Mashups

There are some really good examples of mashups which add value to resources. Both of the heritage map/google maps mashups add value to the maps as it easily places them in a contemporary context. The star viewer is amazing in the way it places the information in context.


I tried a David Hockney mashup which does look better when it is larger.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum have done a mashup with Google Earth to highlight the destruction at Darfur. This helps people see the concentration of the issue. Bishop Museum in Hawaii is using mashups to mark where collection items were found which works well for a natural history museum.

Superpatron suggests using mashups for rss feeds from library catalogues. Mashups can be tools for adding extra value to collection items. Some of the image generators are impressive ways of creating low budget signs.

With collections relating to, for example, explorers, you could link the collection item to a Google map spot where the item was created. The map could also show the complete journey of the explorer and have links to all the institutions where collection items relating to the explorer were held. So one map for Leichhardt would show his travels, and enable people to see digitised items/records no matter where the item were held. This could be a powerful way of linking big and small collections in a collaborative manner.

Answer boards

That was really fun. I like the way there is a community of librarians around answer boards, although I understand not many Australian librarians have 'put their hands up' on that wiki. I think engaging with answer boards - although I had not done it before today - is a good tool for professional development as well as for raising awareness about what libraries can offer. I answered one question - and I chose the one I did because it was not an opinion piece. I now have to wait and see if my answer is voted the best.

Librarything

Librarything is fun. It is an unbelievable concept which really works. It has great potential for library use - with assisting resource discovery. East Brunswick Public Library is providing hints for their community in using the catalogue which is linked to Librarything. Danbury Public Library was the first public library to add Librarything to their catalogue. They provide both their own subject headings as well as having the tag clouds from Librarything visible.

Tag clouds

I like the way some organisations are using del.icio.us to make their weblinks available. I think that there could be some good uses of del.icio.us for teams who are working on a project together as you can put all the sites/information found together and receive alerts (via rss) when someone else in the group adds links. It would be a useful collaborative tool for work across several organisations as well.

It could be a good alerts mechanism as well. You could set up a del.icio.us account where website showing technology or other trends are linked and then have a matching blog to write about how the technology (or other trend) could be considered for use in a workplace - it could be a simple method of encouraging brainstorming or generally thinking through a few new ideas.

From a bit of editing on the test account del.icio.us is easy to use. It is helpful being able to add notes so that it can become clearer why a particular site is of interest. The tag clouds can help with trend spotting as well. It was easy to set up a del.icio.us account but now I will have to move my key sites over to that account.

I really like the Aberdeen built ships site with the way they link information about the ship building, images, videos and audio files.

Videos

Ferntree Gully Library has put up a promotional video about library services - it is well worth listening/watching as it gives a comprehensive coverage of their services. The cat in the hat helps with how not to do a reference interview, there is a fun New Jersey library promotion about a 24/7 live reference service (it looks like a fast food ad and is well worth watching), this shows another style of library promotion, one from Lexington Public Library which promotes active use of your library card, and another good use of a library card.

The Nebraska Library Commission has a vibrant promotion for working in libraries, Denver promotes summer reading, there is a promotion of online reference, and a quirky interview with Yorkshire accents. There is even an Arizona State University Library Channel which features videos of a conference planning for libraries of the 21st century - note this is a longer video.

All of these videos have ideas we could use to promote our services to the community. These are a series of variations on the same theme - all seeking to make people more aware of what libraries can do. If we don't tell them how will they know what great places libraries are? Using online videos is a way of reaching people who may not have thought to come to the library. It can be a very targeted promotion about a specific aspect of a library service or a general "what libraries do" kind of introduction. They do not have to have a big budget to be effective. A video would be a great partner for the online exhibitions - it would be useful to hear a curator talk about an item, and to hear a client respond as well. Imagine if after doing a search on Mathew Flinders I had found someone from work talking about/showing collection items relating to Flinders. It would be a way of helping expose the collection and the staff expertise. Videos could also be used with donors speaking about why they gave collection items or money.

I thought this video would add a touch of class.

Making gmail work harder

Thanks to the blog from iLibrarian there are hints about how to move into the power user category of gmail users. This information is thanks to an rss feed.

wiki world

I liked the Montana history wiki driving people to a range of resources in a range of locations. I liked that some of the links took me to books. This wiki seemed well designed as a comprehensive starting point for research about the history of Montana.

The Princeton Public Library wiki also very interesting as a good way of organising reviews to promote collection items.

From the library success wiki I looked at the Stevens County Rural Library District wiki which aims to be a wiki for the community about the community. It is still early days - but it is an interesting idea.

The workplace entry in wikipedia is very brief. It could still be brief and link to information on the web site. We could edit the entry to drive traffic to our site and to specific digitised items. This could be done selectively to help people do resource disovery. We could also include other 'notes' links (why is it just to Duran Duran) and link to Matthew Reilly and his novel Contest.

I only did a little editing on the visitor information wiki - but it is easy to do.

Jamie with his signed Matthew Reilly book
Originally uploaded by Springwood Colquhouns