LibraryThing

LibraryThing - WOW what a great idea! Although I can't see it beating a good online Library catalogue, but on a personal level I can see it has a great many uses for individuals, clubs & societies, etc.

What to make my catalogue of …[MORE DECISIONS!] -- a tough decision, but I finally decided to make my catalogue of just my collection of Nora Roberts books. When I first started reading her books a few years ago I decided I really enjoyed her books and wanted to read everything she had written! I especially enjoy her trilogies and series, so I set myself the task of reading all her works I could find, so armed with a list download from her website I started to work my way though it [I’m down to less than ten still to find]; most came from our wonderful public libraries but over the years I’ve come across many older issues in op shops & at fairs & fetes. SO my LibraryThing catalogue is the collection of just the Nora Roberts books that I own. I found using LibraryThing was very easy, from setting up your account to adding your first book and then your 10th, 20th, etc then its midnight and you still want to add more!

Some of my books were Australian paper back editions and not findable on Library Thing by ISBN so I quickly learnt to find another edition by author/title, add the entry and then edit it to my Australian edition, for some of them I could even find the same cover on an US or English ed so I could put the right cover picture on my book entry too! I also had to find covers for some of the Australian editions and upload them!
As I said earlier I like to read series so any catalogue I make has to list a series and part no somewhere! and I found it didn't really have a space for this, but I did find if I put a series note in the comments field, it showed up in my lists! SO YES there is a little flexibility in the entry format. And I still have to go back and add more tags, comments summaries etc!!!

The next day I couldn't resist starting a new catalogue of all my partners MG Midget books. Another interesting exercise in a small collection of special books, some held by a few others scattered around the world, some of the workshop manuals and parts catalogues listed nowhere else and needing to be added manually!

Now hopefully you can see the link to both these collections on LibraryThing added to this blog!

Del.icio.us

Well the last few days I have been doing this week's reading and checking out the links.
I have made a Del.icio.us account and have put a RSS feed to this blog! ( I hope) we will see how it goes! -- have to go back and search for some more sites to bookmark!

Wiki week - finally got back to finish it!

Well I have been a bit lazy the last week or so - so now its time to catch up & finish Wiki week -- I did eventually get the invite key so I could edit the NSW learning 2.0 wiki - so yes, I did added a little paragraph about one of the areas I work in! hope you find it?

I also got carried away editing a few Wikipedia entries once I got the hang of it! I have added links to two of them on the side bar. The entry for Lane Cove did have a section for the Library but it hadn't moved past the plans for a new library in 2004 - so of course, it had to get updated because I hope you do realise that the big hole in the ground in my video clip is going to be the wonderful new library coming to Lane Cove!

Then I had a look at the entry for the suburb of Gladesville and was surprised to find that there wasn't any history on that entry at all -- so I also had to add a little bit, as I know about how it got its name! and I also added a link to the web page for the local historical society that covers Gladesville.

I also did a few minor edits on some of my favourite author's entries -- but decided this could become addictive and I have to move on the the next bit of unfinished Web 2.0 learning!

PS. the one thing I couldn't find, when I was editing Wikis was a spell check! so I hope my fingers typed all the right letters!

Google video, Youtube & Wiki

I have tried to look at some of the video sites but find I have to do it at home on my dial-up connection so still a bit frustrating

I have found on google video a clip of the demolition of Newcastle Library and hopefully will add it in here!




Hopefully if I got it right you can click on the link to watch the Youtube video clips I've added.

The 2nd one is another library building project - this one with time-lapse filming so you don't have to wait all year to see the building emerge!



This post is still a work in progress as I'm filling in time while I'm waiting, waiting waiting for the magic key so I can finish off the wiki work -- maybe I'll get an invite tomorrow?

Hopefully here is my own video clip, which I took last Saturday to show the big hole in the ground that will soon be the new Cove Library! [as I have never owned or used a video camera before & I just took this clip on my digital camera, using the video option, I don't think its too bad -- but there is still lots of room for improvement!]



