My Mashups

I quite enjoyed playing on Big Huge Labs website and I think, like YouTube and Flickr, this is somewhere I could spend a lot of time! There is just so much cool stuff to do. I played with the PhotoMosaic and the Maps and there is still so much I'd like to try. I will try and embed a couple of examples here for you to see...

photo mosaic mashup

My creation
Originally uploaded by thelauragirl

thelauragirl's world adventures

Make yours @ BigHugeLabs.com

See, how cool?!?

I also think that mashups would be a cool way of incorporating library maps, photos and perhaps even video virtual tours all on the one site for our customers to access. I like the way this lets people incorporate different technologies all into one - kind of the best of both worlds.

I am also impressed with how easily I am now managing to import widgets, pictures and other stuff into this blog. A big improvement from the lauragirl who couldn't get a video imported (careful though, I don't want to speak too soon)!

Answer Boards and Librarians

To be honest, I have never had much time for answer boards - I answer questions all day at work so don't really feel the need to seek more questions in my spare time! I would also never use this as a way to ask a question myself - all of the answerboards seem to lack privacy (I know, I know, it's all in my head, but I just don't like the idea of my questions being out there for all to see). 

Having said that, I have always thought the best thing about the Internet is it's capacity to link people with similar interests, no matter how obscure they may be. Before the Internet, people with eclectic or unusual hobbies were often isolated from others, but now a simple Google search will find plenty of others with similar interests to you. In the same way, I guess answer boards link people with questions to people with answers, and that's pretty cool!

It is fantastic to see other people using their skills to provide information/knowledge to those in need, and I know plenty of other people who do choose to spend an hour or so a day checking boards and answering things.  This would also be a great resource for a public library to have - their own public answer board which could act as a repository for our knowledge, kind of like the online reference service currently offered, but something a bit more lasting. A very interesting possibility...

My bookshelf at LibraryThing

I knew a little about LibraryThing before doing this module but hadn't really spent a lot of time there.

LibraryThing was probably the first web 2.0 technology implemented by Brisbane City Council Library Services, when the LibraryThing tags were added to our catalogue records on elibcat. Although I don't get particularly excited by tag clouds, I know visual learners do so I think anything that adds value to our service is a good thing and LibraryThing is no exception. 

I had fun creating my bookshelf at LibraryThing. I managed to add 17 books fairly quickly - the hardest part was choosing the cover and remembering the darn titles! I was impressed with the stats displayed by LibraryThing. I enjoyed finding out that "Weight" by Jeanette Winterson was only chosen by 499 members, which seems awfully low. If you haven't read anything by Jeanette Winterson, you must try "Weight" and "Written on the Body" - absolutely awesome books. 

I even learned how to add a blog widget so below you'll find some random picks from my LibraryThing catalogue. Cool, no?

Totally Technorati

This was a really easy module to complete, but did require yet another login that I will need to remember!

Now all my blogs are "claimed" on technorati. The site was really easy to use and the tagging was very simple. It will be interesting to see if this has any effect on my blogs - I don't tend to add tags to my blog entries, but I might start just to see whether Technorati picks up on them correctly.

It's all very interesting, I must say!

Tasty but not del.icio.us

Okay, tagging here I come. I went to del.icio.us and checked out the account created for the exercise, but darned if I could see any clouds! C'est la vie, I ploughed ahead and created my account anyway.

I use bookmarks all the time on my home PC and, being a librarian, I have very well organised lists of favourites that I access all the time. So, I can see that my del.icio.us account will be useful in enabling me to access all my favourites anywhere I am. Of course, since I am doing this exercise at work, I can't actually import my bookmarks right now - but I'm fairly confident I can work out how to do this later. Stay tuned for more on this - I'm sure you'll hear all about it if there's any trouble :-)

Okay, I'm back now and at home and about to try putting my bookmarks onto my del.icio.us account...

