# 17 Building Sandcastles in the Sandbox -PB Wiki

Hi, besides taking a while to sort out creating an active link on the Favourites Blog page this exercise was very straightforward.... I popped an entry under 'Favourite Vacations' and added it to the Favourite Blogs page.

#16 Exploring Wikis

I love the potential of Wiki's as an information sharing and learning tool for staff/public. I can see its application for various library services , such as Youth Services . The Wiki could include a Reading Book Club where teens and children discuss what they have read. It could be linked with the Premiers Reading Challenge, advertise upcoming events, add staff aids for story time activities, link up with the catalogue and favourite reads, provide links to programs available in the local and wider community , parent discussion group on favourite reads/developing their children's reading skills, subject guides and more.......

An Information Services Wiki could include online training, newsletters, minutes of meetings, use to workshop/exchange ideas for special projects and policies, add links so staff can be informed of external training programs , provide links to journal articles you'd like staff to read, links to wider groups, such as the Reference Co-operative.... You could run surveys... ...... .....

There is the issue of control over content, protecting Wiki's from spam. I noticed registration or log in such as an e-mail confirmation can be used to help overcome vandalism problems, another had an edit tab (for librarians only). I like the fact you can easily create a Wiki and that you can control participation by make a Wiki private or public.

#15 Library 2.0 and Web 2.0

We all know the younger generation have already much experience of what has been covered in 2.0. They are the "plugged" in generation - using mobiles, ipods, myspace, MP3s, blogs etc as a regular fabric of their lives- relating to friends and learning, in the techno world. So where do they sit as users of libraries and what direction do we need to take for the future . Libraries definitely need to embrace their world and connect with their online lives. Through our web site alone we know that there are some members that are purely virtual members - using the online resources we offer, web links and relying on the online environment to be alerted to activities and other resources offered. It is obvious libraries are at the cross roads . All of the technologies in 2.0 and beyond such as RSS, Wikis, web logs will help us to provide a library service that is much more dynamic, connect to our community , package information in an intuitive way, promote and generally expand service delivery. The notion of Library 4.0 of connecting from virtual reality to 3d reality, library labs, knowledge spas - we can only wonder and explore - it really seems a huge experiment being propelled of its own volition - always evolving. The journey is going to be fascinating......

#14 Technorati

The idea of 50 million blogs in 'blogosphere" is totally overwhelming - doubling in size every 6 months or so. I read that in 2006 175,000 blogs were created each day and has moved on to- 2 blogs being created every second of the day!!! I looked at the 2.0 blog posts . The most popular Blogs in Technorati all seemed to be techno-related. To make thse blogs more useful the art of tagging becomes important.

#13 Del.icio.us

Well looking at the site and articles on Delicious, I have discovered that this is a good resource for streamlining your bookmarks, sharing them and has a definite advantage over the old "favourites" folders being able to access them from any internet connection. The inbox allows you to track what has been added. You can add others bookmarks and add to your inbox. RSS are also available on most pages. You can have bookmarks autoposted to your blog daily. This way of organising bookmarks could be a useful aid in research and for creating bodies of information on any subject imaginable e.g. use for bookclubs. You can make them private or public, and you can share a link with a friend and tag it with forusername. "Linkrolls" are also a way to share bookmarks with the people who read your blog.

#12 Rollyo

Rollyo would be handy for gathering together links etc on a specialised or esoteric subject e.g. where there has been a lot of research gone into finding relevant links . In the library setting it would be useful for the regularily asked for school projects. It is really an enhanced version of your "favourites" address book.

Here is the link to "My music"

http://rollyo.com/createroll.html?sid=320660

Library Thing Chat

Of all the exercises in the 2.0 program we have covered so far, I could see myself using Library Thing with my work and for personal interests.
1. Able to generate lists simply.
2. Able to add reviews under each item.
3. Able to use to create lists - limited only by your imagination.
4 Use it as an interactive tool - forums and conversations - ie bookclubs, workshop ideas.

I chose to create a list of Piano Music by Debussy and added a few reviews commenting on the edition. Tags were used to grade the pieces by technical difficulty