Week #10 - Geocaching and Wrap-up

The last service we are going to look at is Geocaching. This is a social service that gets us away from the computer and out into the sunshine! All you need is a GPS device; most smart phones are now GPS-enabled. If you don't have a portable GPS device or a smart-phone, perhaps suggest an afternoon outing with a friend or colleague that does. Watch What is Geocaching? for more information.

Geocaching is a high-tech Easter egg hunt. People leave caches of small items in a location then post the coordinates of that location on a site such as Geocaching Australia. You log on, see what caches are near-by and go for a drive or walk using a GPS-enabled device to help you find the exact coordinates. Sometimes the coordinates are simply listed, other times the coordinates are listed in terms of a puzzle.

The word Geocaching refers to geo (for geography) and caching (the process of hiding a cache). A cache in computer terms is information usually stored in memory to make it faster to retrieve, but the term is also used in hiking/camping as a hiding place for concealing and preserving provisions (source).

Geocaching can be a fun afternoon family event or if you are going away for holidays, check to see if there are geocaches near where you will be holidaying. Of course, there is also fun on the other side of this: creating caches for others to find. The full list of Geocache types is here.

Discover #1: Look at the Geocaching Australia site to see if there are any caches near you. If so, consider spending some time over the weekend or upcoming break to look for these sites. If there are no caches locally, why not consider creating some yourself. Here are some ideas for what to place in your cache.

Explore #1: Do you think libraries could or should be involved in geocaching? Look through some of these sites to see how other libraries have used Geocaching.

• University of Notre Dame Libraries (US) used Geocaching inside the libraries to to help incom­ing stu­dents learn more about the var­i­ous libraries and ser­vices on campus.
• Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County (US) tied a geocache treasure hunt to a month-long program centred on the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
• Similarly, Chicago Public Library (US) tied a series of geocaches to the Fall 2009 One Book, One Chicago reading event. Geocaching was used to engage teenagers in "finding history throughout the city".
• Shoshone Public Library (US) has hidden a cache inside their own library called Get a clue at your library.
• Central Rappahannock Regional Library (US) hosts Geocaching @ Your Library.
• Hopkinton Public Library (US) hosts a puzzle cache; to find the cache, you need to solve the puzzle. All the answers can be easily obtained within the library.
• Scoot was location-based game, using Geocaching techniques, that was made for 6 galleries and museums in Melbourne (Australia).
• St Louis, Middletown and Wilsonville Public Libraries in the US have all hosted free public seminars on how to become involved in geocaching.

Write a blog post on whether you think geocaching could or should be used as part of a program at your library. Explain what program and how you think this could be done.

And that's almost it for this course :)

Wrap-up

Explore #2: Write a final blog post for the course, ruminating on your progress through the course. What parts were useful for you? Was there any of these services that you would encourage your library to use? Do you feel better informed? Were there any aspects of the course that didn't work for you?

Finally:

Inform your local library representative that you have you have completed all of the Discover and Explore activities in each week of this course.

PLWA have endorsed State-wide completion certificates which Cockburn Libraries have offered to produce and send out.

Congratulations on successfully completing your mission of discovery.

Thank you so much for your time and enthusiasm throughout the last 10 weeks. We hope you had as much fun exploring these technologies as we had in selecting and bringing these to you.

Regards
Melissa Hicks & Mark Beijer
City of Swan Libraries
www.swan.wa.gov.au/library

Week #9 - Podcasts

This week we look at podcasts and audio files. A podcast is a non-music audio or video recording that is distributed over the Internet. There are various terms of podcast, vodcast and screencast; these can be used synonymously or with slight variations. In general:

• Podcast is used to refer to an audio track. For example, listening to last night's FM radio program.
• Vodcast or videocast is a podcast with video.
• Screencast is often used for conferences and displays presentation slides while listening to the audio track of the presentation.

Most commonly people refer to all of these items as podcasts. It is the distribution that makes these 'casts powerful - interested listeners or watchers can receive updates through RSS when new content is posted. Watch Commoncraft's Podcasting in Plain English for a simple introduction.

