# 23. The end...

...of this blog for the sake of 'having to' but not the end of it all. Like life in general, a journey never ends. We get to the place we are going, we relax and say "ahhh, isn't it nice to finish?" but we never actually stop. We never actually sit down where we landed, cross our legs and our arms and cease to move. Even beyond death there's a part of us that lives, stuff for the worms to munch on, thoughts we've left behind carried on by others...

..Anyway, I digress...

This Web 2.0 training has been an interesting, intriguing, sometimes frustrating, sometimes annoying, fascinating, enjoyable, social learning experience. When I look back to the beginning and see how much I didn't know I didn't know (that sentence DOES make sense!) I am amazed and impressed with myself and all the others who undertook this journey with me. Well done us!

Here's what I think about the last "23 things" we've learnt about since July 20th 2008:
- I've grown to enjoy blogging. Just like writing a letter but much quicker and more self-satisfying.
- Christchurch City Libraries are doing incredible Web2.0 things, congratulations guys and gals, you are many a libraries' mentor.
- ROLLYO ROCKS MY WORLD.
- I'm still not comfortable with Tags and RSS but will keep using them to help make my 'journey' more meaningful.
- Geriatric1927 is an adorable old man from Leceister who should shine like a beacon for all us Web2.0 newbies, if he can then we can.
- I love podcasts and can get stuck for hours wandering aimlessly in podcastland.
- Dr.House plays the piano wonderfully. Really, actually, plays the piano.
- You can get whole books on the internet, free of copyright and fully downloadable. This was an amazing discovery.
- I'm not a Bebo fan. Maybe it's age. Facebook is best.

And finally, that Libraries all over the world are trying their damndest to break successfully into the Web2.0 market. I welcome them wholeheartedly. Web 2.0 is happening. Now. I'll meet you there.


Signing out,
Miss Diggy.

# 22. Libraries in YourSpace

Ok. So after my last - slightly venting - blog about privacy issues and the scariness of "other" online content that potential users of facebook, myspace and bebo might get sucked into while browsing a library profile, I then embarked on Exercise # 22 and what the library world has been saying about it all.

And was I enlightened!

I think I had a touch of the problem that Beth Evans explains about in the Library Journal... "librarians are suffering from “paralysis by analysis,” refusing to move forward into new ventures because they are overthinking"... yuck, that doesn't sound hopeful does it. I hope to never, EVER, overthink again.

Well, maybe I'm not all that bad. But what I did learn in this process is how effective a library presence could be in the world of mostly 16-25 yr olds as they brand themselves with social tattoos and broadcast on their online billboards.

Yes definitely, there's a place for public libraries in the social networking scene. Yes definitely, there's a way to stuff it up dismally. But yes, there's also a way to do it right. We need to ask ourselves as a corporate body - have we got the dedication of staff, management, time? Have we got the intellect to carry our profile beyond just 'being there and looking good'? Have we got the smarts to move with the online ocean? Let's find the VALUE that Meredith Farkas blogs at length about. Let's know all the W's first: Why are doing it; Who for; What value will our profile bring (to profile users and us); and then all the Which's and What's.

Yes, I say, let's do a Facebook or MySpace library profile.
And yes please, let's do it right.

Here's Hennepin County Library on MySpace reaping the rewards of authors and illustrators all becoming their MySpace "friend" and sending through comments that include a little spiel about their own new books... I found this so interesting I actually hunted down one of the books commented on by its author and have requested it from my local library! Yay. Go Hennepin. Watch out, NSL is on its way.

# 21. Bebo vs. MySpace vs. Facebook...

Now THIS was interesting... Being a Facebook fan already, I went confidently into the land of Bebo and MySpace only to find myself bombarded with tacky photos and eyebrow-raising profiles and videos and pictures and slagging off of anyone who's anyone! I was dismayed that the majority of profiles in both Bebo and MySpace are public and either the users don't know or don't care who finds out where they attend high school, which cafe they frequent, who their enemies are and what their sister's name is. I'm gonna hazard a guess that all new Bebo and MySpace profiles are, by default, "public" unless you have the common sense and personal security to make them private. Perhaps I'm a privacy freak, but for me Facebook is the winner today.

So having said all that, the following shouldn't come as any surprise... I don't, for a minute, want library customers who visit MY library's Bebo page to happily click away into random profiles that include sexual offers of "luv up 2 5 times a day"!!!! I'm sorry, but there HAS to be another way of connecting with our library customers!!!

