Cosi Fan Tutti (Task #23)

I admit I have had a great time doing this program. I have been addicted from day 1. Of course I am lucky to have broadband at home. I would never have attempted such a large scale internet learning project with a dial up or slow connection! Also having two small kids, I have had to be somewhat of an insomniac to get it done during the wee hours!
I have learned heaps. And of course the Internet never ceases to surprise me with the number of 'geeks' there are out there with nothing much better to do. Nonetheless, many many things were very useful. I think wikis have their place in the world, podcasts, basically on-demand radio - fantastic. Flickr, rss feeds, mapping, ebooks, delicious. All fantstically useful and I am so glad I know what they all are now. I suppose if someone comes into the library and says to me " I can't get this flickr photo / youtube video to upload to my blog" or "My lecturer told me to use delicious and I don't know how to go about it" I'll at least know what they are talking about! So my great thanx to YPRL for the opportunity. There should be more of it! Oh and most of all, thanks to River'sEdge for getting me started on the program. Wouldn't have known much about how togo about it if you hadn't shown me what to do.

Farenheit 451 (Task #22)

Well, I visited the world ebook fair. It was a bit depressing. I was pleasantly surprised to find The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I downloaded it. The person reading had an American accent. Nothing wrong with that, but in order to listen to that book I must be honest, I prefer it read by an English accent. Ditto for the Shakespeare although that doesn't bother me that much as americans do love their Shakespeare. But still, call me a purist. There's no accounting for taste!
I'd feel the same about Judy Dench reading Charles Bukowski or Jack Kerouac. I guess when you read to yourself you imagine a voice in your head and when you go to listen to a book the actual voice used should be congruent with what you imagine. Don't you agree?

Radio Days (Task #21)

Well, I looked for ages and although I found plenty of library related podcasts, none of them really captured my interest. many of them are pertaining to particular library services in the US. Which might be OK in some cases but to be honest the amount of stuff out there is a little overwhelming.
Also found some conspiracy theory podcasts and of course, the reason radio will never die - podcasts are the Web 2.0 radio. I found a good one here and subscribed to it with my bloglines account.

Soapdish (Task #20)

Ok so it's an ad. BUT WHAT AN AD! My washing machine broke down and I found this while doing some research on my NEW washer. Why can't more ads be like this?

The New World (Task #19)

Well, I looked at quite a few of the sites as it was fascinating and I couldn't choose. I first looked at propsmart. That was terrific. It's is supposed to be a monster site tht has almost every property for sale on it and searchable. Not just ad free but people can also blog about the properties and add comments to those properties... interesting. That site took be to bookcrossing.com which was fascinating. Take a book you loved. Register it with bookcrossing.com write the BCID (identification number) in the book, and then... release it into the wild and basically wait for someone to pick it up, read it and then log on to Bookcrossing and add their comments and PASS it ON. Take a look. It's fascinating! Also had a look at ETSY.com. amazing style to this site, and what a great idea, an auction site for handmade/homemade things! excellent.
As for usefulness in a library, I can see that sites like propsmart are trying to make things easier to go to one place on the net to find everything. It's all good.

The Secret Window (Task #18)

I logged in as a guest user as I couldn't be bothered signing up for another thing. yes I love it! Anything that is fantastic and FREE and gives Bill Gates the flick has to be worth a lot! You don't even need to lug a laptop or PDA around with you anymore. As long as you can access the Internet, you can access your office. WOW.

The Big Chill (Task #17)

My name is on the sandbox wiki.
Here

The Name of the Rose (Task #16)

Ciao a tutti, Quanto si impara tutti i giorni, e stupendo veramente!
well, Wikis sounded like something quite amazing. I really agree with the use of them as a "noticeboard" for library staff's recommended reading. Just another way for communication to happen in a fun way. However, I think something like this could get too big to handle and would need people employed (or volunteers who have no life) to moderate. It is important to let people who might be using the information on these things to be aware that it is someone's opinion only and not gospel. Nonetheless - useful as another form of sharing infromation, ideas and opinions.

Scary Movie (Task #15)

Well, I feel a bit sad that physical collections and library spaces are on the way out... what no more teenagers hanging out and meeting eachother after school at the library? Will they(are they) really all sit in their rooms alone on front of a computer screen spending countless hours sharing information about themsleves with anyone and everyone in cyberspace including their friends?
Maybe it will be a little while yet...after all, there are still plenty of people out there that do not have access to as much technology as we would all like to believe. They haven't solved the problem of world hunger and poverty for chrissakes! Surely people will for many years to come, need/want to have access to a 'learning' environment like a library. Maybe some abused kids might still need a refuge... a place they can sit and study quietly, socialise and hang out with their friends. Who knows?
Yes Web 2.0 is fantastic. Our services will no doubt change as they always have done. But I doubt that public libraries will become defunct for quite sometime.

The Diary of Anne Frank (Task #14)

Just had a little explore of Technorati.
Seems a bit strange - wading through what seems to be thousands of personal diary entries to find something useful - hopefully...
In other words, I guess it is necessary, but I don't think I'll have much use for it.