Jasper's thoughts about the program

We made it.Yay!!! At times Mum and I were on an incredibly steep learning curve, but we dug our claws in and kept moving forward. As we first thought, time constraints seemed to be one of the natural enemies of Life Long Learning. Let's hear it for determination! There were a few little hiccups on this journey but no major cat-a-strophes. Thank you to all of our very helpful colleagues for their support. Some of our favourite things in the Web 2.0 program were, Image Generators, Flickr, Librarything and Youtube. These are great fun to play around with. On the more serious side Mum can see the potential uses of these sites and wiki tools to expand and improve library services. She was also very impressed with Web based applications and tools such as Google docs and spreadsheets, and del.icio.us. So is this the end???? We don't think so. We are now Contemplating using Wetpaint to create our own site (something we would never have dreamed of before!). Big thank yous to everyone who made it possible for us to take part in this program. We have learned sooo much and we really appreciate all of your efforts. Curiosity never really killed cats, or people for that matter, so you are likely to hear more about Jasper 's adventures in Web 2.0.

Purr purr purr

Jasper

Downloadable audio books

Mum tells me that audio books have been steadily gaining in popularity, and not just for the vision impaired. She says that many library patrons now like to listen to them during long car trips. I just like to listen to a story while my paws are kept free for other things, like having a bath. 'Multi-tasker' is my middle name. Just recently Mum and I visited the World eBook site and listened to The little match girl from the Gutenberg Collection. By purchasing downloadable audiobooks libraries could have vast collections of them without having to worry about storage or the audiobooks being damaged (they are very expensive!). Libraries could also use this technology to make rare titles publicly available without the fear of damage to the hardcopy. It could be a great preservation tool!!. While I do enjoy listening to audiobooks sometimes, I still think nothing is better than curling up with the hardcopies of my favourite books. Audiobooks definitely have their place, but in my opinion they will never fully replace the printed versions.

Podcastalley Cat

Slinking around in Podcastalley is a real education for curious cats. The scope and sheer number of podcasts available to subscribe to is enough to give you twitchy whiskers. There are sooo many!!! For the purpose of this exercise I added RSS feeds to my bloglines account for the ABC World News and Audiobooks with Annie (Annie reads the classics). After all, I need to maintain my image of the well informed and the well educated cat. Thanks to Annie, I'm a well read cat too. Mum also found many library and book related podcasts that would be useful to her, but she thinks that we could use this technology to create our own podcasts. Perhaps for training purposes or even to podcast storytime sessions.

Youtube Cats - Great Entertainment

I chose the funny cat video for its entertainment value, and the fact that I get up to the same types of things when Mum isn't home.Please don't tell her! Mum thinks that some of the instructional videos used in the Web 2.0 program were very effective and she can see that these types of videos could be very useful for staff training and for educating library users.

Like all Cats, I'm Attracted to Wet Paint

I have explored several of the sites on the Web 2.0 awards list but I thought Wetpaint was one of the best. It was very easy for me to sign up, create my own website and even search for other sites that I could contribute to. The instructions were extremely easy to follow and the FAQ information was very detailed. I thought that this site would have many uses in the library world, and my thoughts were justified when I stumbled across Nancy Pearl's Book Lust site by accident.

Zoho is Soho Fun!!!!

Mum has been using Google docs and spreadsheets for work purposes recently.Another fab tool which allows online access to and collaborative authoring of documents from any computer. I thought I would have some fun with Web based applications too and I created an account for Zoho Writer. Using the word processing tool, I wrote my all-important letter to Santa Claws. http://writer.zoho.com/public/jaspermak/Dear-Santa-Claws/

Wikis place moggie back in the lap of luxury

Wikis are wonderful tools. The Wyndham Library Service has already set up a wiki (with restricted access) enabling all staff members to contribute to a list of ideas for the future direction of the library service. What makes this truly amazing is that any staff member can add content to the wiki at any time, from any computer connected to the Web. Now Mum can spend more time pampering me at home, and at the same time she can continue to add to the wiki whenever she likes. She doesn't need to stay at work longer to contribute. Mum also likes the Princeton Public Library's "Book Lovers" wiki.

