Well, it's not really my last post ever, just the last one for a couple of weeks____________(insert: boo hoo, or hooray, as appropriate!).
I was going to wax lyrical about ebooks and itunesU, cloud computing and Google maps, but then I decided it was too much like hard work on my last day in the office, so I thought... no, let's have something funny instead.
So here is Oatmeal elucidating on the 'state of the web Summer 2011'.
Friday, 29 July 2011
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Presentation heaven!
Fed up with boring old PowerPoint presentations, well have a look at Prezi. This is a great way to spice up your presentations, and it's free. Check out some of the sample presentations and see what you can do...I especially liked the Astronomy Masterclass, which is so massive I only got up to Session 3 last night! There are some really good library presentations as well.
Friday, 22 July 2011
so funny...Adam 'Gollum' Savage sings Sinatra
If you are a fan of the Mythbusters on tv, here is Adam Savage as you have never seen him before, unless of course you have seen his rendition of 'I will survive' so, so funny!
Podcasts, videos and the library
When I read that we were moving into podcasting and videos I have to say a certain amount of panic set in! I hadn't really got into the habit of listening to podcasts, mainly because I had a very old fashioned mobile phone (far, far, from smart let me tell you!) and it was such a palaver to link up the phone to the pc/laptop then download and save it, all to listen to a podcast on the bus on the way home, when I could have just listened to it on the laptop in the first place and had a nap on the bus!
I now have a brand spanking new, sparkling, does absolutely everything, smart phone, in fact it's so new I haven't figured out how to do 99.9% of what it can do!!! So I'm still not listening to podcasts, but I will be as soon as I read the 250 page user manual and figure out how.
Now that I have recorded, edited and published my first podcast the panic is subsiding, in fact I quite enjoyed it and I have had a good response from everyone that tuned in, so much so that I have published a second one!
The first was just for testing the waters (sorry newkid) and was a bit of fun, nothing really to do with library podcasting. The second podcast is more, I suppose, what we could be doing here in the library, like short podcasts linking events etc in the college to what resources we have in the library for example the end of year art exhibition, or the Seamus Heaney lectures. Or we could just highlight the resources we have in context to certain modules taught, for example the English department run a book to film module, we could highlight the relevant journals, ebooks, DVDs etc that would be of use. We could also do short interviews with visiting celebs (!) lecturers, and possibly our international visitors, we had lecturers from the Zambia visit the library recently. Each library department could do regular podcasts on their particular area of expertise. When we host our own exhibitions here in the library we could do a short podcast giving information and background history. These are just a few ideas of the top of my head, the possiblities are endless really!
I agree with pitseleh, in that all staff should be actively involved in library podcasting/videoing, not necessarily in front of the mic or camera, but through creative input, planning, script writing, the behind the scenes kind of stuff, it should be a team effort.
I've gone on and on a bit here about podcasting so I will leave my thoughts on library videos for the next gripping installment, besides I have 250 page user manual to read!
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Booky blogs and unconventional bookshops
Tuesday, 19 July 2011
Unbound
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| Photo courtesy Filmbuff Online |
When I was young or even possibly a young teenager (don't want to give too much away here otherwise you will all be trying to guess my age!) I loved Monty Pythons Flying Circus, we only had one TV (aah!!) in our house and my parents hated the programme, hated it, hated it, hated it (yep; that's how much they hated it) and of course in them days (the good old ones) there were no recording devices, so it was a battle of wills as to whether I would get to see it or not, mostly I would win as I'm the baby of the family and the only girl, I pretty much always got my own way!
Anyway, I've got into following a few of the Pythons on Twitter, and Terry Jones has a new book coming out and this is how it is being published. Unbound is a website that brings the authors and readers together to decide what is published, a novel idea don't you think? (see what I did there!).
What happens is the author puts his/her idea out there and we 'the people' decide if it is worth reading and pledge our support if we think it is (you can read the ins and outs of pledging support on the website, its free to sign up if you want to pledge). Anyhow, Terry Jones' book idea has received its full quota of support and will be published both in hardback and electronically, the book is a series of stories about good machines turning bad, turning evil even, it's titled Evil Machines (watch out, your mobile phone is stalking you!) and sounds like a ripping good yarn!
Oh yes! more Pythonesque news, the surviving Pythons (apart from Eric Idle who hasn't been persuaded yet) are making a new animated film based on Graham Chapman's memoirs A Liars Autobiography, do you think they will have a part for the dead parrot or what about the lumberjack...cue singing the lumberjack song in my head...at least I hope that was in my head?????
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