Podcasts come in many shapes and sizes. They can be brief (just a few minutes) or considerably longer (interviews, panel discussions, radio shows etc). They can be slickly produced radio broadcasts or home-grown recordings. They can be audio only or they can be video. You can listen to them on your computer (don’t forget to use headphones in your work area) or play them on an MP3 player. Despite the name, you don't need an iPod or a MP3 player to listen or watch - all you need is a computer with headphones or speakers.

You can subscribe to many of these podcasts via iTunes (if you have an iTunes account) or via RSS to your Goggle reader; then listen via your technology of choice (PC, smart phone, iPod, iPad, MP3 player etc). Using a podcatcher (or podcast client), you can set up your computer to automatically download new 'casts as they become available. For example, you may wish to download the new content overnight so that it is ready for you to listen/watch the next morning.

For those who may be interested in going further, this post from iLibrarian includes a list of tools for libraries to create their own podcasts.

Discover: Listen to a podcast from at least two of the following sites:

• Cockburn Library (participating in this course) have just produced their first podcast
• Scientific American puts out a 60 second science podcast
• ABC Radio & ABC-TV put out many podcasts each week
  [Hint: use the subject option to see what is available]
• Monash Public Library in Victoria has podcasted its Wordfest talks from June 2010
• Curtin University has a range of podcasts for its members
• State Library NSW podcasts its Talks & Events
• National Library of Australia podcasts the speakers of the Innovative Ideas Forum each year
• The British Library has a range of podcasts on many of their exhibitions
• Virtual Dave's Librarian Militant, Librarian Triumphant is 60 minutes that may change your outlook on your profession!
  [We highly recommend that all librarians and managers set aside time to listen/watch this screencast!]

Explore: Listen to some of the podcasts linked on the Library Success wiki. Blog about how your library could use podcasts for your patrons and staff. What is an area that you haven't seen any local libraries using podcasts for? List a favourite podcast that you would or do subscribe to (does not have to be work related).

Next week: Geocaching and wrap up ....

Week #8 - Online Video

Online video has improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years - there's more of it, for sure, but the quality is much higher (bigger screen sizes, fewer pauses when watching). This change is largely about improvements in technology - digital video cameras are much more common (including on standard digital cameras and mobile phones; most new laptops include a built-in web cam), high speed Internet access is more common (important for watching videos but also for uploading them to the Internet), video editing software has become far less expensive (often free online or pre-installed on newly purchased computers), and online storage (server space) has dropped dramatically in price. That last one, the price of online storage, has been revolutionary - without it, companies like YouTube would not be able to host videos from millions of users without charging the viewers a cent.

The (relative) ease of creating video, uploading it to the web, and storing it in an easy-to-access environment impacting the way our society gets its news. Think about it - anyone with a digital camera can capture a news event on their mobile phone video camera and save it to an online video account. How many times have you heard nighttime news outlets showing (or indeed asking for) amateur video clips.

A little history: YouTube vs Google Video
Back in 2006, YouTube clips were limited to 10 minutes in length. At that time Google video tried to compete by allowing longer videos. In October 2006, Google bought YouTube so it then owned the two most popular video online hosting services. YouTube's popularity continued to grow and in 2009 Google retired Google Video.

In July 2010, YouTube allowed unregistered users to now post clips up to 15 minutes in length.  Many organisations have YouTube channels where they can post much longer length programs.  In March 2010 the Indian Premier League allowed free viewing of all 60 cricket matches via its YouTube channel (each match/video was 3 - 5 hours in length).

Video Embedding
All YouTube videos offer code that allow you to embed a video (it doesn't have to be yours - you can embed any video you find on YouTube) on your website or blog. Look below where I've embedded the video Information R/evolution.

Click on the play icon to start it up, press pause to make it stop.

The ability to embed video means you don't have to direct visitors away from your site - traditionally visitors would have to be dircted to the original site hosting the video, via a link for example.

Now, please understand that it's not just serious stuff - reporting, politics, education, web 2.0. There's thousands and thousands of fun, even useless, videos on YouTube for your watching pleasure, for example the Muppet Studio YouTube channel.

