The edublog awards

The edublog awards for 2007 are now up for voting. In the Best library/librarians blog category we have WAs own Katherine Greenhill's blog Librarians Matter as one ofthe nominations.

Check it out at this site and lodge your vote http://edublogawards.com/2007/best-library-librarian-blog-2007/

Elle

23 things mark 2 draws to a close

Congratulations to all those who have completed the second round of the 23 things learning 2.0 program. It has been a very stimulating time reading your blogs and learning about the different ways we might use these web2.0 technologies.

I look forward to seeing how we might develop ECU Library in library 2.0

ALIA Top End Symposium papers now available

Hi All

The Symposium papers are now available from the ALIA website http://alia.org.au/groups/topend/programme.html

Some of the notable papers inlcude:

e-volving libraries: our clients' needs, our skill needs and shaping the next workforceRoxanne Missingham ALIA President[audio recording]

Where to now? Positioning a school Library in the 21st CenturyKay Pisel, Kormilda College[paper]

What is Library 2.0 and do we need it?Sue Chilman, Manager City Library, Darwin City Council Libraries[paper]

Evolving and Changing with Workplace E-Learning: 23 ways your staff can grow.Julia Gross and Lyn Leslie, Edith Cowan University[paper]

e-volving profession: key findings from the nexus census of library and information professionalsDr Gillian Hallam, Associate Professor School of Information Systems QUT[paper]

Information Literacy - Online TutorialsLiz Short, Taminmin Community LibraryRuth Sheridan, Palmerston High School[paper]

Broadcasting Library Information - a Podcast Project at CDU Library Jessie Mahjouri and Marg Purnell, Charles Darwin University. [paper] [audio recording]

Evolving Librarian Symposium

Well here I am again, with my 15 minutes a day gone out of the window. since my last report, Julia and I have presented a paper at the Evolving Librarian conference in Darwin. The accomodation was first rate, as can be seen from the photos of the pool. We spent the late afternoon sipping mango drinks overlooking the water, which was a nice way to wind down after the hard work networking all day.

The symposium covered a range of topics dealing with changes in the library work place. Our symposium paper, Evolving and Changing with Workplace ELearning: 23 ways your staff can grow, was well received. We were pleased that there were a number of questions. The two keynote speakers papers provided useful background to the current work environment.

Roxanne Missingham, current President of ALIA and Parliamentary Librarian spoke about work trends and the need to change the way we employ staff to ensure that we retain professional expertise in the workplace.Gillian Hallam spoke of her research on library staff in the workplace and provided some interesting statistics on levels and age of staff ect.

A paper from staff at Charles Darwin University on podcasts is worth noting, particularly the introduction where they recorded a definition of a podcast to begin the talk. Some other notable topics covered teaching referencing to primary school children and teacching Web 2.0 technologies in the school environment.The papers should be going on the ALIA website soon.

For photos from the conference, checkTop End Tales; a Photo Blog of Stephen Michael Barnett, now working in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Its a grab bag of things, personal interests ect illustrated with my digitial photos. Friday, October 05, 2007: 5th ALIA Top end Symposium - e-vovlingeducation

http://topend.blogspot.com/2007/10/5th-alia-top-end-symposium-e-volving.htm

Scholarpedia

Hi All
You maybe interested in checking out this new encyclopedia, which is a similar concept to Wikipedia and covers science related topics. It is very much in its infancy and needs to be further populated, so a chance for some experts in the field to become involved. It is called Scholarpedia:

http://scholarpedia.org/
From the introduction-
Scholarpedia, the free peer reviewed encyclopedia written by scholars from all around the world.
Scholarpedia feels and looks like Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit. Indeed, both are powered by the same program - MediaWiki. Both allow visitors to review and modify articles simply by clicking on the edit this article link.
However, Scholarpedia differs from Wikipedia in some very important ways:
Each article is written by an expert (invited or elected by the public).
Each article is anonymously peer reviewed to ensure accurate and reliable information.
Each article has a curator - typically its author -- who is responsible for its content.
Any modification of the article needs to be approved by the curator before it appears in the final, approved version
ELLE

Learning more about HTML

Hi
Some of the group have expressed a desire to learn more about HTML. I have found this useful information in the Blogger help screens which may assist, see:

How can I learn some basic HTML?
There are lots of easy HTML tags that you can add to your text to change its appearance. This page lists some of the most common tags. If you want to learn more, please see: How can I learn more about HTML? http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42069&topic=8920

I hope that you find this a useful guide
ELLE

15 minutes a day

Hi
I have been trying Kathryn's 15 minutes a day to getting things done. I can add that this is great for adding a posts, but I may need to make it 30 minutes a day to be able to read a few entries.
Cheers
ELLE

How to use Web 2.0 in your library

Hi
I have just read a great little book that I thought I should share with you.

