Week 7, #16 - Wikis

The Discovery Resources for this week were super - they really gave me a good overview.
WIKIS ARE GREAT!!! Yeah, I know it's upsetting that anyone can add/edit/change entries, but I think inappropriate edits are caught and corrected in most cases. In my mind, any disadvantages are far outweighed by the advantages - easy to use, flexible, and as expansive as users desire.
The Book Lovers' Wiki was wonderful - I'd really like to see SJPL have one. I also liked the Library Success Wiki - what a great way to share best practices.
There are numerous ways libraries could use wikis. Resource guides/pathfinders, annotating the library catalog, community guides, referral guides, etc. Also, I think they can be a great communication tool for staff - kind of like an open, ongoing all-staff meeting! I think it's time to start a wiki at my branch!

Week 6, #15 - Web 2.0/Library 2.0

"Away from the 'Icebergs'" caught my eye. I like Anderson's analogy of the library as a boat surrounded by icebergs that not only threaten our progress, but also have the potential to destroy us if we refuse to shift direction. Fortunately for us, SJPL is one of those "little boats" that is, and has been, changing course. We've gotten away from the "just in case" print reference collection and have encouraged our customers to use other available resources. We've endeavored to make our e-branches more user-friendly with multiple interfaces. We've recognized that the library can exist outside of the physical building with remote access to more and more material. I think SJPL is well on it's way into the Web 2.0 environment. It's a journey we have to make, but there's no reason why we can't enjoy getting there.

What is Library 2.0? It's a strategy for constant change and continuous improvement that uses Web 2.0 technologies to encourage customer feedback and customer-driven services. It's using blogs and wikis to encourage customer interest and involvement in library services. It's the "wave of the future" that is already here - I'm just waiting for Library 3.0, 4.0, etc.

Week 6, #14 - Explore Technorati

Unfortunately, I couldn't get the Technorati videocast to play, but I read through the info. on the page.
If you have a lot of time and want to read a zillion blogs, this is the place to go to find them. If you are interested in an obscure topic, this might lead you to info. you might otherwise miss. My search for Learning 2.0 resulted in 30,704 blog posts, 264 tags, and 72 in the Blog Directory. It was interesting to look at the favorite blog sites and most popular, but really, Antonella Barba and Clay Aiken are in the top 3? What is the world coming to, anyway?
I think the advantages of tagging are that you can use the insights of others to find related things in ways you may have missed. The disadvantage, though, is that there is no control over how others tag, so you may end up with unrelated information. People may or may not be using the most appropriate words to tag, so you end up having to sift through lots of poorly tagged stuff.

Week 6, #13 - Discovering Del.icio.us

This social networking site offers a much more efficient and entertaining way to manage your bookmarks. Plus, you can network with other folks with similar interests to see what they are bookmarking. I had heard of Del.icio.us, but didn't really know anything about it. The tutorial video was very helpful, as were the resource materials. I can see how the networking aspect could really assist with research on a particular topic - after all, you can see what someone else has found, plus you can without limit categorize your bookmarks in any way that is meaningful to you. You can also see how others have tagged that bookmark, which can lead you to new ways of looking for sites that may be of interest that you would never think of yourself. Libraries can take advantage of social networking to link community users with resources in new ways. Web resources on a particular topic can have multiple tags making them easier to find by users. Users can give feedback on the usefulness of resources, and can expand the number and variety of resources found.

Week 5, Thing 12 - Explore Rollyo

Select...Recipe SearchSearch The Web

Very cool. This is a great tool. I made "Recipe Search" so that I can find all those great recipes from sites I've used in the past, but can never remember on which site I found a particular recipe. Now I can just plug in the recipe name and go right to it! Plus, I can find new recipes! I had some trouble pasting the searchroll to my blog; it kept saying there were HTML errors. I called Joe Ho for assistance (thanks Joe!), and he told me some other folks had trouble also. I was about to give up and then tried again, this time changing the color to red. The code looked the same to me, but this time it worked!

Week 5 - Thing 11 - Explore a 2.0 Award Winner site

I looked at several of the award winners. One I really liked was Craigslist, which has an ENORMOUSLY HUGE number of classified listings - Community, personals, housing, for sale, services, jobs, gigs, discussion forums. It's very extensive, but you can limit to a particular state, city, or area. So I looked at sfbay.craigslist.org. I liked the variety of listings, but there were so many to look through, and search terms seem to sometimes bring up a number of seemingly unrelated listings. but this site can't be beat - there are listings for just about everything a person could be looking for. In a library setting, I could see it being used particularly for the job listings and community categories. Lots and lots of info. and easy to use.

Week 5, Thing 10 - Image Generators

Image generators are lots of fun - I'm amazed at the possibilities. I spent way too much time playing with the ones on Generator Blog.
My movie marquee is from http://www.redkid.net/generator/sign.php