Digitally Chinese Saturday, Oct 17 2009

Digitally Chinese
Auckland Public Libraries & NZ Chinese Association Auckland
http://chinesecommunity.org.nz/

At the LIANZA conference in Christchurch I attended the Digitally Chinese presentation. Please have a read below, or better yet have a look at their website. It was a great presentation and their website or kete is a good example of what we can do with our kete next year!

What is it? (In their own words)
The Chinese Digital Community is a community website jointly produced by the NZ Chinese Association and Auckland City Libraries. ‘The website contains historical and contemporary information, articles, images, audio, video, documents and web links about New Zealand’s Chinese community, anyone and everyone can be part of this online community and contribute to the website’.

It was built as a storage facility to preserve the heritage of New Zealand’s Chinese people, and it is hoped that the website will grow to become a rich Chinese resource, and in turn a useful research tool for family history enthusiasts.
All information entered onto the website will be safely stored for future generations by Auckland City Libraries.

Some of the ‘eggs’ featured in the kete are:

Clubs and organisations
Social Life and customs
Arts and culture
Sport and recreation
Local history
Family stories
Architecture
Digitised Chinese Language Journals
Online exhibition (such as Archive NZ images)

Can you use it as a private repository?
You can put items into the kete that only you or people you designate can view (they go to a private locked area) as well as posting images and articles that any member of the public can view.

As well as containing information and images provided by the public, the kete also contains links to Auckland City Libraries’ catalogues and websites that library staff have selected for various topics.

Web 2.0 tools
The kete has RSS feeds so you know when new items are added to the kete. It has Google maps so you can locate cemetery plots or specific places mentioned in the stories. There are also social networking tools such as the places for discussion.

The Chinese Digital Community was inspired by Kete Horowhenua. ‘Kete Horowhenua is a knowledge basket of images, audio, video and documents which are collected and catalogued by the community’ http://horowhenua.kete.net.nz/

How can we use this project for our own libraries?
Tasman District Libraries are soon to get our own kete and we can use the Chinese Digital Community model as inspiration. It would be good if we could do a similar project with the local German communities as a spring board for our kete. There is certainly a lot of useful material out in our communities.

Louise

2 Responses »

 

The Librarian’s Revenge Saturday, Oct 17 2009

Difficult library customers getting you down? You can enjoy a bit of vicarious and harmless revenge through watching this wickedly gothic little musical skit performed by Kiwi group Haunted Love at the Dunedin Public Library

Anne M

Leave a Response »

 

MUVEs Multi User Virtual Environments Wednesday, Oct 14 2009

Some of our staff went to a presentation by Clare Atkins on MUVEs at NMIT a short time ago.  These include such environments as Second Life, poptropica.com; Habbo Hotel, Neopets, Star Dolls, Club Penguin and World of Warcraft.  These environments are usually:

• immersive, engaging
• social
• collaborative
• include synchronous & asynchronous communication i.e. voice chat, text chat, public chat with anyone else in 20 metre radius
• converging with other forms of computer mediated social networking e.g. facebook & twitter
• remove many barriers inherent in real world communication
• are not games or  a passing fad
• are a growing phenomenon
• take a lot of bandwidth
• traditional internet is called the flatweb

Second Life

Create an avatar (alter ego in digital space) and enter another world in real time.  Your avatar is totally customisable – you could represent yourself as a box, dragon, elf, etc.  Clare’s avatar is called ‘Arwenna Stardust’.  Buy or make Linden ‘dollars’ to spend on buying real estate, houses, clothes etc. ‘Res day’ is the day you entered Second Life.  Cost: Costs US$900 to buy in (you get server space represented by an empty area, and $150 per month.  The Alliance Library Group in Illinois co-ordinates the admin.  There are separate areas for age verified 18+ and PG, Adult and Mature sections. Scripting is in 3D.

How are people using Second Life to make a difference?

• NMIT got a $500,000 grant and worked with a developer up North to create two NZ ‘islands’ in Second Life – Koru and Kowhai.  People are able to come in to rooms set aside for interviewing skills, and role play interviews.  A second place has been created to teach the Bachelor of Midwivery online.
• World of Warcraft has had learning activities integrated into it
• Book discussion islands have been created e.g.  a Harry Potter world discussing how the books would end; islands populated with characters from an authors books, islands where one can visit historical figures such as Henry VIII, islands created to represent a genre such as Gothic literature with a Gothic manor, Literature alive which creates environments from books such as Dante’s Inferno
• Conferences with realworld video streaming in, you can chat about the speaker’s topic with the people sitting next to you
• Libraries have EduIsland and InfoIsland
• Events such as themed dance parties, bookchats around a bonfire, author visits and so on
• Classes and seminars e.g. on MySpace, How to do more to your avatar

Try searching for and visiting:

 healthinfoisland; http://infoisland.org ; Catherine Greenhill’s blog http://librariansmatter.com/blog ; germando.com (music downloads)

3 Responses »

 

The Richmond Library Building Project Tuesday, Oct 13 2009

The building project was started on the 24th August, which for some of us, who thought this was never going to happen, as we had been through several planning stages already, and then for the plans to fall through, it was wonderful!!  The first day saw the building of some temporary walls around the server room and partition off the children’s library from the Young Adult area.  

