Maps!

I LOVE maps, so was really pleased when I saw that this was to be my next 23 Things module.

I use Google Maps all the time but was happy to spend some time going over them again. I Google Mapped my current library location and viewed the satellite image. It was difficult to tell exactly when the image was taken, but I'd say it's at least a couple of years old. I can't tell which day of the week it was taken!

I switched to Google Street View for a closer look and could tell that the trees were green, therefore the image was probably taken in summer.

Google Street View is fascinating but has been very controversial and when it was first introduced it was accused of invasion of privacy. Google claim, however, that is it very easy to remove images and there are tools available for users to remove pictures they are unhappy with.

I've just had a look at my own local authority's interactive mapping service. It seems very basic and takes longer to load than Google Maps. I feel that my local council should be commended for providing their own mapping service, however I will definitely be sticking to the tried and trusted Google Maps in future.

The DIY Library

In the future people could be carrying around their very own digital library which they have built up themselves on something like a digital notebook. This DIY Library could include items on the same subject such as ebooks, music and photos. Take for example Agatha Christie. If I were to have my own DIY Library on this legendary crime writer it would consist of all her novels, short stories and plays, of music featured in films and tv series based on her books and photos of locations in which these stories were set.

I have hard copies of all Agatha Christie's books. If I wanted to, I could catalogue them all online on the website LibraryThing - http://www.librarything.com/

You might wonder why I would bother, but you would be surprised how many people do this kind of thing. Not only can it be used for cataloguing, but also to 'chat' to people with the same reading interests or to find collections covering particular topics.

This site would be very useful for a library reading group because readers can write about and review what they've read. They can also read other users' reviews and give books a rating. This gets everyone involved and connects readers based on the type of books they like to read.

As to whether libraries should keep these sites up or leave it to the groups and enthusiasts themselves, this is a tricky one. If the local authority is putting their name to a group then I believe that staff should have the facility to edit and moderate posts.

Audio

I have enjoyed reading about 'Audio' as part of my 23 Things course.

I've just downloaded and listened to a podcast from BBC Radio Wales. I have listened to podcasts in the past when I have missed something I wanted to hear on the radio, or if a programme has been on a local radio station elsewhere in the UK that I didn't have access to.

The term 'podcast' refers to audio files made available over the Internet for people to download and listen to.

I've also just enjoyed browsing the available audio books on the Project Gutenberg site:

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:The_Audio_Books_Project

I chose to download 'The Riot Act by British Parliament'! This took a good bit longer than the podcast to download, despite the file only being 5MB larger.

Digital audio books are becoming more popular and there has been an increase in Library Services subscribing to online audio book resources in order for their users to download them. Usually this means that the users log in online using their library card number, download an audio book to listen to and after a certain length of time has elapsed the audio book is automatically erased from the user's device.

I wonder if music and film will eventually be made available to my Library Service's borrowers to download in the same way?

Youtube and video

I love Youtube! I've been using it for several years now, both to watch videos and to upload my own. I recorded Susan Boyle singing live at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre when she was on the Britain's Got Talent Live Tour in 2009. That particular video has been viewed 49,401 times worldwide so far. I even received a request from a Japanese TV channel asking my permission to use it on their show!! I've had some great comments added from people who love the footage, thanking me for sharing. Here is a positive comment:

You have no idea how much this video means to us to people who could never hope to get to any of these performances. We salute you for your dedication in giving this precious gift...

.....and a negative one:

Poor Quality....Echo....doesn't do justice to Susan's abilities....hard to hear....!

I also subscribe to other users and create playlists on Youtube - this is useful for keeping certain videos together by subject.

Youtube can be relevant to libraries in a number of ways, for instance using video clips to promote authors or events, or creating promotional videos to publicise their services. Newcastle Library Services even recorded the memories of local people. Their Youtube channel can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/newcastlecitylibrary

Online Tools

I don't think I had heard of 'Online Tools' before today, however when I started to read about them I realised that I have in fact used them. My email provider is Gmail and I have used Google Documents to open Word and Excel documents from home because I don't have Microsoft Office on my own PC. I have also been able to work on these documents and save them, meaning I can then open them anywhere in the world that has Internet access. If necessary, I can also allow others to work on the same documents. How amazing is that?

Google Contacts is also very good. I have all my friends' addresses and telephone numbers stored in my Google Contacts. No need to worry any more about losing my address book as long as I have Internet access!

I have also used Google Calendar to schedule my social calendar, appointments and friends' birthdays etc - no need to worry any more about forgetting something, as Google sends a reminder!

Doodle is another handy Online Tool for scheduling an event. I have used this at work to respond to an event invitation - in fact, the meeting for the distribution of 23 Things certificates! - but I have just signed up for my own account and had a practise at scheduling an event. Completely non work related, but this is going to be handy for inviting people to a meal for my cousin's 50th birthday and finding out who can manage and what time would suit them best!

Online tools can also be used to store photos, documents and music on sites such as http://www.scrapblog.com/ and http://www.spotify.com - this is useful in case of hard drive failure!

Cloud computing

Today I have been learning about cloud computing. Cloud computing seems to be taking the technology world by storm and is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. Essentially it provides a convenient way of accessing computing services irrespective of your location and also lessens the need to store software on your own device.

Here are a couple of links I found interesting:

http://www.techsoupforlibraries.org/blog/what-is-cloud-computing-and-how-will-it-affect-libraries

http://www.guardian.co.uk/cloud-computing/processing-for-all

I've also just read Google's 'Official Blog' and something that really interested me is the fact that cloud computing can also save energy. A recent report by the Carbon Disclosure Project and Verdantix estimates that cloud computing has the potential to reduce global carbon emissions by millions of metric tons. This can only be a good thing!