THE RAVEN MYSTERIES website launches on October 1st to coincide with the publication of GHOSTS AND GADGETS, the second book in Marcus Sedgwick’s THE RAVEN MYSTERIES series. Guided by Edgar the raven, the unofficial guardian of Castle Otherhand, visitors to the new site can take a tour of the castle, meet the spooky and strange Valevine family and download all sorts of goodies!

Designed by Hyperlaunchdmg, the website is full of brand new images of the Castle and its inhabitants drawn exclusively for the website by Pete Williamson: each visit allows something new to be discovered.

BECOME A ‘GOTH-FROTH’ FAN CLUB MEMBER and you can…
Play the Feathers game (where Fellah the monkey tries to pull out Edgar’s feathers).
Gain access to all the extras such as posters, wallpapers and ringtones.
Read the blog from Edgar the raven, (regularly updated by Marcus Sedgwick!)

Orion Children’s Books has joined forces with Borders for the launch of this new website: a bespoke Raven Mysteries page will become a part of the Borders site and will host an exclusive competition which will run until 31 December 2009.

The answer to the Borders competition question is also the secret code that opens the RED ROOM on the RAVEN MYSTERIES website for all who guess correctly, while the prize-winner will receive an invitation to the next recording of a Raven Mysteries audiobook, meeting author Marcus Sedgwick and actor Martin Jarvis, and having the opportunity to take an active role in the recording studio.

Martin’s lively reading of FLOOD AND FANG, the first book in the series, brings the goings-on of the oddballs and fruitcakes who live at Castle Otherhand to life. The recording has been used to great effect in the new website, as has the music by audiobook producer Peter Rinne.

Full competition details are here

This is worth promoting to any Teens who frequent the Library where you work, it could even be good for a Teen Group Library Project! Be quick you only have until the end of August!

It is easy – and to prove this I have entered the competition. My trailer is below!

Contact the BBC Audiobooks Customer Service team with any questions here: library.sales@bbc.com

Why Podcasting?

Podcasting has been around for a few years and is slowly becoming more mainstream, Podcast creation events can be run over a number of sessions
beginning with an introduction to and learning how to do it. The software to create it is freely available online and is (fairly) easy to use.

How to Podcast

Audacity free audio recorder & editor

Flickr is an online photo album owned by Yahoo.

website and web services suite, and an online community platform, which is generally considered an early example of a Web 2.0 application. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo repository. Its popularity has been fueled by its innovative online community tools that allow photos to be tagged and browsed by folksonomic means.

Flickr allows users to categorize their photos into “sets”, or groups of photos that fall under the same heading. However, sets are more flexible than the traditional folder-based method of organizing files, as one photo can belong to one set, many sets, or none at all.

Picasa

Picasa is a computer application for organizing and editing digital photos owned by Google, it is similar to Flickr, it also offers several basic photo editing functions, including color enhancement, red eye reduction and cropping.

Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on photographs (photoblog), sketchblog, videos (vlog), music (MP3 blog), or audio (podcasting), and are part of a wider network of social media.

The term “blog” is a portmanteau of the words web and log (Web log). “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Blogger

blog publishing tool. Users can create a custom, hosted blogs with features such as photo publishing, comments, group blogs, blogger profiles and mobile-based posting with little technical knowledge.

LiveJournal

LiveJournal is an online journaling community, where people from around the world share stories, discuss topics and keep in touch with friends. It’s a free service that you can use for meeting people and creating bonds through writing and sharing.

Moblog

Moblog is a mobile weblog. A moblog. A blog for people with camera phones. A photoblog. You take photos, shoot video or capture audio with your camera phone and then email them to your site, direct from the phone, where-ever you are.

Social networking services usually allow users to create an online profile for themselves. Users can upload a picture of themselves and can often be “friends” with other users. In most social networking services, both users must confirm that they are friends before they are linked.

For example, if Alice lists Bob as a friend, then Bob would have to approve Alice’s friend request before they are listed as friends. Some social networking sites have a “favorites” feature that do not need approval from the other user. Social networks usually have privacy controls that allows the user to choose who can view their profile or contact them, etc.

Some major social networks have additional features, such as the ability to create groups that share common interests or affiliations, upload videos, and hold discussions in forums.

Bebo

Bebo is the next generation social networking site where members can stay in touch with their College friends, connect with friends, share photos, discover new interests and just hang out. (taken from the Bebo website)

Bebo is the 86th most popular English-language website

Myspace

Create a private community on MySpace and you can share photos, journals and interests with your growing network of mutual friends!(taken from the Myspace site)

MySpace is currently the world’s fifth most popular English-language website and the fifth most popular website in any language.

Facebook

Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.