Web 2.0 & The JISC RSC

Those of you who went to the JISC RSC seminar on using Web 2.0 technologies in FE might be interested (hope springs eternal) in what we in the library have been trying to do over the past 2 years.

Blogging. You're looking at it. There is a perception that the blog is an online diary, a vanity project. Well, perhaps. Better to look at a blog as a medium which can deliver news, etc. to a audience (wrong word?) which may be interested in some of the developments we're trying in the library. Worth a try, even if this gets more hits from Tasmania than from Paisley. There are plenty of free services out there. This one is on Blogger.
http://www.blogger.com

Newsfeeds. Newsfeeds can deliver the news that you want (need?) from the sources that you identify at a time & place convenient to you. Unfortunately this has to be done beyond the firewall because the firewall / proxy server at present disallows newsfeeds. So, find an online aggregator. We use Pageflakes which is much more than just a convenient way to handle newsfeeds but can be used to set up a personalised home-page with a growing variety of bits & pieces. The library site (NewsBlast!) can be found here. Build your own.
http://www.pageflakes.com/

Social Tagging. If like me you've built a labyrinth of Favourites / Bookmarks over the millennia, social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us are a godsend. With del.icio.us you can bookmark a site (convenient toolbar plug-in for IE & Firefox available) & use keywords (tags) to organise these sites. There always online so you can access them from any computer anywhere. Library one is here, one being built for HN Social Care is here. Share them with your students, colleagues, the world.
http://del.icio.us/

LibraryThing. Got a course booklist? Why not whack it onto LibraryThing. This is free for up to 200 books. Book details are uploaded automatically from Amazon with cover pictures, biblio-details, your annotations, etc. Put the link into your blog, VLE, website. Not a library catalogue but, hey, we can't all be librarians! Social Care library at LibraryThing can be found here.
http://www.librarything.com/

Social Networking. Surprisingly we've yet to establish a web-presence on the likes of MySpace, Bebo & FaceBook, This is because I'm waiting for the word from Diamond Lounge, the "most exclusive online club in the world". For the moment I suppose that I fall under the banner "elite individual who has not yet been invited to join". If Web 2.0 was a sport, I suspect that this would be called "bringing the game into disrepute". Don't watch this space...