Ok, that was my gripe. On a more positive note, I think MySpace Music has done an awesome thing for the music industry by promoting all and any up and coming bands and musos. A totally cool advantage of Social Networking.

# 20. eBooks and LibriVox

WOWIO - really liked the simple and effective search, layout and colours but found the single-page view tedious compared to GoogleBooks and their 742 pages of Oliver Twist right there on the screen.
Then I discovered LibriVox and now I'm suitably impressed. Gotta download me some stories for my MP3 - walking in the evenings will never be the same! Liked the way LibriVox includes other relevant links from your chosen audio-ebook to wikipedia info about the author, and full-text ebooks so you can read and listen at the same time. Shame about site inaccessibility at different times of the day but with a great selection of books this is still a definite winner for any lover of literature.

#19. Podcasts

Podcastpickle.com - wow, an unbelievable amount of podcasts that range from two kids in their backyard telling us all about weird and interesting facts from around the world - Sparklecast - to the R18 sites that o-p-e-n your e-y-e-s and e-a-r-s... Anyway, what I DID find really interesting was the podcast To the best of our knowledge - intelligent interviews with worldwide guests "whose passion for new ideas will challenge and engage". I've added this feed to my blog...

# 18. You Tube

Mmmmm, YouuuTuuube...
There's not much else to say. If you wanna waste hours looking at videos that are: awesome; mindless; degrading; stupid; downright funny; informative; personal; rambling; useless; incredible; musical; comical; enlightening, then become a YouTube addict - it's pathetically easy!
Yes, I too enjoy passing the hours by wandering aimlessly in the land of YouTube videos, wasting time and getting the odd bit of enlightenment and usually a few laughs. While searching today I found Hugh Laurie in "House, M.D." tapping out a few tunes from Boomtown Rats' I don't like Mondays. Ah, I love that show, love that tune.
Libraries could go far with a little bit of YouTube banter!

# 17. Web 2.0 Awards

Check out Netvibes, the winner of Web2.0 tools in the Start pages category. Clear and concise layout for setting up your own Homepage/Startpage and accessible from wherever you are. Make your Start page private, or with a click of a button, let the world see it.
As a private page I liked the idea of having all my email addresses and Facebook account instantly opened as soon as I logged into my Netvibes page. Liked: the initial widgets were all from MY country - Disliked: I had to guess other widgets from other countries, there was no easy index. Also a huge contingent were not accessible outside the U.S. Liked: how quick YouTube downloads occurred on the widget I chose for my page - Disliked: how slow other widgets were to download.
Found an awesome radio station widget broadcasting out of the UK - Nanny Tango Radio. Gorgeous easy blues.

# 16. Zoho Square

http://zoho.com
Another impressive Web2.0 resource. Like a gigantic server in the cosmos that will store my vital documents and let me move around the planet without toting my (sometimes unreliable) usb memory stick and lets me save in either windows or mac format. I can see the definite benefits and have already added a powerpoint that I'm working on at home... now I can do it wherever I am, with the added bonus of my new laptop purchase!

# 15. Rolling, rolling, rolling...

Rollyo.com
Like a raging bull I rushed into doing my own searchroll and found I couldn't fuddle my way through it, got confused about the purpose of a searchroll and didn't see why we were doing it...
THEN, played around with my own roll once I added it to my blog, and OMG - WOW!!! So THAT'S WHY?!!!! It's highly cool, and totally useful. Multi-searching of just the sites you want, all with one search button. Wow, I'm impressed.

14. Library thang

"Library thang, you make my heart swing,
You make everythang...g-r-o-o-o-o-v-y,
Library thang, I think I love ya!"
www.librarything.com

If you haven't been, go.
If you haven't done, do.
A global library, supported and supplied by readers around the world.
Miss Diggy's LibraryThing catalogue.

# 13. Image fun...

I love image generators! So THATS how all those lolcats are created!! This was a blast. Create anything you want. For free. Bonus. Flickr, once again, has an enormous array of awesome resources to create some fun - or serious - text and image graphics. Loved it. Try this - http://bighugelabs.com/flickr. Gotta love it. I googled "image generators" and found pages and pages and P A G E S of them, bighugelabs won out simply because it was so simple!

