Google docs etc

What marvellous tools google.docs and zoho are with so many uses in the workplace. As I cannot use google.docs at work I feel very frustrated and hope zoho will work. Sharing documents would be an immense help with rostering, attendance sheets, cleaning reports and I'm sure many more I cannot think of off the top of my head.

I would not have much use for sharing slide shows and presentations but one can see the application would be great in many other positions. Isn't there an astonishing variety of tools out there. Look at the explosion of tools in the last 5 years, imagine what it will be like in another five. how will we ever keep up. Please keep training us PLNSW otherwise we will fall behind and sink.

Mashups

Just to prove I CAN do this.

What fun - again. I can see alot of uses for this, particularly in the local history fields, putting maps to photos and talking about them or writing text. The choices seem to be endless.This could be of great help to patrons, making the presentation of information much more user friendly.
Oh, I do wish our IT and Communications department were more open to this technology. I am sure if we thought we could actually use it we would think of so many more applications.

Podcasts

This one has really got me thinking about its use in a local Library. Yes, we could give a virtual tour but would anyone look at it. We could video our Law Week talks and podcast them, or just an audio of it. Over the years I suppose we could build up a good resource - but then information may become out of date and the Solicitors may not agree. I found the author talk podcasts interesting They would be a useful tool to choose the author you wished to talk as well - some authors are really good speakers and others not as good.

Overall very interesting and useful in a large Library or a Library with a large budget but of much more limited use in a small Library. Other Libraries podcasts could be a useful tool and those on, for example, the ABC site could be of interest to patrons.

Answer Boards

All those people out there who don't know where to go for answers, who can't search for themselves is absolutely amazing. There is obviously a lot of scope for professional library help BUT how on earth would we sell it to Council? How would we keep the obligatory stats? Justify the fact that most of the questions answered would be for people not living in the Council area? Even if your Library set up its own Answer Board it would be open to the whole world whereas the physical placement of the Library building means the majority of users are locals.

Slam the Boards is great if you have a spare half hour (lucky you!) otherwise it is an "in your own time" activity. If you had an Answer Board just for your own Library I guess patrons would have to sign in with their Library card to use it.

There, I guess I have answered my own fears and objections. Bring on the Answer Boards, I am all for them.

Technorati and LibraryThing

Have just finished trying Technorati and can think of no use for it really. Mind you I am not a fan of talkback radio and a lot of blogs seem to be along those lines, there are some good ones but not many. I suppose if for some reason you were looking for something specific it would be useful.
LibraryThing on the other hand is terrific. Highly recommended for bookclubs.
What a lot of things you can do if you have the time.

Tagging

What a fantastic tool Delicious is. Loved Sutherland's site but how much staff time must it have takn to get it up and going - do they have staff who do not need to stand in front of the public all day. Much as I love my work there is no time to do fancy stuff or even stop and think about it - that has to be done at home.
In my dream Library this would be a fantastic tool, a great adjunct to the Library catalogue, it would give the patron access to books, periodicals, audio visual, databases and internet resources.I checked out Sutherlans's genealogy page and was impressed and will be showing this to those asking for family history help.