LibraryThing is located in Portland, Maine. I used to live really close to there... but now I don't.

Children's Services posts our booklists online as well as providing hard copies for patrons. The integration of LibraryThing into our OPAC would allow us to further justify the merits of the books we recommend, while allowing patrons to browse for books that are similar, or were enjoyed by people with similar tastes. I think the browsing and review features LT offers would be valuable for learning how books have been received.

The tagging feature of this site is very valuable. As I said before, using tagging in conjunction with LC subject headings allows for more percise and relevant matches for patron recommendations and requests.

Thing 12

These sites are pretty neat for finding and sharing interesting articles quickly. I like the user recommendations feature, but there seems to be a conspiracy afoot to determine. Like most things, they seem to be dominated by people who have excessive time to devote to searching the internet for things worth reporting. It would really cool if a library could have an account, and when people are looking for news to report it would all be done under that account.

I don't have a solid opinion on the enchancing or detracting of productivity of these sites. It all depends on how much you use them. If you're a digg poweruser, I would say it is a productivity detractor, especially if you are trying to boost your rating, but if you need quick information to keep up to date on the happenings in the world, these can be very useful.

These sites are dangerous for finding information though. In the time it took me to do this thing I read about 3 articles. They have such neat headlines, I couldn't resist.

Deee Lish Us

Like anything, Delicious can be really useful for researching. A research assistant might have to wade through a lot of crap before finding useful information, but this offers an alternative to standardized cataloging of websites (and possibly beyond). While I'm not in favor of doing away with standard cataloging language, an addition to the research process can be helpful. The old story that no two people will catalog a book the same way holds true for tagging. But what we're offered by tagging in delicious is the ability to make tags for things that don't have subject headings.

Push this into the library catalog and you can create records that utilize both tagging and subject headings for optimal searching of the catalog.

Anyone can edit wikipedia... so you know it has to be true...

Which wiki did you edit?

I like the wiki concept for the ability to edit for clarification and expansion articles in the said wiki. It is a great way to come to a collaborative understanding of materials, and is especially useful when trying to find quick information.

Wikis would be great for troubleshooting technology problems, readers advisory, and guides to local areas.

I, in general, agree with teachers and faculty banning the use of wikipedia for student research. Students shouldn't be using encyclopedias for serious research, why should an online encyclopedia be any different. I went to college pre-wikipedia and I didn't use encyclopedias. Limiting information by format is fine depending on the research being conducted.

I edited the 23 things wiki on cats and favorite books.

Google Docs and Zoho

Google docs was much easier to use than zoho writer. Their features were quite similar, but overall googles ease of use allowed me to edit faster, and save easier. Google docs has the easiest and least frills version of word processing, but if I wanted to write a paper I would use Zoho. The interface reminded me of OpenOffice's word processing software, which is very similar to Microsoft Word's software, so it was all familiar. They both work well, but I would go with google to aid their inevitable takeover of all information.

I think all the Founding Fathers except for Ben Franklin would be freaked out by this crazy technology.

Thing 8 II: The Obligatory Sequel

These creation sharing tools are excellent for both personal and professional use. I used the big huge labs motivator of William Wordsworth in a project for SLIS this semester. The class was an education class and I saw bighugelabs as a great way to broaden the ways that students present their information.

For libraries and personal use you could use picturetrail to share pictures of events, or just day to day activities with your patron base, or with your family. Using picturetrail as a way to increase library website traffic would work especially well if there were lots of pictures of patrons from the event. That way grandparents, parents, and close friends would look at the library website for pictures of their children.

These tools were pretty easy to use. Picturetrail was a bit confusing at parts because it immediately adds all the glitz and glam. It took me a few to figure out how to get out of it. Also, why isn't flickr linked to their site? That would have made things a lot easier for everyone involved.

Thing 8

If man is 5, then the devil is 6... Then web 2.0 is 7

I'm torn about the idea of chat reference at MCPL. The idea seems nice, but I'm not sure about the amount of interest from our patron base. I had the fortunate experience of assessing a chat reference interview for my S501: Reference class this semester. I was expecting a horrible experience, but in the end I had a great and informative interview. It was a chance to see chat reference done right. So my perception has been influenced by past experience. Overall though, I don't know that MCPL needs it. At the college level it works well enough, at least in my case, but it doesn't seem as necessary for us. That being said, I wouldn't mind participating in a study where we put a meebo messenger in the PAC and see where that takes us. Internal use of IM would be great for quick communications, but I don't think it would be beneficial at the reference desk because it is distracting.

Twitter... I don't know about twitter. I used it... it is okay. The real problem I have with it is how trivial it is. I've seen some application of twitter in libraries and it wasn't that useful. The best way I could see using it would be to post events that were happening in the library. The question is would it be a library twitter, or department, or individual. I'm not sold, yet.\

Not getting overwhelmed with Web 2.0. I like it, it is fun for me because I don't usually take part in these things on my own. It is nice to have something to force me to participate in the 2.0 web.

Thing 6 - Part 2: Electric Boogaloo.

