Light bulb moment

Doing the exercise on how to "embed" a You Tube video into my blog I found out how many Librarians it takes to figure out how to do it. We all thought we were pretty smart but its not as obvious as all that. I learnt:

1. Some videos don't want to be embeded (like the Librarians at Work video from the Australian National Library - maybe because it showed them having much too much fun at their Christmas party).
2. You can post things to all sorts of different parts of your blog; like the side bar, I had no idea. I suppose I would have found it sooner or later.
3. It took three of us several tries. That's how many librarians it takes to change a light bulb. One to type and two to say "try pasting the link there".
4. Obviously it makes the learning "journey" (how I hate that hackneyed expression!) easier if you phone or in our case email a friend.

Library Lovers Day

"Are you ready?"

"Are you ready" it says at the end of the You Tube video on the week 7 page. Some of us have been ready for a long long long time. I can remember back in the late sixties watching Star Trek where they had floppy disks, communicators, and tiny computers you had on your desk. They got their lunch from a box that worked on microwaves and they talked to people from other planets, space ship to space ship.

"Are we ready?" Are you kidding?

"The Essence of fundamental Change"

I found these quotes in a slide show that I found in my rss feed box on Google Reader from week 6. There were 26 slides. These are the ones I really liked.

1. Normally our thoughts have us, rather than we have them.
2. Fundamental change happens when we learn to see the whole.
3. Seeing the whole doesn't happen as a result of trying. It comes from suspending our voice of judgement.
4. When we truly suspend our taken-for granted way of seeing the world, what we see can be disorienting and disturbing.
5. Embarking and continuing this journey requires the willingness to accept many such moments of profound disorientation.
6. Take courage.

RSS Feeds - A Power House of knowledge

I had a look at Google Reader, My Yahoo, Bloglines and Newsgator (aptly named, like an aligator it's really aggressive!). Again this is great but you have to have a virtual life to get into all this stuff.

As you go through your life you start to prioritorise what you are interested in. Sure this is a way to help you do it. But seriously when do I get time to look at all these things? As it is I'm sitting here on a Saturday afternoon when I could be reading a fine work of literature.

What I'd really like is a RSS feed that picks out all the usefull stuff about your job, the key things that everyone is talking about at morning tea (using A.C.R.O.N.Y.M.S.), and just serves it to you on a plate. But before I do it I have to search for it on the web.

More about Wikis

I really liked the Wookieepedia and Book lovers Wiki. And the Montana History Wiki I liked a lot. Wikis are a great way for local areas to get their information across.

The PD Wiki video made me think that wikis might be a very good way for colleagues in various locations to work on a project together using all the available tools like calendars and simaltaneous voice input. It would almost be like being in the same place at the same time.

The big challenge would be to look outside the square. There are a lot of possibilities with the new technology. You just need to forget the old paradigms and see the wiki as a whole new country.

Wiki Wacky Wiki, Wiki Wacky Woo!

I'm up to week four on the Learning 2.0 course (two point zero, or two point nought?) and I am still surprised how many people I talk to in the lift that say "no I haven't done my blog yet because I'm too busy". They say it like they were being incredibly worthy for having the self control not to get into this exercise at all. Weird!

We're all busy, but we all need to get smart too if the Library is to move forward. I try to work out why this happens because that's the way I am. I like to work things out, to learn things and I don't want the library to be split into people who benefit from useful programs like this and people who don't.

This morning I sat in with one of my colleagues and talked her through setting up her blog, a process that gave her some encouragement and gave me some experience in training. A win win situation. If we don't take these opportunities when they come up, they might not come up again. We lose individually and so does the Library as a whole.

Balanced Diet

Just because you're doing your Learning 2.0 at home, it doesn't mean you don't have to have an unbalanced diet. Here is what I had sitting beside my home P.C. this Friday night:

1. Carrot and zuchini curls (for minerals)


2. Apple slices (for fibre)


3. Corn chips (because I like corn chips)


4. And mixed nuts (for protein)


5. Red wine (for something to wash it all down with)

What do I hope to learn from this course?

I want to get an overview of what is available out there in the internet. It's a great big sea of stuff out there and some of it might be useful in my job and in my life.

So far it's been interesting and challenging. Like life if you go in expecting anything, you usually get it. Better pick a goal. And you will get it too.

I think I covered the whole "what is in it for the library world" in another post. What's in it for me? A showcase. Some insights. A window to the world's soul.

"Explor Flickr"

I had a go posting photos and found the whole thing quite easy to use. It did take quite a lot of time so I did most of it at home and in my lunch hour. They looked quite nice when I got them up there but sadly I couldn't see them as part of the group of Learning 2.0 participants that had already posted. Maybe they will be visible tommorrow. Fingers crossed.

One thing occured to me. I caught a You Tube video on someone else's blog that heralded the death of Dewey. After posting the "slnsw2008" tag on all my photos I thought that was rather ironic. It's like what they say about God. If God didn't exist then man would have to invent Him.

The same with Dewey and other controlled vocabularies. If you didn't use Dewey and Library of Congress Subject headings we would use something else to co-locate items. It's a big internet out there!!!

Energy and Teamwork

I found this picture on Flicker and I thought it illustrated "Energy and Teamwork" for me. In any group there's always someone who has a bit more energy and a bit more imagination. That's why it's always important to agree on what you're all going to wear.

Have you ever come to work in the morning and looked around you and everyone has the same colour clothes on? This shows that even if you have individual views on things you are in sinc on a fundamental level.

So it's your wedding day and every girl wants to get noticed. But it's the bride's day and so you find the bride's maids wear eau de nil or florescent pink so she looks super good. Don't make a mistake about the footwear. These girls are all brides and they're working as a team.

Creative Commons and Beyond

With Creative Commons I was greatly pleased to see that someone has addressed the situation of the exploitation of creative output on the internet. It's not pleasant to think of the internet with all it's possibilities being used in a negative way. Ethics are important, they are part of a civilized way of life.

I checked out the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg county front end. To me it looks very busy. But when you look with the eyes of a child, it would seem a lot of fun. You'd want to try everything, not knowing what you actually want.

The most important thing is to change the focus. Not what would I like but what would you like. Then what we are seeing come up makes a lot more sense and will prove more congruent with our strategic values in the Library.