Netlibrary

I signed up to the Netlibrary and tried it out. There are 773 items right now. I did a subject search and found out that there are quite a number of science book (128) , computer books (62) management (46) and religion (32) . Some titles for example the For Dummies series and Absolute beginner’s guide series have both printed and e format. The ebook are of pdf formats and take a long time to download. A major issue is that readers cannot save the file so if they cannot finish the book they have to download it every time. However readers can print it out.

Searh result of Netlibrary

Podcast

I searched the directories Podcast.net, Podcastalley.com and Yahoo Podcasts for any New Zealand podcast, unfortunately, there are not many and they are old, mostly 2006. Then I google searched for library podcast and find one interesting one, Denver Public Library Podcast There you can download songs and stories for kids.


Denver Library Podcast

I then search for any news podcast, I found CNN and ABC podcast quite good. I subscribed all three.


CNN News Podcast


ABC New Podcast

Youtube

Youtube is one of my favourite web site. I am a fan of football (not rugby but soccer) and basketball, sadly the local TV stations have no coverage of both, thanks to Youtube and those fans all over the world I can view matches of English Premier League and NBA from the USA. It is a godsend. I posted a TV commercial from Youtube below. The idea is simple but genius. In addition I put a video bar showing videos of NBA and English Premier League from Youtube on the top of this blog as well.

Web 2.0 Award

I was astonished to find out that there are so many wonderful sites in the Web 2.0 Award page. People are so innovative and talented. They devoted hours in making these sites and so generous to let us use for free. That's the spirit of web. Among all the sites I am more interested in Arcaplay, a site of games. I put one here, lets play.

Web Based Applications

Web based applications are quite useful for those on-the-go people like backpackers who can write and edit documents anywhere and share it with other people as long as they can access to internet. It is also good for people who cannot afford the pricey Microsoft Suite and don't have to worry about upgrades There are web based applications for word processing, spreadsheet and even photo editing. Google Docs is quite popular because you can use email, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation in one account..

To read my Google Doc click HERE

I have tried Zoho, there are more applications than Google and is easy to use.

Sandbox

Editing Sandbox is easy in point-and-click mode, it is the same as writing a blog post. If you know html, you can use classic mode which gives you more flexibility.

Wiki

My first impression of wiki is from my experience with wikipedia. It is quite negative because in the library circle it is seen as an unreliable, non orthodox source of information as compare with traditional reference sources such as encyclopedias. Now I realized that if you use it with caution, it is a handy tool to do initial research, as long as you go further to check the source. Now wiki is used widely in all sorts of areas as a tool for collaborative writing, pooling knowledge or exchanging ideas. Library wikis are mostly used to share information and resources such as subject heading, reference resources amongst librarians. Other areas I can think of are operation procedures and customer informations.

Web 2.0 and Library 2.0

The Web has been evolving since its emergence. It has evolved from websites to search engines and now to a shared network space. This has much impact on library services, not only of the capabilities of the new technologies but also of its characteristics of simplicity, interactivity, user participation and collective intelligence.
Although Web 2.0 technologies enable libraries to deliver the so called Library 2.0 services, but the essence of Library 2.0 is user-centered mind-set. It is a model for library service that encourages constant and purposeful change, invite user participation in the creation of both the physical and the virtual services they want. The goals are to reach new users and to better serve current ones through improved customer-driven offerings. To do this, libraries can borrow ideas from Web 2.0 sites. For example, library blogs can push news and information to patrons; wikis (e.g. Booklovers Wiki) can engage customers to share book reviews; online catalogue (e.g. Librarything) enables patrons to keep reading records and share book review.
click HERE to go to Wellington City Libraries Blog
click HERE to go to Booklovers Wiki

Technorati

I tried different search methods in Technorati namely keyword, URL, tag and directory using 'learning 2.0" The results are : keyword 500 hits; URL and tag both 626 hits and directory 771 hits. I browsed the site and was overwhelmed by the number of posts coming up every second. It shows how popular blogging is right now and create the problem of overflowing of posts. You really don't know what to read. In Technorati posts are classified by topics, but still there are too many that you can only skim the heading. I tried the favorite and top blogs, they are mostly technology related, may be I am not a techno geek, I am not that interested.

Del.icio.us

I signed up Del.ico.us and tried it out. It is quite useful in managing your bookmarks, the layout is better than that of Internet Explorer and Firefox, it is easier to locate a bookmark in del.ico.us. Tagging is useful when you have too many bookmarks. Unlike subject headings people can use whatever wording as tags, the same tag may have different meaning to different people. so in the network environment , sometimes you find bookmarks under a tag are not what you expected. It is easy to upload bookmarks from other browsers, so there is no hassle to switch to del.ico.us . I don't think the network function is useful to me though, I find few interesting sites from other users except PLCMCL2.