In the Feb. 15, 2008 edition of Library Journal (p.32-33) an on-line readers advisory service is highlighted.
I took a look at the site ; http://www.wrl.org/bookweb/RA/index.html
and the web form looks very similar to a paper form for a readers recommend service that we provided a few years ago.
When we started readers advisory at RPL, staff had limited experience and training (this was many years ago), so this form that gave staff time to research recommendations and build skill was a good idea. However, as the staff improved their stills, they were better able to provide "point-of-need" service. Our public seemed to prefer getting an immediate recommendation rather than waiting for a recommended list. In addition, we have compiled over time a number of recommended reading lists around a variety of authors and reading interest.
However, in reviewing this article and looking at the on-line form, there may be reason to revisit this enhanced service. There is value in providing an in depth investigation based on a number of factors selected by the reader. It does encourage staff to dig a little deeper in developing recommendations -- skills that are also needed in other RA settings.
For now, I am adding the idea to this blog, to ponder further development of this idea. There are other web 2 readers advisory tools that I am eager to implement -- and want to accomplish those first!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Thing 23. Final Thoughts
I can't believe I finished on time. Thank you for the carrot of the "stick".
I am grateful that this was not my first introduction to a significant portion of these tools. This tells me at least I am partially keeping up. However, without this push, I don't think I would have ever given so much thought as to how these tools can be incorporated into how we deliver services.
There are tools that I learned about that I wish I knew about earlier. Del.icio.us is one of them! It even helped to speed me along in completing this project! I knew about tiny URL but now use it more frequently simply because this exercise gave me the practice to make it part of my work.
I use tabbed browsing and now have my blog as one of my 3 home pages on both my work and home computer. RSS feeds with the blog and the addition of them to other tools I use make them so much more useful than the way I was initial taught. One of my responsibilities as a supervisor is was to follow the progress of the staff in my division who were participating. The RSS feeds not only made it easy, but encouraged me to explore their ideas. It was nice to have a different way to communicate with staff. One that was more reflective and less responsive. I have learned a lot from them.
FaceBook, YouTube, and LibraryThing were my favorite "things". I have accounts for all 3 and use them daily and my poor family has been subjected to them as well. At least some of them have embraced these social networking sites and it allows me to connect with them in a new way.
Not overly fond of some of the communication and collaboration tools -- mainly because they were not as robust as the tools I already use. However, they have alerted me to new possibilities when working on committees where we do not share the same tools. How nice to have free and easy access to them.
I see the 23 Things as part of my journey. Completing the program is in no way the end of my learning process. Thank you though for giving me a needed kick in the butt to further expand my knowledge and see some potential where I didn't before.
I am grateful that this was not my first introduction to a significant portion of these tools. This tells me at least I am partially keeping up. However, without this push, I don't think I would have ever given so much thought as to how these tools can be incorporated into how we deliver services.
There are tools that I learned about that I wish I knew about earlier. Del.icio.us is one of them! It even helped to speed me along in completing this project! I knew about tiny URL but now use it more frequently simply because this exercise gave me the practice to make it part of my work.
I use tabbed browsing and now have my blog as one of my 3 home pages on both my work and home computer. RSS feeds with the blog and the addition of them to other tools I use make them so much more useful than the way I was initial taught. One of my responsibilities as a supervisor is was to follow the progress of the staff in my division who were participating. The RSS feeds not only made it easy, but encouraged me to explore their ideas. It was nice to have a different way to communicate with staff. One that was more reflective and less responsive. I have learned a lot from them.
FaceBook, YouTube, and LibraryThing were my favorite "things". I have accounts for all 3 and use them daily and my poor family has been subjected to them as well. At least some of them have embraced these social networking sites and it allows me to connect with them in a new way.
Not overly fond of some of the communication and collaboration tools -- mainly because they were not as robust as the tools I already use. However, they have alerted me to new possibilities when working on committees where we do not share the same tools. How nice to have free and easy access to them.
I see the 23 Things as part of my journey. Completing the program is in no way the end of my learning process. Thank you though for giving me a needed kick in the butt to further expand my knowledge and see some potential where I didn't before.
Thing 22. What Did I Learn Today?
Staying current is definitely key. Yesterday I was thinking that in another year, we will need to have "another 23 things" project. Then it occurred to me, by then it is too late. We need to keep building upon and learning new tools.
