On Wikis

Today I'm up to Week 5 which is about wikis.  It's very interesting and should prove useful when working with the UC Library's wikis. 

As part of the Discover tasks I looked at:

• The Wookieepedia (Hmm...), 
• The Book Lovers Wiki at the Princeton Public Library.  I loved the review of Flushed: How the Plumber Saved Civilization  by W. Hodding Carter, and
• The subject guides of the SJCPL Subject Guides wiki and the Montana History Wiki.

 I can see how the wiki system works well for subject guides but I think our Library Guide platform is better.

One of the most useful parts of this exercise for me was checking out Wikipedia's "sister projects" such as Wikiversity and Wikisource.  Using  Wikispecies, I discovered why the cartoon cat was called Slyvester: his full name was Felis Silvestris catus.

More about subscribing to RSS feeds

The Week 4 instructions say to subscribe to at least 5 RSS feeds but I can't really see the point as the method is pretty much the same for all, so once you have subscribed to a couple you have the hang of it.  So, I subscribed to:

• The Powerhouse Museum's Picture of the Day blog because that was compulsory
• The ABS Product Releases RSS feed because I am the ABS 'Guru' for the UC Library
• The ABC's The Drum: Top Stories because I am a news junkie
• The Oxford Journal 20th Century British History because I am a history junkie

Searching for relevant blogs and RSS feeds can use up a heck of a lot of time but it was an enjoyable experience.  In addition, now that I know how to do it, I will set up the ABS Product Releases RSS feed to my work email.

Subscribing to RSS feeds

Tried unsuccessfully at first to subscribe to the ABC's The Drum. There seemed to be some sort of problem on Google as I kept getting the message "Sorry, an unexpected condition has occurred which is preventing Google Reader from fulfilling the request."  But then, bingo! The message "You have subscribed to "ABC The Drum: Top Stories." appeared. Now I can go home happy.

The University of Canberra Library

A more modest collection in a more proletarian building but in a beautiful setting none-the-less. This is my place of work.

Monticello in 1943

Monticello, home of Thomas Jefferson, Charlottesville, Va. (LOC)
Originally uploaded by The Library of Congress

This view of Monticello was taken by John Collier in April of 1943

Monticello in 2010

TGIF and the last day of my working week.  Today I will attempt to post a photo from Flickr while simultaneously abiding by photoposting ettiquette!

If I ever travel to the USA, one place I would really love to visit is Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.  Jefferson was an avid reader and book-buyer who bequeathed his collection to the American nation.  It became the foundation collection of the Library of Congress.

Monticello is a beautiful building.  There are many current photos of it which may be viewed on Flickr. This is one of my favourites.