http://www.addletters.com/image-list.php

This is one of the image generators I had a play with, and above is an image I downloaded and added some text to. The hardest bit was trying to think of something witty to say - I think I pretty well failed miserably but still, at least it's relevant and I learned how to use the image generator, download the image to my desktop and then add the image to my blog. There seem to be a whole host of image and text generators out there. All I did was Google 'image generators' and there were pages and pages of them. It's a fun thing and I guess helps you to flossy up your blog or web page but again, could become a great time waster!

This was really fun. It is quite neat to join this group and know that all the other members are my colleagues from around North Shore Libraries. I enjoyed adding comments to the favourites lists and reading what other people had written. And yes, it was incredibly easy! I can see this tool being used by all sorts of groups of like-minded people to share their interests and passions.

I think libraries can make good use of wikis to further enhance their services to patrons and as a different and extra way of organising information and resources. Wikis like subject and resource guides are a good way of grouping things and allowing many people to have input into the way things are organised and what works best for the people who use the library. They can also allow more visibility for the library's resources such as e-resources and databases which can be hidden in a website or catalogue. I particularly like the Book lovers wiki which allows people to share their experiences of books and add reviews and it's good to get people actively involved in their library.

The results of searching blog posts, tags or for entire blogs are quite different, although they can also delivery some of the same results depending on the content of the blog and how they've been tagged. For example, there were some blogs which turned up in the search for blog posts and tags. It seems to me that searching for tags or entire blogs might turn up more useful results if you want something specific, but if you want to do as wide a search as possible searching the blog posts might be the way to go. It's interesting seeing what is popular too as a way perhaps of getting into a bunch of blogs without having to do too much searching.

I have already learnt a lot from doing the Web 2.0 course. Some of the things we've looked at so far I hadn't even heard of, let alone explored or used in any meaningful way. The articles by librarians on the future of libraries in the Web 2.0 environment emphasised the need for libraries to get on board with these technologies and use them to enhance our services to patrons. Some libraries are already doing this, as examples of the use of mash ups and del.icio.us accounts show. There is an online community which people are involved with for many aspects of their social and working lives, where sites are user-friendly, interactive and collaborative in a way they weren't previously - surfing the web is no longer enough on its own. It also made me realise the growing need at North Shore Libraries for staff dedicated to working in this area, web librarians and so on, positions which are currently being considered.

I found exploring this site very interesting, and can see why some public libraries in the US are using it as a way of promoting their resources and services to a wider audience, particularly an audience which is used to using the web in this way. I like concept of sharing ideas and resources with others and being able to give and receive help in this way. Of course you still need to use your own judgement to decide whether any of the information found in this way is reliable, but it can certainly lead you through to all sorts of places you might not otherwise come across. A lot of the tags used seem (from my reasonably brief searches) to be useful and show that a lot of people are probably going to categorise things in the same way. Although this doesn't mean we no longer need library catalogues with standardised subject access!

RSS and newsfeeds

The thing that impresses me most about searching these sites is the wealth of information out there, and the need for some discretion when viewing information and considering reliable sources. I thought Topix.net was pretty good for finding news items that are more likely to be from reasonably reliable sources such as newspapers and other media outlets. Searching for feeds could be useful for business or leisure purposes. For example, using Technorati I searched using the keywords 'viola' and 'violists' (in my other life when not being Shopping Woman I am a very keen amateur violist) and found a number of interesting links, including one mentioning the Arizona Viola Society on a blog called 'Major League Jerk : the daily ramblings of men with no professional experience and even less social tact'! The Arizona Viola Society apparently played the national anthem before a football game. I guess it shows as well that you need to be pretty specific with your searching and spend time evaluating results to really make the best use of these tools. Although Bloglines was the most comprehensive in terms of finding all sorts of feeds and citations I found the others mentioned here easier to use with more meaningful results.