I am not a bandwagon jumper and I distrust following flavor of the day type initiatives. New tools, and processes, etc. need to make sense to me before I can make sense of them to others. I do however, commit to investigating new ideas, tools, technology. To try them out. To effectively evaluate their usefulness for our services and in my life.
It took far more than 15 min. a day to complete this 23 thing project; however, 15 min a day is doable. I love the Tame the Web site and I think it gives a pretty comprehensive look as applying some of these technologies. I will keep up with this site and/or switch to another one if it resonates more, but will definitely have 2-3 resources that I check regularly.
Certainly it isn't enough to learn about the new 2.0 tools. We have to use them, to understand them, to then apply them as appropriate in our services.
I think we need to pay attention to all of the library's customers -- from the Luddites who still lament about the loss of the card catalog to the techno-savvy who demand the latest formats for the newest gadgets. I think as an administrator it is a continuous struggle to prioritize tasks to address the diverse needs of all of our users.
I have encouraged staff to spend a fair amount of work time to learn these tools and it has been interesting for me to read their blogs -- their perceptions and their progress. I now expect some application of those tools in how we deliver services. I have some idea, but more importantly, I want to receive ideas from staff and have us work together as a team to incorporate them. I plan on making this a regular agenda item for our monthly staff meetings.
I am going to revisit many of these tools frequently. Some are already fully integrated into my work life, some are getting there, some I may discard and move on.
As for staying current, I will be using RSS feeds more frequently and in the tools that are already part of my daily routine -- i.e. My Yahoo home page . Almost all of the tech tools I have learned, I have learned from other library staff -- both at my local library, at conference, and in networking with my colleagues across the country. I love that ours is a sharing profession and I appreciate that I can rely on that. I too need to contribute my sharing of what I have learned and I plan to do so.
As for blogging, I'm not very confident of my writing skills -- I would much rather talk. I have a web cam on new computer, perhaps I will give that a try. We'll see. However, it is totally unacceptable to NOT stay attuned to the technology and other trends affecting our profession.
I am not a bandwagon jumper and I distrust following flavor of the day type initiatives. New tools, and processes, etc. need to make sense to me before I can make sense of them to others. I do however, commit to investigating new ideas, tools, technology. To try them out. To effectively evaluate their usefulness for our services and in my life.
It took far more than 15 min. a day to complete this 23 thing project; however, 15 min a day is doable. I love the Tame the Web site and I think it gives a pretty comprehensive look as applying some of these technologies. I will keep up with this site and/or switch to another one if it resonates more, but will definitely have 2-3 resources that I check regularly.
Certainly it isn't enough to learn about the new 2.0 tools. We have to use them, to understand them, to then apply them as appropriate in our services.
I think we need to pay attention to all of the library's customers -- from the Luddites who still lament about the loss of the card catalog to the techno-savvy who demand the latest formats for the newest gadgets. I think as an administrator it is a continuous struggle to prioritize tasks to address the diverse needs of all of our users.
I have encouraged staff to spend a fair amount of work time to learn these tools and it has been interesting for me to read their blogs -- their perceptions and their progress. I now expect some application of those tools in how we deliver services. I have some idea, but more importantly, I want to receive ideas from staff and have us work together as a team to incorporate them. I plan on making this a regular agenda item for our monthly staff meetings.
I am going to revisit many of these tools frequently. Some are already fully integrated into my work life, some are getting there, some I may discard and move on.
As for staying current, I will be using RSS feeds more frequently and in the tools that are already part of my daily routine -- i.e. My Yahoo home page . Almost all of the tech tools I have learned, I have learned from other library staff -- both at my local library, at conference, and in networking with my colleagues across the country. I love that ours is a sharing profession and I appreciate that I can rely on that. I too need to contribute my sharing of what I have learned and I plan to do so.
As for blogging, I'm not very confident of my writing skills -- I would much rather talk. I have a web cam on new computer, perhaps I will give that a try. We'll see. However, it is totally unacceptable to NOT stay attuned to the technology and other trends affecting our profession.
Thing 21. Beyond MySpace: Other Social Networks
View my page on 23 Things on a Stick
It wasn't too long after I joined FaceBook that I was introduced to another social networking site -- www.wearevikingsfans.com. One of the things I enjoy the most about going to football games is the camaraderie among the fans. Now, I can enjoy that year round on-line. A sub-group on this social network is creating all kinds of events to go along with the big draft party at Winter Park at the end of the month. I digress, this is supposed to be about library work....
