Podcasting

Podcasting is a very handy tool. If like me you are busy, let's face it who isn't? I often miss a tv program and then remember a few days later that I missed out.



Podcasting is a very handy way to listen to or watch a program if it is available as a podcast. By subscribing to it to your reader, you can listen to your program at a time and place that suits you. Radio and tv programs are available to watch and make for efficient time management.



I listened to Andrew Denton's Enough Rope with hunky William McInnes - he is very easy on the eye and worth watching more than once! Yes, podcasting is for me and maybe for you too!

Thing 22 - Skye, Meebo, Google Talk

The way we can now communicate is rapidly changing. We now have instant messaging, Meebo, Skype, Google Talk and others. I prefer to use Gmail chat personally. Instant messaging is a popular way for people to communicate when online in real time.

This can be an useful way for people to communicate with Library Staff particularly if requiring assistance with reference enquiries from outside the library.

Skype is a cost-effective or low cost way of communicating with others via a broadband connection. This is particularly handy with friends and relatives overseas - saves a lot of money on costly overseas calls and connections. If you don't mind listening to echoes down the line and experiencing some dropping out, the cost savings can be handy. New VOIP phones are now available and this can assist in the situation.

Libraries can benefit by having this service when communicating with students and staff offshore by using SKYPE technology. Once you have created a Skype account you can keep your contacts in a handy address book attached to your account. Many users create usernames to identify themselves afterall this is a global communication systems. There are many millions of Skype users globally testifying to the cost savings that can be made. In this day and age, everyone is wanting to save a dollar or two!

Ciao for now


Happy Skyping

Sir Max on the VU Library Wiki Pet's Page.

I had fun today cropping, resizing and posting a picture of my beloved (Sir) Max aka Puccini on the VU Library Wiki. This is a fun interactive way of getting acquainted with the use of Wiki's.

There has been much debate about the authoritative content of Wiki's such as Wikipedia. It can be a handy communication tool within organisations providing casual comments that may help with the day to day running of an organisation.

Here is the excerpt from my entry:

Sir Max Martin aka Puccini

My name is (Sir) Max Martin and I am the faithful and spoilt pooch of Virginia M. My favourite pastime is body-surfing at beach. I also play golf at Royal Westgate Golf Course. I am a Millenium pooch which makes me eight years old. I earn my keep by undertaking daily doggy duties - I perform the most fabulous tricks. My favourite time of the day is when I look forward to my mistress coming everyday so I can greet her with full love and devotion!

Until next time - happy blogging folks!

Delicious Art Deco

I had a play on the Delicious Site today. After creating an account and looking around, I decided to investigate what other websites other Art Decophiles have bookedmarked.

It was interesting and fascinating to see that there were links to other blogs and websites about all things Art Deco. Hats, hairstyles, fashions, travel posters, architectural styles including commercial and domestic buildings to name a few. I like this tool and I think I will use it particularly as I am known to use up to three computers in one day! A very good way of keeping my bookmarks all in one place. Hee Hee Hee!!!

Have a taste and see ... Delicious!

IGOOGLE - UGOOGLE!

Well fellow 23thingers, I have had fun playing with IGoogle. Despite it being very Americanised, I have added handy gadgets like Petrol Watch, Google Maps, Joke of the Day, Famous Saying of the Day, Days countingdown to my birthday and recipes, films and books.

I was impressed with the mashup of the Petrol Watch and Google Maps, however, there was a warning that as this was not owned by Google, your particulars could be accessed by a third party. So be careful by not putting down any address or personal particulars that could identify you.

I removed some gadgets as I am not really into Wikipedia and much of the American hype. I hope to explore later when time permits to find and add more local/Australian content. Handy to have many of these things in the one place!

I also changed my IGoogle homepage so that it was personalised with footprints in the sand - beach-combing one of my favourite pastimes - weather permitting of course. Did I mention weather, I also customised my Igoogle page so that it shows Melbourne's weather - that is Melbourne Australia not Melbourne Florida, USA!

