Sunday, September 13, 2009

Cloud Computing

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AZxaVzMxB_eEZGN2Z2hwcTVfNTNkYnhmdGZkOQ&hl=en

or


http://tiny.cc/fZrRi

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Social Networking

(I've already posted some of this on our Group Ning blog)

I have been social networking for about a year. I am a Facebook user and it is far too addictive. Thankfully I have some measure of self control and don't do quizzes or play Mafia Wars or I will never leave FB alone!!

What do I like about social networking? I like being back in touch with American friends who I'd lost track of. I also like being back in touch with school friends I'd lost touch with. I like being able to see what my friends are up to at a glance and vice versa (especially those on their OE or who are having babies/weddings). I also like that I can be a wee bit of a voyeur in observing other peoples lives without being a big part of them.

Monday, August 17, 2009

NZ GLAM

I have to start this post by saying how much I loved seeing the digital NZ site (although imo the colour is slightly garish) and hope that the user collaboration means some of the ideas being put forward for digitisation do happen soon. Some of these will have a big impact on ANZC and in particular my collection area, i.e. digitising the AJHR's, Hansards and other Parliamentary information will make it much easier to search.

I like the museums site although I think it's a wee bit weird that in the search box you can't limit it by individual museums. A similar site to this is The Community Archive which used to the be the National Register of Archives and Manuscripts. Sites like this certainly make searching easier as often I struggle to remember all the locations of all the archives and museums where customers may be able to find further information beyond what we hold @ CCL.

Thursday, August 13, 2009

More on Google Reader

I'm on the desk tonight and it's kind of quiet, mostly just computer queries and have been reading some of my Google Reader and have been thinking about my earlier post today and my 900 odd subscriptions I used to have eeek!!


Anyway it made me think about the criteria I have for adding and keeping blogs to and in my Google Reader now I am a little more selective so here they are:
1. The whole post has to show in Google Reader, unless it is something I really like (ie Dear Prudence and Dear Abby) and am willing to navigate away from Google Reader for, the whole post has to show up.
2. Regular postings about the topic I am interested in (ie I subscribe to lots of craft blogs - mostly stamping and sewing but sometimes the blogs are more personal than craft which doesn't really interest me so I delete them)
3. No of posts per day.

Do you have any criteria for blogs you subscribe to?

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

RSS, Newsreaders and Podcasts

RSS / Newsreaders
I love love love my Google Reader! I mostly subscribe to wedding and craft blogs + a few other favourites such as:
Dear Prudence (American advice columist - weekly on Fridays)
Dear Abby (another American advice columist - daily)
PostSecret (people post in secrets - very voyeristic!) - possibly not work appropriate!

Except when I first discovered Google Reader I went a little overboard and added about 900 subscriptions to it so I was soon overwhelmed and realised I was missing heaps of postings because they drop off after 30 days which I find v. frustrating! So most of the time if I find a post I want to re-read again I email it to myself for later reference. Anyway now I am slowly pruning my subscriptions down (I have about 400 now and definantly don't get time to read them all)!

Podcasts
I'm not a big Podcast person, mostly because I never seem to have the time to listen to them. I have subscribed to some and tried to keep up with them but again I get very overwhelmed and decide to go back to talking books or my iPod songs rather than podcasts. Personal preference I guess. Also the time I most listen to my ipod is on the bus but I commute in from Burnham and have a group of bus friends so I spend most of my time talking to them rather than listening to my iPod...

Hmmm maybe my problem with Web 2.0 is that I don't have enough time to do it all?

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

NZ 2.0 - Government, Local Government & Business/Education/Community Information

To me Web 2.0 is the evolution of user participation in the internet and the changes from static pages to pages with the ability for individuals to contribute (or not).

I think it is great that more and more government information is online, it certainly makes finding information that in the past has been tucked away in ANZC more available. I hope that it means that community libraries are finding it easier to locate government information that they may have had to have sent people into Central for in the past.

I overheard our friendly HelpDesk staff member being asked yesterday if CCL is on Facebook - which we aren't yet! - but I know that the UC library is. You can view their profile here . I think it a great strategy by the UC Librarians (especially Deborah *wave*) to engage students in a format which they use everyday and also allows for the user to engage themselves without having to have face to face contact with a scary librarian. [disclaimer: we aren't scary!] I know that the library also has a number of blogs which are frequently added to.

Monday, August 10, 2009

CCLearn

I've rediscovered my old blog which I am going to resserect for CCLearn.

I'm quite excited about CCLearn, mostly cos I'm jealous Allison got to do it first and now I get to do it :) + it sounds really awesome. I started doing 23 things while I worked at the Engineering Library but it petered out very quickly and the one thing I took away from it was a new appreciation for my Google Reader (which I still love and try to read at least every couple of days or it spirals out of control) + a blog that I haven't used since....