Actually, this was so simple there is absolutely nothing to write about! I use the Safari browser on my home PC and it was still super easy (which often is not the case if you use anything other than IE). I was quite surprised to see that I have 236 bookmarks, I would have guessed only about 20!!! This has actually been really fun and I've had the chance to revisit heaps of old bookmarks I forgot I even had - everything from Mealy Bugs to Build your own Castle Kits! My next project is to try to work out how to sort them and categorise them more effectively in del.icio.ous, so it is also nice to think that the learning will continue.

Happy now that this module worked really well and I will be able to access all my bookmarked websites from anywhere!

Einstein the African Grey

Check this out....



This video is Einstein the talking African Grey parrot. African Greys are just about the smartest parrots out there and can actually "talk" (as opposed to just copying words, they can actually create unique sentences).

My goal is to own an African Grey, but they are hard to find in Australia and cost about $7000. At the moment I am making do with four African love birds and two budgies - they are so cute. Now that I've joined YouTube, I will make a video of them and try blogging it one day soon.

I found the experience of loading a video onto my blog a very frustrating experience. I could not work it out and it is only thanks to my wonderful colleague Helen that Einstein is able to appear on this blog :-)

Wiki World

Okay, I've made it through Fun with Flickr and RSS feeds and it's time for Wiki World in my 23 things library adventure.

I have checked out a couple of wiki's and here are my thoughts...

Book Lovers Wiki of Princetone Public Library

This is a great wiki with some really interesting reviews. I'd love to see BCCLS doing something like this, where staff and customers alike can share their thoughts on books.

Wookieepedia

What can I say? This is the uber wiki - terrific content, totally comprehensive and great to see a place where people can share their obsession with useless facts!! IMHO, one of the best things about the Internet is the way it has linked people all over the world with similar interests - you need never be alone again, whether you are interested in crocheting, Star Wars or collecting china dogs. Cool!

Bikeqld Wiki

This wasn't one of the suggested wiki's for me to check out, but the others didn't interest me. I have been involved in the Bikeqld wiki for some time. It is a wiki and unmoderated mailing list for cyclists in Queensland, intended to facilitate discussion about cycling related topics in Queensland. I like it because although there are some rabid lycra-fiends involved, it is mostly just regular people chatting about cycling in Brisbane/Qld and sharing useful hints and tips.

Final thoughts....

There are some great wiki's out there. There are heaps of people around the world with heaps of knowledge to share. My husband is a huge Wikipedia contributor, with over 42,000 edits and several thousand articles to his credit. I have seen first hand how much time this takes, and to be honest I just don't have the time to live in wiki world.

Tulips Carousel @ Descanso Gardens

Tulips Carousel @ Descanso Gardens
Originally uploaded by whisperbee

Ha, I did it again!

This photo is another one you'll see on flickr if you search for "tulip".

Beautiful :-)

ENCHANTED TULIPS

ENCHANTED TULIPS
Originally uploaded by brynmeillion

I have been fighting with flickr to blog a picture and here is the result - it finally worked!!! yay!!!

I chose this picture because tulip is my favourite flower and I really liked this image. If you do a search on flickr for "tulip" you will see some amazing pictures, including some very odd ones. I will try to upload another one now, just to see. Stay tuned.....

Fun with Flickr

This blog was started as part of the 23 things journey BCCLS staff are making together. Module 3 is all about sharing images. I have been having lots of fun with Flickr as part of this module. I am a keen photographer and used to have a darkroom where I developed lots of B&W photos the old-fashioned way. I hope to one day rebuild my darkroom, but until then I can share my photos on Flickr. So, I did some searching and you can see one of the favourite photos I found here.

I would have linked to the picture itself, but it was "all rights reserved" - I also learned all about Creative Commons as part of this module :-)

Instead, here is a picture I took of the same subject: the Old Museum in Brisbane. 

This is one of my all-time favourite buildings. If you like, you can see more of my photos in my Flickr account here.