Week 1 - What is Web 2.0 - Introduction

Hello - in particular to my buddies Bev, Emily and Liz,

This is my 3rd subject in the Masters of Information Management.  I am doing part time study as I have a full time job.  I have worked in libraries for most of my work life so I will be very happy to share my work experiences and library knowledge with you.  I completed my Library Technician Associate Diploma back in the late 1980s, and upgraded it to a Diploma in the 1990s.  It is really good to be able to upgrade again with all the changes that are happening in the Information Management field.

I currently work at the Migration Review Tribunal and Refugee Review Tribunal as an Information Officer which covers library work and intranet work.  It is a really good job because it is a small specialised library which enables me to do a wide variety of tasks and be involved in different projects.  Of course the subject matter is also very interesting as well.

I am really looking forward to learning a great deal in this subject as I find it really hard to keep up to date with all of these Web 2.0 tools.  It is a good opportunity to get up to speed with them.  About 4 or 5 years ago I did the '23 things' course which was a really good online course that introduced you to different Web 2.0 tools.  As I didn't continue to use many of them, I forgot the details of how they worked.

One of the reasons I haven't kept up my practice of many of these things is that the jobs I have had in the last 6 or so years have been in either Victorian or Federal Government specialised libraries, and generally speaking they tend not to be open to the use of these tools.  Many of them are blocked.  As the user base of these libraries is contained within the organisation, communication tools are kept as simple as having information for users published on the intranet, and using email.  This of course would be very different if I were working in a public or university library.  I know that these types of libraries use all the different Web 2.0 technologies and social media to interact with their users.

What I would like to achieve in this subject is to gain a working knowledge of as many of these different types of tools as possible, and how they can be used in libraries and other information management fields.  I am also interested to learn how I can use them to organise my study and perhaps even my personal life.  Just having a look at some of the information has given me a few ideas of how I can keep the various bits of 'useful' information I find sorted and organised!

Looking forward to working with you all,
Kathrine