Discover: Try searching these examples in YouTube:

• "lego"
• "Perth, WA"

But what about libraries? Check out A Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto, What is the future of the library? and Library of the Future in Plain English. Can you find any other interesting examples?

Many universities and some libraries have their own YouTube channels. Look at:

• Curtin University
• State Library Queensland
• National Library of Australia
• Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library (US)

And to top it all off, there is the blog Library Videos - the best of ...

Explore: Libraries can use online videos for a whole raft of marketing, information and fun reasons. How could you see your library using online videos? What is something that your library can do, that is different from the videos we have seen here.

This week, write a blog post of at least 100 words and embed a video into your blog post.

To embed a YouTube video into your Blogger blog:

1. Find a suitable video clip (try to keep it family and work friendly)
2. On the YouTube page under the clip is an "Embed" button. Click on the button.
3. If the owner of the video allows embedding, a new box will open with a lot of code in it.
4. Select and copy all of the code in that box.
5. In your blog, paste the code where you want the video to go.
   (Hint: make sure when your are editing your post that you are editing in "Edit HTML" mode and not "Compose" mode)

Next week - Podcasting...

Week #7 - Social Networking, Facebook and Twitter

What is social media? What is social networking? Why is it important? Watch this SlideShare presentation entitled What the F*** is Social Media NOW. The presentation covers many of the technologies we are discovering through this Learning 2.0 Basics course. Whilst the presentation itself may be a little confronting in its style, it succinctly describes why this course exists.

Social networking has many definitions, but in essence social networking is simply building groups (essentially an online community) with common interests. These groups can comprise your friends, family, professional contacts or even people you have never met face to face. Watch Social Networking in Plain English for a more detailed explanation.

It is precisely the social, informal communication aspect of social networking sites that can worry some management or information technology areas. Please speak to your manager or read your social media policy before participating in this week's tasks.

Facebook (view site) and Twitter (view site) are currently two of the most active social networking sites, but each are quite different in their approach, so this week we are looking at both sites.

Facebook
Facebook is the largest social networking site today. According to a recent press release, Facebook has more than 500 million active users, 50% of which log on to Facebook in any given day. The average user has 130 friends and people worldwide spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

Many libraries and library workers already have a presence on Facebook:

• State Library of Western Australia
• University of Western Australia
• Ellenbrook Community Library
• Mo-brarians
• A list of Top Ten North American Library Facebook pages

Facebook does however have privacy issues. The privacy settings change regularly and it can be difficult for a new user to keep up. The safest option is to post online only those thoughts and photos that you are happy for your spouse, mother or work manager viewing. The Australian government's CyberSmart website also has some good general advice.  Those with more concerns may also wish to look at this post on Risk Reduction Strategies for Facebook.

Discover #1: Facebook has a number of different sections for personal, group and corporate uses. In this course we will set up a basic personal account. If you do not already have a Facebook account, Facebook for Gownups Part 1 will show you how to join.

Explore #1: Using the procedures set out in Facebook for Beginners, write a message on your wall, add your library's Web 2.0 Facebook course page as a friend and then send us a personal message. Yes, we have set up Midland Library as a personal account for training purposes only :)

Write a blog post this week about your thoughts on Facebook and how you think this could be used at work. If you wish, you can include your Facebook name in your blog if you want other people in this course to "friend you" - this is completely optional.

Twitter
Twitter is a place where people answer the question, "What are you doing now?". Every time you answer that question in 140 characters or less - via the Twitter website, SMS, email, instant messaging or other Twitter client - it posts to your Twitter account. Posts are publicly viewable on the Twitter time line or can be made viewable just to your "followers". Twitter gives you the chance to publish your thoughts quickly or to tune into the thoughts and information streams of other users from around the world. Twitter posts are ideal for making single points or sharing a single piece of information, like a link, instantly. Watch Twitter in Plain English to see how it is used.

Twitter is at the same time, completely trivial and extremely powerful. Yes you can discuss your breakfast habits or tweet that you are running late for work, but you can also tweet links to web pages and articles that you found inspiring or profound; Twitter will break news stories faster than mainstream media. Read this article on Twitter and the Chile earthquake.

