Wikis

I have been using Wikipedia for quite a while and have found it very helpful whilst working on the reference desk. You can find a lot of information about authors and the books they have written as well.

The video explanation gives a very basic description of the wikis and shows just how useful they can be. After viewing several of the examples given to us, it is clear that very basic wikis can be developed without a huge amount of work and then the exact opposite - obviously some very talented people have spent a lot of time of their wikis.

I have found wikis to be an informal friendly professional way of sharing and may be very helpful when needing advice. As a member of a Queensland reference group we have found that the benefits of using wikis far outweigh the email system we used previously.

My little town of Tiaro has only a very small description in Wikipedia. I added a small comment about the new council region. My mission now is to update the description to give more information about our area.

Duaine Pesty Fire Bug

Duaine, originally uploaded by Gnomey2009.

My Son Duaine has always had an obsession with fire and sticks. All of his life he has picked up sticks and twirled them around, so it was no surprise when he took up fire twirling. He is a regular at the Fire Festival on full moon every month in Brisbane. I love watching the fire twirling, but I am a bit apprehensive when he starts "fire breathing" and "fire eating".

I have started my own Flickr page (www.flickr.com/photos/gnomey) and have uploaded some of my photos of Duaine doing his fire twirling. This has been very helpfull for my family as they wanted to see some of these photos. I have brought this image in from my flickr page.

What to Write About???

This is the question we all have to consider. It was suggested to us that we:
Try something on the theme of Learning 2.0.
What do you hope to learn from the program?
What do you think about Lifelong Learning?
What other blogs have you discovered? What do you like about them?
Can you see a use for blogs inside the Library?
How about blogging for a client audience?

No, I don't think so. I think I will talk about one of my own personal interests (something different from most others). Lets see.... How about showing Poultry? (Yes chooks!!!!)

I have been involved with showing poultry, specifically game fowl, for about 20 years now. My husband who is known in the 'chook world' as The Gnome was involved with showing when I first met him and had Modern Game Bantams at the time. He judges poultry shows all over Australia. We now have Modern Game Bantams as well as Modern Game Large in seven different colours, Old English Game Fowl, Old English Game Bantams and Indian Game Bantams. Oh we also have one single Wyandotte boy as well (And 2 pigs, 9 goats, 9 sheep, 2 geese, 25 ducks, 8 guinea fowls, 1 dog, 23 Lowline cattle and a partridge in a pear tree hehee). So what does a Library employee do on the weekend? Why feed animals of course.