14th Thing Web 2.0: Library 2.0 is to me a way to connect with a younger generation of users. Promotion of library services through MySpace and Facebook accounts and even Second Life accounts can counteract the perception of libraries as stodgy places of the past. Though there may be internal 2.0 applications such as google.docs, I feel the major effect is external from the patron's perspective. It seems even more necessary for libraries to survive into the 21st century, for us to reevaluate the methodology of our services.
Reading Dr. Wendy Schultz's essay on Library 2.0-2.4 was thought provoking. I was interested in her distinction between the 2.0 and 3.0 tenants of product and service. Many economic analysts are predicting the evolution of the U.S. economy into a service economy. However, her Library 4.0 seems a throwback to the elitist first libraries - or is it impossible at this point to imagine what libraries will conceivably be like that far in the future?
Thursday, March 27, 2008
13th Thing - Technorati
13th Thing Technorati: I'm almost afraid to dip my toes into the water - this is the one thing everyone is talking about! However, I am really liking Technorati! The ease of navigation, ability to see who's blogging, favorites, etc. Looking at the blog posts for Learning 2.0, I see 11,116 results including some PLA conference reports. Blogs on that subject are less only about 1,008 while tags equal 1,037. For some reason all peaked on that subject around March 11? Wonder what happened on January 7 ;-)
12th thing - Tagging
12th Thing Tagging: Will I use Del.icio.us? This one is a question mark. I can see the benefits however it does require establishing another 'set of bookmarks.' Although it is acclaimed for its unstructuredness, one must still remember what phrases one is using for tagging certain subjects. I never thought I would think like a cataloguer (sorry Alyce) but the plus about LC standardized subject headings is that they give you a clue where to look if you forget or don't know! An use for this site that I did find unusal is that one can create a unique tag so just a common group of users can find and use it. Amazon even offers tags now.
Tech Note: Several Habits link is no longer there.
Tech Note: Several Habits link is no longer there.
20th Thing - Summary
20th Thing Summary:
The 20 Things was an excellent exercise both personally and professionally. It did meet my lifelong learning goals of always learning new things and satisfying my curiosity. My one surprise was the amount of people out there ‘sharing’ whether it is pictures, favorite books, music, etc. Not my style but apparently for many it is!
Favorite sites that I explored included My Space, Library Thing and Flickr. On the personal level, My Space gives me the opportunity to ‘visit’ with my new grand nephew in Massachusetts and other far away relatives and Library Thing is a good spot to put all those books I’m meaning to read. I am excited about the possibilities of using Flickr at work for a project long in the works – a visual storytime resource catalog. PRL may want to have a presence on My Space as well, especially for teens. Many branches found a great side benefit to the 20 Things project – team building.
If we were doing the project again: I would have preferred to set up the program with basic training by trainers and then let staff explore the related links and do their exercises independently. I know my husband is currently doing a train the trainer program at another library system for their 20 Things. I think this would have relieved a lot of the frustrations and produced a more positive experience.
The list of activities was a good selection and mix, excluding perhaps Technorati which seemed to stump many people! The number was very difficult to keep up with whether for our predominantly part time staff or for full timers.
On the technical side, it would have been easier to have required software and hardware in place before beginning the exercise. Can anything be done about the spy ware? I’d caution people initially about keeping a list of passwords and user ids – maybe even several copies ;-).
These observations are based both on mine personally and on other staff’s comments.
The 20 Things was an excellent exercise both personally and professionally. It did meet my lifelong learning goals of always learning new things and satisfying my curiosity. My one surprise was the amount of people out there ‘sharing’ whether it is pictures, favorite books, music, etc. Not my style but apparently for many it is!
Favorite sites that I explored included My Space, Library Thing and Flickr. On the personal level, My Space gives me the opportunity to ‘visit’ with my new grand nephew in Massachusetts and other far away relatives and Library Thing is a good spot to put all those books I’m meaning to read. I am excited about the possibilities of using Flickr at work for a project long in the works – a visual storytime resource catalog. PRL may want to have a presence on My Space as well, especially for teens. Many branches found a great side benefit to the 20 Things project – team building.
If we were doing the project again: I would have preferred to set up the program with basic training by trainers and then let staff explore the related links and do their exercises independently. I know my husband is currently doing a train the trainer program at another library system for their 20 Things. I think this would have relieved a lot of the frustrations and produced a more positive experience.
The list of activities was a good selection and mix, excluding perhaps Technorati which seemed to stump many people! The number was very difficult to keep up with whether for our predominantly part time staff or for full timers.
On the technical side, it would have been easier to have required software and hardware in place before beginning the exercise. Can anything be done about the spy ware? I’d caution people initially about keeping a list of passwords and user ids – maybe even several copies ;-).
These observations are based both on mine personally and on other staff’s comments.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
11th Thing - Rollyo
11th Thing Rollyo: This site would certainly be a good one to utilize for the poetry month promotion of handling out quotes. I searched daffodils on Quick Quotes and got a number of hits on William Wordsworth's poem but also some commercial sites such as FTD! I started my garden searchroll just in time for spring planting!
10th Thing - Online Image Generators
10th Thing Online Image Generators: Acouple of technical problems here: The text on Helene Blower's video on adding RSS feeds to Bloglines is too small to see and I couldn't get CNET video to open. The picture here is my great nephew which was 'framed' on Big Huge Labs - home of fd's flickr toys. More babies: at the Generator Blog's Who Generator, I adopted a "Who" and named her WhatWhenWhy (from Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who) but couldn't get her embedded in my blog.
5th Thing Flickr
5th Thing Flickr: Certainly a way to share photos with others. Exploring Virginia Libraries group, I see that Arlington Public Library has a Flickr presence though it merely directs you to its website. Maybe old fashioned branch photo albums are still the way to go as all these photos of library programs would require many many permission forms! I am wondering about a storytime resource catalog on Flickr though! Photo credited to pollyalida of New York State Libraries SRP.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)