Anyway, it is obvious from my Viking fan experience of the value of a hobby or interest social network in addition to a general one. I have used it with enthusiasm. I enjoyed being introduced to other such interest sites. I am also going to see that the gather site gets added to our Library's home page as a resource for book lovers. I am also going to further investigate the use of the video sites and evaluate their usefulness for collection development purposes.
In addition to Library Thing, I have experimented with a variety of book based applications on social networking sites. They all have value -- it just depends upon what you are most comfortable with and what the people that you want to interact with are using.
After unsuccessfully trying to maintain about 3 different types of book applications, I abandoned all but Library Thing and now add RSS feeds for my Library Thing account on my FaceBook.]
As librarians, we have to use these tools. There is so much potential her for marketing, sharing the rich resources and continued relevance of the library and to maintain technical credibility with our users.
P.S. I enjoyed Ning and liked how easy it was to create your one social networking site. I see opportunities for this in other areas of my life.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Thing 20. Libraries and Social Networks
At MLA last fall, I attended a great session on library 2.0 for Readers Advisory and it introduced me to social networking. The line that hooked me was "old people email, young people social network". Well I didn't want to be left in the dust so I started trying it out and am not totally addicted (to FaceBook). After that conference, we took a look at several of the library pages and one staff member volunteered to create a MySpace Page for our library. Below is the result of those efforts. Our next step it to integrate the maintenance of this page in our services and evaluate its effectiveness.
Rochester Public Library MySpace Page *
http://tinyurl.com/6orkmt
The reason for creating the page, again is to be where our patrons are. To make it truly effective, I think we are going to need to make sure it is up to our standards, and incorporate more tool into it. I am most interested in focusing on some of the readers advisory applications -- especially for teens.
I do think that MySpace can be a bit "trashy", but not all of it is. I find the sites for various bands/artists to be very informative. I understand why youth are drawn to this network. I am saddened by attempts to block access to social networking sites for youth. This is the way they now communicate. Rather than block access, we need to more effectively train our children on how to navigate the dangers as they reap the benefits of this new virtual environment. To do that, we need to become a member of this community (even if just visiting) to understand it.
My FaceBook Profile*
http://tinyurl.com/5k8za3
Rochester Public Library MySpace Page *
http://tinyurl.com/6orkmt
The reason for creating the page, again is to be where our patrons are. To make it truly effective, I think we are going to need to make sure it is up to our standards, and incorporate more tool into it. I am most interested in focusing on some of the readers advisory applications -- especially for teens.
I do think that MySpace can be a bit "trashy", but not all of it is. I find the sites for various bands/artists to be very informative. I understand why youth are drawn to this network. I am saddened by attempts to block access to social networking sites for youth. This is the way they now communicate. Rather than block access, we need to more effectively train our children on how to navigate the dangers as they reap the benefits of this new virtual environment. To do that, we need to become a member of this community (even if just visiting) to understand it.
My FaceBook Profile*
http://tinyurl.com/5k8za3
When starting the whole social networking thing, I was drawn more to FaceBook than to MySpace. Essentially, more of my Friends are on FaceBook so it made sense for me to be there. Also, I think it better addresses my privacy concerns. What I really love about FaceBook is the way it helps me stay connected to people I don't see very often. Ironically, most of my friends are professional contacts (but the list is growing).
I like the ease of sharing photos, videos etc. on this page. I think my profile reflects both my professional and personal personality. One of the most delightful things resulting from FaceBook was a lunch date that would not have happened without this communication tool. I appreciated how it facilitated connecting with an old friend :-).
(*Note: using productivity tools from previous thing.)
Thing 19. Podcasts
I listen to a lot of different types of audio materials -- music, books, interviews etc. I also have several audio gadgets to make my audio portable. I find podcasts to be ubiquitous. There is so much out there that I find interesting -- political commentary, music, etc.
I have highlighted on my Blog the Minnesota Public Radio Current post casts.
Our library is experimenting with podcasts and I am interested in expanding our offerings. Currently we have podcasts of some of our Rochester Reads programs. Because we do not have an RSS feed for this page, I did not add it to my blog. However you get to them at: http://www.rochesterreads.org/RR2008pages/audio.html
I would like to have more podcasts of our various programs. We do need to work on the legal aspects of getting releases and permissions to create and post podcasts from our author visit and other lecture programs. We are moving in that direction albeit slowly.
