23.Give feedback about the program

Firstly a big thank you to the team of 23 Things. I have found it to be the best Staff Development project yet. One of the reasons I wanted a career in libraries is that they are at the forefront of technology and as part of our job it is up to us to keep abreast. I would welcome similar projects in the future.

Of course the whole thing seemed quite daunting at first but as you dived into each thing it seemed to get easier to find your way. I have learned so much and I will be using and promoting to my family and friends all of the awesome Google products, Delicious, video sharing and possibly Skype in the future.
I am not a fan of the social networking sites of Facebook or Blogs as I prefer to leave my computer and get outdoors to socialise.

I guess how all these Things can be used in Libraries depends greatly on how our managers want to incorporate them into our present system and style of offering service.

What is mind blowing is the rate of new innovations and changing technologies. With the Obama campaign we had CNN with the the hologram technology. Maybe we could all sit at home in the future and have our holograms beamed into the library!

22. Read about and explore various web based communication tools including Skype, MSN Messenger and Meeboo

Wow - what a lot of mindboggling information.
I have added Google Talk to my favourite product iGoogle - I cannot praise Google products enough!! I am so enthralled by what I have created and find it soooo useful.

Skype looks interesting - our friend in the Bahamas always uses this tool and is at us to set up our account. I am not sure I really want others to see me in my "relaxing" clothes at home when I am on the computer link - not a good look I am sure!! We find phone cards quite inexpensive but maybe Skype is worth another

21.Find and listen to a Podcast or two

Podcasts are quite interesting and could have uses for those with businesses or are in to documenting their activities.
An Iinteresting one I found was about a Catholic priest's travels in Canada.
The CNN In case you missed it which I have included in this blog. This is all about the historic election in the USA.

20.Watch YouTube videos people have made about Libraries

The Philippines - a country not known for its libraries but with an extensive history I was fascinated to find this video about how to search Filipiniana.net

This is a full-featured digital library and a research portal that gathers the most important and significant documents and artifacts on Philippine Studies and makes them available on the Internet for free. It has one of the widest and most comprehensive collections of Filipiniana books and documents spanning the Hispanic era to the contemporary period, categorized under history, culture, religion, literature, science, economy, society, and government.

Filipiniana.net combines full-text research materials and snippets of contemporary publications with non-textual materials such as maps, photographs, videos, paintings, illustrations, and tables. It has a master electronic archive, an online searching and browsing facility, knowledge maps, and thesaurus. Each material has an executive summary and introductory notes, subject headings, hyperlinks to additional information and references, and a "cite me" feature which generates a bibliographic entry. Filipiniana.net also hosts forums and blogs in the user community.

In disseminating knowledge Filipiniana.net also preserves culture. A large part of its materials consists of rare and out-of-print books and documents that would otherwise not be readily available. By serving as a repository of materials on the Philippines, Filipiniana.net ensures that these materials will be kept safe for future generations.

Filipiniana.net follows the world wide web consortium (w3c.org) recommendations for universal and transparent web interoperability as well as open and non-proprietary standards. It subscribes to the UNESCO vision of empowering people by democratizing access to information and knowledge through a free flow of ideas in words and images.


Watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J7G_oErKlc

Although you can watch this at YouTube you can no longer embed the link into a blog.

So I have included a FUN YouTube video.

19. Put a photo of your pet on the wiki

Love the name Wiki and interesting how it got its name - Honolulu another of my favourite places!!

My grand-dog, Emily is both here and now on the VU Wikibrary.

WikiPedia is a great online source of quick information which I use frequently.

I can see some great uses for wikis.

18. Read about the Library 2.0 movement and explore new developments in Library related interfaces such as Encore and the new EBSCOhost 2.0 interface

There is so much information out there in cyberspace and it is fantastic that people are coming together to organise it better, link things easier, personalise it and make it more interactive. Software before seemed to be the ONE in control but now with these new programs there is a feeling of being in control and getting what you want faster.
For Libraries these are interesting times and I look forward to all the innovation. ENCORE certainly is a more comprehensive interface.
For students it is exciting as I felt that in the past there seemed to be a trend towards a price being put on knowledge with restricted access to databases and other commercial types of information. Now to have information and a forum for interaction put out there for free use for students and researchers from the comfort of their homes is refreshing and an exciting concept.

17. Playing with delicious

I did find it quite good to view "delicious" as I found some great information including these youtube videos on two of my favourite subjects - delicious Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. This social bookmarking site would be most useful in sharing with my sister-in-law who is even more nutty over Roger! Other interests would be handy too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mulAi7cno2Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PagAQ1yRatA

16. Create you own iGoogle home page

I love iGoogle!!! I now have a site where there are feeds, links and gadgets of everything that I am interested in - from news, business, politics, sports, films, books, cooking and the Philippines. It looks fabulous all personised with each tag having a different theme. I will be encouraging other members of my family to set up their own as it is so convenient and looks quite impressive! I feel it is also great for children to set up helpful links for their homework and further learning. This way parents can help them set up safe, educational sites to view.

Pageflakes and Netvibes were not as impressive -being unable to personalise the site as much.

15. Play with Google Book Search and Google Scholar

I liked Google Book Search. It is great to have all the details of the book, a preview of its content, popular passages, references from web pages and scholarly works and related books.
It makes an easy way to get quick information on your topic or particular book and expand your reading.
It is also great to be able to have the classics at your fingertips and be able to read these out of copyright books (and sometimes out of print books) online.
The links to book seller is also handy.

