Geocaching

I can honestly say I had not heard of geocaching. It is a concept that had not reached me or any of my close friends or colleagues. However it certainly looks like it has taken off in a big way across the world and it was interesting to look at geocaches located close to me. We have GPS on our mobile phone but we have not needed to use it yet as I find it just as easy to follow a road directory and it is a skill that is good for your brain.

I think if we were to use geocaching in our library the best ideas would probably involve a treasure hunt that educates or promotes services. Some of the examples given were innovative. It could be a way of attracting current non users especially teenage boys. The combination of using technology and a 'treasure hunt' would I imagine be quite a drawcard.

Hangzhou West Lake - Online videos

I have just been checking out the National Library of Australia Youtube channel and they have published a video of the staff performing an interpretation of copyright law - Puttin' on the Writs at their 2010 Christmas party. It could start a new trend at library staff christmas parties! Our library could use online videos for childrens activities such as delivering storytime or perhaps talks about children's books on themes such as 'encouraging poor readers'. Perhaps short tutorials on themes such as using the library public internets, how to use the OPACs or completing online bookings for library events could all be helpful.


This is a video we took of an interactive touch screen of the famous West Lake in China.

Delicious and LibraryThing

Here is the link to my delicious account - http://www.delicious.com/linda.cockburn. It contains lots of links to favourite recipes I have collected over time. I find this a lot quicker to my access favourite recipes than just making them favourites in my browser also this way I can share them with friends and family and they can also add to there favourites as well.

We are building a new library at Cockburn and have just finished refurbishing an older branch and we used delicious to record all the relevant websites we find for suppliers, other library experiences and sites on new library projects.

LibraryThing is a great tool for keeping a record of what you have been reading and also discovering what others are reading as well and the reviews they publish. Here is the link to my LibraryThing catalogue -
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Linda.cockburn.

At Cockburn we subscribe to an interface for LibraryThing which is embedded in our catalogue. Once a month we export all our new records to LibraryThing which creates a link in our catalogue so that our library members can click on a title that takes them to the LibraryThing website where they can read reviews and use the genre clouds to find similar titles. There are also clouds embedded in our catalogue that link to titles within our collection.

Wikis

Wow - so much information out there. So many people willing to share information and expertise. It's a bit daunting in a way - I worry about the time you need to keep up with everything as well do all your day to day stuff and still have some leisure time left over to relax!

I could see a wiki being a useful tool to create procedure manuals and job position descriptions. All staff would be able to contribute and edit the documents.

I have enjoyed exploring RSS feeds and spending the time to set it up properly. The advantages of having all the latest info coming to you is so much more convenient that trolling thru looking for stuff yourself. However I think you must be discerning as you could end up with too many feeds coming in and end up spending too much time browsing through them. I chose these sites for a bit of variety that covers some of my interests. We use RSS feeds with feedburner at the library from our events calendar to our library blog and also back into our website to create a scrolling calendar.

Saucy Onion
Bloginity
720_saturday_breakfast
Library Technology Guidelines
Time

Fishing in Hefei

We spent a magnificent day fishing with Leo's grandfather. We drove to a special place that is similiar to a fish farm. You pay a price and they supply you with rods and bait. There is also a restaurant on site where they will cook the fish you catch. We had lunch and the menu consisted of Duck Soup (including the head), chicken, fish, prawns and vegetables - a feast! After lunch we continued fishing and I caught two fish using traditional pole fishing which involves a technique of watching small floats on top of the water until they start to disappear slightly. You must then quickly flick the rod over your head which in my case meant the poor fish ended up in the bushes behind me!

This is a photo taken on Yellow Mountain (Huangshan). Many Chinese make a pilgrimage to this very famous mountain renowned for its beautiful scenery. A local tradition is to buy a lock, engrave your names on it, lock it onto the chain and then throw away the key for good luck. So somewhere up there we have a lock amongst the many thousands with our names on it!

Late that afternoon we arrived in Hefei and were greated by of Leo's immediate family - his father, mother and girlfriend. Later that evening we were invited to a banquent which included all of the extended family - grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, nieces and nephews which was held in our own banquet room. We sat to the right of Leo's grandfather which was the place for honoured guests. All dishes were served to the grandfather as head of the family and then to us as guests. Over 15 courses were served with the last dish comprising of 'sea cucumber' or trepang. This a very expensive dish in China and it is a great honour for it to be served and is a prized delicacy.

Welcome China

I thought setting up a blog would be a great way to share experiences from a visit my husband and I made to China earlier this year. To backtrack a little - early in 2009 a young student came to live with us in a 'homestay' arrangement he came from a city called Hefei in the Anhui province of China. Hefei is situated in the South of China inland from Shanghai and we were invited by his parents to accompany him on return to his homeland.

We were picked up from the Shanghai Airport by a friend of the family who drove us the 6 hours it took to get to Hefei and this photo shows our first meal at a roadside restaurant. The men were given beers and I was given 'corn milk '. The food was delicious and cost about $10.