I have highlighted on my Blog the Minnesota Public Radio Current post casts.
Our library is experimenting with podcasts and I am interested in expanding our offerings. Currently we have podcasts of some of our Rochester Reads programs. Because we do not have an RSS feed for this page, I did not add it to my blog. However you get to them at: http://www.rochesterreads.org/RR2008pages/audio.html
I would like to have more podcasts of our various programs. We do need to work on the legal aspects of getting releases and permissions to create and post podcasts from our author visit and other lecture programs. We are moving in that direction albeit slowly.
Thing 18. YouTube & Other Online Video
The above is a video of my dog sledding adventure at the Lutsen Nordic Center in Jan. 2008. It was 30 below zero the day this was filmed. The ride was very fast as the dogs were fresh (we were the first ride of the day) and the snow was very hard and compact because of the cold. I was very proud of myself for editing the video and adding it to YouTube (it is actually 4 different videos added together using an Adobe video editor).
I am totally addicted to YouTube. When I go to that site, hours can go by without me noticing. One of the things that I really appreciate is the ability to see vintage footage of interviews with my favorite band and just about any music video I am interested in.
I also like the ability to share videos with my family and friends. It is so much easier to invite them to YouTube than to try to email or mail a DVD. There is an option to make your videos private and only allow those you choose to have access to them. Our new digital camera has video and we are using it a lot more than we anticipated.
As for library applications, there are several. Our library has a YouTube account for videos relevant to our library. For example, the short film contest winners are posted on our site. One of the most creative uses I have seen is the library YouTube video contest done by the Eden Prairie Library.
Thing 17. ELM Productivity Tools
I am pleased to use the RSS features of the powerful databases of ELM. I rather like saving my search results and having them fed to me over the "Dig" popular media sites. This way the news that is pushed to me is exactly what I am interested in.
On the right hand side of my blog is my RSS feed for the search that I saved. As someone interested in Intellectual Freedom, I appreciate keeping up to date on how the USA Patriot Act affects libraries. Now I can keep up with recent news in the academic press -- an area that I don't typically mine unless I have a specific research need.
Although I have been faithfully using ELM since what seems like forever, I had never used the folder and web page options. I did create a very rudimentary web page and downloaded it. It is not my finest web work so I am not posting it here, but I appreciated learning about this quick and easy web tool.
P.S. I do hope that the legislation passes that insures all Minnesotans access to this important resource. The Legislative intent for this appropriation is to provide the best possible access to information resources across the educational spectrum (including K-12, higher education, state government and public libraries) on a statewide basis.
On the right hand side of my blog is my RSS feed for the search that I saved. As someone interested in Intellectual Freedom, I appreciate keeping up to date on how the USA Patriot Act affects libraries. Now I can keep up with recent news in the academic press -- an area that I don't typically mine unless I have a specific research need.
Although I have been faithfully using ELM since what seems like forever, I had never used the folder and web page options. I did create a very rudimentary web page and downloaded it. It is not my finest web work so I am not posting it here, but I appreciated learning about this quick and easy web tool.
P.S. I do hope that the legislation passes that insures all Minnesotans access to this important resource. The Legislative intent for this appropriation is to provide the best possible access to information resources across the educational spectrum (including K-12, higher education, state government and public libraries) on a statewide basis.
Thing 16. Student 2.0 Tools
I would have appreciated these tools when I was a student! I think the U of M Assignment calculator would be useful if one is a student at that school. I like how it helps the student to clarify their tasks and includes resources to help with specific steps.
I think these tools in general, and the Research Project Calculator specifically, are beneficial to students who are new to the research process and/or have difficulty managing their time and staying on track. As you can see, I am rushing to get my posts done by the 16th. Perhaps if I had friendly email reminders to work on my 23 things research and blog, I would be further along in my process!
I asked that the Research Project Calculator be added to our homework section of the teen page. I think we owe it to our students to at least share the existence of this tool. (I used the post comments portion of the23 things blog of the staff member who is responsible for maintaining the teen site.)
I think these tools in general, and the Research Project Calculator specifically, are beneficial to students who are new to the research process and/or have difficulty managing their time and staying on track. As you can see, I am rushing to get my posts done by the 16th. Perhaps if I had friendly email reminders to work on my 23 things research and blog, I would be further along in my process!