Libraries using Twitter
1 October 2010 was #followalibrary day on Twitter. This is a list of 29 Australian libraries who use Twitter as a professional communications tool, including Cockburn Library and Victoria Park Library!

Librarians using Twitter
Well, frankly there are a lot of us! A good starting place is this list of over 200 librarians, compiled by Sue Cook, CSIRO (here in Perth).

You can also make is easier for people to search for information about an event or organisation by using #tags (hash tags). For example if you are tweeting about this course use #WAWeb20.

Discover #2: Search Twitter for what is being written about libraries (you may need to try a few different search terms) and another subject of interest to you.

Explore #2:

1. Visit Twitter and sign up for a free account. Be sure to fill out your profile information so people will know something about you.
2. Follow some people, including SwanLibraries. You can click on the button "Find People" and type in your friends' names if you know they are on Twitter, or you can go to the participants list. This list will grow as more people progress through the course.
3. Put your Twitter name in your blog post or in a comment to this blog post so other participants can find you and chat with you on Twitter.
4. Tweet at least once a day for five days using the #WAWeb20 hash tag. You can of course tweet, re-tweet and reply as much as you want to over and above that minimum. Twitter is an interactive tool and as such the more you use it, the more you will understand it.
5. Remember, as with all communication tools, play nicely :)

Write in your blog about what you found. What tweets were the most interesting or relevant? Did you like micro-blogging? Do you love it, hate it or not sure? How else could libraries use Twitter? (Hint: Read 26 Twitter Stetegy Tips and Tricks for Success and see how these could be used by your library)

Next Week: Online Video...

Week #6 - Tagging, Delicious and LibraryThing

This week we are looking at tagging in more detail. As you remember in Week 3, tagging is used as a way for ordinary people to associate keywords with images, text and websites to make it more relevant and searchable to them. We have already seen this with Flickr. This week we are going to expand that process with Delicious and LibraryThing.

Delicious
Watch this video on Social Bookmarking in Plain English to see how we are going to use Delicious to play with tags. There are many other web services that use this type of social tagging, such as Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon and Slashdot but Delicious is a good starting point.

Delicious (in addition to formerly having the excellent name of Del.icio.us, yes that is a real URL – the .us at the end stands for United States), is a social bookmarking site that lets you save bookmarks to a central location (no more copying them to multiple browsers on multiple computers) and classify them all with tags.

How is that social?
Well, in addition to tagging your bookmarks, you can see how other users have tagged the same links as well as see see which related websites are important to them. This is an excellent way to find websites that may be of interest to you. Delicious even offers RSS feeds - you can create a shared bookmark site (say, for your team) and receive news every time a new link is added (say, when one of your colleagues adds a new link). It is also being used to assist with collaborative online reference. National Library of Australia's AskNow service uses a wiki to point to, amongst other sites, their Delicious tagging account).

[Update 19 Dec 2010: In recent days there have been many reports that Delicious will be shut down or sold off.  All we know for certain at this stage is that Delicious will at some point not be affiliated with Yahoo. However these things are in a state of flux.  Please continue through the Discover and Explore components of Delicious for this course.  If this becomes impossible or there are radical changes before 1 February 2011 we will alter the course content accordingly - Mel]

Discover #1: Take a look around Delicious using the account that was created for this exercise. Look at the list and see how it looks as a cloud. (Hint: click on Swan Libraries' tags button).

How are others using Delicious?

• See Sutherland Shire Libraries tag cloud
• See Kathryn Greenhill's tags

Explore #1: Set up your own delicious account and put a link to it in your blog. [Hint: unfortunately you will need to set up a yahoo account first, unless you already have one]

Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about using this tool in libraries. Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?

LibraryThing
LibraryThing was developed by booklovers, for booklovers and its basic function is to quickly and painlessly create an online catalog of your personal book collection. What makes it even more special is its social networking component - once you've entered your books, you get to see everyone elses via book titles, authors, and the tags you assign to each entry. Add a book to your catalog by just entering the title – it's so easy that you don't even need MARC record training to do it – or connect with other users through your similar reading tastes.

