Ok, I’m not so sure that I like these websites. They seem to be very liberal in all of their viewpoints, and someone with conservative values like me would not be welcome commenting in these arenas. I do see that there would be limited use for these sites in order to see which stories were most popular. However, the only site that didn’t seem dominated my soft news stories and lifestyle pieces was Newsvine. The other sites seem to be about entertainment and the latest gossip stories. I absolutely did not like Reddit. It was not newsy at all in its presentation. It also didn’t allow the user to see the article that was being referred to without clicking on the comment first and following the breadcrumbs that way. Overall, I would never use this technology.
Thing #11 – Tagging and Del.icio.us October 5, 2009
Well, I tried out del.icio.us today. I’ve never been really sure how it worked, so I was glad for the opportunity to play around with it. I think I would have been able to appreciate it more, if I had more bookmarks to import. However, recently I had too many on my toolbar and cleaned the that I didn’t use out. I guess my one real complaint was that when I tried searching for my tag in popular, no tags ever came up. I thought this was very strange since my tags were library2.0 and socialnetworking.
I did explore some of the del.icio.us accounts that were used by different libraries. I did have some questions about how these libraries were using this 2.0 technology. Where is the link located on their website? How is it presented to their users? I went to the main library websites but couldn’t locate that information.
I suppose that you could use this type of tagging to supplement an information literacy program. If there were different information literacy sessions focused on specific subjects, this would be a great way to introduce more resources that were open access that would supplement resources found on the library’s databases. One of the main arguments against open access literature is that it can be difficult to access and search. By tagging open access articles, this brings open access to the forefront of the students’ attention. I think that taggin would be a great way to bring different resources to the attention of students.
Thing #10 – Wikis October 1, 2009
I am fairly new to the idea of wikis. Yeah, yeah I know what Wikipedia is and how it works, but I hadn’t really thought about what a wiki was outside of Wikipedia. The concept holds great possibility for libraries. For my reference class, I had to create a pathfinder. It would be great to make this into a wiki so that it could be used more widely. Libraries could make great use of creating pathfinders and subject guides as wikis. I know that in my reference class, many of my fellow classmates that worked in public libraries said that they would answer the same questions over and over again. If there was a wiki available, this would allow the users to access this information and edit it if more information was found. Also the idea of a book club wiki is awesome.
Thing #9 – Online Collaboration Tools October 1, 2009
For this thing, we had to look at Zoho and Google Docs. I’ve never used either one of these tools, but I’ve heard several people talk about how they really like working with Google Docs. I must admit that I immediately found Google Docs a lot easier to maneuver around and easier to understand. The Zoho website was just too massive and a lot more confusing. Google Docs was straight forward and the toolbar looked very similar to the toolbar on a Microsoft Office application. The next time I work on a group project, I will definitely keep this in mind. Great tool!
Thing#8 – Share your creations October 1, 2009
I thought that this thing was going to be really neat, but I couldn’t get it to work. I tried using Picture Trail to create a slideshow, but the photo upload wouldn’t work correctly. At first, it wouldn’t upload them, and then when I tried a different approach it would only let me upload pictures a few at a time. After letting it load for about 5 minutes, I decided that it wasn’t worth it. I was a little disappointed, because this seemed like it would be a great tool.
I didn’t try any of the presentation tools, because I didn’t have anything to try it with. However, these looked like they would be a great resource for a library to use for information literacy and instruction sessions. I think that librarians could really benefit from these sharing websites…that is if they will work correctly.
Thing #7 – Web 2.0 Communication Tools September 27, 2009
There are so many types of communication tools available to librarians today. Many of these are used so that users may contact librarians about reference questions. I personally have used e-mail and IM for reference-related inquiries. However, text messaging would be a great way to connect to today’s users, as well. It might just be me, but I would rather talk to a librarian in person or by phone if it is going to be a complicated questions. However, most people would rather do nothing in person (including breaking up with significant others!).
Most libraries these days offer some form of Web 2.0 communication. It is a great way to communicate with young users especially. It is quite evident that even as libraries are using these new forms of communications, they are always looking for something that will be newer and better that will attract more users to the library’s fount of information. I look forward to using more of these great communication tools.
Thing #6 – Online Image Generators September 27, 2009
I think the idea of a trading card for librarians is very neat. It allows the students to get to know the librarians through a very “hip” way. It’s a way to reach out to the community through a new avenue. I enjoyed looking at Carleton College’s trading cards! They obviously knew what they were doing. I played around with the trading cards a little bit. Here’s what I came up with.
Thing #5 – More Flickr September 23, 2009
I enjoyed exploring Flickr a little more. I think I am beginning to like it more than I did when I first started playing with it. The mashups were pretty cool to play with. I think I could have played around with them for a long time! I think that many of the tools would be really cool to make posters for events coming up at the local library. If the posters have a more hip design, it is possible that it would draw more people into the library for the event. It will show that the library is not an outdated organization that it is aware of popular culture and its new applications.
(Btw the picture above was taken this summer, and it is of me, on the right, and my sister Esther on the left.)
Thing #4 – Flickr September 21, 2009
For this particular assignment, we had to play around with Flickr. This is my first experience with this service, and I have mixed feelings. I did open an account and added a few photos. However, I don’t see what’s so great about it. (I feel like I should apologize to someone…) Anyway, I have heard for the past several years how great Flickr is, and I don’t see how it’s different from putting them up on Facebook or something like that.
Maybe I’m not giving it enough credit. I will say that the one feature that I love is the map! The map is so cool! You can actually place photos on the map by where they were taken. I am a big geography lover, so this is a really cool thing to be able to view photos by where they were taken.
I’m not giving up on it yet…maybe I need to play with it some more.
Thing #3 – RSS Feeds September 13, 2009
I am going to start by saying that I am completely new to RSS feeds. I have known what they were before this assignment, but I wasn’t sure exactly how they worked. I chose Google Reader to set up my feeds. I very much like the idea of the RSS feed. Upon first glance, I’m not sure that I like that you still have to click on the link to read it with the actual website background, etc. It seems to me that it would be better if it looked like the website or blog that you were following. But I guess, that is just me being picky!
I didn’t have any problems setting up my account in Google Reader or figuring out how to add feeds. It was very easy, as the name implies. I added the blogs of my fellow 23 Things bloggers, a blog for one of my classes, and some LIS blogs that I will be reading in preparation for Comps. I just have to remember to check the reader now!
