Audiobooks

I had a quick look around....that is - a quick listen to a few audio books, Reviews, chapter readings etc of the "Classics"...unfortunately being read to with an American accent does do do it for me....when listening to Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, however with Little Women the accent was fine......

I found some of the sites were not indexed, or catalogued which made searching difficult for books of interest to listen to. (I am not one for remembering authors or titles unfortunately so a catalogue really helps me).

I will be looking forward to practicing downloading some books and podcasts to listen to on my new pink MP3 player soon........

almost finished now.......

Jo's library collection on you tube

Video and enhanced podcasts

Well, I have managed to embed a couple of videos into my blog. I wonder who will find the others hidden there?? I have included the ALA conference video, (a narration of Librarians as they gather for the conference), a video from an university student who now adores the library.....in the end! Information literacy and of course our adventures as superlibrarian...

I found some very usefull videos on You tube . .... tutorials on Netvibes, podcasting, technorati etc.....so for those of us still struggling or wanting more help, its there on youtube

Also I spotted how to's on

• to assist in use of photocopers for scanning and emailing documents.
• Information literacy
• citation tutorials for referencing APA
• changing passwords
• searching OPACs
• library tours
• searching Databases.....(some videos already available on their help/tutorial pages already)

Ning...social networking

I had a quick look at NING - social networking...and located Palmerston North city library on this site. I have requested to join this group to see how it works. Funny I found several hundred libary groups within NING each set up for different reasons. Palmerston North was set up for learning 2.0 technologies. Will keep you keep informed.(if they accept me). Oh the pressure.

Like us, here at UCOL, The PNCC web filtering has blocked some of the WEB 2.0 technologies which need to be used. Fortunately we have been able to get most of ours unblocked (for periods of time) Is this censorship by IT...or by libraries. What about User education? Customer Service? Limitation to resources and knowledge?

Time for some serious rethinking on how Libraries can use these resouces and provide access to, and learning support, for our patrons. Will Libraries still be the gateway to knowledge resources and librarians the gatekeepers.

We need to educate the powers that be......in learning insitutions, public libraries and beyond to the value resources that are being SHARED by social networking tools.

wikis and zoho writer.....

Wikis...as Subject guides....this blog was created using zoho writer a web based wordprocessing programme.

I had a very interesting time looking at the wiki pages we were directed to. I thought that we could use the wiki for subject guides as a very useful tool for UCOL library. Have a look at the examples in week 8 Here is a wiki I have in my online travels Web 2.0 in 15 minutes a day

We have had in the past, been keen on doing subject guide for our users. The examples I noted included popular books, magazines and resources from the library holdings as well as links to useful websites e journals and databases etc.

I think we should investigate this further for very useful possbilities, utilising the free resources of wiki creators. What do you think?

I had a play with Zoho writer, and was impressed in the availability of your documents created and saved so that they are retrievable from any computer as the documents are saved in cyberspace (freaky). I posted this blog entry from Zoho writer post options. The help function was great, it gave me simple and clear instruction on how to add a hyper link to my document eg week 8 has a hyperlink embedded into it. The help box could be moved so that I could follow the insturctions while doing the task. I found the blogger help screen not so helpful when trying to ue some of the features.

Technorati claimed and del.icio.us abused

Technorati Profile


After spending time with both Tehhnorati and del.icio.us I can see the benefits of Technorati, being able to search for something and getting results in a variety of formats.. eg. blogs, video etc...and link to those others sites of interest etc through tags.

However after spending sometime trying to get a network badge up and alive i think that I'll stick to my interent explorer favourites for the time being. Although I did sucessfully export my favourites in internet explorer in del.icio.us. Great instructions for that. So pleased with that sucess. So a bit of a mix bag really!!!

Skype and MSN

I was playing around with MSN and my Notebook and connected somehow with my son, in the other room, while swearing and cursing that I did not have a headset and mircophone for my computer and I would have to wait until I got to work. He very quietly replied to me VIA MSN that he could see and HEAR everything VIA MY web camera and built-in mic and speakers ....DUH!!


I downloaded Skype a few months ago at the staff Conference, however I have forgotton my user name as the one I USUALLY use was already taken. I have now started again. so will be looking out for someone to chat with this week. So watch out for me.