Second Life

If only! Then there would be 48 hours in a day :)

Clearly social networking has enormous potential for the library world. Libraries could also bring benefits to the social networking arean also: ordering, sorting, culling, etc. The networks have the potential to exponentially increase 'visits' to the State Library - in the virtual world initially. However, many others will also want to come in to experience personally what they have first been exposed to virtually.

I followed a link from the post on social networking for museums and founds a Curator Collection game developed by Ria Frate. It was great fund and linked to other games such as creating an art masterpiece. Fun for adults and kids and also a learning experience.

It would be interesting to see the development of a Friends of the State Library in the virtual world - great marketing but also continuing to create that sense of belonging.

As for second life - would'nt it be fun to have a First Fleet creation where our clients could populate the fleet, bring it over to Australia and then buy land etc etc. For those who had no ancesters on the FF - it could be a way of retrospectively joining the Fleet on the Alexander II, Borrowdale jr, Charlotte 2, Fishburn #2, Friendship the 2nd, Golder Grove 2, Lady Penhryn II, Prince of Wales - C, Scarborough ii. For those with higher aspirations there is also the HMS Sirius II and HMS Supply II.

From there is could extend to Captn Cook's voyages and so forth.

Online Applications

I can really see the benefits of online applications and collaboration. We have all had to deal with the multiple versions of documents and the problems of sending and receiving large emails attachments. these usually do not work as email is about simple messages - it was not created to send around large documents, powerpoints, image docs, etc.

Not only can it be used with when working with colleagues outside the Library it could also be uised by internal work groups. I know that this can also be done on the R drive but it seems to me that the Internet versions offer more options.

Because I can do it I am going to include 2 images - for no reason at all - just for fun. I am sure that Mr Presley would not mind.

Pod casts

We could use pod casts in association with events, exhibition launches, community updates on the latest 'you beaut' purchase into the collection by an appropriate expert (after all it is the NSW taxpayer who provides the funds for the SLNSW. For Movies at the Metcalfe we could have the written description and also an audio version. A voice usually can be more engaging that words on the screen. Perhaps we could see if the Movie Show people (David and Margaret), or Bill Collins, would do some pro bono promotional work for our movies.

I also see a great application for oral histories - ideally the video version where we can see the actual person speaking about their life ... but the audio for those no longer with us.

In terms of staff this could also be a way of recording some of the information that is in people's heads in terms of their work and their take on the Library during their tenure. We have people retiring who have been art the Library for 30-40 years and a recording of their memories would provide very rich background for the history of the Library.




The old fashioned way of recording library history.

Mashups

Well here goes, I hope that this works as it has taken a long time to create the insert and I have probably signed my life away on Flickr etc, etc.

Wow! It has appeared. I am so relieved. I really enjoyed looking at big huge labs and I have just worked out how to make this link. I saw it in another blog and wondered how they did it- remembered seeing an icon somewhere that said link (and gee, just up on the icon bar as it turns out) and have now made the link.

I also did some prototype magazine covers and movie posters and it prompts my comment - how on earth as a Library will we keep up with vanity and other online publishing by individuals. There is just so much out there and it will be hard to know how to select content for inclusion by links and inlcusion by copying to our, or a national, server. Someone just fooling around today could be the genius of the future and the danger is that while so much information will be kept a huge amount will just be overwritten, lost, and/or deleted.

Part of my thinking on this has come from a very recent experience. I was going out to dinner and wanted to see the menu before going. I checked the website and my eye was drawn to the bottom of the page where the phrase Book of Sand by Daniel Blinkhorn had a live link.

So I went and had a look at the link found absolutely amazing site - have a look. This is a real expert and is decribed in his bio as a composer and digital media artist. So I went across and checked the SLNSW catalogue to see if he was listed - and he was not. Nor was he listed in Libraries Australia. Some info can be found via the Internet but here we have a person who is obviously a gifted composer and we have not linked to his data via out catalgoue ... and he was born in the blue Mtns in 1973. Well, enough of that - I am sure that you get the point.

Slamming the Boards

I think this type of question and answer would work very well in helping to gain community input into local studies. The questions could be posed, the answers come in and then further comment over the weeks and months. Perhaps especially helpful in start to discover information - before it becomes more structured and is perhaps in a wiki or other location.

Rating of answers and services would provide a robust source of feedback on our performance as a library services to the NSW community.

Cloudy Days

I have had a good look at the Sutherland tag list and tag cloud. They have pulled a lot together here and it would be a nice short cut for students and others that in a hurry, or just want the high level of information.

It serves as a complement to the traditional catalogue. Del.icio.us does, however lack style and design elements that would make it easier for users. It would have been very easy to overlook the bottom of the page where you can change the list to cloud and vice versa.

I have joined LibraryThing and added the requisite books. It really is a very powerful tool and will really benefit those of us with out of control home collections.

Imaging ~~ limited by imagination

Being able to broadcast events such as author talks, eg Paul Brunton presenting Miles Franklin at Mosman Library in (gasp) April 2004 - four, yes 4 years ago.

If we could really get into this we would be able to attract more people to the Library - both virtually and in person - through the doors to follow up on what they have glimpsed online.

The following video that I have embedded is of a mobile library - a bit of a mystery package until I fifure out how to successfully copy a video clip from Google of Flickr.