#15 continued

Things I agree with from reading articles on Libraries 2.0:

• 2.0 technology offers great ways of removing barriers between our patrons and our information by making processes user friendly.

• We need to find new ways to bring our services to patrons rather than insisting that they come to us—whether physically or virtually. This means placing our content and links in places other than the library Web Page and being a presence on the Web in places other than our own site.

• The 2.0 librarian uses Instant Messaging to meet users in their space online, builds blogs and wikis as resources to further the mission of the library, and mashes up content via Application Program Interfaces to build useful Web sites.

• questions to ask when planning for technology. Does it meet the users need in a new or improved way? Does it create a useful service for putting users together with the information and experience they seek?

• Users will create their own mash ups, remixes and original expressions and should be able to do so at the library or via the library’s resources.

• Libraries should welcome the submission of reviews, assignment of keywords (“tagging”), addition of scholarly commentary, and other forms of user participation.

For me, Library 2.0 means I get to play with cool things at work and make them relevant to what I do, and, in turn relevant to our patrons' needs.

#15 Perspectives on Web 2.0, Library 2.0 & the future of libraries

I went to a day-long conference on this very topic last Friday: OCLC Capcon's Annual Meeting 2007: Social Networking: Fad, Folly, or the Future. Aside from providing very good food they also provided a variety of speakers on 2.0 technologies and how the library can participate and use these advances in Web technology. There was a presentation of the results from a new membership report Sharing, Privacy and Trust, and Our Networked World which can be downloaded or ordered in hardcopy from the OCLC website. The keynote speaker, Roy Tennant, Senior Program Officer for OCLC Programs and Research, addressed how we can "integrate the new social media tools, learn from those content streams, and deliver platforms that incorporate user-generated content." There was a panel of experts who discussed library use of the 2.0 technologies and even touched upon 3.0. There were some good tips on which libraries are doing what and it will be interesting to look at their sites. I also jotted down some web sites I didn't know about but want to explore. I have quite a stack of things to keep me busy.

The PowerPoint presentations of these speakers can be viewed and downloaded from the Capcon Website.

One thing I am sure of--this is not a fad, it will not go away, and libraries need to use these THINGS to stay relevant. They also are fun and can save a lot of time and effort. Allowing our users to interact with us and add to what we do via tagging and wikis can make our users feel more invested in our services.
One speaker, Roy Balleste, Director of the Law Library at UDC, had a list of questions we should ask ourselves when we considered using a new application--
Can it help the library?
Can it help the staff?
Can it help the customers?
He said you must get the staff doing it if you want to create evangelists. Thats what this 23 things is all about, huh?

#14 Technorati

Hmmm! Not sure I want to claim this blog. Want it to remain semi-private,it being a learning thing and all.

Anyhow--in searching Learning 2.0 in Technorati I noticed that Allen County Libraries are doing 23 Things along side their customers. That seems like a very interesting twist that might help library patrons not only learn some new things but be aware that Librarians are relevant to the new technology.

Under key word search in Technorati--509 results for Learning 2.0 and they range much further than libraries. Apparantly CPAs are into it.

A tag search turns up 620 posts, and they include videos.

I find 669 blogsabout Learning 2.0! That surprised me, because I thought number of posts about the topic would exceed number of blogs dedicated to it. Wait a minute--the search is using those as seperate words. When I put quotation marks around the phrase I narrow it down to 309 blogs that look more relevant. many of these are from libraries and librarians participating in 23 Things.

Vanity search
There are 58 results for me under key word search
1 post tagged with my full name
And no blogs dedicated to me because I haven't made any public as yet and my stalkers are not so tech savvy apparantly.

Top favorited blogs listed by Technorati contain a few I know since they seem to get quite a bit of attention other places. A few I already have RSS feeds for. Many are technology related. Some I couldn't tell what they were from the technorati profile. One I checked was a Canadian political blog that suddenly folded as of Friday. Hmmmmm! I wonder who that person pissed off. Some I have no idea why they are so popular and don't have the time to explore and figure it out. Marketing, web development, and the arts are represented but hardly any politics which surprised me.

Top blogs based on unique links in the last month--I recognize more. Some of the same topics reflected. More humor, news, politics, tips, gossip. Not so much on writing which seems odd since so many authors keep blogs now. Are they screaming into the void?

Top searches seem to reflect breaking news and pop artists. That's to be expected.

Okay, I understand the Technorati tagging business and could add an html tag if I wanted--but DO NOT WANT.

cross-eyed and delicious

I've been doing a lot of tagging for my own del.icio.us site at home and have just started a separate account for tagging all the links on Kidsite. Now we'll really see what we can do with it, reorganizing and updating a section of a big library website. Yikes! It does get convoluted and tiring, though.
I've started to look at some library sites that use del.icio.us. (I think La Grange Park Library should either sue or fire the person who does their website. Can you say 1994 anyone?)
I find it difficult to see where and how these libraries are using del.icio.us but, as I mentioned, I'm cross-eyed at this point. Someone's going to have to walk me through it.

#13 Lucky or Not?

Well, Summer ended and the work began to pile up so it's been longer than I like, but here I am again. Just startling to look at del.icio.us.
OK, number one--how do I pronounce that?
Number two--DOESN'T ANYONE HAVE A SENSE OF PRIVACY ANYMORE!!!!?
Do I want all my book marks made public? Do I want to stalk and be stalked. Do people tag their favorite porn sites?
brb
Okay, I'm back. That didn't take long, did it? If you exist in virtual space that is.
Anyway, I set up a del.icio.us account and put the link at the bottom of the right hand column over there. I spelled "anomaly" wrong in my user name--oh, well, the real spelling was probably taken anyway. the last time I used it I had to use the spelling "Annomaly".
Now I need to add and tag more stuff.
Even later--
I like being able to add buttons to Firefox so I can quickly see my account or add a site. I chose the version of the Firefox add on that didn't automatically upload and reorganize all my local bookmarks. I put the buttons on both my home computers, too. I can still upload my personal bookmarks when I'm ready. I've just found out that you can make bookmarks private if you want. Whew! I don't want total strangers to have a complete profile of my personal life. I may use del.icio.us more in that case. It will prove handy for sharing bookmarks between all the computers I use.
Libraries could use this for sharing useful bookmark sets at a branch or through a whole system without having to load bookmark files on every computer. Cool!