The Twenty-third thing!

Hello there

This is the final "Thing" I have to complete and therefore my final post in which I'd like to reflect on my progress over the last few months.

I found following this online journey (cyber walkies if you will - my last dog related pun I promise!) to be generally interesting and worthwhile. I enjoyed discovering new sites/tools and finding out more about others I only had a glancing knowledge of. I also liked the impetus to create and maintain this blog. I'm not sure if I will create one as a civilian, but it's been good to try it out. It's also quite satisfying to be able to read back through my blog and experience the accumulation of information and opinions (and puns - again sorry).

It's also been interesting to complete an online course through work. Bad in that it took up extra time I didn't have, and good that it encouraged colleagues across departments to share information on common (often shakey) ground and generally bond a little more. The council firewalls were my biggest frustration. In the building I work in there isn't the same access to (un-blocked) learn.nets (public computer pods) as in the library branches, and I don't currently have internet access from home. One of my colleagues commented that because she wasn't experienced on the internet that when she came to a dead end she didn't know if it was something she'd done wrong, or just a council block.

I'm not sure how this collection of e-experiences has specifically benefited me in my professional life. Possibly just with an increased confidence in negotiating the current generation of interweb sites/tools.

I will now leave you with a final photo of my handsome doggie persona - Angus - Adieu! Woof!

Week 9 : Thing 22 : Books, but not as we know them

My main exposure to e-books has been through my brother (ever an embracer of new technologies and gadgets) who likes to read e-books from his palm pilot (or whatever device he's no doubt upgraded to) while lying in bed. He says that the LCD screen gives him enough light so he doesn't have to turn on the bedside light and disturb his sleeping wife. Very considerate, but I fear for his eyesight!

I've spoken to other people, with less hardy eyeballs, who say that they always try to avoid reading anything lengthier than a few paragraphs directly from the screen. If they have an article or similar to read they print if off, and if they want to read a book they buy (or borrow) the hard-copy.

I would say I fall more in the latter camp by preference, but sometimes do read articles and stories from the screen when I can't justify wasting the paper.

I had a look at "Project Gutenburg" http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page, the main site to access free e-books (they have 25,000+ titles) to see if it held anything of interest to me.

First I searched for one of my favourite author's "Lois McMaster Bujold", of whom there was unsurprisingly no free writing available. (That's not to say that there aren't plenty of paid versions or illegally shared versions existing out there.)

Then I tried "Shakespeare" on the grounds that he was unlikely to still be under copyright.
Yup, oodles of Shakespeare in several languages and a variety of formats available to download it in. I decided to look at a PDF version of "Hamlet" (in English) http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext98/2ws2610.pdf
After wading through about 9 pages about Gutenberg and their various disclaimers, I got to the text itself which was pretty clear (but it would have been better if the speaker's names were bolded to break it up and make it more obvious who was speaking when).

I wouldn't say that I am a convert to e-books, but it's good that the options are out there and that some of the older materials in particular are being presevered electronically.

W9:T21: Half Man Half Toaster Pastry

I had a look at the podcast directory site Podcastalley.com and did another search for "Flight of the Conchords". The top entry entitled "Half Man Half Toaster Pastry" http://hmhtp.podomatic.com/rss2.xml which promised that "Our Music Will Make Sweet Tender Love to Your Ears" seemed to relate - but the rest of the links it brought up all seemed to be aviation-related ... so perhaps not!

Did the same search on the podcast directory site Podcast.com and got a different listing that seemed more relevant and to be more orientated towards video (as opposed to audio) clips than the previous site. There was a collection of FotC links grouped together under one link. The podcasts turned out to be video clips and led me to the official HBO site for their recent series where video blogs from their (fictional) fan Mel were archived, among other behind the scenes footage.

Podcasts remind me very much of YouTube, but without one dominating site and and generally with more of a focus on audio clips. I actually think the podcasts are more useful, as many TV/Films come out on DVD, whereas previously radio interviews and the like were limited to one-off performances.

W9:T20: Flight or fight...

"Flight of the Conchords" is an Enzed musical comedy phenomenon that I'm both entertained by and (nationalistically speaking) rather proud of.
A quick search on YouTube for their name will bring up a list of video clips of many of their live stand-up performances, the music that featured in their HBO series, and some of the interviews they have had.



The above is the opening image of a video clip of the duo performing their "Gangsta Folk Rap" www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvNLv5NEmM0

Their unofficial website has also utilised the site themselves by collecting many of the links to YouTube clips together in a gallery www.conchords.net/video/fotc-youtube-gallery

I find YouTube to be an interesting place to poke around in, particularly if you are a fan of a particular celebrity/show/animal etc.
As for it's practical usage for libraries; it could be used for video diaries and live footage of library events which (like the FotC site) could then have the URL links embedded in library websites or e-mails.