# 12: Kicked out of the Sandbox

Aaaaaargh!!!!!!! Technology hates me!!!!!!!!!!
I can get into the Sandbox and click on the Edit Toolbox. I can open it up and I can add content. BUT, as soon as I start typing, the EditToolbox DISAPPEARS and I then can't Save or Change or Do ANYTHING except shut down the window and LOSE all my STUFF!
Aaaaaaaaaargh, I triiiieedd, honestly I did!!!!!

It looks like fun, if only I could use it... sigh...

# 11: Wikis

Hey, what about this... a library wiki space opened to kids and teens that encourages a communal reading space, great books and authors to read, keywords that link to other books and characters. Encourage schools/education facilities to use the library wiki to find out what to read to their classes, and to find out what kids are reading and raving about. And of course, what works for kids hopefully works for adults too. Give the power of the word to the people, encourage the community to be a part of their library, learning and growing and celebrating our collective knowledge! Wow, I think I like the idea of Wikis, don't you?!

# 10: Library 2.0

...reads like the libraries of our immediate future, they're happening now, and I'm liking the definite wave! Chip Nilges talks about open source sharing (collective user intelligence) and raves about social "tagging, list creation and sharing, citation management, personal cataloging" on the library world cat. Hmm, interesting! And Wendy Schultz... omg I can't wait for Library 4.0, I'll meet you there, at that retreat from the techno hustle with the comfortable chairs and light coffee and malt, you know the place - the library!

But...

as a consequence of having to look at Technorati I did find a quiet little gem of a library blog - TameTheWeb.com. For librarians who like a little fun.

# 9: Technorati ignorance

Once I maneouvered my way into Technorati's mish-mash of things to do and try (I do have to say this website is not for the simpleton... does that rule me out?!) I finally found the blogs/posts/directory... and got lost, found, lost again, then got deleted, canceled, and confused. I found Technorati still beyond the casual 15 minutes of browse time I had allowed. Yes, the technology is incredible, the blogs, posts, ideas interesting(mostly), some comments helpful, and some ridiculous. I can see how Tags and Posts and Directories work for those using this... but WHO is using this? And WHAT FOR?? I found a blogger who blogged about blogging for money... is that WHY? Is it Fame? Why tag others' tags, and blogs? SoandSo, can you tell me?!?! I did find a blog that led me to http://Monitter.com - a new web 2.0 tool for monitoring "twitters" of online conversations - effectively an online eavesdropping service to calm the pervert in us all. I feel a little on the side of Biblio Chick with this one, it's probably sheer ignorance of the unknown. But I still need help in understanding. Please someone, put it into easy context for me...?!

# 8 - Del.icio.us!!!!

Tags. Fun. Rewarding. Inspirational. Informational. Helpful. Insightful. Social. Bookmarking. Interesting. Sharing. Popular. Blog.

Can see how using http://delicious.com will be very tasty. It's a yummy concoction of scrumptious words and tag clouds from helpful significant others who are on the same social wavelength as me. And extremely helpful for forgetful surfers like me who have so many bookmarked favourites and no organisational skills. Yay for delicious inventions like these.

Oh, haha, through the wonderful joys of tag search (oh, by the way, LOVE the Tag Clouds) I found an infinite number of LOLCATS at... http://icanhascheezburger.com!

# 7.2 - RSS searching

I can see I need a million hours to really enjoy what RSS search tools can offer! I've just spent half an hour getting aimlessly lost in the feedback and blogging world of http://www.technorati.com and http://www.topix.net. From even what I would consider my computer-savvy point of view Technorati.com was still way too confusing. The competition is won today by topix.net.

Here's a news story worth giggling at... "School bans cartwheels." Even more amusing are the responses... http://www.topix.net/news/weird/2008/08/parents-outraged-as-school-bans-cartwheels

#7.1: RSS feeds

Well, first... I see possibilities galore for our own library website, there are plenty of public libraries out there already using this technology to their great advantage, just take a look at good old Christchurch Public - always a forerunner of everything new: http://christchurchcitylibraries.com/Tools/Feeds/. And I hope we also implement to boost our community library service - perhaps RSS feeds for new books lists, library blogs, patron blogs, great reads etc.

Personally, however, I think that RSS feeding is the online equivalent of opportunistic trawling. Sorry, but you DID ask. :)

# 6: Technology is...

...taking us by storm, moving us from the cave and into the light of Jupiter's moons. I was given an Olympus camera - waterproof, smashproof, drop-proof, dustproof, everything-proof - for my birthday and am still discovering the unique qualities that this little marvel has in store for me. I can't wait to dive to the depths of 30 feet and take a photo of a stingray resting on the sandy sea bottom.

