Exploration 9...

Wow...a long time coming this getting to the end of Web2.0! I'll be honest, here ~ probably the only reason I have managed to get through this assignment in any thing that resembles a reasonable amount of time is because I have to clear it off my plate. Between work and two classes at library school and home and family...well, I had to be able to cross SOMETHING off my list today and this was the 'thing' closest to being complete. So TA-DA....it is with great flourish that I take my color-coded pen and put the neatest 'check' next to Web2.0!!

I do plan to revisit this often, however, and I am quite certain that what I learned here will probably come up again in at least a few of my upcoming courses at Clarion. I still want to play around with a few of the explorations--like the social bookmarking one and also with twitter. Still haven't figured all the ins and outs of those things yet so more 'exploring' is probably necessary.

This has been an enlightening project, for sure. It's kind of surprising all I didn't know I didn't know!

Social Bookmarking and Tagging

I can definitely see the advantages of using a social bookmarking site, especially say, if you're a PTH and have a set of websites that you would like to access and use often at the various branches that you work, or like someone else mentioned, if you work Sunday's at a branch other than your 'home' branch, you could use it then, as well. Being able to access them from any computer would make things much easier, I think. I haven't done too much with my own yet--between work and school, I'm lucky to have found any time at all to even read through this Web2.0 stuff at all right now!
Tagging is something that I can see pro's and con's to--not everyone will use the same words to 'tag' so there won't really be that much consistency. What would make perfect sense to one person could be Greek to someone else. I think for personal use, say in LibraryThing it would be helpful--if you're doing your own tagging and using it yourself, you'd know (presumably) what you're talking about!
Yippee.....I think I'm almost done!!

Libraries and Wikis

I still feel rather intimidated by such things as wikis and blogs, but I know that, like anything else, the more you use something, the more comfortable you become. I can see how both would be useful in the library world. In our system we use blogs to keep the collection at our branches from becoming stagnant and to share story time ideas. I know many of my co-workers have personal blogs that they use to keep in touch with family and friends. Our system also has begun using wikis for various reasons--New Tech, Materials Management and even one for our illustrious PTH's. It's a great way to get information out there without have to send mass emails to people. I think there must be some way to incorporate either a blog or a wiki into our libraries website for our patrons use--possibly an easy way to provide updated 7-Day Express lists or maybe just a link so they can create their own book/reading logs.

Oh the joys of new technology!!

Now What??

Ok....so, I just got a Twitter account....got it showing up on the blog....so NOW what do I do??

There's been so much talk about this 'thing' around here that I figured I'd better get with the program, only now have not a clue what to do next. Oh well...the old brain's pretty much mush these days ~ I'm sure I'll figure it out one of these days.

So many books...too many choices!

So, it only took me an HOUR and some help from a co-blogger to finally figure out how to get my LibraryThing widget onto my blog. Yikes. All that and now I don't even know if I'll continue to use LibraryThing!! GoodReads looks prettier--and really, it's that what's most important?? :-)

I think any of these online book cataloging sites are wonderful in their own rights--however, what I am seeing is just how easy it is (or WOULD be...) to spend ALL your free time ONLINE. Between the social networking sites (which I will admit to shunning!), online photo management, reading all your friend's blogs, etc, etc, etc....how will anything else EVER get done???

As far as using LibraryThing in libraries--I think it'd be a nice way to do Staff Recommends. Patrons seem to really love it when we do those kinds of displays in the branch--why not take it to the digital and have staff add a book, say monthly, to LibraryThing, that patrons can link to from the website. (you know, that new website that should be up and running sometime in the who-knows-when future!!) This suggestion is similar to the Book Banter account, except I'm thinking more along the lines of a simple 'staff recommends' online 'display'. I hope that makes some sort of sense--I spent way too long trying to figure this out and my brain's kind of foggy!!

Another 'exporation' done...next is seeing what all the twittering is about!!

Onward and Upward

So I just played around with Flickr--seems I always spell that wrong!! I've been using the kodakgallery for my personal photo sharing with family and friends and am also familiar with Clark's version, so I don't know if I would actually use Flickr for my own 'stuff'. Especially if it only holds 200 pix for free. (I'm pretty sure that's what I read on the site.)
I think it might be useful for libraries to put up photos of new carpet at a branch, or new book displays--patrons would probably like to see the 'goings on' at branches that they don't get to. It might also go a long ways towards helping them APPRECIATE us more. You never know!!

I feel like I should be way further along in this whole process--but, I'll keep plugging away. Maybe soon I'll be flickr-ing and twittering with the best of you!!

New to this Bloggin' thing...

I've been reading everyone else's blogs for several weeks now, enjoying the conversations, and the insight--and couldn't make up my mind which product to use. Most folks are using Blogger, which makes sense, because of the Shared Collections and Programming blogs that most of us are familiar with. But for my very own, very first blog?? Should I use LiveJournal or Vox, just to be different?? Should I go with the flow and use the one I already know?? You may think you know the answer--since, after all, I AM using Blogger...but what you don't know is that I just spent over an hour setting up a LiveJournal account---and then cancelled it because I just didn't like it!!! They have some cool things--lots of themes to choose from, and such--but the home page is too busy, it wasn't user friendly at ALL (IMO, of course!) and well, I just didn't like it. SO, here I am, in the comfortable space known to us all as Blogger....We'll see now if I can get any further along in this wonderful Web 2.0 journey.....

Cheers.