I asked that the Research Project Calculator be added to our homework section of the teen page. I think we owe it to our students to at least share the existence of this tool. (I used the post comments portion of the23 things blog of the staff member who is responsible for maintaining the teen site.)
Thing 15: Libraries and Games
Unlike IBM libraries don't have to make money -- not even virtual money. However, they do have to justify to their stakeholders how they spend and invest money and library resources. I do appreciate the commercial in terms of putting into perspective our priorities and how we use limited resources as we develop programs and services. However, unlike the IBM lackey, Ohio State and Alliance Library System have adequately demonstrated the value of investing in the virtual world.
How wonderful to be able to offer services in this new virtual world where many of our patrons dwell. Also, we need some of our staff to be here as well to meet and serve our virtual patrons, but more importantly for the creativity that it fuels.
I personally am not interested in investing in a second life, my first one if more than full enough thank you very much, but I appreciated the opportunity to visit. I see value here. Still trying to figure out where it fits in our institution's priorities. I hope this experience has sparked the interest in staff though to keep in touch with it.
Thing 14: Library Thing
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/kdedson
(I also have a RSS Feed for my recent entries on my blog page).
I love library thing!!! I see extreme value for readers advisory. I would very much like to create a Readers Services Library thing and have staff input what they are reading. This would then be posted to our public web page.
For now, I have my own and enter everything I read (since I started). Here I can tag, and add notes re: appeal factors for the book and a review if I am feeling confident about it.
I have used Library Thing to set up our church youth library (see my profile and my interesting libraries section.) It is so easy to add titles, we had all the youth who had laptops bring them in one evening and we cataloged all of the titles so far. I am going back on Wed. to finish up the project. The youth talked about what tags they wanted to use and how to use the tags to correspond to shelf location. We also talked about how anyone can go to our library and see what we have. We can keep the collection current by using library thing to do an annual inventory.
We have been waiting for the option to add to our on-line catalog the option of tracking circulation history. Right now we have the option of either turning it on for everyone or keeping it off. Due to privacy issues, we want patrons to make the decision. One day a patron was asking for a way to track her reading. I showed her LibraryThing and she was so thrilled about it. She loved that her "book-lists" would follow her to what ever computer she had access to. Many of our avid readers have shown significant interest in this tool. I love it so it is easy to promote it.
I also use the links to Friend's and friends libraries. We have used this tool to share or love of reading and what we are reading.
Can't say enough about this fabulous tool!
(I also have a RSS Feed for my recent entries on my blog page).
I love library thing!!! I see extreme value for readers advisory. I would very much like to create a Readers Services Library thing and have staff input what they are reading. This would then be posted to our public web page.
For now, I have my own and enter everything I read (since I started). Here I can tag, and add notes re: appeal factors for the book and a review if I am feeling confident about it.
I have used Library Thing to set up our church youth library (see my profile and my interesting libraries section.) It is so easy to add titles, we had all the youth who had laptops bring them in one evening and we cataloged all of the titles so far. I am going back on Wed. to finish up the project. The youth talked about what tags they wanted to use and how to use the tags to correspond to shelf location. We also talked about how anyone can go to our library and see what we have. We can keep the collection current by using library thing to do an annual inventory.
We have been waiting for the option to add to our on-line catalog the option of tracking circulation history. Right now we have the option of either turning it on for everyone or keeping it off. Due to privacy issues, we want patrons to make the decision. One day a patron was asking for a way to track her reading. I showed her LibraryThing and she was so thrilled about it. She loved that her "book-lists" would follow her to what ever computer she had access to. Many of our avid readers have shown significant interest in this tool. I love it so it is easy to promote it.
I also use the links to Friend's and friends libraries. We have used this tool to share or love of reading and what we are reading.
Can't say enough about this fabulous tool!
Thing 13. Online Productivity Tools
Now were talking... I'm always seeking new productivity tools and already use several that are highlighted in this section (and have even blogged about them previously). My Yahoo has been my homepage for a very long time and I love it. Not only that, they frequently update it and add new features as technology advances. One of my favorite things, as previously mentioned, is the selecting of headlines from my favorite news sources and on-line magazines.
