Morning Vocals

A colleaque of mine is currently humming this in work. I forgot how much I loved the song.

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UCD Library and Plugoo Chat

Image via Wikipedia

You may notice that there is a new plugin below called "Plugoo Chat". So what does this extra Plugin do, apart from take from your bandwidth you might say. Well Plugoo is effectively a chat client that is webbased. However it is web-based in that it is linked to your preferred IM client, in my case GTalk. So when I am logged into GTalk, I am also logged into Plugoo on this blog and persons/visitors can chat with me online about bits and pieces about the blog in real time. Pretty Neat huh?!

I cannot however claim full credit for finding out this software. Here is the strange/good part. UCD Library used Plugoo on its main page as a method of having a real-time online conversation with the Enquiries desk. It is a fantastic way of interacting, an otherwise boring run of the mill type website. As their Speil goes "UCD Library Instant Messaging Service: a pilot chat service is being offered by the Reader Services Department of UCD Library. Queries about library admission, borrowing, general reference and information etc... are welcome". UCD Library also have a SecondLIFE library in 2ndLife, as well as Facebook, (See here for the SiliconRepublic article on UCD's FB), RSS for updates to the Main site such as opening hours etc. There is also individual RSS Feeds for different themes and different disciplines which are kept relatively up to date. All it is missing is an interactive Twitter account and it would be just the Cherry on the Icing.

This is part of a trial which UCD Library has been undergoing in the last year trying different ways of interacting with students and potential users of the Library's services. Will be interesting to see what happens after the trial runs out. I do like the Plugoo chat feature on the main site and I have used it in the past for locating things. The staff are relatively on the ball all of the time on the Chat side of things which ensures it is not just an empty interactive Service.

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The Oireachtas now has an RSS feed

For those junkies of politics out there, the eDemocracy unit of Leinster House has started an RSS feed of the Agenda of the week within the houses of the Oireachtas. Now whilst it is still in its "experimental stages", it is great to see that I can now put the RSS feed for the agenda for the week in my Google Reader and view it, without having to go to the Oireachtas site-Yes I am that lazy but there are times when I forget to go and check, so at least this way I know I have no excuse considering it will be in my Google reader. You can subscribe to the RSS feed via here and they are looking for feedback from the public about expansion of the service.