What I thought of the Web 2.0 course

I'm thankful of what I have learnt from the course and very appreciative of Melissa and Mark's efforts at the City of Swan for running it. I have learnt so much. Many aspects of Web 2.0 technology I may not again find a use for but it is I think important to understand what is out there and how it works.

We are fortunate to have a number of people at our libraries who are interested in the new technology and keen on discovering ways of using it for the betterment of the Library service.

Personally I found the course interesting but the requirement to post on 5 blogs each week a bit time consuming and tedious. Maybe the number of posts required could be reduced in the future. This is just a minor quibble and overshadowed by the many good things about the course.

Geocaching

I had absolutely no idea what Geocaching was and am surprised that it's more of a fun game type thing to do. I've discovered that there are Geocaches in Angkor Wat in Cambodia and that would be a great place to be searching for them but I doubt whether I have enough time to play the game. Obviously geocaching can be used in libraries as an educational orientation game enabling people to discover objects and places in the Library. Maybe you could have a geocaching treasure hunt for books or what about taking it outside the Library and have people searching for caches that have been placed at historical sites. When looking at a list of libraries that use geocaching it seems that many use it as a fun event for teenagers. Maybe that is something we could use it for.

PODCASTING

I haven't listened to podcasts much except for a few music programmes. Gilles Peterson's podcasts on BBC where he interviews musicians is a favourite but I hardly find time for that. I've also discovered there are travel podcasts as well. I may download one on Angkor Wat for my trip to Cambodia. There is so much great stuff out there but finding the time to delve into it is the problem. That's also the problem libraries face. How do we make our podcasts more attractive than the millions of options out there? I guess if people are reliant on our webpage and catalogue then they'll see the podcasts of events that we make available.

Book talks and readings are obviously events we could make podcasts of in our Library. Library tours and oral history interviews are also other likely uses of podcast. Podcasts could also be a great aid to the visually impaired or to people who can't speak English and are illiterate in their own language.

Back to Cambodia

Back to Cambodia but not yet. Online video can be very useful to libraries but I'm not sure about videoing things like storytime. When my son was little he loved storytime but I don't think I would have sat him down in front of a computer screen to watch a video of it, even if he had missed the real thing that day. I would have preferred to have read him a book myself. It may be better to video other events in the Library but only if it is something that would attract a healthy number of people. Something like a cooking demonstration may be useful but then again there is already so much of this online.
We have to make sure if we're using video that they add real value to our service by reaching out to alot of people.

I believe video could be used to record oral histories of people in the area or libraries could even start a project of recording introductions to the library in different languages and let the different cultural and migrant organisations know. Some libraries have tried having pamphlets about their libraries translated into different languages only to discover that many of the people they were targetting were illiterate. Video would solve this problem.

Here's a quirky US band with a Cambodian born female singer. They play kind of Cambodian psychedelic music and they've just made a documentary of a trip they made through Cambodia. Here is a promo for it. I saw them originally on the Jools Holland show which is a great music show that introduces you to new artists but also has the legends as well.

Social Notworking for me

I can't see myself becoming too involved in social networks such as facebook and twitter. I am impressed by their power and the fact that  f*** millions of people use them, as the presentation What the F*** is Social Media NOW rammed down my throat f*** a thousand times, but they're not for me (or Prince) it seems. This may change. I'm sure if a member of my family was travelling and they wanted to communicate through facebook and show photos etc then I'd be in, but at the moment the day is too short to be spending more time in front of a computer. I'll be travelling soon but I won't be tweeting or using facebook but if others wish to communicate that way then that's great. Maybe library staff can tweet to me in Cambodia from their library team meeting. Probably won't happen.

This doesn't mean that I'm not interested in them as a networking tool for the Library. Obviously they enable us to reach out to more people. We can tweet messages to people, let them know of events etc. On the other hand, at the moment I can't see myself tweeting other professionals. I've read some of the Librarian tweets and not too much seems that useful to me and I still don't understand the point of people tweeting at Conferences. I find it petty annoying having someone next to me hammering away on a laptop and to be honest would rather have someone knitting next to me but if there is a point to this tweeting it would be good to know. At the moment I see more of a point to the knitting at a Conference.

I've followed some tweets of a few well known people in the library world and some seem no different to those of bored celebrities (eg Warney), with way too much time on their hands.

It's also downright annoying when you're watching a live television show and inane tweets are appearing on the bottom of your tv screen. So at the moment tweetings not for me but that's not to say I can't be persuaded the other way. Maybe all we need is an earthquake for people like myself to change their minds.

Thingamejig

Here's my library thing link http://www.librarything.com/home/crumber

Library thing is a great tool for libraries to use in stimulating reading and thinking about reading. In spite of this it's not really something I'd use. Sometimes all I want to do is read a book but I'm distracted by all the choice. I have loads of books at home and see so much stuff I'd like to read. I don't feel that I need to discover more information about books through reviews etc.

