Week 8, #18

I already have accounts with a couple of networking sites, myspace and facebook. I hardly ever get on either of them. Truthfully, the only reason I created the accounts was to be able to see someone else's page or because I was getting something for free out of it. The myspace page I have is so I can get into my two sisters pages, but a few of my other relatives have discovered that I have the page and have friended me, but the person who actually uses my space the most is my fiancee. He's the reason I created it. My sister kept having to unlock her page so he could see whatever knew thing she wanted him to see on her page. I created the account to make it easier for me to see her page and he uses my login to get in. So I guess we have a joint page.

The facebook was created because I wanted to see something that I read on Unshelved, can't remember what it was. But never logged back in after the intial creation. Then I forgot I had it until I tried to create another one and was using same the login. My second reason for logging in was to join the Ticketmaster group for free iTunes songs.

So, I find that I don't have time for the networking sites either. I did look through the ones on the list and found none that really appealed except for the Rate My Space site. But the only reason I am interested in this site is that I am now in the process of buying a new home and this site is giving me ideas for decorating.

Week 7, #17

Any technology, ok. I actually had a chance to check Bloglines and while reading some of the topics from Friedbeef's Tech, I decided to go to the actual website and look around. I came across a couple of postings about Wikipedia and it's sister sites. Of the 40 items from the lists of unconventional ways to use Wikipedia, the most intersting to me was a link to a person who has turned some of the Wikipedia entries into comics for more interesting reading. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Greg_Williams

Another one I found fun to play with lets you put in subjects and the site creates a mindmap for you to explore Wikipedia. http://www.wikimindmap.org/

Week 7, #16

I was somewhat familiar with wikis, for instance, I had come across Library Success once while trying to find programming that other libraries had held. I had heard about people "fighting" over entries on Wikipedia. I still don't know how one can really trust information posted on a wiki, though. At some point, you would hope that the person who reads the information would also consult some other more authoritative sources. As for use in the library, it could be a way for staff and patrons to add reviews for items. There are probably many uses, but I'm a little wary of allowing just anyone to add stuff to a site, unless the the site was constantly monitored just to make sure no one was posting misinformation or anything that could be obscene or offensive. Ideally the "community" would monitor this, but what happens when one person puts up something that offends another person and then the library gets blamed? It's sort of like the filters on the computers, it doesn't catch everything, so then we get the complaint and have to figure out how to explain this and calm the patron down. Don't get me wrong I like finding information posted on a wiki, sometimes I get some good tech info. this way, but not sure how far to go with it in the library.

Week 6, #15

I like the idea of Library 2.0 and how technology plays a role in it, however, I sometimes wonder if the general public really understands how the libraries are trying to change. Everyone still seems to have that stereotypical image of the old libraries and they seem to be shocked when we tell them that the library doesn't have something in the print format. Or, for example, the card catalog no longer exists. I was amazed to discover that schools or maybe it's just the area homeschoolers are teaching their children how to use the library the way it was back when I was a kid. In the past 2 weeks I have helped children with an assignment about learning about the library. The questions in the workbook the child had (and it did look to be new) related to libraries when we used card catalogs and the Reader's Guide to Periodicals. I had to explain to the young man that we no longer used the Reader's Guide to Periodicals, but have journal and magazine databases in order to search for articles. I also explained that we no longer have a card catalog but one that can be found via computer. Then, we had a homeschooling family come in and the mom was trying to explain the library to her children. She knew about the catalog, but didn't know about the Reader's Guide and databases. One of the other librarians spent almost an hour with her and the children showing them all kinds of stuff on the HCPL website. So, even though we are making the library more user friendly, if we don't tell people, or instruct them about it, the services may not get used or discovered.

Week 6, #14

I looked at Technorati before. I guess I would find this fun if I had time to sit and explore or read others blogs. I really don't spend time doing this sort of thing (same reason, the blogs I have created in the past don't get updated much). I just don't have time for sites like this. It looked a bit interesting from what I came across. However, doing the different types of searches for "learning 2.0" did bring back some different results. I just kind of browsed around on the site, but really didn't come across anything I found really interesting. I did click on a blog about the new Nokia tablet phone? (I think that's what it was). I guess I didn't find it as "sexy" as the author. Granted I didn't read the specs on it so maybe it has some really fabulous features that I would never use. My current phone is an mp3 player, but I hardly ever use that feature. This is probably not a site I'll keep up with. I may look at it every now and then, whenever I remember that it exists.

Week 6, #13

I like del.icio.us. I have everything whenever I want or need to bookmark something this is where I keep track of them. On my home computer, I use Firefox and Firefox has a widget that you can add that lets you stay longed in to del.icio.us all of the time and have all of your bookmarks displayed in the side panel, if you want. Here at work I have the buttons added to Explorer so that I can quickly add bookmarks or go to my del.icio.us page, but I prefer firefox's set up. Since I don't use Explorer at home (have a mac), I don't really know if del.icio.us can be set up that way. Possibly it can, and I just am not aware of it.

I mainly use the site to keep track of bookmarks. I don't use the social part of it, although I do find it interesting at times to see how many others have bookmarked the sites that I have bookmarked. I started using the site a couple of years ago when a co-worker learned about it and was using it to keep track of her bookmarks. It's useful to be able to access your bookmarks from any computer. I think it could be a great reference tool.

Week 5, #12

Library Elf seems like a nice tool. I like how it displays everything in a calendar, good for those of us who are visual, and provides all of your information in one screen without having to click around. This might be even more useful for those with multiple accounts, through a variety of libraries, or families. I have to wait and see how the emails work, since most of my items aren't actually due yet and I don't have any holds about to come in. So far though it appears to be a good library tool.