Thing 16

I think the wiki is a fantastic tool for sharing knowledge. We all know about wikipedia... and let's face it, we all use it. I have lately been using the Greenstone wiki. Greenstone is the name of an open source software we are considering adapting for library use - the wiki works like a manual where I can get answers to my questions, but also benefit from the practical experience of other users around the world (which you don't get from a manual). There is another really interesting example of a wiki application for libraries at Horowhenua library. Here people in the Horowhenua community (and beyond) are uploading their own content to build an amazing local history/community resource.

Thing 15

I agree with Rick Anderson that library users out there want "everything". But I don't think that means getting rid of the hard copy just in case collections quite yet. I think our customers/users do want everything - including hard copy, digital, web 2.0 technologies, catalogues, indexes, human librarians, online reference... they want it all. So how do we provide it? Well in reality we will have to either abandon some services, or spend more money. Or perhaps both. Or we need to get more help from users as Chip Nilges says. But let's remember this won't be free either - tagging, commenting, adding content etc all need to be actively supported and technology kept up to date.

Thing 14

My search for "Learning 2.0" found me a bunch of people around the world doing this course... tag searching found hundreds more hits than searching blog posts, but of course the directory was most helpful if trying to find blogs directly about the topic. What surprised me about the top blogs/searches were how terribly earnest and worthy most of them are. I was expecting 90% Britney but not so. People are taking their online life very seriously! Although number 10 was all cat pictures so perhaps not that seriously. And it is certainly possible to locate Britney in there.

Thing 13

Del.icio.us has the potential to suck me into a vortex of ever expanding links until I can't remember where I started... I enjoyed it to play with, but if you are trying to research somethin how do people keep on track and not wander off just to see what you get if you click on that tag? And then that one? I got from libraryblogs to alcohol in four clicks and now I can't remember what I was trying to do with libraryblogs... also, the sites that were really popular had a lot of, um... not terribly helpful comments. Although this might have been a result of the subject matter - perhaps 'the online guide to drinking' is never going to get a range of thoughtful and considered comments.

Thing 12

I can see Rollyo coming in quite handy. I've set up a search across various booksellers that I use regularly so that I can look for books for my collection more easily. This may of course prove to be a more efficient way of spending too much money. I had to take Amazon out of it again though because searches that work well on the other sites get too many hits on Amazon - they just aren't compatible for cross-site searching. Anyway there is a wee search box on this page now for you to use if you like.

Thing 11

Welcome to my LibraryThing account. This is another one I had already played with before. I tried using it to make a record of my collection of NZ science fiction and fantasy. However I have only done the first 11 books in my collection as I found the process quite time consuming. Not many of them had been catalogued before and of those that were, I generally wasn't happy with the standard of cataloguing and did it again. Which seems far too much like being at work, so I lost interest. But here is the link anyway:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog.php?view=Wilberforce

Thing 10

OK, these generators are just plain silly. But strangely compelling...

My random German name is : Tatjana Sahm.

My homespun analogy for the day is : He's as jumpy as a holy bumble-bee in the cow shed.

And I still don't really enjoy image generators but here is a custom road sign just to prove I am paying attention to the lessons: