Google Calendar

Google Calendar is new to me, but using the Cam23 instructions I found it very easy to set up and use. I think it would be clearer if all the hours of the day could fit on one screen, rather than needing to scroll up and down in order to view the whole day, but apart from that little quibble I think it works very well. I actually prefer the way the calendar is displayed on my iGoogle page rather than on the site itself. I'm a real list person, and much prefer that format to the chart, where I find things are a bit all over the place.

My Google Calendar on my iGoogle page - in list format, hooray!

While adding events to my calendar, I noticed the 'Other Calendars' on the left bar of the screen. Here were tabs for the weather (yes how could I resist yet another place to check out the latest forecast), UK Holidays (very useful), and, one that I found more surprising, Trainee Calendar (all different colours which I very much approved off). Yes, I thought to myself, I am a Library Trainee, but surely that's not what that tab means, because how could it know that? It wasn't until I'd added my calendar to iGoogle, and found my much-favoured events list, that I discovered that Google had added in all by itself one of my trainee visits that I had completely forgotten about. After being astounded for a few seconds I remembered that one of my fellow trainees had created a Google Group for us all a few months ago, which I had joined, and had added a Google Calendar for all our visits and events. And using the same log in details, Google had identified me to be the same person, and automatically connected the two calendars. Scarily clever!!!

As for Google Calendar's potential for libraries, I think they would be great on a library website to promote library events, and to inform users about end of term borrowing arrangements, vacation borrowing, changes to opening and closing times etc. Although I'm sure we wouldn't discard our library posters and notices, an online calendar would provide another point of reference, usefully available 24 hours a day.

Doodle

I've used Doodle before, so found the process of creating the chart very straight-forward. However, I did rather stupidly forget to paste the link to the calendar in the email I sent out, tut! One of the things I love about Doodle is that you don't even need to sign up to use it, so that's one less password to worry about. Rather unusually my colleagues and I could do several of the suggested days, which meant talking to each other to decide which one we'd go for! I think that Doodle could be very useful to librarians, for example when trying to arrange a meeting which involves a large number of people. It is much simpler than being emailed lots of different dates, and one person being left to collate all the individual responses. If the number of people involved is small however, and all based in the same place, it might be easier to talk face-to-face!

Blogging

So I've been visiting and reading lots of the Cam 23 blogs, and I must say I'm very impressed! It's great to see such a wide variety of styles and designs. Each blog is very unique, and I've enjoyed reading some very insightful thoughts and views on the potential use of the different Things in the library world.

I was hugely proud of myself that I had got my blog up-and-running. I then sat back for a bit, content to visit it and edit it a bit here, and add something extra there. But I then realised that standing on it's own, my blog doesn't really have much purpose...Aha (the light bulb flicked on), I get it now! Blogging is about being part of a community. And bloggers need to interact with each other in the virtual online world. Right! So whereas initially I was quite happy for my blog to just exist, and was really quite content that noone should read my posts, I now recognise that it's all about getting out there and following and commenting, and starting conversations that could have real meaning. So I've made a start. It's still slightly daunting, but I'm sure as I get more practice it will all start to come much more naturally. And who knows, maybe I'll get so hooked by all this blogging that by the end of the 23 Things programme I won't want to stop!

I was very excited to hear about the RSS feed for all the Cam23 blogs. However, I have Bloglines instead of Google Reader, and haven't been able to subscribe to the feed through Bloglines which is a shame. Another problem I have encountered is adding a picture when I follow another blog. I thought it would use my profile photo, but it didn't, and when I tried to upload the photo I use on my profile it told me that the file was too big. So I just have the standard photo-less picture, though I see that others have managed to use their own photos. Anyway, I am learning a huge amount and am looking forward to gaining more confidence in the blogging world.

iGoogle

After initally setting up my iGoogle page, I had quite a bit of fun exploring the different gadgets available, choosing a 'theme' and rearranging my page! Searching for library 'stuff', I found the vast majority of gadgets available were American, but I was happy to be able to add the Cambridge Libraries Widget! Creating a 'Library Gadgets' tab was fairly straightforward, and I can see that the use of tabs is an excellent way to organise different subjects into neat folders, and de-clutter the home screen. I think it's great to have a single page which contains such useful tools as library catalogues, google maps, Wikipedia, Gmail, and the weather forecast, and it would definitely make a useful home page.

My iGoogle Page

However, I find the page can be very slow to load, and I am not so keen on using it as a means of managing rss feeds. I find that Bloglines works well, as it clearly displays new items and allows you to save any that you want to read again, or don't have time to finish looking at. From what I can see, you need to have a good look at the rss feed boxes on the iGoogle page to identify new items, which would be fairly time consuming if you had lots! I suppose Google Reader is a more suitable tool for managing large numbers of RSS feeds, and is therefore quite similar to Bloglines.

Overall, I found this a very interesting exercise as I hadn't really heard much about Start pages before. As a means of pulling together and organising useful tools and information from the vast amount of material that is available on the web, and allowing the creation of a single collection that is relevant to an individual, I think it is a highly valuable device.

Cam 23 and my experience of web 2.0

Well I must say this is rather exciting-my very first blog thanks to the '23 things' programme!

While I am aware of many of the web 2.0 technologies available on the web, I have not always thought to independently check them out, or even find out exactly what they're all about. This structured programme is therefore a fantastic way to explore and delve into the various 'things' that are out there. In particular, I hope it will enable me to consider the value of different web applications to the library world. I attended a course on web 2.0 technologies a few months ago, which provided a great insight into what actually constitutes web 2.0, but I came away not really knowing quite how it could be applied usefully to the library profession. So that is something I'll really try to consider over the course of the programme.

As for my own experience, I have a Facebook profile which I find invaluable for keeping in touch with and up-to-date with friends, and fantastic for sharing photos. I regularly use YouTube, Wikipedia and Doodle, which has become an indispensable tool for organising get-togethers with large groups of friends. I have also fairly recently set up a Bloglines account through which I subscribe to several RSS feeds, mainly library-related because as a library trainee I want to keep informed of the latest news and developments in the profession!