Technology is... high-definition television. If you haven't yet, go and find a friend who has one and watch the 30-min rolling demo. I-n-c-r-e-d-i-b-l-e. About the time I can afford one should be about the time HD movies start making it into the mainstream.

Here's a question: Does Technology always advance humankind???

# 5: The Pensive Princess

My creation
Originally uploaded by missdiggy

Wow, again. I made a Trading Card from http://www.bighugelabs.com/! Very cute and easy. I bet the Pensive Princess never thought she'd be immortalised forever in a trading card... :)

Another site - http://www.krazydad.com/ - displays gorgeous Flickr photos in various colours but like even KrazyDad says, there's no purpose in his creations - you can't DO anything with them - they're just for fun. And finally Flickr Montager - www.deviousgelatin.com/montager/ - yeah, it's ok, but doesn't get the winning pavlova from me, too mindless.

The Trading Card site gets my 100% vote today! The Pensive Princess would definitely be happy with this treasure given.

Discovery exercise # 4

Wow. Flickr is amazing. What incredibly exquisite photos! As well as being easy to use and other people making friendly comments (no spiteful comments like you often get in other open forums...) and all at the click of a button. I knew it was good, just didn't realise the quality. Now I do.

Discovery Exercise # 2

Well, there you go, I've just set up my very first Blog as part of my place of employment's efforts to get us more internet-savvy. Welcome, Miss Diggy, to the world of the computers, technology, little-men-inside-hard-drives telling all these words where to go and in what order. And look, it's not that hard at all. In fact, most of us like to talk about ourselves and what better mechanism to do it! The hardest thing being which template to choose as my background, and then what to write about once I was set up. I'm excited about being able to send my family and friends the url for my blog page. Perhaps I'll even get my 72 year old mother to create her own blog too - now THAT will be interesting!

The Life and Times of Miss Diggy

Miss Diggy couldn't begin to contemplate the inconvenience the concrete truck parked in her driveway was causing her, especially since the rubbish collection was due any moment and she wanted to get something done before the short, round, deliciously slow garbage man wandered past her garden path.

She stretched and walked leisurely to the corner of her house, glancing down the road as she did so. No, he wasn't here yet. Rounding the corner the sun glanced off her face and she rested against the sidings briefly, letting the morning rays warm her body. She paused, suddenly attentive. The clanking sound of a garbage truck and air brakes echoed in the still air. She slunk slowly to the ground and crept back to the front garden, ears tuned to the promising noises. The garbage truck was outside Mr Oppenheimer's house next door and she murmured happily to herself before slipping under the flowering magnolia bush next to the letterbox. Just in time.

Mickey, the garbage man, slightly out of breath and wearing too-short shorts for winter, arrived at the letterbox just after Miss Diggy. He huffed and puffed his way past the path mumbling morning curses at the frost, the birds, the rising sun, and anything else that took his fancy. He bent down to pick up the last rubbish bag in the street, relieved that no one had seen him tear a hole in Number 23's bag - and because he wasn't paid enough to pick up actual contents of other people's rubbish - he'd pushed the bag and its smelly intestines into a bush with his foot. This last bag and he'd be done for the morning. He bent down, lifted, turned, stepped out and -

Miss Diggy saw her chance. She leapt from behind the magnolia and streaked for Mickey, easily catching him off balance. With a fancy sideways movement she'd practiced in her lounge for the past week she planted four sets of sharpened claws into the fleshy, slightly sweaty behind of Mickey's khaki shorts and waited.

Mickey took two seconds to blink, two seconds to grimace, and then one second to open his mouth and let out a bellowing roar of pain. Miss Diggy detracted her claws as quickly as she'd inserted them and raced gleefully for her favourite sunny spot back inside the house. "For #### sake!! Mrs Higgins, control that #@#@#@# CAT!!!!!" screamed poor Mickey clutching Mrs Higgins bag of soft, stinking rubbish in one hand and his baggy backside in the other.

Mrs Higgins didn't hear. Miss Diggy had just arrived home with her tail in the air and a smile of content on her furry face. Miss Diggy jumped contentedly onto Mrs Higgins' cosy lap, purred for the joy of it, and settled down for a morning of cuddles and milk. Ahhh, the pleasures of Being. A. Cat.