I can see lots of uses for this technology in the future of libraries -- and not just to record the progress of the building of our new library!

Wiki week ! Interesting and frustrating!

While I have really enjoyed all the reading of and about Wikis this week and can see lots and lots of potential for them in Libraries ! Books list; genre list; book reviews ; web book clubs,... to name a few. I can also see lots of potential uses in the local history/ family history area too! current research projects ; streets / parks/ reserves/name history projects ; How to research your family or your house, the potential just goes on and on!

I enjoyed seeing what the SJCPL Subject Guides Wiki had done; as someone who loves to read series, I had to check out what was on the history-related mysteries list and liked that it listed series, it also had links to author websites and also a "if you likes these books try...." list at the end! The House history research page had an article with lots of embed links for more information or fact sheets, links for access to online databases and links to other relevant collections such as archives, historical societies, universities, and newspaper archives.

While I did look at the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki and can see this as a useful too for library administration to share and manage ideas and procedures at both a internal level and a larger sharing across an area or state, etc. I decided the Princeton Public Library's Book lovers Wiki was lots more fun and a great way to promote a summer reading program with reviews and star ratings, and sorted by genre, with added links to the library catalogue, frequently asked questions prizes, etc.

Next I checked out the Montana History Wiki. I looked into the Vertical files held by the Montana Historical Society I found that they were divided into biographical and topical subjects, they also had a file for photographers by name or company. All would be very useful for any researcher to know before they visited or wrote to the Society for more information. One name that jumped out from the biographical index was a file for one "Wyatt Earp" !

BUT what has frustrated me the most is accessing the information - the PB Wiki tour just wouldn't load on my computer at work -- I don't know if that is because it was blocked or the computer is just so slow & old (it is due for replacement! soon!) ; so after having tried a few times at work to view it I decided to try it at home again early this morning and YES my dial-up did cope with it and I did get to watch the 3min 21sec of footage ---- it only took 29minutes to load and run through completely, during which time I had breakfast, made the bed, had a shower and cleaned my teeth!

Also frustrating is waiting for the key to edit the NSW learning Wiki, now that I'm ready to do it -- I sent off an email asking for an invite before 8am on Wednesday morning and its now after 10pm on Thursday and I still haven't got and invite!

I'm also frustrated because having spent two nights out at meetings this week and working on this every other night -- I haven't read any of my waiting fiction this week and now my reserves are piling up!

RSS feeds

Well I think I finally got the RSS feed to add to this blog!

After any number of attempts at work today (on two separate networks I was unable to load the feed to the blog, but tonight at home -It finally worked.

So now you can see the feed I found about Dewey the Library cat! and to celebrate I went back to flickr and found a picture of Dewey the Library cat! isn't he just purrfect?

I think I'll have to ask "the boss" if we can have a Library cat in our new library at The Cove ! [not sure if he/she would be compatible with our fish or our possums!]

RSS feeds

Well it's Sunday night and I still haven't finished the ironing and I still haven't managed to sort out the RSS feeds thing!
I did go to Bloglines, and set up an account, and found a number of feeds that interested me, but I only managed to get The Powerhouse Museum's picture of the day blog, onto my blog ( that was last Thursday!) but that's the only one!
Guess I'll have to go back and try again! and again!
I am finding this task a bit difficult as I'm still in the dark ages with dial-up Internet at home and only work part-time in my Library therefore it is often difficult to find the time to cover this during my working hours!

I have added a picture to my profile tonight, so feel I have achieved something!
Stay tuned to if I get there or if RSS gets the better of me.

The other feeds added to my bloglines account besides the Powerhouse Museum's Picture of the Day were :
Bloglines News (10) (0)
librarian.net (0) (0)
Library Stuff (3) (0)
ResourceShelf (1) (0)
The Shifted Librarian (0) (0)

But in fairness to RSS, yes I can see this tool being very useful to library in a number of ways, especially as it can give world wide access to current issues for any topic collected together.
It's very easy to get side-tracked on lots of interesting articles!