Excercise 16 - Comment on your teacher's blog

On October 7 I posted the following comment to Gary's Current Awareness post.

"I really like the robot/ABDS system. I dont think it takes away at all from the browsing-actual-shelves experience, as there is a feature built into the catalogue just for that (the 'browse shelf' feature under every title searched. All new and popular books will still be physically on the shelf for us to browse. It will just be the back catalogue that uses the ABDS system. I think the robot will benefit library users and librarians alike. If there was a blackout - well, that would pose some problems. But I think the pluses far outweigh any minuses.

- Jane"

Excercise 15 - Commenting on other blogs

I chose to read and comment on Meredith Laylim's blog as well as Jen Brock's.



I commented on Meredith's Layout post as follows:


"I have a lovely image in my head of you sitting there, staring at your computer screen, watching the fish swim about. 

End of term Therapy?

I found that changing the layout was rather tricky - writing on the margins was 'bleeding' into the main body. You sound like a pro ;)"

I also commented on her post about her local library services. 

"Meredith, this is such a thorough look at your library, job well done! I love that there is a book club that anyone can join, and that music can be downloaded free and transferred to iPods."

I then chose a couple of posts to comment on from Lucy Goldston's posts. Firstly, her post on social networking:


"Its funny you mention that Facebook page "I bet I can find...". I noticed it a while back and was also sad that it had reached a small number.

I also agree with you about Facebook being a time vacuum. But it is an insomniac's best friend ;)

Jane Fafeita"


I enjoyed reading her post on Library 2.0:


Lucy, you have explained 2.0 so well, so succinctly that it makes me want to go back and redo mine.

Jane

Excercise 2 -Blogging

When I commenced exploring the three example blogs provided by Gary, I ran into a dead end with the first one (the site had been hacked), the second one was too dry for a Monday morning so I persevered with the final one: The Librarian in Back.

http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/

The premise of The Librarian in Back is fun. Its a modern, sharp, Gen-Y feeling blog that eradicates the musty idea folks have of librarians of old.

I liked the post about Shit Librarians Say as I always enjoy the Shit the ____ Say memes. I look forward to checking back in on the competition to view the YouTube entries.

The eBooks article was interesting, and proved that the blogger, Sarah Houghton, knows the publishing industry well. That kind of know-how is a always a plus for the readers because it gives us confidence in the blogger.

However, by the time I finished the article, and started to read the next post, I was over Sarah Houghton. I got the feeling that she is her own biggest fan, and her writing style is just a bit too pointy and stabby (?) to enjoy. She rambles way too much which made reading her blog posts too much like hard work.

I guess there is a certain self-indulgence that comes with any blog - it almost always turns me off reading them.