Another Look

If you have visited here before, and wonder where the familiar layout went (and, indeed, the blog list, favourite places, etc) I can only tell you that I decided to test out the dynamic views that Blogger now offers.

Since the library I work for acquired its own front ends (Twitter, Facebook, Blog) I decided to more or less retire this one - but I still enjoy to experiment.  You can flip through the 7 new options yourself, but you can't revert to the old one, which also had links to favourite places to visit, blogs I like, etc.  (sigh).

So here are the results of the various 'looks':

Classic

Flipcard - Recent

Flipcard - Label

Flipcard - Date

Flipcard - author (only interesting on multi-user blogs)

Magazine

Mosaic

Sidebar

Snapshot

Timeslide - not sure I understand this one

Moving On

This blog started after I went on one of those inspirational courses (with the support of my management) - back in 2008 - where people tell you what we could be doing - within our service - to keep up with the 21st Century. Dave Pattern totally enthused me.

I was so excited and motivated (the course was in work time, after all, and part of my Professional Development) that I ran back to work to set up e-learning, wikis, blogs, Facebook Pages, etc.

We are now officially on Facebook. An official blog is going public, I gather. The Music Dept are still hoping to get their MySpace site accepted. The e-learning FAQs are is in place, for staff.

It's all taking off, slowly.

My work here is done. This blog may no longer get updated that much, as my focus shifts to 'supplementing my pension elsewhere in cyberspace'.

If anyone does actually read this, I hope to shift your focus to the official channels (through official links)...as soon as I dare publish.

I will, of course, remain a user of libraries, whether I work in them or not.

Welsh blogging

This blog did not get submitted, simply because the writer had not even heard about the competition.

Maybe next year (sigh).

Wales blog Awards

Blogging for Librarians

I have just returned from a brief but informative workshop with Karl Drinkwater - Resource Discovery Officer at Aberystwyth University (and E-learning Adviser for Learning Resources at JISC RSC Wales).

In "Blogging Awareness" he took us through

• the possible uses of blogs (for individual or departmental announcements of services or news, for instance, or simply for internal collaboration and communication)
• the available sites that offer the service of hosting free blogs
• the pros and cons (conflicts of interest between ICT security issues and access, for instance, or corporate branding and 'the friendly face' of the staff...etc).
  
  Although I run several blogs (for my different 'hats') I learned some new things, and really should get to grips with RSS, for instance.
  
  He manages this website for Aberystwyth University, but here's an example of one of his blogs, Subject Support
  
  Unfortunately, this blog will not be accessible from Cardiff Libraries, as ICT recently blocked all blogs hosted at Blogger in response to a request from schools, after children were (presumably) found accessing inappropriate material.
  
  It's just my personal opinion - as I know children need to be protected - but that seems like banning all newspapers in libraries just because The Sun has Page Three girls. Surely you just stop offering The Sun in the libraries - you don't ban The Guardian, the FT, The Independent, etc? IMHO
  
  One by one I am getting harmless blogs unblocked, on request, but I have no idea how many useful, interesting and informative blogs get hosted on Blogger. Thousands? Tens of thousands? Millions?
  
  I would prefer that individual sites which were found to be offensive got blocked, rather than these big sweeping moves. Contentious stuff, of course, but at least we had a chance to air and discuss some of these problems.
  
  A very enjoyable course! Thanks Karl!

Here and There

I am still enjoying exploring the biblioblogosphere (!) so will probably continue to post random links here, as well as making some more permanent in the lists to the right of the page.

I came across Level 1 Librarian today, which seems worth a browse (and I have even visited Turku in Finland, so it doesn't feel nearly as remote or distant as it might - indeed, I even went to a public library there and found a small selection of books in English, which was the first time I read Lawrence Durrell's Monsieur...)

She reminded me of Ten Facebook Apps for Librarians... which I came across last year...but still haven't explored every gizmo (sigh).

And here's the Librarian in Black

This is a Frappr Map of blogging librarians