Technorati

This is new to me. I have seen the blog search on Google but didn't realise there were other search engines available.

I'm not sure I like it. I searched Book Mobile and found heaps and heaps of sites. As an advanced search I managed to narrow the search down. Not too bad.

I also searched for Gatton. This didn't give me any relevant results however I did find some google ads for Toowoomba. This was interesting considering all the sites / blogs that came up were based in America or were about Danny Gatton or were written by Jim Gatton. Not brilliant but a start. We have a blog (which hasn't been updated for some time) about the new library in Gatton but this didnt' come up. Not surprising considering I hadnt added the code.

I'm not sure Technorati is something I would use again. Might have a go another time and see what comes up.

Delicious

I love delicious. I use it not very often but when I do, I remember that I should use it more. I've had a delicious account for sometime now. I use it as a reminder so that I remember to set up an online event diary for a yearly event.

I find this is one of the best things about an online bookmarking site. You can go back to it yearly and find the sites. If I was relying on my bookmarks, I may have deleted them or changed computers and therefore lost them.

I have a dream to set up a Delicous account for our library service. I've seen that some libraries have created them for their reference librarians (particularly libs with roaming profiles). One library in Vic created a ref account and encouraged anybody who did online searches to add to the account.

I think this would be great for the public also. They could use the sites that we recommend. At the moment, we have catalogued some webpages however this is time consuming. Its also sometimes hard to assign LC subject headings. If we created a delicious account, we could use free text tags. What a great tool.

RSS Feeds

I'm not sure how public libraries can use RSS feeds for their patrons. They definately can use this for staff development and to help encourage staff to think outside the square (by looking at other ideas from around the world). I hope that my colleagues will continue to look at the items they have selected for their feeds so they can see what is happening and hopefully see more opportunities for our library.

RSS Feed

I've just read a feed from librarystuff which meantions that a library is getting rid of the ddc. We havne't gone to that extent however are in the process of creating a bookshop style collection for our library service. One branch is over half way through the conversion and the 2nd (larger branch) is going to start in the next month or so. http://www.librarystuff.net/2009/06/08/no-more-dewey-decimal-system-for-adams-library/

I don't think we can go as far as Adams library to abandon Dewey altogether but we've created smaller collections including

• Biographies
• Crime
• Countries
• Health and wellness
• House and Garden
• Leisure and hobbies
• General Non fiction

So far the public seem to be taking this very well and are using the library more for browsing.

If you want more details, don't hesitate to contact us at Lockyer Valley Libraries.

RSS Feeds

Well, I've kind of done this section of the test drive. Its taken a while to get through this one. I'm using the YA computers at our library but for some reason they won't allow us to have sound. Quite interesting to watch the video and try to work out what they are saying. Guess that's one that I'll have to save and look at from home.

I've setup a bloglines account and have subscribed to the SLQ blogs as well as the ones recommended by bloglines for librarians. I was quite impressed to have a category dedicated to us. That could mean that librarians are at the forefront for web 2.0 technology (or we created the feed technology). I'm not sure.

I think I might continue to play with RSS feeds on my gmail account for a while and then consider tranferring it across to my work email address. I think this will be a great tool to keep informed with professional development and other library moves.

Social networking

I think being present on these sites is important for a library however I'm not sure how to go about doing it without invading somebody. I know people can opt in and out of applications on the social networking sites (well on facebook anyhow) but I don't know how to market to people. Many townships have a group entry on facebook so I think maybe this is where we can do a mass market mailout but I'm not sure if that would be appreciated.

As a library, we could always use the event calendar on facebook to advertise events that are coming up but once again, I'm not sure how to get this for the people we want to market to.