#54. Bookjetty

I'd heard of Bookjetty but never looked at it until, at VALA, Polyxena went to a presentation by Schubert Foo and came away really interested in this application.

She told me about it and, like her, I could see the potential for public libraries.

So, of course, I checked it out and, of course, I joined up.

At the time there were only a few melbourne libraries on bookjetty - it has really come into its own since more libraries have added their catalogues to it.

From a library point of view the more libraries that are available to be searched the more valuable it will be as a tool. Being able to access multiple libraries with one search is a definite plus.

#53. LitLovers

It feels kind of weird posting this seeing as I submitted the 'thing'.

However I've completed the first lit course (which deals with formula romance fiction)

It consists of a 'lecture' (15 slides), readings, a study guide and a quiz.

once you've submitted your answers to the quiz (there are seven multiple choice, and a couple of free response questions), it is 'marked' instantaneously and then there is a link to print your certificate.

There doesn't seem to be a pass/fail type option so if you're serious about literature then you probably won't get a lot out of it.

However if you're getting back into lit. or have never read for discussion previously, you may find this a bit interesting.

#52. Clipmarks

Polyxena and Annabel have been singing the praises of Clipmarks for some time and I signed up a couple of weeks ago to see what all the fuss was about!

It's a little gem of a tool - instead of saving (as I am prone to do) the urls to thousands of blogposts in bloglines I can save the posts themselves, or parts of them, in clipmarks.

Depending on my mood the clips can be:

• private (only seen by me when logged in),
• my network (can be seen on my Facebook, myspace, blog, etc.) pages
• public (viewable by anyone)

I still like bloglines and use it a fair bit but I am gradually replacing the saving of posts with clipmarks.

I can see great potential for clipmarks if I could clip things directly to Zoho or Buzzword (that would be soooooo useful)

#51. Libraries and the social web

Lately I've been doing a lot of thinking about libraries and how they can use 2.0 & 2.1 applications.

This is partly because I took myself off to Brisbane to the Beyond the Hype symposium (which I have blogged about here), and partly because I got to go to some sessions at the VALA conference in Melbourne (2 as part of a shared registration, and 2 because other staff members were ill).

So far our Library Service has:
*a web page (connected to the Council web page)
*a Facebook page
* our catalogue is available on Bookjetty;

we are working on:
* a myspace page
* a bebo page (if I can just get the bl***** logo to skin)

We are also running the Library 2.1 program through a ning, as well as a Local History ning.

In the setup for staff to play and learn on category:
* we have a blog
* a ning

Independently staff are working on:
* wikis (for Local history and library in general)
* suprglu (blog aggregator)

Hopefully we will have a blog for the public to access up and running in the next couple of weeks.

Scarily of the 25 social networking tools list I have accounts on all but 3 of them.

I like to try the different tools and then use the one that I like the most, that suits the way I work etc.

So mnay tools, so little time...

#50 I'm cooked

"It's like you tube for cooks" We ll can't argue with that!

I'm cooked is a video recipe sharing website. The idea is you film yourself cooking something then upload it to the website for others to see.

Now while others cook vats of plum sauce or bake lovingly - I don't. I cook because I can't afford to eat out every night!

The thought of being filmed as I look in the fridge, rummage in the cupboard for ingredients is not a good one, nor is my recipe for "it's in the fridge so can go in spaghetti sauce" one that should be handed down from generation to generation.

However I searched for corned silverside and watched a couple of videos of silverside being cooked. One with ginger beer, and the other with the more traditional(?) vinegar and brown sugar.

Would I use this site? In a library sense I doubt it; in a personal sense maybe - if I wanted to see how to cook something rather than just reading the recipe - could be helpful I suppose.

After playing with this site I was mega hungry - thank goodness I didn't look at video recipes for chocolate mousse.

#49b Musigy.com

Musigy is basically an online music conferencing platform (think teleconferencing or videoconferencing) where musicians can jam with other - in the next room or halfway across the world.

As stated in previous posts I am not in the slightest bit musical (I wish I was but that's another story).

So I asked my friend Benj (who's a sound engineer & muso) to give it a go.

He thought it sounded pretty cool so he has installed it on his pc and is trying to arrange to play a duet next week with a friend of his who lives in France.

(They're busy IM'ing each other trying to decide on a song now.)

In Libraryland it would make a good activity, perhaps as part of Battle of the Bands or similar, for teenagers and younger library members.

#49 Soundsnap

Okay, I can see the YSL's having fun with this.

Soundsnap is basically a website containing a collection of sounds - I looked in sports and listened to a basketball being dribbled, a pinpong ball bouncing, a baseball bat making contact with a baseball etc.

Each 'sound' was 1-20 seconds long. So ideal as a background for a link on a website.

Under film & comic fx there was a 2 second 'splat' or a 1 second 'squelch'.

Some of the stab/swish/weapons sounds would be fun if we were having a crime fiction discussion on the website.

You could string some of these sounds together and have a Batman like (1966 tv version) Kapow, splat, holy gatorade Batman' type soundtrack running beside parts of your website.!

Holy soundtrack Batman!