Look at the LibraryThing tour. Take a quick run through these seven or eight screens for an overview of key LibraryThing features and functions.

Discover #2: Take a look around LibraryThing using our Web 2.0 Basics account set up for this exercise. If this takes you to the 'cover view,' look above the titles and click on 'list view.' From the 'list view,' look to the far right side of the screen - it shows you how many others have entered the title in question.

You can also add a widget to display titles that are in your catalogue or install a LibraryThing Search box on your blog or any other website you've set up.

Instructions for adding a LibraryThing widget to your blog are as follows:

• Step 1 - Log in to your LibraryThing account and click on the "widget" link in the top right of the page
• Step 2 - Select and copy the text from the "Embed this widget" box
• Step 3 - Log in to your Blogger account and select the "Design" tab (found on the "Dashboard" screen)
• Step 4 - Select the "Add a Gadget" link
• Step 5 - Select "HTML/JavaScript" from the list of options
• Step 6 - Paste the text you copied earlier from the LibraryThing text box into the comments section
• Step 7 - Hit save and voila...your widget should now appear on your blog!

Not just for personal collections, libraries have started using LibraryThing for Libraries. Libraries can add the LibraryThing widget to their web pages or blogs to recommend books and list new titles, or install a LibraryThing Search box (instructions are here). Being a non-commercial site makes LibraryThing a good option for libraries. Some libraries already using Librarything for Libraries include Cockburn and Mandurah.



Explore #2: Create a Librarything account and add five books to your library. Add a LibraryThing widget to your blog. Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalogue.

Next week: Social Networking, Facebook and Twitter...

Week #5 - Wikis

A "wiki" allows a group of people to collaboratively develop a website with no knowledge of HTML or other markup languages. Anyone can add to or edit pages in a wiki -- it is completely egalitarian. Anyone can create new wiki pages simply by creating a new link with the name of the page. Pages are connected not hierarchically, but by hyperlinks between pages (source).

Watch: Wikis in Plain English for an introduction to the concept of wikis.

Wikis are web pages or groups of pages that are built by their contributors - readers who add, remove and edit content. This typically goes one of two ways - an open model where anyone (and we mean anyone) is invited to contribute or a closed model where a select group are invited to contribute. Either way, it is an exercise in collaboration and trust - whomever contributes is expected to meet certain standards of quality and accuracy and should expect, should they not reach these standards, that another participant will edit their contributions. The goal is to use a wiki to create a collaborative piece of information, sharing the knowledge of all contributors.

The collaborative encyclopedia Wikipedia is the best known example of a wiki - anyone can participate in contributing and editing entries. Wikipedia does, however, employ staff who will freeze a topic if foul play is reported by readers. Errors and obvious fakes are often (though, not always) corrected very quickly.

Watch: Wikipedia Explained for an explanation of how Wikipedia works.

A common view as of 2010 in fields from medicine to technology and a range of social-cultural topics, is that Wikipedia is a valuable research resource and starting point for information and major news events, and articles in many areas are routinely accurate and informative, but users should take care – as with all general reference works – to check their facts and be aware that mistakes and omissions do occur (source).

Communities of interest
Wikis can be used for sharing knowledge in a community of interest, for example:

• Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
• Blogging Libraries Wiki

Workplace applications
Wikis can also be used in the workplace, for example the CIA developed Intellipedia - a collaborative intranet tool.

In Australia the Local Government & Municipal (LGAM) Knowledge Base just turned two years old.

The National Library of Australia has a thriving wiki on many of its collaborative efforts including Library Labs and Ask Now.

Discover: Take a look 3 or more of the wikis below.

• NSW State Library Readers' Advisory Services wiki
• Games and Public Libraries Wiki
• Antioch University's Staff Training and Support Wiki 
• St. Joseph County Public Library's Subject Guides
• Montana History Wiki (Hint: follow the link to the Subject Guides)
• Twilight Saga Wiki (Well...I could have linked to Wookiepedia instead)

Create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What sort of information could your library put on a wiki - internal for staff only or external for customers to use and edit?