That's all folks till next time!

Encore & Library 2.0

I was fortunate enough to have a play around with Encore when it was first introduced. I loved the colours, the interaction, the "did you mean" feature and the relevancy and ranking of words and related topics. They say that a picture says a thousand words and this is true ofEncore. Having the book covers shown is also very handy. I loved the feel and layout of it and have shown many students these features.

The tagging effect is also a feature that will encourage users to participate and we as the Information Professionals need to balance the need for participation and privacy inorder to feel comfortable with all that Library 2.0 offers. I am looking forward to when Encore becomes fully operational - I understand that there is a logistical problem at the moment and hopefully this will be resolved soon.

Letting our students know how relevant our collection is to their needs is one way of getting them to participate and for all of us to embrace Library 2.0. It really is the way of the future.

Now, for the Encore!

Google Scholar & Google Book Galore!

I am impressed with Google Scholar. I have used Google Scholar before when researching or trying to find scholarly or peer-reviewed articles during my post-graduate studies. If you refine your search you will often find articles that you may not have found in your catalogue or just surfing the web. I know that it has helped me in locating items for students at the Service desk that would have otherwise required an Interlibrary loan.

I wasn't really phased with Google Books due to the copyright restrictions, though it is often useful to look through the Table of Contents to ensure if the book is the right one for your research purposes. Amazon.com does a similar thing so this is not an unique attribute.

Google on baby!

Cheers

Google Docs - Move Over Mr Gates!

Discovered Google Docs today - it is an impressive suite of assorted things you can do with your documents, share, upload, blog, convert to pdf - the list goes on. I can see a use for it when you have several pieces of work that needs to be edited by others in your team - how handy is that instead of having several versions and not receiving everyone's comments, you can invite them to your document and have them edit it. Not bad at all.

I wonder how Mr. Gates feels about this new technology that Google has stripped away and making it easy and cheaper for others to use. Sharing this technology is cheap and effective I wonder how long it will be before there is some litigation to stop this. Keep on Googling!

Google Maps

Well readers

Google suite of products is amazing. I truly love Google Maps - I had to find my way from Williamstown to Kew yesterday. My Melways was out of date and I wanted to go through the Burnley tunnel and get there as quickly as possible. So I looked up the address and found the location and then I got the directions to get there. It was fairly straight forward.

I am not really impressed with the Street Image as I do believe that this is an invasion of privacy and raises concerns about public and private safety - need I say more! If you can know how you can remove your address from Street view, please let me know.

Will look into some of the other products they offer though.

Ciao for now!

RSS Feeds on Amazon

Played around with a RSS feed with the help of Dancing Queen on Amazon.com. We had trouble finding the RSS feed icon probably due to the vast array of products they sell. We did a search on the Busby Collection and had to find a tag for it under Silver Screen Movies. Hopefully this will work and I will be able to receive RSS feeds on new releases and special promotions for the silver screen classics for me to kick back and follow my bliss.

I will find this useful, though caution will be needed so this does not become spam.

"We're in the money, We're in the money, ...." Ginger Rogers, Gold Diggers 1933.

Digg it or Not?

Found my way on to Digg.com - not much to say other than some may enjoy social networking but it really is not my scene - who has the time when there are other things that you can do to follow your bliss. Perhaps I am from old-school cool? I am also not into Americancentric websites either - I love Australian content.

Have a digg around and see if it digs you.

www.digg.com

Till next time - follow your bliss - dig it !

RSS - This is Bliss - Ready Steady Start!

Hi Folks

I have just discovered how handy RSS feeds - instead of trawling through websites, looking for updates and re-reading information, you can subscribe to RSS feeds and just have the latest information sent to you! Saves time as well as data allowances and you get the latest information on exactly what you are after! How handy is that! So what have I subscribed to? Well information on George Clooney, Art deco, travel information on Lithuania to help plan my next overseas trip exploring my heritage.

