Several someones I love are currently overseas. Where once I had to wait for postcards and the rare crackly phone call, I can now check their blog daily, look at photos from and read about today's adventures.
It's wonderful to have that sense of immediacy; reduces the loneliness.

Has anyone else seen the Anonymous Youtube postings attacking the Church of Scientology? It's an amazing case of viral marketing that has stirred up mass media comment and a hornets nest on the internet. Whether this is indeed a coordinated campaign, or simply one person stirring the meme-world to see what it happening, it shows how quickly a snappy catch-cry and funky visuals can grab the Web 2.0 world's attention. Puts a whole new spin on the idea of rabble rousing.
While I don't see library-related issues being presented in such a stirring way, it is an interesting study of how new media and forms of narrative develop.

del.icio.us

I did a search for multiple personalities, a condition I've researched in the past for a novel. I'm aware that the current terminology for the condition is dissociative identity disorder, but I wondered what I would find. Most of the del.icio.us (those periods are a pest!) links were about managing multiple online personalities and all the associated passwords, which I found very amusing indeed.

The few terms I picked didn't seem to be popular. Wonder what would have happened if I looked up a pop-star?

In the end I looked up a favorite speculative fiction author and found some useful links.

I can see how this could lead you to contact with other people who share your interests, and that you could gather your bookmarks if you travel between sites/computers, but am not sure how it would be relevant in terms of libraries presenting information/relevence to students. Perhaps as an alternative to our subject starter pages? With students able to add other items they find of use?

YouTube and libraries

Some of the ones I had a look at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJlkplvYdgA - No Cookies in the Library - Classic Sesame Street - sometimes I have days like that too :}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkrYHfd1BMY – UCSD libraries introduction – a promotion piece. Peppy music, current students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pq78OoqnK4 – Welcome to Western Libraries – what do libraries do during the summer = 10:00 minutes, mildly funny, stopped watching after 4:00.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrtYdFV_Eak&feature=related – contemporary music, good effects, amusing, shows some of the good resources in their public library system.

task 22: Second Life

I'm ambivalent about Second Life. I play role-playing games on my computer for relaxation, but haven't ventured into multi-player online ones. This goes back to my fear of encourntering more time-sucking-vortices and the knowledge that I can be a bit obsessional about things I enjoy. Several of my writer friends are involved in Second Life, up to buying islands and creating SL replicas of their novel's worlds and characters. One uses SL for writer chats with her readers and finds it useful. I can see how that would apply to subject-specific discussion groups and "virtual tours" in libraries.

There are a couple of reasons I'm not enthusiastic about the idea of using SL for Swinburne's libraries. The first is the sheer amount of time and training required for the staff to create avatars and build appropriate sites for such events to take place. I'm aware that there are already existing sites and that the Info Island inhabitants would likely be pleased to help more experimenting librarians. I don't know that is worth the time investment. The second is the likelihood that other SL characters will do inappropriate things ("bumping" etc) which may put new users (and staff) off. So far we haven't proceeded to get an AskUs chat running for online queries, so that makes me doubt we will hurry into the SL experience.

a photo of my pet

Ok - I lied. One more task while I avoid going out into the 42 degree heatwave.

The irony of this is: I didn't have a photo of my beautiful dog Kera on my USB, so I logged onto my Livejournal account and downloaded it from Flickr via Livejournal. :P

Kera died in April, so I've put her photo on the Pets page on the Wiki, in Pet Heaven.

iGoogle

final task for the day: creating an iGoogle home page.

I can see that this would be useful - it's handy to have a calendar and world clocks and the weather at one site. However, I think it wouldn't be more than a quick reference site and the ability to faff about changing the settings warns me this could be another non-productive time sink, professionally.

Google Book Search

Played with Google Books for a while and see that it could be quite useful. I looked for a book I own at home, "The writer's journey." It pulled up the text and a selection of pages, but not the full text (which I was relieved to see.) While the publication information is quite useful, I found the reviews and references from webpages to be interesting. A good way of exploring the development of ideas presented within the work.

Google Docs

Google Docs looks like a versatile piece of software. I could see students using to prepare reports - each could be listed as a collaborator and contribute their section, and there would be no risk of having to email possibly-virus infected files. I could also see it being used as a collaborative notepad for ongoing projects, such as evaluations of new software by a team. Everyone can use it if they have access to the internet and it doesn't require software to be downloaded and registered. Given that functionality, it is an advantage over Microsoft Word.

On a negative side, serious researchers would not be able to get it to interact with bibliographic software such as Endnote's desktop software. It would be interesting to see if the ISI Endnote Web program, another to shun software that must be installed to a computer, is ever made interactive with Google Docs. There is also the issue with shared files: what if someone makes changes that another disagrees with?

Google maps

I can see this being useful at the Service Desk. It's not uncommon for someone to ask for directions to a nearby address because their friend lives there, or they have a job interview etc. I wanted to visit the Borders bookshop in Camberwell Junction so I used that as a fake "reference request." I asked for directions from the John St, Hawthorn campus address to Porter Street. Google Maps would work well if you knew the start and end addresses. I could also get driving instructions from John St to "Lilydale" but couldn't drill down in more detail until I told it to look for Melba Ave.

Hmm. I have to drive out to a country town next week. I think I'll see what it recommends... Nope. Couldn't find the town. Looks like I need to stick closer to the city and suburbs.

Facebook

I'm back to have a look at 23 things. Today's adventure was Facebook. I've heard about it, of course, but hadn't ventured there because 1. who needs another time-sucking vortex? and 2. I didn't think I was within its target age range.

I've created a simple profile and joined the Swinburne network. I have an AIM account, so I allowed Facebook to connect and find some of the overseas writers I occasionally chat with. They've been kind enough to friend me back, so I guess that is mission accomplished. I posted a quick hello to the message wall as well. Can't see this replacing my livejournal.

I tried to search for a library group - found plenty of special interest groups for students who hung around in libraries together and a few more professional groupings.

Given that I am Endnote-obsessed at the moment, I did a last-minute search on Endnote. I found a couple of training events listed for Regents Center Library, KU Edwards Campus, so that might be one way to use Facebook professionally.