MY SPACE, FACEBOOK & SOCIAL NETWORKS

Myspace and Facebook being Social Networks are online communities that provide a place for people to connect with friends, meet new friends, plan their social lives, discover new music, trends or interests, and express themselves creatively.

Myspace profiles at some American Public Library's clearly target a teen audience, such as Denvers'... eVolver ...advertising tutor help, teen survey results, music reviews by teens, heroes & music.

Hennepin and Topeka & Shawnee County Libraries appear to target a wider audience...teens to adults. Advertising includes... book group events, book reviews, new books & DVD's, job vacancies and author visits.

These sites allow users to obtain information and explore their community. They allow members to see who is connected to whom.

Myspace & Facebook are high traffic sites... popular with the Internet generation. They are engaging as they create community, share content and collaborate with others ... which libraries are doing.

Myspaces' home page, showing...Browse, Search, Invite, Favourites, Forum, Groups, Events, Blog, Games & Music... shows alignment with what libraries are presently doing... virtually and physically.

One way for Librarians' to be present on Facebook without intruding on the personal connection of "friending" students/patrons is by creating groups and posting information to the groups. Students can use Facebook to collaborate on class projects for instance.

Our library could have a Myspace profile as member profiles are publicly available. It would need to be maintained and edited regularly by committed staff members for currency of information.

It could include : new additions to collection, reading lists, book reviews, author visits, study groups, book clubs , community feedback.

We could aim to "friend"... other libraries, authors, professional groups, students, teachers.

Best thing I've seen other libraries do on Myspace : placing "Interest Groups" on profile( by category), which connects like-minded people with each other.

SUMMARY

According to Assoc. Prof. Edward Castronova, Indiana Uni." When a library selects a social network and utilises it, it results in better services and communications with their users." Users are given a new way to be involved and participate in the library.

Never before has the technology been available to so connect questions with answers, patrons with libraries.

If libraries act on their heritage as places for intellectual improvement, social interaction and cultural cohesion there is a great future for them.

PODCASTS & VODCASTS

Podcasts - being digital audio files made available on the Internet for downloading to a personal audio player - enable Libraries to have a different distribution method for their information.

- enable customers to listen to your material when, where and how they want. These programs could include : lectures; tours; book reviews; promotion of upcoming events; story-telling; resource guides; author and guest speakers talks.

- a great way to attract youth to the Library.

Listened to the BBC radio podcasts of the "Last Goon Show 1972", and the "Ying Tong" song by the Goons, taken from "Frogchicken".

Listened to ABC sessions of Andrew Dentons' "Enough Rope" that I had previously missed.

Billerica Public Library (US) is an example of 0ne library with a snappy video advertisement doing this.

Metaphysics & Zero Point Field

YOU TUBE

VIDEO - Searched "Metaphysics" and zeroed in on "Metaphysics & Zero Point Field" - Appealed for the reason I am presently studying Metaphysics and thought it would give me further insight into this fascinating subject.
Psychologist Christopher Holmes discusses the physics and metaphysics of higher consciousness and the mysteries of the heart.

AUDIO BOOKS - Searched "classical audio books" and discovered " The Strangest Secret" by Earl Nightingale.
Listened to a brief excerpt,which provided a thought provoking message about success.

Searched "National Library of Australia" - "Libraries at work" video - Christmas party Dec. 2007 in the public foyer where the unexpected talents of librarians, archivists, digital specialists and IT boffins are displayed within a "surfing" theme....very entertaining!

Also - "Discover Asian Collections" - A promotional film for the Asian book collections.

WIKIS - Potential for Library Profession

Explored - St. Josephs' County Public Library Subject Guide.
- iread - a readers' advisory wiki from Iowa librarians.
- Biz Wiz - business resources available through Ohio University Libraries.
- Library Success - a profession wide Wiki to record Library Best Practice.

Played - in the Wiki Sandbox - adding 2 entries to "my favourite vacation spots" and "my favourite restaurants".

WIKIS - can open up new possibilities for collaboration between the Library and its patrons.

- can be used for Intranets, collaborative projects, document creation, and text edits.

- can be a great format for "subject guides" - by allowing the Librarian to moderate the wiki with her input or by allowing patron contribution.

- can allow users to post synopses and book reviews - capitalising on the reading experiences of patrons in order to help them make informed reading choices from the Library Catalogue.

- posting community information onto a "Community Wiki" - would allow any community member to add new informative content.

Summary -

Librarians, utilising wikis, can become community resources - positioning the library as an on-line hub of the community.

SOCIAL BOOKMARKING : Tagging, Folksonomies & Del.icio.us

Checked out Library's bookmarks at http://del.icio.us/suthlib.

Clicked on tag -"people" under Header - "Society".

Related tags - countries, Demographics, economics, Geography, statistics.

Site " CIA - The World Fact Book" bookmarked by 1692 people to date.

This site provides a profile of every country in the world; including a statistical overview of the country's demographic makeup.

View of ALL pages revealed many sites such as : "Assembled Western Philosophers" eg.
Plato and Aristotle. Philosophers appear chronologically in "Philosophy Timeline"along with the additional thinkers from the "Dictionary of Terms and Names" including Umberto Eco and Meister Eckhart.

View of POPULAR pages revealed again many sites. One of which touched me -

"Alison on the Behance Network"

Alison by Jack Radcliffe - saved by 225 people to date.

A visual life-story of Alison, capturing moments in her metamorphosis from infant to woman - her relationships with her friends, her rebellion, and underlying it all - her relationship with her father.

Tag Clouds -a display of tags where size reflects popularity, sorted alphabetically by size.

Explored "most interesting" tags on Flickr - explored "beach clusters" where beach photos are refined & found my blog photo "Chesil Beach" by Peter Van Allen.

Explored "most popular " tags on del.icio.us -observed how favourite sites & sharing of these sites with other users occurs.

Ann Arbor District Library -Viewed examples of collection tagging - top 10 tags, most recent tags and random tags - contained high percentage of recreational content.

Summary -Social bookmarking sites are a great way to categorise content, whereby new bookmarks are tagged and accessible from home, office or anywhere.

Libraries could make use of" del.icio.us" by tagging books according to genre / most interesting/ most popular, for instance and with community input, further the links on their websites.

THOUGHTS ON FLICKR

Photo - Chesil Beach, Portland, UK. The Jurassic Coast World Heritage site.
Photographer - Peter Van Allen. May 6, 2007.
Tags - keywords which provide assistance in finding photos with common thread. Selecting a tag brings up the whole collection of photos pertaining to that tag.
- for this picture _ seascape, night, landscape, blue, boat, sea, sunset, ocean, water....
Comments attracted to photo - many. More comments brought up by moving mouse over image.
My interest in this picture - love the vivid blue, the sun reflections on the pebbles, & the sunset itself.

FLICKR - Exploration of - National Lib. of Australia - Image collections ( contributed throughFlickr) are accessible through"Picture Australia"- contain artworks & photographs that document Australian history & society from 18th century to present.

- State Lib. of NSW - Historical & documentary pictorials collection, depicting life & scenes in NSW from colonisation to date.

- Wollongong City Library - "Illawarra images" photographic database, featuring images of people, places, events, industry & landscape of Illawarra District from 1832 to present.

- Sutherland Shire Library - Historical images & pictures of Sutherland Shire including picture trails. - Photos taken from storytime activities, workshops, postings of Book and Library Week themes and visiting authors.

Summary - Flickr is a revolutionary on-line photo management & sharing application and a great promotional tool for Libraries to market their collections, activities, & future events to the community.