Explore: Still another variation in the world of wikis is where your wiki lives - you can install wiki software on a server at your institution (like we do with our website and email) or you can use a service that hosts the wiki for you. For this course we will be doing the latter - the WA Public Libraries Web 2.0 Basics wiki was set up with a wiki hosting service called Wetpaint.

Watch: Wetpaint Wikis in Plain English.

To add information or edit an existing entry in the WA Public Libraries Web 2.0 Basics wiki you will need to:

1. Sign up for Wetpaint. When signing up, you can use the Gmail email address you created back in Week 2 of this course.
2. Back on the WA Public Libraries Web 2.0 Basics wiki website you will need to click on the "Apply To Be A Writer" button.  This ensures that only participants in this course are able to play with this wiki. You will receive an email as soon as you have been approved.
3. After approval, look through the pages on the wiki, select one you wish to add to and click on the "Easy Edit" button above the page heading.  Then go to it and add your information. 

Again we are asking you to add at least 150 words somewhere on the site, as well as any images, new pages or editing you would like to do. Remember though, to play nicely.

Also remember to write your blog post (from the Discover section) and comment on at least five other participant blogs this week.

Next week: Tagging, Delicious and LibraryThing...

Week #4 - RSS Aggregators/Feeds

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication. You may have heard the term before, but did you know what the letters stood for? RSS is a powerful tool that can help bring information to you. Watch RSS in Plain English for more information.

There are many RSS News Aggregator websites and apps available. If you use Outlook at work, it has a built-in RSS reader, but that can only be read at the work PC that houses your login details.

For the purposes of this course, we will be using Google Reader. Just as you can access your Gmail account from most devices at home or at work, you will similarly be able to access your Google Reader account from any PC, Mac, iPad or Smartphone with an internet connection.

Discover: Log in to your Gmail account. Above the Gmail icon you will finds a row of links titled: Calendar, Web, Documents, Reader, More.

Click on Reader. You may be required to enter your password again, and then your Google Reader will be open and ready to use.

Now, as explained in the RSS in Plain English video watched earlier, add at least 5 RSS feeds to your account. Remember, the link to a website or blog feed is often depicted by an orange RSS icon, or terms similar to "RSS", "feed" or "subscribe".

Make sure the RSS feed for this Learning 2.0 Basics training course is one of your feeds. Some other feeds you may consider adding are:

• Powerhouse Museum's picture of the day blog.
• Libraries Interact (Blog Central for Australasian libraries)
• The West Australian newspaper has a range of different RSS feeds
• Unshelved (library comic strip)

Hints: To search for RSS feeds using search engines include "blogs" or "RSS" as part of your search terms, or use Google Blog Search to find blogs on your favourite topic.

Unfortunately Internet Explorer 7 does not allow you to automatically subscribe to a feed using Google Reader. Participants using IE 7 need to visit Google Reader's settings page, scroll to the bottom of the "Goodies" tab, right-click on the "Subscribe..." link in the "Subscribe as you surf" section at the bottom of the page, select "Add to Favourites" from the pop-up menu and choose the "Links" folder. Make sure that the links bar is visible. Then when you find a blog or newspaper you want to add to Google Reader, click on the "Subscribe" button now appearing in the links bar.

Remember, if you see the following group click on Google for Google Reader:



Also if you see this message, choose Add to Google Reader:



Also look at your own blog - does it have "Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)" at the bottom of the page? Atom is another form of feed. Other people can click on that link and add *your blog* to their Google Reader. Try subscribing to some participants' blogs to make it easier to comment when they have published a new blog post.

If you need extra help contact your local library representative or email the course coordinators at cityofswanlibraries@gmail.com.

Explore: In your blog, create an entry that reflects on what you searched for and what you found. Include five of the sites you selected to follow (not including other participants' blogs).

If you are stuck for ideas to write in your blog, you can use these questions to help start you out:

• What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
• What other sites did you select for your RSS reader?
• How do you think you might be able to use this technology?
• How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
• Did you find any good examples of other library blogs?

Remember to take time to share your thoughts and comments on at least five other participants' blogs.

Next week: Wikis...