Setting up an RSS feed can be an useful tool for libraries to engage their patrons. Information releases about latest books, favourite topics, authors, latest databases as well as promotions within the library - just the thing for time-poor patrons.

YouTube - Libraries in the Future

I have a little play with Youtube and fascinated with what is there - everything from singing cats to singing popstars - just watched John Mellencamp perform Cherry Bomb a very blissful song of happy memories for me anyway.

Watched an awesome video titled Libraries in 2010 which featured the direction Librarians should take with the help of Dr. Who and his Tardis, Back to Future, Hugh Jackman (his brain anyway) and the time machine courtesy of Guy Pearce. This video is worth watching as it reinforces in a fun way the future of libraries and the emerging technologies we also should embrace to remain relevant in the future. Have a look at it.

Here is the link to it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V67QuW0NeXI

Library Thing!

This is a selection of books I am currently reading or have read. As a librarian, I read far and wide - you never know where your next book will take you. Sit back, read, enjoy and follow your bliss! This selection comes from the activity 8 about Library Thing. Take the time to browse the virtual shelves. I decided that because of the Australian content of many of my books, I included the National Libraries of Australia catalogue to include the jackets of the Australian books. Take a look!

A Beautiful butterfly with beautiful colours!

Here with the help Dancing Queen, we have found an image to be inserted within the blog. This is composed a jigsaw tempting you to pick up the pieces to finish the puzzle. A creative way of presenting your photos or images.

More Playing with Flickr

I found some beautiful flowers on Flickr that I have presented on my blog. With the help of Dancing Queen, we were able to compose a beautiful array of flowers for you to enjoy. Remember follow your bliss - whatever it is!

Just thing to do on a Friday evening!

A little fairy suggested that I post this image. So here it is to share! I found this groovy image on Image Chef, a great tip courtesy of the Shelving Goddess.

It is an interesting concept where you can edit images and have fun. The messages can be edited to allow your special message to be added. My message is titled "Chilling Out" - just the thing to do after a busy week at work. Enjoy!

Make vacation your vocation!

It is now nearing the end of winter - in fact it is our last winter weekend. Spring has almost sprung, the days are getting longer (only just) and it is going to be 18oC today.



Makes me think of the warmer months approaching and of course, idyllic holidays. I am so looking forward to Christmas - Boxing Day actually when we will be heading off to our usual camping beach holiday at Apollo Bay. American Author Mark Twain coined the phrase "Make vacation your vocation" and I agree with him The title of today's blog is courtesy of him.



We chill out for two weeks doing sweet bugger-all! The only thing we do is, have our 10.00 am morning coffee at one of the cafes in town. This usually changes each holiday as cafe change hands, management, close down, start up or hike up their prices. There is something psychological about paying more than $3 for your morning coffee. When we go off in a group of 20 - that's $60 worth of coffee at a time. Over the holidays, we tend to spend quite a bit on our morning ritual. The dogs love coming with us as they also get a treat too!



Another ritual is a morning and evening walk along the beach to Marengo or along the beach en route to Skenes Creek - if we're not feeling energetic - a walk to the new pier is great just watching the seals swim under the pier and watching the boats come in with their catch of the day. Seeing the waves roll in is pure relaxation. Other than that, everything else happens when it happens.

I found an image of the beach at Apollo Bay on Flickr that I hope you will enjoy.

Tell me about your favourite holiday destitation and what you do to chill out!

One of the many beautiful beaches at Apollo Bay!

What is Bliss?

Well Bliss can be anything you want it to be.

Champagne, good old Yellow Tail Bubbles (Australian sparkling wine), chocolate, idyllic vacations, a good book (could be an audio one if you prefer), just chilling out with room temperature Merlot, your favourite music! Whatever you fancy!

On-Board

Hi Folks

Just wanted to say that I am "on-board" and looking forward to learning new things in this journey of new techologies.

I am sure we will all have fun!