Web and Library 2.0 according to the philosophical cat

Well what can I say about Web 2.0? For me, the wonder cat, it has been my new toybox and I've had a great deal of fun playing, as little cats do. That's how I've managed to learn so much in such a short space of time. I guess for the human folk, Web 2.0 applications have turned the Web into into a virtual meeting place, where people can easily share ideas, information and experiences - not just from their own computers, but from any computer connected to the internet. Back when the public first began accessing the Web, I guess there was a real fear, for some, that social interaction among people would suffer as a result of people opting to interact with technology at the expense of interacting with others. Web 2.0 technology has made the Web a more social, human experience. For my Mum (who was almost a Luddite), Library 2.0 is an exciting concept. For the first time She is experiencing all of this wonderful technology first- hand, and can see how libraries can use it to improve and extend their services. In fact, she now thinks that libraries can only remain focal to their communities if they are willing to embrace and use Web 2.0 applications.

Technorati

Mum has had a bit of a prowl around Technorati and has decided to 'scratch' it from her list of useful new tools. While she can see some value in being able to search for blogs, she didn't find searching as easy as in other web 2.0 applications, and she didn't like the way information was presented. She would much prefer using RSS feeds.

Del.ici.ous ; the cream of bookmarking tools

Here is another fantastic Web 2.0 tool that my Mum can really get her claws into. She can see that it would be a great reference tool for work, as bookmarks of trusted sites could be added to and accessed from any computer. It might also help solve the pesky problem of disappearing bookmarks. I can see the more personal benefits of using this tool. I wanted to set up a bookmark of my favourite sites, ( http://www.mycatheaven.com/, http://www.cat-world.com.au/ and http://www.whatsfordinner.net/) but unfortunately we weren't able to install the del.ici.ous buttons due to technical restrictions. We have set up an account ready to use though.

Rollyo

Thank heavens for Rollyo!!! I can now limit my searches to only the sites that are relevant to me. Purr Purr, Purr perrfect!

Librarything gets a 'five paw rating'

My Mum thinks that Librarything is just 'the cat's whiskers'. It will be a fabulous readers advisory tool for her. It has been fun creating a bookshelf for some of our recent reads, and adding tags to the books, but what she likes the most is being able to search other peoples' lists to find similar authors and subjects. Mum is also very excited about being able to create a shelf of things 'to read' that she won't lose easily. It has even allowed me to learn more about my Mum. She seems to have a preference for thrillers, crime fiction and stories about vampires. Should I be worried????

Destined for Greatness

I always knew I was a special moggie, but the truth is that anyone can create their own Hollywood star. It's easy. To find out how, just click here

Purrfect Jasper Fun

My Mum has beaten procrastination.Yay!! We thought we should give it a decent burial, and in true 'cheeky Jasper' style, I created this headstone.

The Well Informed Cat Uses RSS Feeds

Read all about it! Clever cat that I am, I've just set up a Bloglines account allowing me to be kept up-to-date with the information that interests me. Oh, and Mum added some of the Library stuff that interests her too. Click here for my list

Has anyone seen my Mum? : lost in image sharing technology.

After my investigation of Flickr I told my Mum about all the fun she could have exploring image sharing tools. It turns out that this may have been a terrible mistake!! She has been off on her own adventure and is now totally absorbed by this technology. My likeness has now been 'beaded' and 'Warholized', and she has even created 'cutsie poo' calendar pages using my baby photos (I really must speak to that woman about uploading some more recent photos). I am finding it rather difficult to drag her attention away from this technology as there are so many aspects to explore. The danger is that she could become lost/stuck at this point in the Web 2.0 program, when we still have quite a way to go before the end. On the up-side, Mum was recently able to see the first photos of her brother's newborn baby in Facebook, hours after the birth. She explained to me that in the 'dark ages' (not so long ago) she would have had to wait for film processing and for a postal delivery to see these photos. Now I understand her total amazement with photo sharing technology, and I'll just have to be more persistent in keeping her on track