Geocaching and Wrap up

I had problems doing this part because I don't have a GPS or a fancy mobile phone and I don't intend to get either.  Let me say that I don't like the assumption that my friends have them, because not everyone spends their money on keeping up with the latest trend.  Also, I don't like the assumption that I even have friends.  I am an old, bitter and twisted woman (much like Ma Fratelli in The Goonies) who enjoys treasure hunts.  Maybe I don't want to understand what this device is all about because I don't want to let go of my paper map.  I want to walk 10 steps to the left near the rock that's shaped like a giant cradle..., not to be directed to some co-ordinate.  What's happened to the romance of the paper map?  The map that's burnt at the edges and has been folded so many times that when it falls to the ground it compacts like a piece of origami.  Sometimes it has been stuck down the front of someone's blouse, or hidden in a secret compartment in a carved walking stick.  And it's sticky and smells of perfume and wood and sweaty hands.

I've come to the end of this course and you must agree I've been pretty good up till now.  I've joined this and that and commented till my fingers have frozen in a permanent claw.  However, I cannot get rid of the sickening taste in my mouth.  The more I interact with computers the more I loathe them.   Last week at the gym a trainer told me that I had a flat arse because I'd forgotten how to communicate with it.  Look, here I am learning about wikis, blogs, widgets (by the way, pat my cat on its head and it meows), tweets, podcasts, and meanwhile I've forgotten how to interact with my arse. 

Thank you to Swan Libraries for organising this course.  It's introduced me to a lot of things I didn't know.  But now that I know about them I'm choosing to forget.  This course was a wake up call for me.  It convinced me that I don't want all the new gadgets that are available online, because there will always be more and more gadgets and hey, when will I ever be satisfied?  It's like children and their new toys.  How long do they play with them before they discover there are brighter, shinier toys out there.  I don't want lots of friends on Facebook or need to communicate with the world in short and meaningless Tweets.  I don't want to be part of this techno consumerism and I'm opting out.   Being satisfied with who you are (flat arsed crone) and what you already have is more important to me.

PS:  My recommendation for a future course is Writing for the Web. 

Podcasting

Congratulations to Lawley and Michael from the City of Cockburn Libraries for their first podcast, "Stepping Stones to the Past", a talk on genealogy.  At first I tried to listen to it but couldn't download it.  Maybe there should be some information on the page telling how you download an MP3 file.  Not everyone has RealPlayer or similar or is even familiar with the term podcasting.  Radio National has a good page on Podcasting Help.

The talk was very interesting and I was surprised by the good sound quality.  The only shortfall was when Mike was talking about the birth certificates, death entries and census forms. Seeing the forms would have added another dimension to the talk.  Many oral histories have the same problem when the interviewee is describing a photo on the recording.  Maybe a screencast would have been more effective in this situation?
Anyway a fantastic first effort.   

Online Videos

Now you're talking my language.  This is something that I can relate to.  Here is one of my favourite singers, Leonard Cohen and a great clip.  I play this on the days it is very hot outside.  It relaxes me and the snow and ice make me feel cool.




I really appreciate all the effort that people put into their online videos, especially the self help ones.  It's great to watch someone cooking or laying a laminate floor.  This spirit of sharing information is commendable. I've never been one to follow written instructions very well and I have probably missed a lot of work in this course because I glossed over the words.  These practical how to do videos are very useful and a key to how the library can possibly use youtube.  15 minutes is long enough to show novices how to set up their own email account.  It could also be used to give instructions on Facebook, wikis and blogs.

I also like the idea of digital storytelling and sharing the stories through youtube.  Short oral histories and human libraries can be documented this way to nuture a more inclusive community.

Twitter

I'm not a great fan of Twitter.  It's such a twee and lightweight name, like the product.  My first complaint is about the limit on the words.  That cramps my flow of consciousness style.  As you can see from my blogs I'm a waffler.  That particular style has been crafted over many years and its hard for me to be succinct.
The second is that I just can't see how my life could be enhanced by Twitter.  I don't want to have a condensed version of what people are doing/thinking. 
I suppose I can see the use in libraries in sending quick messages about library news and interesting sites.  But if you're already using Facebook, why would you need Twitter as well?  I'm beginning to think that you can become overwhelmed by all these devices.  Libraries have to be careful of information overload.  I don't want to navigate a complex library website and I don't have the time to waste on this feathery fluff. (Twitter name LubaKa)

Facebook

(Aside) I really like the way this site stores your blog as you type.  My computer went haywire after I installed Delicious and keeps on cutting me off all the time.

