Mashing continued...

Music lovers have known about mashups for a while and there are some hilarious examples of overlaying the music from one band over images of another to create something new ( great examples here). But Web 2.0 programmers have taken this mashing idea to a whole new level. Entire websites can contain no original content of their own, instead luring data from a variety of applications into the one site. In terms of disseminating a range of viewpoints on a particular topic, this is a wonderful advancement in the development of the Internet.
Already libraries in their physical realm are a mash of information as various books, magazines, the Internet and newspapers can be found in the one location. It is no wonder then that Librarians are investigating web 2.0 mashups for their digital content, particularly as they continue to search for ways to manage information. One book will be particularly helpful for librarians, "Library Mashups: Exploring New Ways to Deliver Library Data," edited by Nicole C. Engard.
As Annie Armstrong (2010) reviews more succinctly then I can paraphrase:
“Once a librarian or developer discovers the key to extracting and combining data from myriad websites, s/he can transform static, lifeless library web pages into dynamic, interactive user-centered experiences by incorporating such features as interactive maps, book suggestion services, video and image collections, and OPAC or federated search widgets.”

There is one website that is the epitome of dynamic in its mashup makeup and that is Mashpedia. I love this website. It takes Google to a whole new level, incorporating the one word subject search tool the site locates a range of information from different web sites and brings them to you. I Mashpedia'd information management and videos from YouTube, Tweets from Twitter, a definition from Wikipedia as well as related news from a variety of journals was all brought to the one page. Though some of the results were not useful, some were and the fact that one search could cross all different websites using different applications was amazing.
As our tutor John Tyrell has noted, local communities have also benefited from mashups as groups share information about local events, trails and tours. I couldn’t get onto Localhero.biz but my friends and I have been talking about organising a bike ride while the weather is warm and Bikely.com has already been useful in researching where to go.
So, mashups. Before this assignment I had never heard of them. Now I’ll be noting them wherever I search, they seem to be everywhere!

Twitter?

I have nothing to tweet! For the past three hours I have been immersed in Google Reader, absorbing articles about the libraries of today (more like a kitchen than a grocery store was one interesting comment), the technology of today and the opinions of seemingly everyone in any related profession about both. And then I became engrossed in a feminism thread (Madonna yesterday, Lady GaGa today), and a cabbie blog before deciding that I really should try and find my log-in details for an old Twitter account, long forgotten, now revived- Finestrino. . .
I am now following several information professionals but so far their tweets are strangely similar to the what are you doing now strand of Facebook. Only a few of those I am following have tweeted anything of professional interest- eg. Librarything and RTennant are both worthy tweeters. Links to articles of interest seem to be the most useful tweets and this is where tweeting could come into its own as an information dissemination service in 140 characters.
The problem I have is that there are so many posts I feel like I have to be logged in every minute to not miss an interesting tweet amongst all the mundane postings. And amongst all these thoughts is the realisation that the professional association I work for is not using Twitter to its full potential. We could be doing so much more for our members through Twitter, linking them to their colleagues, informing them of professional developments, academic articles, upcoming events, the list goes on! But do I have this dedication? And what can I tweet on behalf of myself that will not be put in someone's mundane folder?

A Brilliant Blog

Today I found my favourite Information Librarian blog.

Site: http://connectinglibrarian.com/
Author: Michelle McKean

After scanning lists of librarian blogs both here and overseas, I finally settled on this site to explore and follow on a regular basis. There were two main reasons for this.

1. The author is Australian (lives in Victoria actually) and interested in analysing information technology within Australian libraries and overseas. This was evident by her post on web 2.0 updates spoken about at the 2010 VALA (Victorian Association for Library Automation) Conference. In 2006 she was also granted a scholarship that then led to a study tour of virtual services in US public libraries. Her postings are therefore relevant to Information Management studies.

2. This blog is kept up to date, many others seem to have stopped posting months, even years ago which seems less useful when we are on a web 2.0 adventure.

I should also note that Michelle writes in a fluid and interesting manner that has kept me on her site for longer than intended. Already I am armed with new topics to research (including Metadata, Semantic Web and Open source) and I have linked into two recommended wikis which I will shamelessly add here for fellow RMIT bloggers:
http://readersadvisory.wetpaint.com
http://wiki.libraries.nsw.gov.au/index.php/Reference_excellence

This I think is what blogging is all about. Sharing ideas and tips on a topic that interests you and will hopefully interest others enough to find the information useful. Initially I thought that an overseas blog would be more constructive in gathering information that I would not otherwise receive. However I feel like I have so much to learn about this profession in Australia that local is a good place to start and my RSS feeds and further reading will no doubt encompass the wider world.

By the way, a blog according to the Oxford Dictionaries' web site (2010) originates from web log - and I cannot believe that I never knew that.