Wikipedia is knowledgeable and useful even though it is randomly edited, not considered authoritative and unable to be cited for essays. The articles seem to have developed structure in recent years that allows for easy reference.

Wikis . Some were very well organised for example

http://classroomgoogleearth.wikispaces.com/

Eighteen Interesting Ways and Tips to use GE in the classroom - Google Docs #18 Travel around the world with books

Some Wikis found have been abandoned and need adoption. So the success of a wiki depends on nurturing, enthusiasm and participants and lots of spare moments in time.

However an overdose of virtuality was not providing a collected sound for me. And with relief I am stepping back into reality.

Web 2.0

The social nature of Web 2.0 is suited to public libraries. The interaction and participation it extends to both users and librarians creates an easy sharing of ideas, thoughts and knowledge.
The light side
To give one example in a Public Library:
The knowledge of Local History that sits buried in a community can surface more easily. For example, previously unidentified photographs can be identified or have comments placed beside them, new photographs and stories of the local area can be easily added from anywhere in the world. Displaying as a Mash up (see previous post) would be fun.
Sharing with local groups with the same interest such as Historical Societies, Museums in a transparent,visual and virtual must present a more encompassed local history. However will it be preserved for generations to come? The dark side
Is this a vulnerable way to collect information you want to preserve? The internet is based on having an energy supply, fast telecommunication, tools are supplied by very large, privately- owned companies who desire capital gain. Will this divide people, and if unplugged - how do we find what we are looking for?

An interesting short story ' The Sorcerers' by Primo Levi - two academics cannot recreate technology when most needed.

Technorati

Found this searching tool very messy - lots of advertising.
Searching 'Learning 2.0"
Directory 2653, Posts 907, Blogs 342

Two finds :
Room Three @ Takapuna Primary
http://roomthreetakapuna.blogspot.com/
Room Three has very animated photographs!

http://citizenhistorian.com/about
group of post graduate History students get together to find 'orphaned ideas and hidden works'
- well written and interesting.

I revisited technorati after listening to Nicholas Carr (author of 'Is google making us stupid"http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google) found lots about him but only found his blog by searching google
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2008/08/is_google_makin.php

A headnote for a footnote found on
http://www.footnote.com/ a fascinating American history site especially for original documents. Found on

Del.icio.us

http://curiousexpeditions.org/2007/09/a_librophiliacs_love_letter_1.html

Just a taste of the light and the dark of libraries .

Loads of libraries! found National Library and Albany Library.

Useful for compiling reference material, websites, images, local history.......... but who accesses all this stuff?

Well!

http://www.tbpl.ca/internal.asp?id=283&cid=333 is the website of the Thunder Bay Public Library, Canada .

It supports del.icio.us and has a helpful video http://www.commoncraft.com/bookmarking-plain-english which in a simple way demonstrates how you would use Del.icio.us [a round of applause (clap, clap) for Thunder Bay]

Social bookmarking is a way of having your favourite internet links from any computer.

TAG TAG TAG TAG TAGGING

THOUGHTS

a LARGE of people especially librarians are out there.

Is this a case of POPULAR versus significant .

subject headings/keywords are unprejudiced compared to tags.

Responding to such visual stimuli could make us fodder for aliens. (see comment 12Aug - You Tube Voyager)

A picture of an RSS (from Google Images - www.thorlabs.com/images/rss.png) . Classical music, a day in history, h2g2, are now available daily. What more could I want? - just 'absorption time' I guess - so looked up 'time' and find Time magazine photo essays -better have those as well.

Usefulness? -having audio news reads for the sight impaired - this sort of technology can help improve daily life.

For library stuff: Already subscribe to Library Link of the Dayhttps://mail.shorelibraries.govt.nz/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.tk421.net/librarylink/ (archive, rss, subscribe options) this is enough. I found it easier to type (RSS and subject ) into google or go directly to a particular website to obtain link than trolling through the myriad of material on Bloglines, Topix, Syndic8 or Technorati.

This video on YouTube (placed by 3ertin) describes the Voyager Golden Record. Nasar made a golden gramophone record with sound and images of what the culture and life on earth was like in 1977 and sent it out in space. The record demonstrates the earth's music and language and this video clip describes the venture. I wonder if aliens will like it? If it gets there in time - it might take 40,000 years............ is it in the right format?
Maybe we could send a revised edition in another format or are Aliens watching clips on YouTube now?

This mash up was voted one of the best - described as an explorable galaxy of Flickr tags in a space-like setting. So I went there and put 'sound' in the space.

You need to be very patient but you are rewarded with an amazing galaxy you can play with and eventually get thousands of photographs.

The name of the creator was not given