Prior to this, there has been a lot of work by the staff behind the scenes, with planning of the layouts, designing of the new look, sourcing  furnishings etc and planning of what needed to be done before they could start.
The tenders went out in June and by that stage we were into the disbanding of the Technical Library, the packing up of the Stack room and Stationary room, and Lucy and Chrissy having to pack up their office areas ready to move.

We had a ‘Working Bee’ day on the 18th July which involved the sorting and throwing out of a lot of rubbish that was stored in the Wrightson’s area,

Some of the stuff stored in the Wrightson's area that had to be got rid of!

the sorting and clearing out of the garage areas, the meeting room, and the packing up of the Waimea south Collection. A lovely lunch was put on for all the workers. Lucy and Chrissy were then re-located to their temporary desks. 

Once the building of a wall around the server room was completed , the demolition of the old walls was done, and then they have rebuilt the new walls. 

As soon as the wall to divide the children’s area off from the rest of the library was done, the demolishing of the whole area that used to be the Wrightson’s bulk barn, the meeting room, and the children’s area was done, and then re-enforcing the structure began, this has had to be done before the rebuild of the first stage of the new library can be completed. The demolishing of the existing offices upstairs has also been done.

Demolition of the upstairs office area

While this has been happening, the staff have been weeding fiction, non-fiction and then 30 bays of the non-fiction stock have been packed away to make room for the walls to be built around the new entrance way from Queen Street, and then work has started on that.
Demolition of the stairway, stack area, rear entrance have all happened and the start of our rear public entrance from the carpark is starting to take shape.

Where the public rear entrance off carpark will be

The next stage that is in process at the moment, is the packing up of the upstairs tea room, and then they have started to demolish the tea room. This will mean that they can then start the building of the offices, the meeting rooms, the new tea area and work areas can begin! Very exciting!!!

If you would like to check out more photos, please check out our Flickr site at http://www.flickr.com/photos/38556618@N03/  and look out for the next update on the Richmond Library Building Project.

Helen H  

3 Responses »

 

Digital Storytelling Workshop Friday, Oct 9 2009

On the 5^th and 6^th of October I attended a Train the Trainer: Digital Storytelling Workshop in Levin. The workshop was hosted by the Horowhenua Library Trust and was delivered by Vanessa James. Vanessa is responsible for “Lasting Impressions”: the Coromandel Community Digital Storytelling Project.

The aim of the workshop was to show us how to organise, structure and facilitate our own workshops, but as part of the process we also got to make our own digital stories.

 So what is Digital storytelling?

 A Digital story is a very short documentary style film 2-5 minutes long. The focus of the film is the story, and the storytellers use a number of tools such as photographs, other images, narration, music, sound effects and titles to assist with telling that story.

 Please look at the Coromandel Stories for a better idea.

http://www.harakeke.co.nz/DST_CCDSP_index.html.

 What makes a good story?

The story should be autobiographical and should draw on the storyteller’s personal experiences and memories. It can be about a person, a place, or a special event. The story can be used to create a record, to inform, as a tribute, to pass on knowledge, or to entertain. It should contain anecdotes and personal responses rather than just information. It should cause an emotional response in the viewer, such as humour, sadness, or poignancy.

Key points of the workshop

Workshop participants don’t need any specific computer experience to make a digital story, but they do need to be able to use a mouse and keyboard and be able to open and save files.

 All the work is done by the participant. The facilitator is there to assist the participant when they need help, not to do the work for them. The participant should be able to follow verbal instructions and work sheets to be able to create their story.

 The point of the workshop is to create a single digital story. It is not about teaching the participant to use the software, or for them to be able to make digital stories at home.

 Those 60+ and people with a minimum number of computer skills can be more successful in creating their stories than someone young who has advanced computer skills. Older people often have more time to work on their stories before the workshop.

The story can easily get lost with the addition of special effects and music.

What does the workshop entail?

The narrative:the story is the most important part of the digital story. At a preliminary meeting a month prior to the workshop, participants are given a strict word limit for their story, about 200-300 words, and an outline of how their story should be structured. The participant then has a month to write their story and find images to illustrate it.

The audio: at the workshop a professional sound technician records the storyteller telling their story. It should sound natural.

The images: The participant’s images are scanned and made into a digital file. There is a strict number of the amount of images a participant can use, as you can only see so many images in two minutes. The images can be old family photos, holiday snaps, excerpts from newspapers, items such as birth certificates or stock images off the internet (non-copyrighted of course).

The editing: The narration and the images are then pasted together using video editing software, such as Adobe Premier Elements.