Also, my GroupWise calendar at work is my primary calendar. However, I use my yahoo calender to be reminded of all the Birthdays and other special events I need to remember. Several volunteer organizations that I belong to use he Yahoo Group function (and I just proposed it for a an organization whose board I was just appointed to). We can put our organizations events on this calendar and then have all of the members sent a reminder note. In addition, I can easily inappropriate the groups events to my own personal events.
As mentioned in my previous blog post, I use the Google toolbar on my desk-top. This toolbar is customizable and I can choose the tools I want to use and organize them to my own specifications.
I have been involved in groups where the members don't all have the same software. I plan on trying Google spread-sheets etc. for these organizations and see if the other members will use them.
I have used tiny URL but don't use this as often as I should. I will revisit this as well.
Also, my GroupWise calendar at work is my primary calendar. However, I use my yahoo calender to be reminded of all the Birthdays and other special events I need to remember. Several volunteer organizations that I belong to use he Yahoo Group function (and I just proposed it for a an organization whose board I was just appointed to). We can put our organizations events on this calendar and then have all of the members sent a reminder note. In addition, I can easily inappropriate the groups events to my own personal events.
As mentioned in my previous blog post, I use the Google toolbar on my desk-top. This toolbar is customizable and I can choose the tools I want to use and organize them to my own specifications.
I have been involved in groups where the members don't all have the same software. I plan on trying Google spread-sheets etc. for these organizations and see if the other members will use them.
I have used tiny URL but don't use this as often as I should. I will revisit this as well.
Thing 12: Do you Digg?
Again, I was pleased to learn about these popular media news resources. As I was exploring them, yes, I did get sucked in to reading many of the articles. There is something very democratic about this process.
On the other hand, it wouldn't take much for someone with a specific story to encourage a lot of people to "digg it" and move it to the top. I think of the Rah Rah Rochester branding phrase. The creator of this phrase logged into the web set and gave it a lot of favorable comments/reviews. I'm sure we all have heard of something like this in our lives.
As far as how it applies to library service etc... Well I'm not yet convinced of its usefulness. I personally found it a bit of a time waster. The public will continue to astound us with their wide range of questions -- I doubt this will give us much of an edge. But it is a great resource for people who are inspired by a story and want to share their interest with others. I see these resources as much more value in other areas of my life.
Now that I have a Digg account (I Dug the article about hacking) will I use it? Doubtful. I'm kind of lazy when it come to my news. I have a number of headlines pushed at me -- from the sources I chose for my "My Yahoo" home page, to my Google news banner that sits on my desk-top and my frequent forays into the local news sources, cnn, and msnbc.
That being said, I firmly support any tool that helps to promote democracy and a way for the average person to find their voice. These tools do an excellent job of that.
Every year there is a publication that I enjoy that highlights the stories that were essentially censored because they were not picked up by the major news media. I wonder if these social media sites will have an influence on this and/or if editors are paying attention to what the public is interested in. We certainly live in interesting times.
On the other hand, it wouldn't take much for someone with a specific story to encourage a lot of people to "digg it" and move it to the top. I think of the Rah Rah Rochester branding phrase. The creator of this phrase logged into the web set and gave it a lot of favorable comments/reviews. I'm sure we all have heard of something like this in our lives.
As far as how it applies to library service etc... Well I'm not yet convinced of its usefulness. I personally found it a bit of a time waster. The public will continue to astound us with their wide range of questions -- I doubt this will give us much of an edge. But it is a great resource for people who are inspired by a story and want to share their interest with others. I see these resources as much more value in other areas of my life.
Now that I have a Digg account (I Dug the article about hacking) will I use it? Doubtful. I'm kind of lazy when it come to my news. I have a number of headlines pushed at me -- from the sources I chose for my "My Yahoo" home page, to my Google news banner that sits on my desk-top and my frequent forays into the local news sources, cnn, and msnbc.
That being said, I firmly support any tool that helps to promote democracy and a way for the average person to find their voice. These tools do an excellent job of that.
Every year there is a publication that I enjoy that highlights the stories that were essentially censored because they were not picked up by the major news media. I wonder if these social media sites will have an influence on this and/or if editors are paying attention to what the public is interested in. We certainly live in interesting times.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Thing 11. Tagging and Del.icio.us
I'm most excited about del.iciou.us so I will start with that. There are multiple computers in my life that I use. For the past few years, I have been exporting and importing my favorites since I can't live without them -- at lest on my work computer.
