Thursday, April 30, 2009
#22 Audio Books
Thursday, March 12, 2009
#21 Podcasting
As for library-related podcasts, I found This Week @ Your Library. It is Mitchell Memorial Library's way of keeping patrons informed of current events and happenings at their libraries. It might be an idea that TCCL could look into. In fact, most (or at least many) of the podcasts that are listed under "library" are libraries informing their patrons of their events. While I do think the idea is innovative, I do not really think it is an efficient way of conveying news. Mostly I think the TCCL website is more striaght-forward and practical for such a thing.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
#20 Youtube
A Doctor Who fan living in England, this guy often posts his own episodes and parodies of said TV show. He also hosts numerous original skits and video blogs. Here is one of my favorites:
As for library applications, we could always use it to embed instructional videos. Not exactly sure what we would be needing to instruct patrons online for, but if we did we could use Youtube.
#19 Web 2.0
#18 Google Docs
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
#17 Wiki-ing
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wikis
Well, quite honestly, I could easily see a library wiki being exactly the type of thing I described in my last post. Take Princeton Public Libraries' wiki for instance. While it does seem a little bare around the edges, it does have an ongoing series of reviews of books, apparantly by customers who had taken part in their Summer Reading Program. This would be a great vehicle for people to peruse their libraries materials and see what is worthwhile reading. It would also give librarians the chance to see what is liked by customers. Another interesting wiki is that of St. Joseph County Public Library. Edited solely by librarians, it has an easily understandable format that provides pertinent information to customers. From the most current biographies, to genealogical data, to local scholarships, this wiki has a lot of information neatly organized for quick access.
In my opinion, TCCL could easily benefit from a wiki or two. While our current way of conveying information to public is pretty good, I must admit that the latter of the above wikis was a whole lot easier to understand and wade through than ours. While I suppose that is partially due to the fact that we have a whole lot more information, i.e., we are a larger system, I think is mostly due to the innate convenience of the "Wikipedia"-esque layout. Personally, I think it would be convenient, and a little cool, to take advantage of both of the above wiki designs. Having one wiki where librarians edit info about their library, its events, and other news and another where customers write reviews, recommend titles, and discuss ideas would be a major improvement on OPAC.