Videos online

Must admit, didn't spend too much time on this one. I've seen many online videos using both YouTube and Google video, both serious and fun stuff. And, of course, our work computers block these sites, which again makes using them for library purposes impossible. Very frustrating. Meanwhile...

The spider, naturally, sprang quite easily out of the path of the literary missile, which hit the ceiling, bounced off the top of the bookshelf and dropped to the floor with a thud.

Master Bookbod scurried to the fallen book and plucked it from the floor. He cradled it gently in his hands as if it was a baby bird fallen from its nest. The corner of the book's cover was dented, and the spine had come loose from the pages. Master bookbod was grief stricken. "Oh, no," he cried. "Look what's happened, my precious book is damaged."

He glared at the Spider, which had settled back into its previous position, seemingly unperturbed by the attack. "You," Master Bookbod growled, his cheeks burning red with anger. "You... look what you did to my book. How dare you? How could you. You cannot do this! You... You...!"

Master Bookbod was shaking with rage. He yelled, making a sound that was not a word, but was nonetheless very expressive. He was so angry he could not form words for several moments, only shake his fists and become redder end redder in the face.

"I'll get you for this!" he finally managed. "I'll get you!" and stalked out of the room, the damaged book held tightly in his grip.

Bloglines RSS feeds

Signing and setting up were both easy, and I can see the point of a "news" aggregator like this. Logging in to one site to check whenever it suits me can be an advantage, plus you don't miss anything. For regularly updates elements such as a Book club blog (which we have), or even for announcements of events and the like, I can see offering an RSS feed of this could be useful to some patrons. In the end, it's offering another choice to the customer of how to receive information from us.

Meanwhile...
Master bookbod leapt up from his easy chair, spilling his book to the ground. He dashed over to the corner bookshelf and glared up at the spider, waving his arms wildly in the air. "Stop it!" he yelled. "Get out of there, you illiterate! What do you think you're doing?"
The spider spun its web, oblivious.
Master Bookbod's face turned red as his anger grew. "Don't you ignore me, you eight-legged reprobate! You cannot treat me and my books in this fashion. Stop that spinning immediately and leave!"
The spider turned slowly, and Master bookbod could swear the beast was grinning at him. This was too much to bear. The cheek! He would not stand for it.
Master Bookbod picked up the book that he had dropped, took aim at the eight-legged fiend and launched it with all his might.

to be continued...

more on Flickr

Found some nice photos on Flickr of my motorbike Kawasaki ZZR 250, but couldn't upload them to this blog as they were copyrighted. Have used Photobucket at home for a set of my own photos of my artwork, can't get to them either, the work network blocks Photobucket. Wonder how many libraries ignore Web 2.0 tools for reasons like this. It's ll very well to explore these things at home, but if one can't access them at work, it's unlikely they'll be used for library projects. (I do not understand why it blocks one photo sharing site but not others - but one must learn to live with restrictions, I guess , and use what works).

Photo sharing

Hmm, I see where libraries can make good use of photo sharing sites like Flickr. some of the author visit and event photo sets are very interesting. It is also simpler and quicker than the process of putting similar photosets on our website. A link to the photoset on one of these "outside" sites would be the way to go.
And on other matters....
The spider had woven its web from the top of one of Master Bookbod's numerous bookshelves up to the ceiling. The bookshelves stood row upon row, neatly ordered, the books tidily arranged, spines lined up perfectly.
"Tut, tut," said Master Bookbod. "This won't do. Stop that at once. You're messing up my library."
The spider turned lazily toward the scowling Master Bookbod, stared at him briefly, then turned away and continued its spinning.
...to be continued...

Greetings

Sorry to disappoint anyone who was expecting a children's story, but these will be the musings of a librarian exploring the possibilities of web 2.0 , and wrestling with the big questions of how useful the technologies can be, and whether or not libraries can use web 2.0 to connect with/grow their patronage.
Then again, it is a good title for a children's story - you never know what might happen as we go along! Parallel threads?
Hmmm
One day, young Master Bookbod looked up from his book to see a spider spinning a web over in the corner of the room, way up high right on the ceiling.
To be continued....