Wikis/Wikipedia

I have now explored the Oxford web 2.0 wiki and read some of the posts on the Oxford Libraries Discussion forum - there is certainly an interesting ongoing debate about the relevance of all this technology and the challenge of how to get people involved.
Wikipedia seems very straightforward to navigate which is always appealing. I looked up my old school - disappointed that my name wasn't mentioned in dispatches but another Sally(Gunnell) was. I'm guessing that she came through before they sold off the playing fields - it seems to be more business and science orientated now.

Twitter,twitter

Have now signed up for Twitter and played around with it a little. My attempts to find family members on it showed the disadvantage of having a common name. It seems quite straightforward to use and could become quite addictive but it's not something that interests me personally.

Much tweeting in the garden from blackbirds fighting over food. They have learned how to save energy by flying right into the little tree on the lawn for food in competition with the smaller birds.

LinkedIn

Have now joined this and can see that it would be very useful for people looking to make professional connections.

Facebook

This was my first look at Facebook (yes really!) and while I don't feel that I know enough about it to comment on its use for libraries, I guess it could be useful for disseminating standard information in general to targeted groups e.g closures due to bad weather. However, I imagine that a lot of our readers would probably prefer more personal contact usually. There's nothing like talking to a human being after all. I also wonder how the resources would be found to support all these new technologies in these straitened times.

This has been another tiring week.

On the bright side, term is nearly over and the hamster is still going strong.

Delights of YouTube

Again this seems quite easy to use. First impressions didn't inspire me too much - I can see why I haven't really looked at it before - but I guess you need to dig around to find the things that interest you. Anyway, anything that can throw up old episodes of Homicide:Life on the Street together with Bob and Margaret gets my vote.

Podcasts

Found this much the easiest thing so far - I think I could be converted to podcasting. Listened to a short clip of the News Quiz (accidentally shorter than intended), thanks to Kate for the use of her unusually tidy desk. I think simplicity is definitely the key to making these technologies attractive to use.

Still very busy in the Library but term is nearly over and Spring is on its way.

Delicious

Struggled with this as I didn't find it easy to navigate, kept getting embedded in the jargon.

I prefer my bookmarks as they are but can see the advantage of easy access.

Hamster still OK though much to my relief.