I attended the MySpace? Yes! Webinar on Opal. It was a really good webinar, even though I didn't learn a lot about my space. It was much more focused on setting up a myspace page rather than how useful it was for promotion, or other good reasoning for having a library myspace page. This is a really neat way to communicate, I liked how people would try to type funny comments on the text bar at the side. This would be especially useful for step-by-step guides through difficult technology applications, or simple ones, depending on the user group.

Thing 6: Part 1 - A Preface to Mystery

MCPL is very reliant on email for communication. Adult services has a blog, which I think is a better form of communication for routine information, but Children's services, and other department communicate through email (or so I am led to believe). I cannot fully comment on whether email improves productivity in the work place because I've never worked in a professional/or paraprofessional position without it. It serves as a constant reminder of job to do and issues that come up. I believe that it does increase productivity in some aspects, but hinders in others. A positive is the trail of communication that can be recorded. This provides a much clearer trail than verbal heresay. A negative (for me at least) is the lack of interaction in some work places, and the amount of time people spend answering email. I've worked in places where I felt I had to apologize for asking a person a question in person, rather than over email. At least interoffice forwards (at least in the places I've worked) have dropped tremedously.

Online reference is a really neat idea, although its application is a bit trickier. I used instant messaging throughout high school and college. Since graduating I haven't used instant messaging for personal use, but I have used it in work. Interoffice communication is great when using instant messaging, especially in a work place that encourages silence. For reference IM would work well as a quick resource, but I don't think it would work well for in-depth questions.

I didn't start text messaging until after college, but I love it for its ease of quick communication. It is great for quick questions, which would be useful in quick reference quesitons. I have used it to send emails, which was very easy.

Ninjas

Ninjas
Originally uploaded by Lord Mayor of Awesometown

You can also make funny photos. This is a great way to spend your day!

Awesometown Trading Cards

Awesometown Trading Cards
Originally uploaded by Lord Mayor of Awesometown

I could make my own Magic cards for a magic program, and then destroy everyone that shows up with my non-regulation deck!

But in all seriousness, this is great! You could have an entire program just centered around making your own trading cards! In the department you could make cards, or movie posters featuring your department. It would be a great way to get the faces of the department out for people to see. I think these have great potential in the children's department.

Thinking as a possible school media specialist, these could be used to enhance understanding of different subjects. You could make a trading card deck for a kingdom of animals, or a genre of writing (imagine British Literature, The Collectible Card Game!).

bear

bear
Originally uploaded by Lord Mayor of Awesometown

One time Corduroy came to the library. He rode a skateboard.

Using pictures like this in the library for promotion and for people to see just what we're up to is a great way to build publicity. Plus, people love seeing pictures of themselves from events, it is a proven fact backed by years of research. You could also use imageshack, or photobucket, both of which I have used in the past, but I don't think they are as good as flickr. The whole attachment to my yahoo! id and the ability to link to my blog is a great way to streamline the process.

The thing about these photosharing websites is their completely public, so you shouldn't put anything on there that you wouldn't want the whole world to see. This applies to most things on the internet.

Flickr is cool. I like it.

Thing 3. I love RSS Feeds.

RSS and newsreaders are the coolest. I can't believe I haven't taken advantage of these yet. Now instead of clicking through tons of websites per day, desperately waiting for updates, hoping and hoping that sites will be updated, I can now go to one website and check periodically. I also like how past posts are kept, so if a site updates frequently I have a backlog to look through. I can just feel how much time I'm going to save by not aimlessly clicking on websites. Professionaly, this is a great way to keep up on current events, and if every department had a blog, we could get updated at our leisure on the happenings

Now applying this in a strictly librarian sense. Departments could feature their events, or news for the general public. We could give readers advisory through RSS, or give types for encouraging literacy. This is a great way to push library websites more towards a place to visit, rather than an online catalog.

I really like newsgator. Its interface is very easy to use, just put in a website and it is added. Its viewing features are a lot like other programs I'm used to. Its browsing feature, and featured stories feature are also very cool. A lot of what I did to find my feeds was to type in websites I continually visit and see if they have RSS feeds. Most of them did.

No GREAT feeds yet, but I will report back when I find them.

Thing 2. And now you know... the rest of the story.

What are you looking forward to in 23 Things?
I'm participating in 23 Things to expand my knowledge of Web 2.0 tools. I have been using various tools for quite some time now, but I am by no means a guru of the 2.0 technology, so I am taking this chance to broaden by knowledge.

One of the biggest ways the Internet is I know spend most of my time watching a computer screen. Whether I'm sifting through emails at work, or checking forums and web comics at home I look at the computer a lot. I'm just thankful I am no longer addicted to Internet chess, once I kicked that addiction I had so much more time for things not related to the computer.

While my knowledge of Web 2.0 isn't encyclopedic because I consider myself fairly computer literature I don't think I will have any problem in learning various skills this program has to offer. I am most looking forward to learning things I don't know about, like aggregators, and rss feeds. Also, "Share Your Creation" has me interested. I am also excited to see what zany comments Phil is going to leave, and watching/helping Pat become a Web 2.0 resource.

A second post?

This second post is a comment on how easy the interface of blogspot is, point and click and I'm on my way. My only problem was the encryption key at the beginning, it took me 4 times typing it in to get through to figure it out.

23 Things

This is my 23 things blog. I now have 1 thing. This one thing allows me one LEU points.