I created a login account - that wasn't so clear, but I think I did it OK.
I added my blog and also my reader's advisory blog, BlogaBook.
I created a Wiki. There is nothing in it yet, but I plan to use it to make a draft proposal for a training document with resources, or "pathfinder" on how to start and conduct a book group. I plan to ask for collaboration from the Book Moderators group.
I added a book review to the What I'm Reading Wiki. I also added the URL to BlogaBook as part of my initiative to publicise the blog.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Week 7, Thing # 16 Learn about wikis and discover some innovative ways that libraries are using them
Hurrah! This week's Things have brought back my enthusiasm for Web 2.0 after it faltered a bit over Del.icio.us etc. I admit to not being able to see much point in the tagging and blogrolls. Of course, the key word is "sharing," which I had lost sight of for a moment. I have been brought back to the idea of collaboration by doing the discovery exercises in Thing 16.
The extra bonus is that I can see straight away several potential uses for Wikis in my personal life and in my job. Creating a Wiki seems so easy using something like PB Wiki. I am the state president of the Maryland branch of a women's charitable organization. A Wiki would seem to be the way to go instead of creating our own web page, which we have been struggling with.
Library uses for Wiki that I liked the most were: for the public - "directories" of community services; subject guides; reader's advisory. The most controversial and innovative uses are a content management system and a public-annotated catalog. The content management system I looked at looked like an integrated search system. They still had an OPAC (South Carolina at Aiken). An annotated catalog has the possibility of some of the drawbacks of Wikis (authority of content, messy, crowded organization, spam, etc.)
Uses within the library staff seemed more exciting to me in that I could probably implement them very soon myself: collaborative editing of documents, planning space, like an Intranet, sharing of knowledge. I have a plan to collaborate with the members of a committee I am on whose task it is to create system training materials on reader's advisory (gentle reads, specifically). I am also going to suggest we work together on the Book Moderators Committee to create a Wiki on how to start and run a book group. I have already blogged a bit about this and sent out some e-mails, and started to compile a pathfinder. Wikis seem to be a synthesis and improvement on all these activities. This would be a great way to get committee input and also engage the public.
Some key points I took from the podcast: Wikis must have a clear, stated purpose. The Bull Run Library Wiki I looked at had a purpose statement.
Wikis are better than blogs for many things because they are not chronological. I looked at the Book Lovers Blog. That was all readers' comments, but they had been organized into genres.
Don't start with a blank slate because that prevents many people from contributing. The SJCPL Subject Guides were organized so that it had the look of a web page. The structure made looking for things more friendly too.
The extra bonus is that I can see straight away several potential uses for Wikis in my personal life and in my job. Creating a Wiki seems so easy using something like PB Wiki. I am the state president of the Maryland branch of a women's charitable organization. A Wiki would seem to be the way to go instead of creating our own web page, which we have been struggling with.
Library uses for Wiki that I liked the most were: for the public - "directories" of community services; subject guides; reader's advisory. The most controversial and innovative uses are a content management system and a public-annotated catalog. The content management system I looked at looked like an integrated search system. They still had an OPAC (South Carolina at Aiken). An annotated catalog has the possibility of some of the drawbacks of Wikis (authority of content, messy, crowded organization, spam, etc.)
Uses within the library staff seemed more exciting to me in that I could probably implement them very soon myself: collaborative editing of documents, planning space, like an Intranet, sharing of knowledge. I have a plan to collaborate with the members of a committee I am on whose task it is to create system training materials on reader's advisory (gentle reads, specifically). I am also going to suggest we work together on the Book Moderators Committee to create a Wiki on how to start and run a book group. I have already blogged a bit about this and sent out some e-mails, and started to compile a pathfinder. Wikis seem to be a synthesis and improvement on all these activities. This would be a great way to get committee input and also engage the public.
Some key points I took from the podcast: Wikis must have a clear, stated purpose. The Bull Run Library Wiki I looked at had a purpose statement.
Wikis are better than blogs for many things because they are not chronological. I looked at the Book Lovers Blog. That was all readers' comments, but they had been organized into genres.
Don't start with a blank slate because that prevents many people from contributing. The SJCPL Subject Guides were organized so that it had the look of a web page. The structure made looking for things more friendly too.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Thing #15 Perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the future of libraries
I read all the five perspectives and they opened up for me so many ideas to explore! My mind is spinning after reading "To a temporary place in time." What I get from that is that the library is not going anywhere - it has always been a place that has added to the quality of life and will continue to be valued for that in whatever form it takes.
Michael Stephens' "Into a new world of librarianship" says that "the library is human" because 2.0 makes "the library as socially and emotionally engaging center for learning and experience." I have to side with the many people who think that this is always what libraries have at least tried to be. That they have always been communities and user-centered and foster the individual and able to be personalized. I concede that with social computing, libraries are nearer than they ever have been before to the ideal.
I scimmed the articles on powerful ways to cooperate and better bibliographic services. I was relieved to see that there are people who are concerned with the quality of the shared content we will have access to.
I liked one author's admonition to avoid technolust.
I was worried about "Away from Icebergs" and the recommendation to get away from "just in case" collections. I agree with this in most public library settings, but was worried, about literature in particular, that some things would be lost forever.