Pretty tasty

Actually, maybe delicious is not quite the word I'd use to describe what Delicious does. It is a useful tool particularly since in the past few years I've lost many favourites or bookmarks due to a pc being replaced. I also remember that several years ago my job was to discover useful library websites and have them used by the rest of the staff. It was pretty time consuming and I don't think we as a library ever made great use of it. Much better to have your own and in a way that you can access them from any pc. It is also useful to be able to discover what other people are bookmarking whether for work or in my case travel. So, it's all fairly tasty.

Here's a link to my bookmarks. http://www.delicious.com/cccrumber

Favourites

A break from Cambodia

It's difficult to fit Cambodia and travel into this post if I follow the guidelines of the course. Before I start thanks to all those who sent me advice I got concerning my angst at facing the monkeys in Cambodia. On one travel website someone recommended taking four water bottles to the temples, one for yourself and the rest for the more aggressive monkeys.

Onto the course. I learnt a fair bit about wikis this week. I didn't know that all information supplied to Wikipedia needs to be referenced so that it can be checked out. In other words most entries are probably taken from books or journals.

I did think some of the Library wikis looked useful such as Blogging Libraries Wiki or the one about best practice in Libraries.

I also liked the idea of using wikis for our own purposes as a great device for sharing information. Maybe a brainstorm on things we wish to include in next years budget would be useful. Planning anything as a group could be aided by using wikis.

When searching for Wikis on monkeys I found a Wiki site called Wikia and it had an entry about a character called Lord Monkey Fist who studies Tai Shing Pek Kwar, or Monkey Kung Fu. http://kimpossible.wikia.com/wiki/Monkey_Fist
Another bit of useless information. Maybe back to Cambodia next week.

Dreaming about monkeys

I've started worrying a bit about the trip and dreaming alot about monkeys. It's all because a Scandinavian guy at my work (we can call him Fred but that's not his real name) told me that he had fought a monkey in Thailand earlier this year. I can't believe this. What hope is there for world peace if a guy from the home of the Nobel Peace prize has a tussle with a monkey at the most sacred of places - a Buddhist temple....And it was all over a plastic water bottle. Not that a punch was thrown, more just a tug of war over the water bottle. He warned me to watch out in Cambodia as there's lots of monkeys in temples there. So I've started searching the internet for more information about monkeys and ways of defending myself.

I've also started adding RSS feeds to my account and some with a monkey theme. I'm calling them monkey feeds. There's one called '40 Random Facts About Monkeys' and another called "Video - Predatory Monkeys". I also found a feed within a Martial Arts blog called 'Are you smart enought to fight a monkey.' So, I've discovered that everything is out there in cyberspace and hopefully I'll arrive in Cambodia with a mountain of ideas in dealing with monkeys.

I've also added a couple of feeds on Cambodia, one being 'The official site for Tourism of Cambodia' and the other from the Guardian newspaper in England. With the latter I guess I'll receive a feed everytime an article is written on Cambodia. This could be very useful. And I've also subscribed to Pitchfork: Album Reviews, an online music site.

What to ride on in Cambodia

I'm still checking out the travel blogs. Better stop soon as I'll be sick of Cambodia before I actually get there.
Looked at the ways of getting around and the contraptions you can travel in and found a few photos on flickr. Apologies to elephants as they're not really contraptions. Here are some choices.

Just a tad small for us but I'm sure four could fit on Cambodian style.



Again a little small, but I suppose Lorraine could run along the side.





The minibus, a possibility but a coach may be safer for the longer trips.

Might have to get over my fear of heights and elephants. I could lead the elephant with Lorraine riding it.



More my thing. Tuk tuk, Cambodian style.

Travel blogs - a source of indecision

Have booked the tickets for Cambodia and can't wait until fly out date in January. Loved IndoChina a couple of years ago when travelling through Vietnam and Laos. My wife is coming along this time just to make sure I don't get into any trouble. We will definitely be staying a few nights in Phnomh Penh and several in Siem Reap which is the city close to Angkor Wat but in between we'll be flexible.

Lots to read up about before we go and I have discovered that travel blogs are extremely useful for this. Have already used them for learning about good places to stay. Sometimes, however, after reading too many you can become totally confused about your plans. A couple of years ago prior to travelling through Laos I read many blogs about the two day longboat trip from the Laos - Thai border to the beautiful city of Luang Prabang. Blogs ranged from describing the joys of meandering up the Mekong on a slightly over populated boat getting glimpses of Laos village life and staying over night in the quiet pretty village of Pak Beng ; to surviving the ordeal of travelling on a boat with twice the passenger capacity, half of them sick from the booze and the sun, your backside sore from the wooden seats (if you're lucky enough to get one) and then when you get to Pak Beng a sleepless night in a godforsaken dirty room.

 In the end I took the boat and both of the above versions had some truth. The boat for the first day was terribly overcrowded and the engine was incredibly noisy and it did seem at times that we wouldn't make it. I brought a cushion thanks to a blog, and enjoyed the trip while others struggled with the uncomfortable seats. I also got to the boat early thus avoiding having to camp on the floor around the engine or toilets. Didn't get much sleep in Pak Beng woken by drug deals outside my window in the early hours of the morning. Two boats instead of one were used on the second day and it ended up being a lovely trip. I learnt that blogs can be very useful but don't believe everything you read.