However, when my home computer crashed a couple weeks ago, I realized how truly frustrated I was as I moved from computer to computer to quickly get to the pages I wanted. Andy when I finally got my replacement and uploaded my favorites, I realized how old some of them were and how poor a job I have done in keeping them organized.
Yes, Google, makes it easy to find sites... but I am delighted to have now discovered delicious! As a selector for my library, I do collection work from a variety of computers -- my personal work computer, our shared public service desk computer, my home computer, my partner's computer, and occasionally other. With delicious, I now have my own personal portable bookmarks list. No time to file them? well the tagging helps me to bring them all together with no additional step.
I just got started with it, but I anticipate this will be a new addiction until I get it put together to my precise specifications.
Yes, I want descriptive terms for content that match the way people think of concepts. So the idea of people entering their own terms is very valuable. However, there is nothing better than having a controlled vocabulary for bring all things on the same subject together. So this is one thing this old geezer will try to accomplish in her own tagging projects. I can't help but to want to tag items on the same subject in a consistent manner. At the same time I will try to open to anything that improves access to content.
However, when my home computer crashed a couple weeks ago, I realized how truly frustrated I was as I moved from computer to computer to quickly get to the pages I wanted. Andy when I finally got my replacement and uploaded my favorites, I realized how old some of them were and how poor a job I have done in keeping them organized.
Yes, Google, makes it easy to find sites... but I am delighted to have now discovered delicious! As a selector for my library, I do collection work from a variety of computers -- my personal work computer, our shared public service desk computer, my home computer, my partner's computer, and occasionally other. With delicious, I now have my own personal portable bookmarks list. No time to file them? well the tagging helps me to bring them all together with no additional step.
I just got started with it, but I anticipate this will be a new addiction until I get it put together to my precise specifications.
Tagging. Subject classification anarchy is one of those things that is taking me a while to warm to. Perhaps it is the library school indoctrination of the need for controlled vocabulary. In the practical world, words do evolve and new terms come into common usage and (as my friend Sandy Berman frequently points out) Library of Congress if often very s - l - o - w to respond.
Yes, I want descriptive terms for content that match the way people think of concepts. So the idea of people entering their own terms is very valuable. However, there is nothing better than having a controlled vocabulary for bring all things on the same subject together. So this is one thing this old geezer will try to accomplish in her own tagging projects. I can't help but to want to tag items on the same subject in a consistent manner. At the same time I will try to open to anything that improves access to content.
Thing 10: Wikis
I have come to really appreciate Wikis. My first experience with a wiki is when we were in the process of evaluating and selecting a potential automated materials handling system vendor. I was skeptical at first, However, it was a great way for committee members to share their specific thoughts on the process, pros and cons of each vendor and process, and to respond to comments of other committee members. It allowed for a very organized and systematic documentation of our evaluation process. This will be my preferred method for committee participation for future projects of this type.
We also use a Wiki for our library internal StaffNet. It is so much easier now for all staff to participate in contributing content and to keep the pages up to date. (I added a note to this effect on the 23onastick Wiki. (http://23onastick.pbwiki.com/?full_access=Pc2BbORfc5&l=S) I initially forgot to initial my entry. So easy to just add it.
We also use a Wiki for our library internal StaffNet. It is so much easier now for all staff to participate in contributing content and to keep the pages up to date. (I added a note to this effect on the 23onastick Wiki. (http://23onastick.pbwiki.com/?full_access=Pc2BbORfc5&l=S) I initially forgot to initial my entry. So easy to just add it.
Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools
I am glad to have learned about these tools. In my work-life, we frequently write by committee. We use file sharing on our network and set the documents to show edits and comments. I prefer this method for collaborative writing when working with staff within the same network.
The tools offered by ZoHo and Google Docs are intriguing. I can see potential usefulness when creating documents by committee when the participants are spread out and on different computer networks. It saves constantly emailing documents back and forth and never being quite sure which version is the latest. However, I find I am not as comfortable using these tools as the ones I use everyday. However, this experience will help me to be more open to using them in the future.
The tools offered by ZoHo and Google Docs are intriguing. I can see potential usefulness when creating documents by committee when the participants are spread out and on different computer networks. It saves constantly emailing documents back and forth and never being quite sure which version is the latest. However, I find I am not as comfortable using these tools as the ones I use everyday. However, this experience will help me to be more open to using them in the future.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