Michael Stephens' "Into a new world of librarianship" says that "the library is human" because 2.0 makes "the library as socially and emotionally engaging center for learning and experience." I have to side with the many people who think that this is always what libraries have at least tried to be. That they have always been communities and user-centered and foster the individual and able to be personalized. I concede that with social computing, libraries are nearer than they ever have been before to the ideal.
I scimmed the articles on powerful ways to cooperate and better bibliographic services. I was relieved to see that there are people who are concerned with the quality of the shared content we will have access to.
I liked one author's admonition to avoid technolust.
I was worried about "Away from Icebergs" and the recommendation to get away from "just in case" collections. I agree with this in most public library settings, but was worried, about literature in particular, that some things would be lost forever.
ALA Read T-Shirt
Read an e-mail this morning about a new free ALA Read T-shirt for Yahoo avatars. Decided to clothe my world traveler in it ready for my August trip to London.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Thing # 13 Tagging and discovering Del.icio.us
I don't quite know what to say about this. I forgot to post about this until some time after I created my account and did the discovery exercises, so my impressions are getting a bit blurry. I'm trying to be positive about the 23 things, but am left with a feeling of being underwhelmed by this one.
Underwhelmed and also frazzled - I did not like the "ubergeek slashdot unfriendly look," to quote Us.ef.ul ... I was confused by all the visual business. I think I would be more able to sort out the site if I had a task to do, but I couldn't think of one.
I can see the utility of the popular bookmarks. As the tutorial says, they must be great if you want to keep up on the cutting edge of the culture.
I can see how it might be wildly successful for people working on the same or similar projects to share good sites, blogs, etc.
As far as organizing bookmarks go, I would have to devote more time to trying out the different options. At the moment, in the cause of sanity I try to limit my bookmarks to a smallish number. I can see if you had a lot of different interests the rebundling feature is wonderful, as you can make sort of bibliographies for special projects you might be working on or for sharing with a particular person. I understood that feature of Del.icio.us straight away when described in the Otter Group tutorial. It has got a bit fuzzy since.
I wish I had some tips for other 2.0 ers. My only one this time might be, "Come back later and explore some more when you have time."
Underwhelmed and also frazzled - I did not like the "ubergeek slashdot unfriendly look," to quote Us.ef.ul ... I was confused by all the visual business. I think I would be more able to sort out the site if I had a task to do, but I couldn't think of one.
I can see the utility of the popular bookmarks. As the tutorial says, they must be great if you want to keep up on the cutting edge of the culture.
I can see how it might be wildly successful for people working on the same or similar projects to share good sites, blogs, etc.
As far as organizing bookmarks go, I would have to devote more time to trying out the different options. At the moment, in the cause of sanity I try to limit my bookmarks to a smallish number. I can see if you had a lot of different interests the rebundling feature is wonderful, as you can make sort of bibliographies for special projects you might be working on or for sharing with a particular person. I understood that feature of Del.icio.us straight away when described in the Otter Group tutorial. It has got a bit fuzzy since.
I wish I had some tips for other 2.0 ers. My only one this time might be, "Come back later and explore some more when you have time."
Monday, July 9, 2007
#14 Discover Technorati
I was surprised "A Hipper Crowd of Shushers," an article in the NY Times about a new stereotype for librarians, was one of the top most visited news stories. Could it be that librarians as a whole are more prone than anyone to check out suggested articles? News of this one has been going the rounds of e-mail today. Maybe librarians do have time after all to read books and eat bon bons all day at work, just add, "and surf the net."
Searching on "Learning 2.0" - yes, the results were different.
When I explored, Top Favorited Blog was Boing Boing, Top Search was Youtube and Top Blog was Engadget. No surprises there, really. It was interesting but not surprising to note the favorited and top blogs overlapped a bit. They were mostly the same ones as the other day when I looked, just the ranking order had changed slightly. "Paris Hilton" is still in the top searches. I liked the array of top tags that explained each blog. Was troubled that many of them are very general or non-specific. I think you still have to be very skilled when searching Technorati to get what you want - need a librarian with sharper skills than mine to cut through the clutter.
Three of the top blogs pertained to technology and gadgetry. I have no doubt reading these extremely current posts is essential to people in these fields.
Searching on "Learning 2.0" - yes, the results were different.
When I explored, Top Favorited Blog was Boing Boing, Top Search was Youtube and Top Blog was Engadget. No surprises there, really. It was interesting but not surprising to note the favorited and top blogs overlapped a bit. They were mostly the same ones as the other day when I looked, just the ranking order had changed slightly. "Paris Hilton" is still in the top searches. I liked the array of top tags that explained each blog. Was troubled that many of them are very general or non-specific. I think you still have to be very skilled when searching Technorati to get what you want - need a librarian with sharper skills than mine to cut through the clutter.
Three of the top blogs pertained to technology and gadgetry. I have no doubt reading these extremely current posts is essential to people in these fields.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
#12 Roll out your own search tool with Rollyo
I put this in here because I couldn't work out where to paste the html in the template so that it displays permanently in a sidebar.
This enables a search of my blog (or it would if I put in more tags. Note to self, check if it searches all text or justs tags)
This shows my Searchroll called Audiobooks. The roll gathers all the library vendors of audiobooks that I use so that I only have to check one place if I don't know the publisher. One drawback to a searchroll- I don't think you can add sites that need a user name and password to log in. That rules out a single search of all my paid vendor databases.
This is a link to the Audiobooks Searchroll
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