How to use Web 2.0 in your library / Phil Bradley.
London : Facet Publishing, 2007.

It was easy to read and covered a wide range of technologies such as weblogs, start pages, instant messagingsearch engines, tagging, Flickr and more. For each of these technologies, there were suggestions for using the technology as part of the library service and a short list of useful web addresses.

I particulary liked the idea of the library photo tour (with accompanying voice). My team currently has a key objective to promote our library resources and this seemed like a great idea for advising students where specific subject areas are located and a visual snapshot of some new items in the area. We do have some general podcasts of the library, but the photo tour particularly appealed to me. I must be a visual person.

Read the book and want something online then you might find these addresses useful as Phil has made a spot where you can contribute.
www.zimbio.com/portal/How+to+use+Web+2.0+in+your+library or
Http://doiop.com/web2.0 or
http://tinyurl.com/ybmx4c
Good hunting and don't forget to share any good ideas.
ELLE

Challenges and Opportunites: Peer Produced Knowledge and Australian Education

Hi
I am trying Kathryn's 15 minute a day trick to getting things done in Web 2.0. I cames across the following report, which I havn't read, but thought I would share it with you as the author is an interesting one and I did attend the Jimmy Wales seminar and this may be one ofthe papers. i shall catch up with it over the weekend.

*REPORT: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES: PEER-PRODUCED KNOWLEDGE AND AUSTRALIAN EDUCATION* This report, by Mark Pesce, reflects on the education.au 2007 seminar featuring Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia. Mark identifies three areas that present opportunities and challenges entitled: Control vs Chaos; Firewalls vs Freedom; and Staying Current vs Staying Present. Educators were encouraged to ponder the challenges and opportunities of peer-produced knowledge production.
Further Information: http://url.edna.edu.au/SqC7
Happy reading ELLE

Round two on its way...

I have been practising with the image generator because I wanted to make a comment about all the new Blogs linked to our sight. I am Blogged out from reading them all, but I enjoyed the diversity, the creativity and the words of wisdom. Some managed to express much in few words. Weak 2, virgin thoughts were a few which spring to mind. The names are great. My favourite is papillon, mainly because I am partiall to butterflies. This new round of library 2.0 is going to be an exciting interactive exercise for us all. I have had fun trying to guess who everyone is, with not much success I might add. I hope that youare al enjoying it so far. ELLE

Library Connect Seminar

Some of our ECU Librarians had the opportunity to attend the recent Library Connect Seminar in Perth where we heard a number of interesting presentations. Daviess Menefee from Elsevier discussed the challenges that the new technologies and the concept of social networking pose to publishers and how Elsevier was embracing these in its new developments: dynamic linking, more like this links, tagging tools, presence in search engines, more speedy publication (1-2 weeks for pre-publication titles), high value content available to be shared asap, archiving and more.

The National Library of Singapore reported on their approach to provide more information via images. Mobile phone friendly is a must. Posters around the library include a coloured pad of dots which will copy the poster to the mobile phone if it is matched to it.

Kate Sinclair from Flinders University reported on some the experiences they have had implementing new technologies within their library service. Replacing the reference service bookmarks or favourites with a collaborative tagging approach using Del.cio.us was on great idea. Another was developing a student tracking program in Web CT so the relevant library help page for the units taken were accessible to the student in a personalised manner.

When we get the link to the presentations I will include it so you can all get the full account of an informative day.

ELLE

Take two library learning 2.0

Another round of discovery learning is about to happen at ECU Library. A big welcome to all those library staff who are taking up the opportunity to ivestigate the new technologies. I look forward to your comments and hope that you find it as fun to do as I did.

Thanks JayGee for the image generator, it saved me looking for it. I must say they are fun to use.
ELLE