Explore Social Networking

In looking through the examples, I thought MySpace and Facebook had the most fuctionality. Great for adding links, sharing/advertising photos, videos, things about yourself such as the books you read or the movies you like. Ning was pretty good too, especially for a specific event or interest group. This is how I think libraries could use social networking most effectively - to support community groups and their interests, or to generate communication surrounding a particular event or exhibition or collection. Libraries could establish a MySpace or Facebook account, then seek and market to interest groups which pertain to some of their collections or upcoming events/exhibitions, either asking to link in some way to these groups, or try to attract these groups to their account/group. I just don't think Facebook or MySpace would be my first port of call if I had a reference query, but if I and a whole bunch of my Facebook or MySpace friends were interested in local history or dancing or creative writing or old cars, then I would certainly appreciate being connected to relevant upcoming library events or useful collections. Being able to talk online with others about it could be attractive too.

Twitter didn't impress me at all. In the example given, for the National Library of NZ, I didn't read anything that wasn't just conversational white noise. As a busy mother, I can't imagine having enough free time to just chatter away without any obvious purpose.

I decided to search 'libraries australia' in Facebook to see what popped up and found a group site called 'I DO NOT Support Australia Implementing MANDATORY Internet Censorship!!!'. This was an interesting usage from a library perspective. Checked MySpace too, and it didn't seem to have as much library group activity. It seems to have a younger, more social feel to it altogether. Less about discussion, more about showing your saucy photos from the weekend! MySpace does have some great artist/musician sites though.


I'm not convinced by the UQ use of Facebook. It didn't look really active. Would people really turn to Facebook for reference enquiries? I think not. I'd rather go to a library website, which would include loads of other features and information of interest. To me, social networking is about connection and communication, not research or reference or 'finding the answer'. I found the Libraries Australia Facebook site, but for me I'd prefer the standard website.

Conferences can be very ably supported by a social networking site, both in the planning and in review, for suggesting ideas and sharing memories.

Adventure Wikis

Just looked up my suburb, Ashgrove, in Wikipedia. There are many ways it could be improved. First and foremost, the history section is unreferenced, and very brief. Ashgrove has a local historical society, and I'm sure much more information is available, and able to be referenced. There are a number of historical houses in our suburb, but only one is mentioned in the article. Secondly, the photo at the top of the entry is actually the group of shops in the neighbouring suburb of Bardon. A bit of updating would certainly help here. I'm sure some of the images of early Ashgrove which reside in Picture Queensland or Picture Australia would help.

Explore Wikis

Just added a simple comment to the Sessions for 2009 page of the slq Library 2.0 wiki. Didn't feel I had anything to add to the wiki at this stage, so didn't apply to be a writer. I had a browse around other Wetpaint sites, and found a lot of them were a bit like teenage fan sites. Perhaps I should have looked further than music sites. Wish I was able to attend the Emerging Technology sessions, but they occur on a non-work day for me. Perhaps I'll suggest some alternative days, and the repeat of some sessions. I am enjoying the Common Craft videos - I find them clear and succinct, and appealing to a visual thinker.

Discover Wikis

Obviously, my first choice in the list of wikis was Book Lovers Wiki at the Princeton Public Library, and it was easy to see how this could work in a number of settings. Great to see it as a standard part of life in a public library, and you could use a wiki as an online bookclub if you were a group of social individuals, or students, or a bookshop, or reviewers for an organisation. It could be a way to promote a book, such as the 'One Book, One Brisbane', by encouraging people to read it and review or comment.

My next choice was the Wookieepedia. As you would expect, it is quite a complex wiki, with many features and entry points, and everything hyperlinked back to other parts of the wiki. I guess the sort of people who walk around with an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars are the sort of people who are very au fait with the web and spend a great deal of their lives online. The exactitude of the entries, and the level of detail was impressive. Perhaps a little more natural light wouldn't go astray, but I enjoyed the level of science fantasy enthusiasm!

The Mint Museums wiki seems to operate more like a standard website. Not as interactive, and the wiki pages sit on the site just like they would as part of the main website structure. I guess using a wiki just offers more flexibility to its contributors.

The Public Libraries NSW Marketing Group Wiki looked pretty useful. I think this kind of set-up could work really well across interest groups, and within an organsation, for staff to update each other and pool ideas and news. As a part-time worker, it could be very helpful indeed, as people who jobshare could list their daily wrap up/unfinished work in the wiki for their jobshare partner to read the next day and continue. All sorts of things in a library could be helped by a wiki. Procedures manual, tips for staff in dealing with clients, staff alerts, staff bookclub, weird reference queries, latest reference queries, upcoming deadlines, brainstorming public programme ideas, latest acquisitions.

Adventure Flickr

Now on Flickr are 14 images of State Library, which I took while wandering around the building for 20 minutes last week. Uploading them was easy. Just added the suggested tag, and there was a delay between tagging them and then being able to search that tag and locate the images. Here's one I took of the teacups on the Queensland Terrace, and another looking down into the Knowledge Walk.

Explore Flickr

Over the Easter break we received a call from a dear friend who grew up on the Isle of Barra, in the Western Isles of Scotland. We visited his childhood home in 2006 and have fond memories of that beautiful place. Flickr had loads of photos of Barra - mostly holiday snaps. The most common image of Barra usually contains Kisimul Castle, which, remarkably, sits in the middle of the water at Castlebay, where the ferry docks. Here's a typical photo of Kisimul, and also a photo of Eoligarry where we stayed, right up the northern tip of the island.

Flickr

One lovely discovery I made in wading through the links associated with this exercise was a picture of my street, taken in the early years of the 20th century. It is held in the Brisbane City Council photo collection, and is on Picture Australia. Despite the fact that I have trawled through Picture Qld for this purpose on more than one occasion, it never occurred to me to look in PA or BCC as well. Wouldn't mind an enlargement, to see if the house peeking in from the side of the image is mine! Flickr is a whole universe of imagery. At home, I use Picasa Web Albums, and I confess to not yet being completely comfortable with the idea of our family photos being quite so public. I feel that I'm likely to go so far as tagging my own photos, but probably wouldn't comment on other people's. This is probably a lack of time thing, as much as anything. Can't imagine having enough time to do that, although it might depend on the subject of the photo. The Library of Congress initiative to put difficult to identify photos onto Flickr is great. You never know who is out there who could provide information about them.