YouTube

I made this little thing on the weekend, it actually joins quite a nice collection of them on youtube!

Technorati

Technorati has done a recent survey on the State of the blogosphere. It makes interesting reading (or scanning) http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/who-are-the-bloggers
Plus you may want to add your ideas to http://www.project10tothe100.com/

Update from SLNSW on blogs to watch....

The Natural History Museum is providing a blog so that people can follow the conservation work being done at Scott Base http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/earth/antarctica/blog/?p=237 As the items being conserved can't leave the Antarctic the conservators have to travel to the items. I am most interested in this one as I worked in their Library in the early 90s!
Future perfect
Jan Chipchase does research for a leading mobile phone company about communication. You can follow his images and thoughts on his blog future perfect http://www.janchipchase.com/ This blog helps encourage different ways of thinking about solutions and of thinking about communication.

Week 6 Videos

This has been a great week, I was impressed by what libraries have been doing with video online for reader education and staff training, and the oral history and local history stuff was very good. So I had a bit of a go at a video:

Week 5: Wikis

I really enjoyed this week. Learning about wikis was a lot of fun. I liked seeing how they were being used in Libraries and other workplaces. My favourite wiki was the Wookiepedia:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Main_Page

What did everyone else think?

Booker Prize Shortlist

Hi everyone,
Just thought I'd let you know that the 2008 Booker Prize Short-list has been announced (I found this out through one of my new feeds!). Here is a link to the Booker Site if you want to check it out - interested people will probably be asking soon, as I think the winner will be announced on 14th October, which is just around the corner... http://www.themanbookerprize.com/.

Library 2.0

I have just completed Week 1 and is my head spinning. I really enjoyed the interview with Stephen Fry.

Week 4: RSS Feeds

I think you have all realised that I have finished Week 4. I have added a tag to this blog so anyone who subscribes can be notified of new posts or comments (you can choose!). Plus I was so pleased with myself when I added the ABC Top Stories RSS Feed to the blog. You can view it down on the RHS of this page......

Week 5 Wiki this!

Hi Bloggers, Flickrenos and Wikipedians, I spent some time on the wikis, loved the Montana History Wiki, especially the pronouncing guide to place names, if I ever go there I'll be able to talk the lingo like a native!

Then I uploaded two Blue Mountains images to Wikimedia, that took some time but I finally got the hang of it: Sylvia Falls and Boars Head Rock, I can't give a proper hot link because it's not working. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:The_Boar


I found it easier than trying to add to Wikipedia and gave me a chance to add something slightly more significant and with a descriptive text, considering the fairly ordinary tourist photos of the Blue Mountains there.

More: I just returned to the Blogging Libraries Wiki and added our RITM and LS blogs, I didn't think they were quite ready for Jackos Shed yet!
http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/index.php?title=Public_libraries

Cheers, Jacko

Update from SLNSW re Library 2.0

Here are some websites and blogs the State Library suggest we check out:

You might like to see how some New Zealand libraries are using web 2.0 tools. Have a look at Dunedin Library on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/dunedinpubliclibraries/ and on YouTube http://nz.youtube.com/dunedinlibraries

Pew Internet have released two new reports.

Podcast downloading http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/261/report_display.asp shows that more people are listening to podcasts, but it is still a small audience. They have trend data and a demographic breakdown of those who listen.

New E-patient data http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Health_Aug08.pdf includes an analysis of people who get health information online

Librarian Writes Tell All Book, Gets Fired

Let this be a warning to all of us!

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Librarian writes tell-all book, gets fired
'The absolute irony is that the public library is a pillar of free speech'

A librarian who wrote a fictional account of library patrons in a made-up town has been fired from her position at the Mason County, Mich., District Library and is appealing the termination.

"The absolute irony is that the public library is a pillar of free speech and leads me to wonder why the administration is so upset. It's fiction," Sally Stern-Hamilton told the Ludington Daily News.

Over the course of three years, she wrote "The Library Diaries" under the pen name Ann Miketa. According to the newspaper report, the book is written as a series of vignettes about "mostly unsavory" characters in a library in a fictitious "Denialville."

However, the book publisher used a small photograph of the Ludington Library on the cover, and in the book's introduction, "Ann Miketa" said, "After working at a public library in a small, rural Midwestern town (which I will refer to as Denialville, Michigan, thoughout this book) for 15 years, I have encountered strains and variations of crazy I didn't know existed in such significant portions of our population."

She was notified of her dismissal in a letter from District Library Director Robert Dickson, when he referred to a prior "Suspension Pending Investigation" letter he wrote.

In that, he stated, "The cover of your book includes a picture of the Ludington Library. Each chapter is devoted to a specific library patron or patrons. Your book portrays these people in a very unflattering manner. You describe individual patrons as mentally ill, mentally incompetent, unintelligent, and unattractive. You label several as 'perverts.' While you stop short of naming the individuals you targeted in your book, your detailed descriptions of their unique characteristics and mannerisms make them easily identifiable in our small community."

Stern-Hamilton told the newspaper the book draws on her personal experiences but remains fiction.

"Most writers, anyone who writes something, some of it's going to come from, be rooted in, your personal experience. I don't think I could have come up with (the characters) on my own. They're bizarre, idiosyncratic, so they are based on some real experiences, but of course there are embellishments," she told the newspaper.

The library picture was just "a great picture," she said. "It epitomizes the American idea of a library."

She doesn't know how Dickson became aware of the book but said she wrote it because of "what goes on in public libraries everywhere."

She specifically cited instances of known sex offenders using library computers to view pornography – "Sometimes in close proximity to children," the report said.

The publisher, Publish America, is a grassroots group that publishes "people who are unknown, without charging the person thousands of dollars some self publishers charge," Stern-Hamilton said.

On the Ludington Daily News comment page, a reader wrote, "Instead of taking pride in a local author, we are criticizing her work of FICTION? What happened to free speech?"