Boy, could I ever waste...er, spend...a lot of time looking at these social media sites, and the stories/pictures/videos they link to. In the past 45 minutes, between patron questions and other tasks, I've read articles on giant Antarctic starfish, the recently discovered salt flats on Mars, some really weird photographs, and, my favorite, a court transcript from Great Britain that was absolutely hilarious (http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~vy203/archives/2005/04/19/the-most-entertaining-trial-ever/).
I particularly liked Newsvine, because you basically have limitless access to AP stories, which is very useful. Not as fun as some of the celebrity trash and crazy videos, but good nonetheless.
I tried to submit the BBC article "Drink age 'could be raised to 21'" to Digg, but it was already added. Not at all difficult, though, and I could still comment on the article if I wanted. (I also tried to submit to reddit, I didn't like it as well because you have to create an account.)
I do fear that in the long run this would decrease my productivity, as it is addictive and virtually limitless. And no, I'd never before read an article because it appeared on one of these sites.
Friday, March 21, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us
I have added three labels/tags to the previous post. I'll also post a few to this post.
I checked out Del.icio.us and, although it took me a minute to figure it out, I was able to view the comments and tags other people have saved (click on "saved by ___ other people" below the link in question).
Right now I'm playing with my brand-spanking-new Del.icio.us account, and good fun it is, too. I'm transferring all of my bookmarks, which means that when we get a computer upgrade here at the library, I don't have to worry about writing down all my Favorites before the old computer goes the way of the dinosaur. And since I work from my office, from the public service desk, and occasionally from the bookmobile, I will never go bookmarkless again!
As for taking advantage of this tool professionally, it might be a fun way to connect books in a Six-degrees fashion...if you like this then try this...or this...or this...
I checked out Del.icio.us and, although it took me a minute to figure it out, I was able to view the comments and tags other people have saved (click on "saved by ___ other people" below the link in question).
Right now I'm playing with my brand-spanking-new Del.icio.us account, and good fun it is, too. I'm transferring all of my bookmarks, which means that when we get a computer upgrade here at the library, I don't have to worry about writing down all my Favorites before the old computer goes the way of the dinosaur. And since I work from my office, from the public service desk, and occasionally from the bookmobile, I will never go bookmarkless again!
As for taking advantage of this tool professionally, it might be a fun way to connect books in a Six-degrees fashion...if you like this then try this...or this...or this...
Thing 10: Wikis
We created a wiki at our library to replace the old "Staffnet" web page, which was cumbersome and difficult to update. Maintaining the wiki isn't one of my primary responsibilities, but we were all given instructions on how to create an account and add, and at the time it seemed quite simple.
It seemed simple because it is simple. I've talked to other librarians, and it generally seems to be that it isn't difficult to teach people how to use wikis; the difficult part is getting them to actually contribute.
The Subject Guides wiki was okay, but I normally do reader's advisory so reference stuff isn't as interesting to me. Which brings us to Book Lovers at PPL. I REALLY liked the Book Lovers Wiki; within two minutes I read about several books that I'd like to read. This tool would be useful for patrons who are particularly interested in what we are reading. (I'm always shocked when someone asks me, "What books do you like?," because I don't have any better taste that anyone else...)
The Library Best Practices Wiki is pretty cool, and I'm bookmarking it for the next time I have to put together a project or implement a new procedure at the library. The Minnesota wikis are interesting, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of comment on one or two of them, and I still have no desire to take up beekeeping.
I added the bookmobile cartoon strip to the 23 Things on a Stick wiki. Cake.
I always wonder about the validity of information resources that, by their very nature, cannot be authoritative. Example: a few weeks (months?) ago a coworker walked into my office and told me Heath Ledger had died. I checked wikipedia, which reported (just half an hour after the initial call was made to the police) that before he'd died he'd painted his face like the Joker. Disturbing, and ultimately not true. Good thing I didn't have a grade riding on the information.
It seemed simple because it is simple. I've talked to other librarians, and it generally seems to be that it isn't difficult to teach people how to use wikis; the difficult part is getting them to actually contribute.
