Week 7, Ex 17

I would really like to use a wiki to keep track of our branch's outreach partners. There would be a different page for every type of partner (daycares, businesses, schools, non-profits, etc.), then whenever someone makes a new connection, they can just post in on the wiki so all of the other librarians have easy access to it. It would be a great resource if a new librarian were to join the branch because they would already have all of the contact information for the branch's current partners. Yay for no duplication! :)

Week 7, Ex. 16

My favorite wikis that were on the browsing list were the BookLovers and the pathfinders wiki. Having a book suggestion wiki would be great for a library (especially one as big as SJPL) because you'll be able to get such a wide variety of titles. I also liked the pathfinders wiki for the same reason: having the brains of 100 librarians is much more useful than only one (even if that one librarian is awesome). Our Youth Services wiki has also become a great tool for SJPL because of the reason stated above, AND I like the fact that our email boxes don't have to be loaded with huge files... we can just say, "download the form from the wiki!"

But of course, being good for one thing, usually means it is not the best idea for another. When I worked at a high school library, I noticed that many students who would do web searches for reserach would use Wikipedia as a source (mostly because it would be one of the first results). It was really hard to convince students that Wikipedia can be a bad source for information due to the fact that it can be edited by anyone (well, almost anyone). The librarian and I ended up incorporating Wikipedia into our regular "how to find reliable resources on the Internet" lesson.

Overall, I really do like how wikis work. It allows for everyone to participate in sharing information and like the VST said, most wiki providers make it so user friendly, the technology barrier does not seem as large.

Week 6, Ex. 15

Reading all of the articles about Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and Librarian 2.0 can make anyone working in libraries excited (or scared) about where libraries are heading. I'm actually pretty enthusiastic about all of these new ways that libraries will provide services, but I also know that even if many of our patrons are ready for it, there is still a large community that isn't. Something I feel that is just as important as Web 2.0 is the "digital divide."

I understand that librarians should be aware of new technologies and how these will be incorporated into our services. One point that none of these articles really make is that being comfortable with technology (in general) will also help our patrons who are still on Web 1.0. I liked Rick Anderson's article about the "icebergs" we face. His last one about reaching out to the community to provide services was something that could be incorporated with customers who are learning about podcasts to those who are getting their first email accounts.

Perhaps these articles are the appropriate type of forum for a discussion on the digital divide and how Web 2.0 can play a role in bridging that gap. I think that sites like MySpace are doing a great job of this (even if they don't realize it). Many of the teen customers in my branch don't have a computer or Internet access at home, but I'm positive well over the majority of them have a MySpace. So at one end they are part of this new interconnectivity the web is offering, but on the other end, they're learning how to use HTML, send messages, and even literacy.

Anyhoo, that's all for now... time to go home!

Week 6, Ex. 14

I've never really looked around Technorati until now. It's a huge website and even looking at the home page makes me think, "Yeesh.. these are a lot of blogs." Even though I consider myself a somewhat consistent blogger, I'm really not into reading them very much; there just seems to be way too many out there. I don't even know where to begin. So perhaps this is why sites like Technorati are useful! (duh)

The one thing I did notice when I took a look at the popular page on Technorati was that even though this site totes itself on having blogs from mr. or ms. regular dude, many of the most popular blogs are still ones from big sites (boingboing, google, Huffington post, slashdot, etc.). I know that popularity is based on the number of people who list the blog as their favorite, and of course, the people and companies who are already popular will have a bigger fan base. But it would just be cool to have Mr. Joe Shmoe's blog be in the top 10. :)

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As a librarian, I really like the tagging aspect of all of these sites we've been looking at. The more organized I can make things, the better. The tagging linked with the concept of web 2.0 allows for people to find similar interest via their photos, bookmarks, blog entries, or where ever tags are being used.

I guess the only potential problem I see with tags can actually be considered a good thing as well. Since anyone can tag something anything they want, there may be some paths that never cross that should! For example, if I tag something as "learning2.0", it may never get picked up from someone who tags a similar entry as "learning2.0" or "web2.0". There are probably sites that already group similar tags together, but I can see how some connections may never be made because of this.

Del.icio.us -- Week 6, Ex. 13

When I first got my del.icio.us account, I really liked going through all of my bookmarks to see who else had also bookmarked. I also liked the satisfaction if I was the "first" person to bookmark a certain site. Ha! My favorite part of del.icio.us was looking at the popular links on the front page. With so much information on the Internet, it's nice to just get links from other people who are doing the surfing. :) Having an account is also very useful if you use more than one PC / laptop. It's nice to have your bookmarks online so you don't have to Google at work that really cool site you saw last night at home.

Probably because del.icio.us is one of the more popular social bookmarking sites, the content is pretty varied; at least it seems this way when you look at the popular links. Digg seems to be more of a tech-geek site; there are lots of articles on how to mess with various video game consoles, new gadgets, and new releases of games and other electronics. Reddit is much more aimed at political articles and compared to del.icio.us and digg, has a very basic (not really pretty) home page.

Anyhoo, it's interesting to see (again) how people are using the Internet to connect with each other. Now even things that were always personal, like your bookmarks, can be shared with others.

Week 5, Ex. 12 - My First Rollyo

I've never heard of this site until now. I agree with the VST that librarians can totally use Rollyo to bookmark favorite websites when doing searches for customers. Here is the first one I started working on after making my account:

http://rollyo.com/rockstar_librarian/ya_readers_advisory/ (it's a work in progress!)

There are a couple of things I see that would prevent me from using it:
1) I'd be too lazy to sign in on at staff computer on the floor. I would just deal with more search results.
2) What if I didn't add a site that could be totally useful? I would be missing that information if I depended on my specific search choices.

One way I could make good use of it is to post it on our MySpace page or our sjlibrary.org page so patrons can use it whenever they want to.

Week 5, Ex. 11

Of course, out of all the Web 2.0 selections, I decide to pick a subject that is near and dear to my heart: shopping.

So I took a look at a couple of choices in the "retail" category. Each one offered a completely different way to do interactive shopping.

Etsy.com -- This site allows up and coming artists a chance to share and sell their clothing, crafts, toys, books, jewelry, and anything else one can think of. Besides the type of item you may be looking for, Etsy also lets you search by location of creator, their hot items, and even by the color! It's an awesome way to get something really unique and it also offers these creators an inexpensive way to showcase their talents.

The only warning I would give is that anyone can make an account and post products. I was looking at different stationary and stumbled on a seller who make 4 Valentines out of construction paper and was trying to sell them for $10.50. Not cool. I would consider this to be like Ebay... be very careful about who you buy items from.

threadless.com -- I *really* like this store. Just like Etsy, this site gives artists a chance to sell their artwork, but all designs are sold on cotton shirts. The one thing this site does to prevent an overload of choices, is it allows the public to register as a score-person. Once registering, you can start looking at recently submitted designs and score them on a scale from 1-5. The highest scores are made and sold into shirts. I like the way this site encourages designers, but I also like how there is a filtering process so not just anything is posted and sold.

Both sites offer the viewer a number of things not offered before when it comes to shopping on the Internet:

• More viewer/shopper interaction
• A chance for new artists to show their stuff
• Viewers have more control over the content of the site

Of course, I guess that's what Web 2.0 is all about.