Week 7 Thing 16

Explored Wikis. I was familiar with Wikipedia but had no idea that there were other sites where anyone could add, remove or edit content on the site. I took a look at the library wikis listed in this weeks exercise.
I can see how libraries could use wikis both for collaboration among library staff and with their customers. Wikis are also good ways to share best practices. I can think of several times when each branch has been asked to submit best practices on a certain issue. It would have been easy for each branch to enter their best practices in a wiki instead of sending them in and having them compiled. Wikis could also be used to share program ideas. Out of the wikis on our list to look at, I particularly liked the Book Lovers wiki. It is a great reader's advisory tool. I also liked the ALA conference wiki. It is very informative and a good source of information for conference attendees since it covers not only the happenings in the conference but information about the area where the conference was being held. I can see positive uses of wikis in libraries. But I still do not trust using ones like Wikipedia as information sources. It is just too easy for anyone to edit the content and how can I be sure that the information is correct.

Week 6 Thing 15

I read through all of the perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries and found them all interesting. The way libraries are being used is changing and what our customers want is changing. Libraries need to think about their servies and the ways they provide them. They need to adapt their services to Web 2.0 technology and the new digital lifestyle. Rick Anderson in his perspective "Away from the icebergs"relates 3 icebergs that are posing threat to the success of libraries today. 1.) Building the "Just In Case"collection where we try to anticipate our customers every need. Our customers expect to access everything that is out there from digital collections of journals, books, blogs, to podcasts. 2) Reliance on User Education. Instead we need to focus on eliminating barriers between our customers and the information they need. 3.) "Come to us" model of library service. We need to find ways to bring our services to the customer rather than insisting they come to us.

I also found Chip Nigles' perspective "To more powerful ways to cooperate" to be very informative. Web 2.0 technology is a key concept for OCLC and they are applying its principles to their product. Among the changes being considered (or already introduced) are: search box that allows anyone to search Open WorldCat without authentication, allowing anyone to contribute and share table of contents, notes and reviews, allowing non-catalogoing library professionals and customers to contribute to Open WorldCat, tagging, list creation and sharing, personal cataloging, and expanding coverage to e-journals and other digital content. OCLC aims to expand the database ensuring it keeps pace with the changing composition of library collections.

I thought Dr. Wendy Schultz's perspective, "To a temporary place in time..." to be thought provoking. She provides a view of Library 1.0-Library 4.0.

Week 6 Thing 14

Explored Technorati. At first I was confused when exploring Technorati because the site looked nothing like the site on the videocast. So it took me a while to figure out where to go to do a keyword search in blog posts, in tags and the Blog Directory. Finally figured out that you could do the keyword search in blog posts from the search box on the home page. But to search in tags or the Blog Directory you had to do an advanced search.
I thought it was neat that you can also search in videos and photos. Learning 2.0 did come up in some videos but not in photos (as one might expect). I found the Top favorited blogs, Top searches, Top tags, Top videos, movies, and news interesting. I thought it was clever for them to rename "What's the buzz" As WTF (Where's the Fire? What's Hot and Why.) Once I understood how to navigate the site, it was interesting.

Week 6 Thing 13

Spent lots of time exploring tagging and the Del.icio.us site this afternoon. It was really interesting to see the tags that have been used and the sites that others have bookmarked. It is certainly a benefit to be able to view your bookmarked sites from any computer. Using Del.icio.us while doing research would make it so easy to keep track of websites with pertinent information on your topic. Categorizing the sites with tags would help to organize your research sites. Also searching with tags would lead you to other sites on the same topic. While exploring, I found the unofficial tools (3rd party applications) in Del.icio.us. There are some really neat applications. I especially like Thumblicious. It shows thumbnail screenshots of popular bookmarks. I really enjoyed exploring Del.icio.us.

Week 5 Thing 12

Explored Rollyo and rolled my own search roll. After initially exploring Rollyo and creating my own search roll, I have had time to go back and work with it some more. You will find my Rollyo search box on the right side of the blog. Rollyo is really easy to use and I can see the benefit of using Rollyo.

Week 5 Thing 11

I took the tour of the LibraryThing and set up an account. I was amazed at the ease of adding books. Here is the link to my catalog of books at the LibraryThing:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/lkclemen

Week 5 Thing 10

I explored online image generators and had lots of fun playing with several of the online image generators. I made Jack-0-Lanterns with scary faces with the Create Your Own Jack-O-Lantern generator. Since I love chocolate, I was excited about the Chocolate Bar Generator. Then one generator led me to another one on the same site (imagechef.com) and I found The Dog Ate My Homework generator! The dog was so cute that I had to put the image in my blog. The image is on the right side of my blog. I also found a Name In Lights generator. If you scroll to the bottom of my blog you will see my name in lights! The generators were really easy to use. I also explored Yahoo Avatars. It was fun creating my own avatar. I even got it to appear as a post in this blog! The difficult part when using the online image generators was getting them into my blog. But after several tries and some frustration, it finally worked.

My Avatar

Week 4 Thing 9

I have explored Merlin, signed up for an account and subscribed to their RSS feed. I also continued exploring Bloglines and the different search tools for finding feeds. Bloglines Search tool is very easy to use. I thought Topix was neat because you can search by city and get community news items. Feedsteer was more confusing for me, especially the mention of widgets. Widgets are a real mystery to me. What is a widget? I also found Technorati confusing. I went through the tutorial which seemed fairly stright forward. But when I went to the site it looked different from the tutorial. I need to pay around with it some more. Maybe I'll figure it out. I may have been confused by some of the search tools; but, at least I found out what search tools for finding feeds are out there.

Week4 Thing 8

I have spent a lot of time this week learning about RSS feeds and news readers. Read the discovery resources and now understand exactly what RSS feeds and newsreaders are all about. After reading Bloglines extensive tutorial, I signed up for an account. It was easy to get started with some RSS feeds by subscribing to some of Bloglines Top Picks. I have started noticing the RSS icon on many sites. It is so easy to subscribe to feeds by copying and pasting the URL/link into the subscribe field in Blogline's reader. I have subscribed to 10 or 12 news feeds. This is a real timesaver instead of going to each website. But I find that all of this Web 2.0 technology can be addictive and soon you find that time has gotten away from you.