hopeful that Apple and Microsoft can reach an agreement that would enable support for Microsoft-based copyright-protected materials on the iPod. To repeat, OverDrive would love nothing more than to provide content for your iPod. We urge you to contact Apple and request that they open the iPod to other copy-protected formats or license their propriety copy-protection method to third-party vendors.

And therein lies the problem - the service provided by OverDrive looks terrific, the products are up to date and it seems relatively easy to actually download an audio book once you have typed in library card and PIN numbers BUT (there's that BIG BUT again) until Mr Gates and Mr Jobs have decided how many squillions of dollars they are going to exchange it doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to pay for a service that 70% of your customers are never going to utilise because they own an iPod only. The ACT Public Library and a couple of Queensland Public Libraries have signed up with OverDrive, probably in the hope that the problem of DRM will be resolved in the near future..... but until then I can't see too many other libraries signing up just yet.

I also checked out World eBook Fair but the majority of the titles I looked at were either old and out of copyright or were being narrated by well meaning amateurs - not quite as flash as having the latest Harry Potter audio book read to you by Stephen Fry ........ but then World eBook Fair is free and as my old mum always says "You get what you pay for".

We await further developments.........

#21 Podcasts, Smodcasts!

My podcast directory of choice is iTunes mainly because I have an iPod. I find it really convenient to be able to search for music, music videos, audio books, podcasts and vodcasts all in the one place. iTunes also scores over the other directories because each podcast has a "Podcast Description" which gives you some idea of what that particular podcast may contain plus there are "Customer Reviews" also available as well as a list of what other "Listeners Also Subscribed To". I did look at both Podcastalley and Podcast.net but they really didn't do it for me.

Obviously this is a technology that would have a lot of applications in the library - recording author visits, recording World War veterans in the local area, presenting short tutorials on how to use the library's catalogue or databases, recording local teenage bands etc. In fact Webgurl has just posted our first podcasts on the ERL website - recordings of the "The Eastern Regional Library Show" found on your radio dial at EasternFM 98.1 on Wednesdays, 12:05-12:45pm. A big Huzzah to Maryanne, Kathy and Lesley.

Podcasts I recommend are:
The Arseblog - just shows what one man with a Powerbook and a burning passion can do.
AskANinja - got a philosophical problem that needs solving? Why not ask your very own Ninja? Very, very funny.
Background Briefing - ABC radio show which is always fascinating and which I always seem to miss listening to in "real time"...... again thank goodness for "pod time".
And last but certainly not least the SirsiDynix Institute - a really useful professional development tool. Has podcasts on all things Library2.0 - I must listen to the David Free podcast on "What's New in Podcasting?"

If you're still having problems coming to terms with what this technology is all about check out this podcast by the Ninja on podcasting...... enjoy!

#20 You too can YouTube

Truveo is a video search engine that , to quote their self-effacing publicity, "is widely recognized as being the most comprehensive and up-to-date video search service on the Web". Despite such a grandiose statement I must concur because it acts like a meta-search engine trawling the web to find you such video gems as "Rex the Chihuahua vs Nancy Pearl" or my particular favourite of the moment "The March of the Librarians" .... obviously some people have too much time on their hands!! It scores over YouTube by itself because it searches a whole host of other sites bringing up relevant and not so relevant hits.

You should check out the "YouTube Copyright Tips" on their site which tells you what can and cannot be uploaded or copied. Basically it appears that 95% of the content available on YouTube may be in breach of copyright......... we await the first trial case with interest.

In the meantime here's 2 minutes and 35 seconds of Blues Brilliance from Fleetwood Mac (pre-Stevie Whatshername and the other guy) and one of the many reasons that YouTube is a fantastic resource. I haven't heard this in years......... play it Pete!!

#19 Discovering Web 2.0 tools

Quick Robin to the Book Cave......


I am adding this to my list for Xmas......... only $7,000 (American dollars that is) - and can be found at Sakura Adachi's online shop.

I found it by checking out the StumbleUpon website that came second in the "Social Tagging" section of the Web 2.0 awards to del.icio.us.
BBC World describes it as:

"StumbleUpon is a brilliant downloadable toolbar that beds into your browser and gives you the chance to surf through thousands of excellent pages that have been stumbled upon by other web-users"

In turn the StumbleUpon website led me to the ThisNext website which describes itself as a "shopcasting" site - this from their website describing what "shopcasting" is:

"ThisNext is a shopcasting network where you can discover, recommend and share things you love. Everything on ThisNext is recommended by real people like you. Shopcasting is a way to spread the word about things you love. "Shopcast" is a word that combines shopping and broadcasting. What podcasting did for audio is what we're doing for shopping—broadcasting taste and knowledge of great products recommended by people like you. Right now, we support several tools that help you shopcast lists and tags on your blog or website."

"Recommended Lists", "Wish Lists", "Tagging", it's interactive, it's social, it's has all the things an online library should have. I checked out the tag on books and found several other consumer items that piqued my interest......


How about a "Book Chair" as an essential part of your Library's furniture?

Or a "I Read Banned Books" bracelet as an item to sell in your Online Library shop?

Wasted a lot of time but had a lot of fun discovering these tools today..... TTFN.

#18 Web-based Apps: They're not just for desktops

Let's start at the very beginning.......

A very good place to start..........

When you begin to read you begin with A, B. C.......

When you begin to sing it's Do, Reh, Mi.................

I really dislike emoticons... just ppping up everywhere.....

I thought that I must really have had the Grumpmeter turned up to "Full" when I found the following Youtube clip by an Angry Young Man rather than a Grumpy Old Man.....

But asides from having emticns as part of the Word Processing programme I can see a great use for Zoho and Googledocs - they would allow a group of you to collaborate on a project at any time and from anywhere. There would be no need to send humungous files to each other nor would you live in fear of wondering if you had backed up your files........ but what happens when you don't have access to the internet? And I'm sure that they don't have all the features of a Microsoft or Apple produced piece of software........ but again these are early days.... I'm sure that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are a gazillion moves ahead already.....

Now that's really interesting - I wrote this piece in Zoho and inserted emoticons in the text but mysteriously they haven't transfered across - (means that you miss the joke!) - obviously some compatability issues. As I said though it's new technology so I'm sure that there's a posse of computer programmers working on a solution at this very moment.

Just for the record:
"pfrownpping" is "popping"
"Grumpundecidedmeter" is "Grumpometer"
"emcoolticsealedns" is "emoticons"

#17 Playing around with PBWiki

Have added "Amante della lettura" and my favourite TV programme to the Blog List of Infamy- all rather painless. Have also set up an account for my own PBwiki which I will be filling with references to all the other wonderful "PB"s out there asides from yours truly:

Pooh Bear
Paper Back
Paddington Bear
Pandora's Box
Panda Bear
Personal Best
Power Book (Macintosh)
Publications
Productive Burp (Post surgery)

Ah well back to the paperback..........


The illustration of Paddington is by Margaret Emily Noel Nuttall-Smith (aka Peggy Fortnum).