Google Scholar was also extremely interesting. I searched for our German scientist friend (whose family we were great friends with in the Philippines) and was able to pull up his articles and patents. I am sure it is very helpful for researchers.

Posted from Google Docs

My favourite recipe book

Recipes of the Philippines compiled and edited by Enriqueta David-Perez.
This typical Filipino recipe book with few colored but many black/white illustrations contains:
Fiesta Fare recipes like Caldereta, Embutido and Pancit Molo;
Everyday dishes like Adobo, Escabeche and Rellenong Bangus;
Sweets and desserts like Leche Flan, Turon and Yema;
Breakfast and Merienda like Bibingka, Maja blanca and puto;
Pickles and Relishes like Spiced Eggs, Kangkong Atsara and Papaya;
Refreshments like Gulaman in coconut milk, Mango, Pinipig and Ube ice cream and the glossary.

Published by National Bookstore, Mandaluyong City.
ISBN 971081821X.

14. Play with Google Docs

This is a wonderful tool for group work and presentations especially as you can see the group additions and be able to comment immediately on the work. No need to physically meet your group which can sometimes be so difficult with conflicting schedules.
It is also great as you can do this from any computer and the application is free!
I think however that it will not at this stage be such a great competition to Microsoft Office as MS Office is such a powerful and sophisticated tool. But maybe in the future?

13. Play with Google Maps

I found Google maps extremely exciting - I was able to check out all my friends' houses and my favourite places of interest all over the world. It was interesting to see how places have been changed since I have been there.

I worry though, that this tool could be used for malicious intent.

At the side is a Google map of the capital city in the Philippines. Manila and its surroundings is a megacity and has a population of approximately 22 million people (August 2007 census) acording to Wikipedia.

12. Explore MySpace and Facebook

I feel that Facebook is the better site - not so commercial!
So I joined up - really feeling uncomfortable - really not my thing and how I would like to spend my time!! I can always call up my friends - no need to find them! But may be for other things...
I really appreciated Jenny's Facebook Guide especially about all the privacy settings (a big issue as I have read with Facebook and MySpace) - that saved me from near insanity - thank you!!!

I added Libraries Australia to my Facebook - really quite interesting. I can see that it would be really helpful to be hooked up to all the sites you use all at one source and be interactive with them.
I also watched an interesting story on Primary school kids being taught to blog in their class. I can see how the world and how we work will be changing in the future. The change is to keep up with technology and trying to keep an open mind!!

11. Subscribe to some blogs / 10. Add some subscriptions

I have subscribed to digg.com. I must admit I felt quite uncomfortable subscribing to this site which wanted so much personal information. I also felt it was so much "Yankie" content for my taste as I prefer a more balanced approach to the news.

To be more informed about the lastest news coming out of the Philippines I have subscribed to the feed link from the Philippine Inquirer newspaper

for breaking news:

http://services.inquirer.net/rss/breakingnews.xml

for the editorial:

http://services.inquirer.net/rss/opinion_editorial.xml

for my favourite columists:

http://services.inquirer.net/rss/opinion_columns.xml

9. Set up a feed reader

I love tennis and what is so appropriate at this time is to know the lastest scores from the US Open tennis. I have set up the widget from the official US Open site.

I can see that RSS can be quite useful to keep yourself abreast of whatever topics take your fancy.

For Libraries it would be great for spreading the news of their newest acquisitions, services offered and forthcoming library events.

US Open Widget

8. Play with Library Thing

I am completely Harry Potter mad! I have read the whole series several times! J.K. Rowling's imagination is amazing. I only wish that the series would continue.

7. Play with a funny image generator

This is the Philippines' flag.

"Mabuhay" is a traditional Filipino greeting. It literally means "live" or "may you live long!" as "buhay" means life.

6. More Flickr!

Can you imagine African animals in the Philippines and not those in a zoo?

Well there are!!! Watch my Calauit slide show below!

Covering an area of 3,700 hectares Calauit Island Wildlife Sanctuary is home to both endemic animals and African wildlife. Eight species of African animals from Kenya, which include giraffes, zebras, impalas, waterbucks, bushbacks, gazelles, elands and topis live in harmony with native Philippine animals like the Calamian- and mouse- deer, bearcat, Palawan peacock pheasant, sea turtles and Philippine crocodile. Their numbers have increased from a hundred to well over six-hundred as they thrive in their new Pacific home. Calauit Island which is not far from Club Paradise was declared a game preserve and wildlife sanctuary in 1977 as the Philippines responded to an appeal by the International Union of Conservation of Nature (IUCN) to save endangered animals in Africa. The Marcos family used this as their private safari during the martial law era.

4. Comment on eachothers' blogs

I have made comments on several blogs.

5. Explore Flickr

There are so many beautiful places to visit. In the Philippines travelling is extra special because of the friendly smiles and hospitality of the Filipino people.



Click on the flickr link to see my most favourite place - my island paradise!


http://flickr.com/photos/29703808@N03/sets/72157606958484065/

After much thought I have selected The Philippines to talk about in my blog as I have spent more than half of my life there. And how different from Australia!!

Where in one lifetime can one experience

- on the political front

• martial law


• Imelda Marcos and her shoes etc. etc. etc.


• a peaceful (fortunately as it turned out) revolution


• coup d'etats (I lost count how many)


• an impeachment and people's initiative of a sitting president

- on the natural "disaster" side

• typhoons including a direct hit with 270 km winds


• floods


• earthquakes


• vocanic eruptions

All in all a wonderful learning curve and a wonderful experience.