Reflections (#23)

Overall this was a useful activity. I enjoyed learning what I did and would do it again. Here are some things that I learned along the way:

1. Three things that I like and will probably continue to use: Yelp., LibraryThing and del.icio.us.
2. 23 things are a lot (not as many as 43, of course). I really only accomplish three things on any given day and to do one of the 23 seems like major progress. I wasn't intimidated at all about the technology but I was intimidated the the number of things involved.


3. Get it done quickly, before getting interrupted and forgetting. I have obscene amounts of drafts for these posts that never got published. And I still have to go back through them to be sure I really am done. I would be really frustrated with this if I was really new to the technology or if I was trying really hard to learn it all. Seriously, some of the simplest things took hours to go to all the sites, sign on, figure out what to do, help a patron, go to all the sites, sign on, figure out what to do, help a patron, repeat as neccessary.


4. There is generator for almost anything! Images, jokes, stories, oh my! Fun.


5. Adding images to the blog is the best part, but I am too concerned with copyright (it's like Catholic guilt) to really have much fun. Most of the images are from the .gov. zzzzzzzzzzzz. I suppose I could find images on flickr and email the owners for permission...how many more things is that?

2.0 Awards

I looked at the city guide called Yelp. for places to go, things to do, things to see in Seattle. It is kind of like a cross between CityPages and City Search. It has restaurants, music, movies, etc. like City Pages, but it also has reviews like City Search. It seems like by combining just the general info. on what's happening with user added reviews, you can get a good idea of what places are like and when the best time to go is. People can also make lists of their favorites, you can browse by topic and you can browse this week's events. And it also maps the location for you. Lots of good info!

Future of 2.0 #18

I quickly read all the articles from OCLC's Nextspace and here's what I picked up:

1. Because of 2.0 applications, people are able to participate more in the way information is created, organized, accessed and shared. Libraries and librarians aren't the "keepers" of information (were we ever?). People's attitudes and expectations regarding information are changing, as well as their attitudes and expectations of libraries.
2. 2.0 applications are tools. They can help create connections between people and information and libraries. They aren't very useful with out content or without users.

Changing expectations towards libraries means that libraries need to become more customer oriented and adapt to our fast paced world. Libraries take on a new role as a public and community space. I think that is already one of our many roles. But our role of a place to go for information, books, magazines, music and movies isn't going to change for a long time. If anything, people will have raised expectations that we have everything they want when they walk through the door.

Google Docs

I'm writing this on Google Docs. I'd used ZoHo writer before when we had to to a group paper for a class. Group papers are logistic nightmares! And I'd used Zoho's presentation for another group project. I wasn't too impressed with it, though that was a couple years ago and I'm sure things have changed. Our problem was that we wanted to make nice handouts with the slides, like you can with PowerPoint, but we had to print the slided individually instead. Hopefully they've changed it.

Anyway, here I am with Google Docs. The presentation application seems pretty easy and you can choose different backgrounds, which is nice. You can also print, but again only 2 fit on a page rather than 6 or 9. The spreadsheet seems to have everything that I would need in a spreadsheet. I'm not an advanced excel user, so I'm happy with an easier version. As far as this writing program goes, I like that it saves automatically every so often. On the other hand, it doesn't seem to have spellchekk that works well/often. That could get me into trubble.

SandBox Wiki

Yeah, it was pretty easy. I kept wanting to add a link to the text rather than text to the link. Eventually it worked out. I didn't try any of the tutorials but that would have been the next step.

Wiki Kwiki

Wikis. I think they are a really great, democratic tool for organizing and deseminating information. Power to the people!
It seems that there is a critical mass of information. Otherwise, it really isn't doing much. Why not have a blog? I think the Library Success Wiki is and excellent example of one that is ...successful.
The thing that I don't like about wikis is that most of them look the same. They are very stark, white and uninviting. The BookLoversWiki is an exception. I like it! I just wish there were more books on it - that critical mass thing I was talking about earlier.

Tagging thing #17

I keep getting interupted while working on this one. And I just don't feel a stick-to-it-ness about this thing. Tagging I think is great. People should be able to organize information in ways that make sense to them. Duh. But then there are also people who will tag everything so that they fit into certain categories, like me. My cell groups: family, friends, work, other. That's all I need to keep myself organized, especially since I know what information I have entered. My LibraryThing tags: children's, teen, romance, fairytale. The group of everything else is small enough for me to manage.
The problem with tags is that most people probably don't do it with other people in mind. Look under "interesting" in del.icio.us and you'll find lots of crap that isn't interesting at all. This is why I don't think that tags or folksonomy should be the only way of organizing information that is meant to be accessible to everyone, like a library catalog. It might be a nice way to supplement a catalog with more user-friendly language, but it shouldn't be the only organizational system. LC still rocks!