#98 Library Thing

If you haven’t come across Library Thing, you should have a look.
It can be used for pleasure, browsing and review purposes. It can also be used as a tool, as books are catalogued on the site. For sure, mostly by amateurs and using Library of Congress cataloguing, but still worth investigating.
You could also use it [...]

#94 Flickr

Flickr is well known to most, it’s one of the better photo storage and sharing sites.
It has some very nifty features including the ability to create custom goods from your photos (promotion), create quality photo books and upload video clips.
One of the little touches is the ability to add notes to photos. These are not [...]

#93 Facebook

I’ve been on Facebook for a while, but haven’t really done much with it apart from keep in touch with a few friends I contact in other ways anyway.
However, the software has a lot of potential to network, and it may take over from mailing lists and newsgroups eventually. There are some relevant librarian groups, [...]

#54 Mind Maps

Mind maps: you either love them or hate them. Many see mind maps as a gimmick, no better than upmarket versions of good old fashioned ’spider’ diagrams and no more useful.
However, it’s worth trying them out before making a judgement. I was introduced to them by a teacher about 5 years ago, and I was [...]

#48 Web Content (2)

There are obvious areas to concentrate on in a school library website. So what else could you publish? Here’s a few suggestions:

Opening hours, holiday times
List of library services
Curricular Links
Library staff qualifications and biography
Events information: World BookDay, Poetry Week etc
CPD record
Library photographs
Virtual tour
Podcast
Information Literacy guides
Search engine guides
Worksheets and/or workshops
Library handbook
Links to other school library sites
RSS feeds

As [...]

#47 23 Things

This site is brought to you by the California School Library Association, and is magnificent.
Basically, this is self discovery programme that looks at 23 things related to web 2.0 technologies. Feedback from participants seems to be very positive, and if you follow it through your knowledge of web 2.0 technologies should be increased greatly. [...]

#46 Web Content: Reading

Whatever tool you’re using to get your message across on the web, your actual content is, or should be, king. So what to link to? Author and book sites are the most obvious place to start, some starting points listed below.
Authors
Achuka
Bloomsbury
Booktrusted
Fairrosa
Google Directory
Jubilee Books
Random House
Scholastic
Strongest Links
Teen Reads
The Wee Web
The Word [...]

#45 Abuse Of The Web

This is always going to be an issue wherever you find one or more computers with web access. Schools, colleges, universities and businesses all have to deal with these issues. Whatever the answer is, I don’t think it should be the responsibility of a school librarian or teacher.
The librarian should always be aware of the [...]

#44 Sound Out Your Authors

Podcasts, strictly speaking, are a type of audio blog, where the information is updated regularly. Your subscribers will await updates via RSS or visit the web area where the podcast lives, such as i-tunes or your own blog.
However, I don’t see any reason why you can’t use the same technology to make static recordings which [...]

#43 Web 1.0 v Web 2.0

It is always tempting to post information on school Intranets and websites, to keep your pupils informed, and also to highlight the library’s role in the life of the school, and to raise its profile.
However, it is worth asking whether this is the most appropriate way to do things. Is it easier to create a [...]