I often use Facebook to see how other people live their lives.  Yes, I'm a voyeur.  Not in a sinister way.  More like James Stewart in Hitchcock's Rear Window, although I don't have my leg in a cast as an excuse.  I am loathed to make comments, but that surely is the trademark of a voyeur.  The silent watcher who nods in a knowing way, and strokes their beard.  I wish I had a beard.  I'm not sure why people share all their personal details on Facebook.  I suppose I've been doing that in this blog, so maybe it's time for me to take off my overcoat and reveal myself in Facebook too.

Has anyone seen the film Catfish?  It's about the perils of Facebook.  Not sure whether its a real documentary though.  Whether it's real or not, it asks important questions about the security and genuineness of Facebook.   

At the City of Cockburn we use Facebook as a marketing tool to promote our events and distribute library information.  We have slowly been building up our membership but it seems like our Facebook is a one way street.  There isn't much interaction going on at all.  Recently we began a poetry competition on Facebook called Roses are red, violets are blue.  People have to join as our Facebook friends and complete the rhyme to win a $100 gift voucher.  To date we've only received 10 entries.  It's hard work.

LibraryThing

This is a great tool and it was easy to use.  I wonder if there's a similar thing for movies? 

I'm not a great reader of fiction.  When I start reading I have to do it in one sitting otherwise I carry the characters around in my mind and agonise over their fates in between readings.  I never developed good reading habits because there weren't any books in my house when I was growing up.  Neither of my parents read English and there weren't any books available in Russian.  The only book that I remember was the bible that my parents received when they were naturalised.  We mustn't have had much paper either because my brother drew guns and tanks in the fly pages of the bible.

I grew up watching movies every Saturday at the Rosemount Cinema in North Perth and listening to serials on the radio.  I was given my  first book, "Little Women", as a birthday present from a family friend at the age of 10 and I read it over and over again.   There wasn't a library at my school at Swan View Primary.  There was a small library in Midland Junction though.  I went once but didn't feel welcome.  The Renown Cinema at Midland  Junction however was a very social place where you would be called up on stage if it was your birthday and everyone would sing "Happy Birthday" to the accompaniment of the organ.  You would also pound your feet on the wooden floors and make a lot of noise when there was an exciting part in the movie.  No wonder I prefer movies to books.

As usual I digress.  LibraryThing is a good way of sharing your favourite books with others,seeing their reviews and writing some of your own.  We use LibraryThing at Cockburn Libraries in the catalogue, with the aim that the reviews will assist our readers to select their next book.  Maybe LibraryThing should be promoted to parents who can read the reviews to their pre-school children and help them choose their next read as well.  It's a pity, however, that not many of the reviews of children's books are written by children.

Delicious

I'm a totally disorganised librarian.  My desktop is full of files, the same as my desk.  It reminds me of a silent film with WC Fields.  His desk was about a metre high in papers.  However, he was able to dive in and retrieve the one he wanted.  Not that I can do that.  I spend quite a bit of time looking for files.  Yes, I have heard of folders, but there is something innate deep within me that resists order.  The desktop reflects my mind that jumps from one thing to another like a monkey.  Yes, that's it.  I have a monkey mind.  Delicious seems like the perfect answer for me.  It does the organising for me. 

This would be great tool for my job as Adult Services Librarian.  I have to organise events such as talks and workshops.  Often I find a lead on the net for a speaker but it's lost on my desk when I print it out or in the myriad of favourites on my computer at home.  Delicious would be able to store the link to a website or blog, and allow me to retrieve it at a later date, even at my computer at work.  The only problem I foresee is that bookmarks are only as good as the tags.  Nevertheless I'm determined to transfer all my favourites to Delicious, after I play with the cat, try a game of Sudoku, finish knitting those socks........

The link to my bookmarks is http://www.delicious.com/lkambourakis

Tricky Wikis

I'm not sure why I'm doing this sprint towards the end of this course.  I guess I procrastinated too long and hard.  I avoided sitting at the computer by doing a lot of housework (ugh) and watching tv.  Now the rubbish has liquefied.  I have no control.  It is bubbling and pouring out of my head.  My arthritic fingers can't keep up with my thoughts.  Stop!  For God's sake, stop.  Oh how my brain hurts.

Focus, you must focus. 