The Subject Guides wiki was okay, but I normally do reader's advisory so reference stuff isn't as interesting to me. Which brings us to Book Lovers at PPL. I REALLY liked the Book Lovers Wiki; within two minutes I read about several books that I'd like to read. This tool would be useful for patrons who are particularly interested in what we are reading. (I'm always shocked when someone asks me, "What books do you like?," because I don't have any better taste that anyone else...)
The Library Best Practices Wiki is pretty cool, and I'm bookmarking it for the next time I have to put together a project or implement a new procedure at the library. The Minnesota wikis are interesting, but there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of comment on one or two of them, and I still have no desire to take up beekeeping.
I added the bookmobile cartoon strip to the 23 Things on a Stick wiki. Cake.
I always wonder about the validity of information resources that, by their very nature, cannot be authoritative. Example: a few weeks (months?) ago a coworker walked into my office and told me Heath Ledger had died. I checked wikipedia, which reported (just half an hour after the initial call was made to the police) that before he'd died he'd painted his face like the Joker. Disturbing, and ultimately not true. Good thing I didn't have a grade riding on the information.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Thing 9: Online Collaboration Tools
Okay, didn't have permission to edit the public document...waiting for permission...waiting.
In the meantime, my coworker Margie and I went for the challenge, and are co-editing a shared document in Zoho. Long story short: it was very easy.
Although I cannot edit the public document yet, I have had the chance look at the other options on Google Docs. Both tools have their positive and negatives, but I think that I prefer Zoho, possibly because I used it first. Oh, and I liked that every possible editing button under the sun was listed on the toolbar at the top of the page.
I think the founding fathers probably wouldn't be too concerned about misc. (and temporary) chances to this document, as long as it was in the name of education.
Update: I just edited the Declaration of Independence. I added the word "peppy", because I'm sure those founding fathers had just a bit of cheerleader in them.
In the meantime, my coworker Margie and I went for the challenge, and are co-editing a shared document in Zoho. Long story short: it was very easy.
Although I cannot edit the public document yet, I have had the chance look at the other options on Google Docs. Both tools have their positive and negatives, but I think that I prefer Zoho, possibly because I used it first. Oh, and I liked that every possible editing button under the sun was listed on the toolbar at the top of the page.
I think the founding fathers probably wouldn't be too concerned about misc. (and temporary) chances to this document, as long as it was in the name of education.
Update: I just edited the Declaration of Independence. I added the word "peppy", because I'm sure those founding fathers had just a bit of cheerleader in them.
Thing 8: Share Your Creations
The wording was a little vague in the "Thing" description, but I believe that we are to do either a slideshow, a photo montage, OR a database. So, I'll explore all three, but only actually put together one project.
Okay, maybe two...
The first one is a slide show on zoho; I selected this online tool because a coworker said, "You're gonna love it." And she was absolutely right. The formatting was very intuitive, it was easy to save and share; the only downside was that uploading photos was a little clunky from my computer (not necessarily the fault of zoho). We have a staff wiki at my library, but I think this would be a great tool for committee work & various collaboration among staff members.
The second is the database sharing option.
Using lazybase, I created a database of my movie collection, or at least all that I could remember in the five minutes I allotted myself for this purpose. I didn't love the default options for the film database "quick start", but it is all editable, so if a user isn't satisfied it can always be changed. There is also a Book Group template, which would probably be of great use to library patrons (although honestly I prefer Library Thing).
Okay, maybe two...
The first one is a slide show on zoho; I selected this online tool because a coworker said, "You're gonna love it." And she was absolutely right. The formatting was very intuitive, it was easy to save and share; the only downside was that uploading photos was a little clunky from my computer (not necessarily the fault of zoho). We have a staff wiki at my library, but I think this would be a great tool for committee work & various collaboration among staff members.
The second is the database sharing option.
Using lazybase, I created a database of my movie collection, or at least all that I could remember in the five minutes I allotted myself for this purpose. I didn't love the default options for the film database "quick start", but it is all editable, so if a user isn't satisfied it can always be changed. There is also a Book Group template, which would probably be of great use to library patrons (although honestly I prefer Library Thing).
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