Week 6: RSS

RSS are great! I have vaguely known about them already, but have never actually put my hands on this technology.
For the purpose of this week’s exercise I have subscribed to ABS News for Librarians, Powerhouse Museum Picture of the Day, ABC News, SMH News headlines, Google News, and Cataloguing Librarian.
Generally what I like about them is what their function is – that they save you a lot of time when you are interested the latest news or are looking for latest information in a particular subject area.
I looked closely at the Cataloguing Librarian, created by Collections Access Librarian at Halifax Public Libraries. This blog is intended as a resource to other cataloguers concerning cataloguing, and the future of cataloguing and librarianship in general. I thought it could be interesting as discussion a forum for any cataloguer.

WEEK 4 : WIKIPEDIA AND WIKIS …

Blogs and Wikis VPL 26Jan06 - 5.JPG
Originally uploaded by roland

WEEK 4 : WIKIPEDIA AND WIKIS ...

I am quite familiar with Wikipedia, and have to admit that I am often tempted to check it first when looking for some factual data, but on the other hand I realise that the information published there does not come from authoritative sources, so it has to be cross-checked.
What I appreciate most in this web-based interactive technology is that it opens limitless possibilities of sharing very specific areas of knowledge, though it also has fairly general applications in practically any field and can be designed for absolutely any group of users.

I looked at the Montana History Wiki, Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, and SJCPL Subject Guides wiki. Montana History Wiki and SJCPL Subject Guides wiki are just subject guides, with the latter one having perhaps a more pleasing design. The Library Success … is a very interesting example of a wiki that has ‘organisational know-how’ content.
With regard to the library application, I can see wiki technology as a knowledge base tool, as a content management tool, and as a tool that can provide streamlined access to finding aids.

Accessibility

Accessibility
Originally uploaded by David Foster Nass

Equity of Access (or its opposite): at last found something representative!

I have to admit that it took me quite a bit of time to configure my weblog with Flickr. This is all very new to me and at times a bit overwhelming. I am worried that it takes more of my working time that it should.

Progressing

The experience of learning how to blog is truly unusual. I am looking with a critical eye at my first attempt yesterday. Complete detachment from what it is realistically all about. Well, for those unfortunate individuals who happened or will happen to follow my progress, this is just a LEARNING EXPERIENCE that will hopefully open my mind to the new, far reaching web-based communication technologies. And this new global ‘at-your fingertips’ approach has such a potential in the information delivery sector. I have so far looked at the Flikr and realised how vast is the spectrum of data that can be found there. The potential of an image as a search tool is just amazing. For instance digital images of rare material available in library collections contain also information about those items so in a way play a role of a visual catalogue. Since Flikr and similar sites have a huge audience, they can be used to advertise/comment in both positive and negative way on absolutely any subject.