Week 10/Thing 20

I explored LinkedIn since my daughter at NYU Stern SChool of Businesss had mentioned it as a professional tool for job. I was a litle disappointed in it, but maybe libraries and non-profits are not that well represented here. I saw a blog post in SEOmoz that sort of echoed my findings " ... pondering the value and use of LinkedIn, the professional/business version of the social networking phenomenon. To date, I've connected with 30 or so folks through the service, but they're largely people I know from the industry. I've been introduced to one person through the service, but it was by way of a colleague and could easily have been done through email, too." I also looked at a number of other award winning nominees--especially those in books, web design, etc.

Week 10/Thing 19.1

This is another mini blog entry written in Zoho Writer and posted to my blog. I love the templates and the applications here.

Keeping this short since I've created it in Google docs and will send it to my blog.

The best part of this project is that it gets me to actually try the things I have been reading abvout--in this case, the google web-based office applications. I'm very impresssed--I like the spread sheet much better and made myself a tiny 3 page "powerpoint" presentation that works very well--inserted a YouTube link. I can see how the software giant might be threatened--I personally think these web-based tools will become SOP in the workplace. I also love the share presenatuons and edits--we have a project that will be vastly hastened.

Week 9/Thing 18

I've enjoyed leaning about how wikis work and how many types there are. That said, I spent a long time fooling around with them, linking my blog etc. and making mistakes of some sort. The most user friendly was Wetpaint. I added my link and may return to set up an account. I also liked PBWiki because of all the VT Librarian content and added my blog and something to the vacation spot pages, as well as adding a new page for favorite movies. The ease of doing all this is really incredible once you play around with it. My least favorite was Mediawiki -- and it seemed as though I should have created an account first. Just did not like the way it was set up. I also looked at Wikimatrix --it was useful.
I can see numerous ways for a library, school to use wikis for information, communications and others. I often look at comsumer information wikis to see how a product really works. When time allows, I plan to check out the other wikis listed on this thing.

Week 9/Thing 17

I checked in on most of the wikis on th elist. I had visited Book Lust before and really liked it. I will definitely return to (bookmarked)Library Success and Library Instruction--this wiki will help me as school/public librarian. I am constantly reinventing the sheel by writing up new assignments,etc. The plagiarism assigment was very good. Library Success included example of great library websites---we realy ned to upgrade. I loved the Simpsons wiki, also. I don't really see a downside to using a wiki--as long as one realizes who participates in it, and I like wikis. But I didn't really know until now that there are different access permissions available and also that there are charges to upgrade to get more bells and whistles.
Wikis make perfect sense for libraries to create a collaborative group.

Week 8/Thing 16

Really enjoyed these articles and they were very useful at this point as a way to sit back and reflect on the previous "things" and how these new technologies can be applied to the everyday workings of my library. I found the wikipedia piece very useful (I constantly consult wikipedia to get definitions, histories and bibliographies about new computer products, definitions, technologies, etc.) It makes sense that the social networking philosophies and tools of Web 2.0 would morph to Library 2.0 --I liked the restating of the key principals. Similarly the OCLC articles were fascinating--the "icebergs" piece is a good wake up call to all libraries especially with regard to budgeting. I thought the Library 4.0, neo-library "knowledge spa" idea was a bit farfetched. In my opinion, these new technologies (and the fact that they will be available cheaply to people in their own homes)will drastically limit the physical spaces of libraries, not create these library temples. That said,I feel that the library 2.0 model is a long way off in many places due to the digital divide of age and access. As a librarian in a very small town with unreliable,very expensive Internet access, it's been a struggle even to get our patrons to use email to check the notices I send them.

Week 8/Thing 15

This week's activities is quickly becoming one of my favorities. I've read lots of blogs, especialy class and professional blogs, but Technorati is amazing. Doing the suggested exercises led to all kinds of discoveries. The clicked around the tag cloud and also claimed my own blog and may return to that and fix it up. The following are observations:
The sheer depth of the info in different formats here is mid-boggling. Since this is the day of the Pennsylvania primary I've been most interested in the political material. In reading through those posts, the immediacacy of this information is startling--posts made 21 minutes ago on the campaign trail in Pa. ..almost like a chat room in some ways. One very current "state of the nation" post led me on a search to fingd out who actually wrote it ad it took me to the masthead of the Daily Kos--very interesting guy who began it and a full roster of reporters. Now I see how these sites are really challenging traditonal newspapers. That said, another technorati post took me a NY Times aticle on MvCain's ties tro a Arizona developer. Before I run out of space, I also tried a search for "Vermont librarians" and compared it to Google -- both went right to the librarian.net blog.