 The soundtrack and photoshop: once the images and narration are matched up they are enhanced using sound effects such as birds tweeting, or waves crashing, and evocative music is added. The images can also be cleaned up with photoshop, so images can be cropped, or lightened etc.

The Special effects and transitions: Special effects are used to pan out or zoom in on parts of the picture, or create movement in the images. Transitions are used to blend one photo with the next.

Lastly: titles are added at the beginning of the story and credits at the end. You can also add words to other parts of you film if need be.

 And hey presto it’s done!

 Making my own story

Making my own digital story was a very interesting learning experience! The hardest part of the workshop was the preparation. It took me two full days to pull a story together and to source enough images to use in the story.

Writing the draft of my story was equally hard. I wrote what I though was a great story, only to find it was double the word limit. When I re-wrote the story it sounded great, until I read it out loud. The words you use to tell a story in print are very different from the words you use to tell a story orally!

The scariest part of the workshop was recording my narration, I was so nervous I kept speeding up and slowing my speech down and stammering. Luckily the sound technician was very good and very professional and let me re-do my narration a thousand times until I got it right.

The editing process itself was reasonably straight forward, although I had trouble getting my pictures to zoom in to the right spot without making the viewer feel seasick.  I am a little unhappy with the finished film, I would have liked more time to tidy a few sections up, and length the transitions, but all in all it was quite a fun experience.

 Louise

One Response »

 

The Prow :3M Awards Presentation Monday, Sep 21 2009

The 3 finalists for the 2009 3M Awards

• Early learning through Active Movement – Auckland City Libraries

 

• Aotearoa People’s Network – The National Library of New Zealand and Marlborough District Libraries (on behalf of partner Public Libraries)

 

• Top of the South Stories Project: Te Tau Ihu o te Waka a Maui (The Prow) – Nelson, Tasman and Marlborough Public Libraries, Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology Learning Centre and Nelson Provincial Museum

To view the powerpoint presentations go to:

http://www.lianza.org.nz/development/awards/3MPresentations.html

One Response »

 

It’s Debatable Wednesday, Sep 16 2009

“That we shouldn’t trust anyone over thirty”

We had such a fun evening in the library last night. It is “Wordfest” month in Takaka & the libraries contribution was to organise a debate. We thought it would be good to involve senior students from Golden Bay High School and when approached the response was enthusiastic.

A crowd of 50+ listened to the amusing speeches of the participants. As expected the outcome was a draw! But the students did very well & their theatrics kept the laughter coming.

Lots of comments about how good it is to see the library used in the evening. This is certainly a commitment by the staff as it involves extra time & the heaving of furniture hither & thither. But I think all would agree it was a very successful & hilarious evening.

Tish

3 Responses »

 

Taranaki Children’s Book Festival Friday, Sep 11 2009

Hello Everybody

I had the privilege to attend this week long festivel for 2 days in New Plymouth where about 80 public and school librarians met from mainly the North Island for professional development. One of the excellent speakers, Margaret Spillman, an award winning school librarian form Queensland, was a great advocate for  ”Promote Yourself”. If  anybody is interested I have written a great report. You can find it on the G -Drive / Takaka /Reports Children Librarian.

DORIS

my blustery walk to the conference cnetre

Leave a Response »

 

The German Collection Friday, Sep 11 2009

At last the German Collection graces the shelves outside my office. I will be able to keep a close eye on usage. In fact as I speak I can see some-one crouched on the floor surveying the lower shelves.

My thanks to Ruth & particularly to Ang who bore the brunt of cataloguing in a foreign language.

There is a lovely article in this weeks GB Weekly on the collection & it’s instigator, Tony Bischoff. I will send a copy to Ruth for circulation or the noticeboard.

Tish

Leave a Response »

 

September Library Group Meeting Wednesday, Sep 9 2009

Nelson Librarians Group Meeting
Monday 21 September, 2009

 
Join us for pizza, wine, cake and coffee
in the staff room of the Library Learning Centre
Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology
20-22 Alton Street, Nelson

from 5:45 – 6:50, Monday 21 September
Cost $10.00

Followed by a meeting in the Lecture Theatre A211

Meeting 7:00 – 8:00pm
Speaker: Dr Clare Atkins
Topic: Multi user virtual environments and their applications to libraries

Clare is on the staff at NMIT and is involved in research into multi user virtual environments for education. Through her work she has developed contacts with librarians in NZ, Australia and beyond, who are using these multi user virtual environments. Clare will provide a short overview of these, particularly Second Life, which are rapidly changing the face of many aspects of learning, and will focus on the use of these environments for both education and Library work.
Come for a guided, informative tour of Second Life and explore how such an environment might be useful in your Library.

Those attending the meeting only please meet at the Library at 6:45pm

RSVP by 17 September to adrienne.sargent@nmit.ac.nz  or Phone: 546 2480

Leave a Response »