Fascinat-ning ....

I looked at the four sample nings and were most impressed with them. The first three, directed to the public, were bright and colourful, logically laid out and offered a large amount of content. Mosman Readers was particularly impressive. The more professionally-oriented Library 2.0 ning was not as eye-catching but had the other elements of good organisation and lots of useful content. There seemed to be a degree of consistency in the way they are structured which would make the casual user feel more at home.
One of my concerns with Web 2.0/1 is how to you choose between blogs, wikis and etc and it seems to me that a ning is the answer because it has everything at the one site. And because a significant amount of the content is provided by users in the form of reviews, photos, groups and forum entries it wouldn't take as much upkeep as might first appear. (Not that Grenfell will ever consider having a ning!!!!) I would think that a large library with dedicated IT staff would find a ning a very useful means of communication with its users and professional bodies would benefit from the forums. Nice to have a range of forums emanating from the one site!
I did try to join the library 2.0 ning and as usual it is the little things that beat me - couldn't conceive of how to upload a photo and so wasn't accepted as a member. I would have joined the Rural Libraries group (even though they all looked to be US libraries) as well as the NSW public libraries group. I read through some of the posts for the rural libraries group and found myself very much in sympathy with the views expressed. It looks like small rural libraries face similar issues the world over!