Linkedin

Well I have signed up to Linkedin and added a few details. I have also accepted a few peoples invitations to become connected to them. I think this will become more useful as my career in libraries progresses and I start to look for new jobs. I am slightly worried that my details will be easily accessed by anyone doing a google search on my name. I admit not a likely occurance unless I suddenly become world famous but hey! I have enjoyed looking at some of the other trainee's pages though.

Thing 12- YouTube

As you may have noticed I have already done thing 13 about Facebook before doing this one. I couldn't do it at work as I don't have any headphones so only just manged to find the time to do it last night at home.

Well I have managed to find some funny videos relating to libraries and librarians and avoided anything to strange. There were some funny songs about working in a library and even one about library school. Which is very relevant at the moment. However on a serious note YouTube can be used as a promotional tool for libraries and some are particularly well done. It does seem to me that you need a good budget for production in order for them to look professional.

Thing 13- The use of FaceBook in Libraries

Facebook is starting to be used by several Oxford University Libraries including ours here at the Sainsbury Library. We use it to keep students up to date with new events and information about what databases etc are available in the library. Facebook can also be used to give more general information for example like opening hours. Using a social networking site to do this provides a user friendly way to keep students informed about your library. It also has benefits since Facebook is widely used by students and will email them to inform them about changes to your page.
However it is important to use it correctly and there is a danger that by using a social networking site such as Facebook you may appear less professional. Also as was discussed in the graduate trainee session about Web. 2.0 and the use of Facebook for libraries will studently really log on to Facebook to find out about their library. The most popular application for users of Facebook is the uploading and view of pictures which doesn't necessarily have the strongest benefits for library use. I think that Facebooks primary use for libraries is to publise events such as training sessions etc It is also possible to get feedback on the library and the events it puts on.
However you would have to be prepared for negative feedback or none at all!!!

Thing 9 and 10 - Delicious

This weeks tasks have been very interesting as I had never previous used a social bookmarking site. It was particularly useful when Internet Explorer decided to delete all of my bookmarks so I transfered them all on to delicous. I was also unaware of the fact that you can link to other peoples bookmarks and add them to your network.
Here is a screen shot of my delicous page

Flickr and picknic

As I have never used Flickr before it was very interesting to see just how easy it is to upload your photos. It seems like a great way to share photos. I have also really liked seeing pictures of other libraries around oxford a great insight!! I was aware of Flickr through a project to get libraries to take a photo per day for 1 year "365 day project"
I think you would be able to use this to promote new things happening with in your library and perhaps to upload the front covers of new books etc.

I found it quite easy to use picknic to edit the pictures but it is fairly basic (which is good for me as I am not an expert in editing photos) but its free and for most purposes within a library I think you wouldn't need a more complex photo editing software. The only thing I found differcult was finding the Flickr link on the page.

Thing 5 and 6

I have had a little bit of experience of Google Reader from a OUCs course I went on. It has been good to use it for real as yet I have only set up feeds for the 23 things blog and one other. I am still having a look at other blogs before I decide which to subscribe to . I am going to try and do the further activities mentioned as soon as possible.

igoogle

Hi
I have learnt all about igoogle and the different gagets that you can add. I particularly like the weather gagdet. I have found the introduction to the 23 things project very easy to follow and am looking forward to learning more.

I have included the screen shot to show you what my igoogle page looks like.