Book Club in your Onesie with Google+ Hangouts Free Video Conferencing

Ever wanted to join a book club at your local library but not in the mood to leave the heater on these cold winter nights? Sounds like you need to check out Google+ Hangouts, the latest rage hitting your local library. Whether you wish to join an established community,  check out an author talk, participate in an event on air as its happening or just chat to your mates about the latest Game of Thrones, this is definitely worth checking out. All you need is a Google+ account and Google Chrome browser. You can have your own private hangout with up to ten friends or create your own public event and talk to the world! Every public event is saved to your own You Tube channel. A great resource for libraries to bring together the community, for the house bound or book groups looking for a way to just hang out from..well, anywhere, anytime!
For more information on Google+ Hangouts, visit the website.
While you're there, make sure you check out the latest events scheduled on Hangouts On Air

Satisfy your curiosity with the new Curio app

THE NSW State Library has launched a new app called “Curio” that gives users detailed information about exhibits as they view them in the library.

The free app gives extra information on each exhibit and, for some items, audio and video. It is able to pinpoint where the user is in the library and provide relevant information about exhibits whilst they are viewing them.  To enhance the interactive experience, users can also rate objects in the library whilst there and then play back their visit to the library at home.  Users can also share their favourite objects on Facebook and Twitter.

The new “Curio” app is available for iOS and Android devices but works most effectively with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5 and the ASUS-manufactured Google Nexus 7-inch tablet. The app uses a form of indoor location technology that is accurate enough to give users information about collections within the room they are visiting.

“The innovative mobile interface knows where you are inside the State Library and intuitively delivers interesting facts, surprising stories and multimedia about the objects and architectural features around you,” the library said in statement.

Source: The Australian April 10, 2013

ShelvAR- The best thing since the DDC

Really, what was Dewey thinking? Was he just making sure that no library worker would ever be safe from the dreaded shelf check? So we never would have time to just sit around and read books all day? Yep, never a dull moment while those books continue to find themselves out of order while the Decimal system continues to confuse unsuspecting shelvers. Well, finally,Dewey's plans may just be foiled...

Recently, at a gathering in Ohio called the LITA National Forum, two geniuses from the Miami University, Librarian Stacy Brinkman and Bo Brinkman, Professor of computing, presented our saviour- ShelvAR- a shelf checking Android App! (At last!!!!) While the project still requires funding, and is still in the pilot stage, an Application Programme Interface is available, a code posted to github. An IOS App is a work in progress, the Android App is not open source,and the University may file a patent after the one year provisional phase. Tests have proved the App helps to save time and improve the accuracy of those poor unsuspecting shelvers.

To prepare the collection for use, the staff labelled the books with codes generated by the LC numbers, placed them in a straight line then simply scanned the labels with a smartphone camera.The ShelvAr app then ticks properly placed items and questions the misplaced. Tap the screen and an arrow points you in the correct direction. Check out the ShelvAr in action with exciting demonstrative videos at http://www.shelvar.com/

Making Popcorn!

An online tool to make more dynamic video clips 

This online tool would appear to not only have significant potential to make videos more dynamic, but is also great fun to experiment with! Mozilla Popcorn Maker is an online tool that makes it possible to combine video with content pulled directly from the web including everything from text, links and maps to pictures and live feeds. The creators’ aim was to take “video beyond the box” citing that the only change in videos after a decade on the web has been the size of the box and the quality of the picture!

Popcorn Maker is free to use and claims to work in all browsers (although my web browser apparently “lacks some functionality expected by Popcorn Maker to function properly”!). Working with timelines just as you do when editing video, web events are pulled into the timeline as opposed to clips.

For example, you can include a live feed from Flickr by dragging the Flickr option into the timeline and it will pull in images off the web according to the selected tags. As it is a live feed, it will be different every time you access the video. Other options to include on the timeline, and therefore in the video clip, are Google Maps, Wikipedia, pop-ups, Twitter and images.

In short, it means that videos created like this can work just like the web; dynamic, full of links and completely remixable.  Definitely worth a look! To see some examples of what can be done or to take a tutorial, go to the Popcorn Maker website.