I have had so much trouble contributing to the course wiki as 17 Luddite that I'm going gaga. There doesn't seem to be enough help on the site to answer all my basic questions.  I want to turn to someone and ask "Where do I go from here?" But I'm all alone with this dumbass computer that doesn't know or feel anything.  It's all too confusing for me I'm afraid.  I want words of comfort and encouragement, a human touch. 

(Puts on sanity hat) The idea of using a wiki sounds great in theory.  The Adult Community Education Services (ACES) group that I belong to tried to have a wiki but no-one used it because it was unwieldy and not user-friendly.  In addition only a few people were willing, or perhaps had the time, to share information.  I suppose that's the rub.  People have to be committed to the task of maintaining a wiki, otherwise it dies a slow death.   

RSS Aggregator/Feeds

This task has been the most time-consuming so far. I hope that this course gets easier as it goes along. I had problems subscribing to some blogs and they didn't appear on the list on Google Reader so heaven knows where they are.

Another one like Retro Pottery Net had two parts of it so you could read the posts in one subscription and the comments in the other.  I don't like this sort of feed because it's too complicated.
I chose this blog because I collect West German Pottery and it's very hard to get information about the pots and their manufacturers.  Over  the years I had accumulated a number of vases.  It didn't dawn on me that they were all West German until I looked at all their bases one day (not into cleaning).  Obviously I had been drawn to the colours and textures.  Now, I seek them out at markets and garage sales. 

Hank, John & Wally did a good
job of setting the Hills Hoist into
a concrete round in 1959.



Their inscription lasted longer
than the clothes line.



                                                    

The Marrickvillia is one of my favourite blogs.  A few years ago I Googled a book, "Marrickville Backyards" which was a collection of oral histories celebrating the diversity of back yards of Marrickville residents.  The only link I found was this blog written by Dr Meredith Jones who mentioned that she had some copies of the book which was published in 2001.  I posted a request on her blog and she sent me a  copy for free.  How generous was that! Her blog is a great resource depicting life in Marrickville.  She talks about the local people - their homes (especially the architecture which I love), where they work and delicious personal vignettes that give you great insight into her own life and that of the community. 

I also subscribed to a couple of work related blogs:

ACMI is the Australian Centre for the Moving Image.  I find their Digital Storytelling projects to be inspiring. I'm interested in helping people tell their stories - whether it's a writing group publishing their prose or it's an oral history or a vox pop.   Getting the stories to the wider community however is the biggest challenge.

The Human Library used to be called Living Libraries and I'm looking at this blog, that draws information from around the world, to get some fresh ideas.  I would like to get local people to come to the library and other venues to share their stories.

Western Australia Public Libraries - Learning 2.0 Basics is a compulsory and useful blog (suck).

Sharing Images

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennaa/2619180756/

This image moves me to tears.  The names on the suitcases are like names on gravestones.  What did these people pack inside?  Personal items such hairbrushes, favourite items of clothes, tidbits of food, photos of loved ones?  How could they know that their heads would be shaved, that they would all wear the same uniform, that maggots would be swimming in their watery soup and the photos would be all that remained of their relatives.

This is a photo of my mother and a towel that my mother embroidered in her teens in the 1930’s.  My grandmother made the linen in the village of Bolshoi Osnyaki (now called Velike Osnyaki in the Ukraine).  The women and girls would sit next to each other at night and copy the traditional motifs from one another.  It is one of the few things that survived my mother’s evacuation from USSR to a forced labour camp in Germany in 1941.   When I was little I also remember that she had a small yellow purse with a delicate silver chain handle and a light brown silk lining.  It was made of a celluloid material and one corner was burnt red.   She kept her photos in that purse.  Later she threw it away together with many of the photos.

Flickr is a valuable resource where we can all share images.  However, every picture has a story, a provenance.  Often the stories aren’t told and this is the shame about Flickr.  It reminds me of my mother’s purse crammed with photos.  There were some taken in Germany after the war. Women dressed in trousers and my mother holding a bike.   There was a man behind them holding his hat above one of their heads.  Another was of women lying on a rug with huge bunches of flowers.  Apart from my mother in the photos who were these people?  What were their names and their stories?

There needs to be more to document photos rather than just a title or tag.  Cockburn Libraries often shares images in Flickr.  These are photos of people who have attended events or workshops.  Sometimes there are close up photos of a few people.  Maybe we have to be more selective of the photos we choose – not put so many, and add the story of the event.  It would be good to put names to the faces and to tell the story, no matter how insignificant it seems to us at the time.  Sometimes the photo might be all that remains.