Week6 #15-On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0 ...

I find this whole argument pretty interesting, but maybe I don't see it from the same angle that people who speak passionately about it.

I'm trying to be 'progressive' in my thinking about how we deliver services. Even the term 'deliver service' has a certain connotation that Library 2.0 doesn't anymore. I've spent years delivering a service, and it can be difficult to switch mindsets around your core work for the last million years ( it feels like it, anyway).

Wikipedia talks about one of the issues with Library 2.0 being that librarians are being resistant to allowing input from nonlibrarians, without any moderation or interference, and allowing people to create their own resources and to publish their own stories. I have a little bit of this feeling in me too, to be honest, but the deep seated reason for this is because we don't want to feel redundant in this new and exciting approach to information.

Our new website begins to offer our customers exactly what a library 2.0 is about. We are offering a social digital space for our customers, and allowing them to create content, participate in 'reference queries' and tag materials for easier/different searching.

I'm excited about it, to be honest, and proud that we are moving forward. I think that having a website like this will give us opportunities to feel more comfortable with the idea of user created/owned content, and we'll benefit from this.

Library 2.0 is a 'watch this space' kind of thing for me, i think. I'm not 100% convinced that our customer base or staff are completely ready for what it could mean, but I'm open to see what happens.

Week6 #14-Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

758 blogs about Learning 2.0
1167 posts tagged Learning 2.0

Amazing.

Technorati is actually pretty cool, giving me ways to find new and interesting blogs to look at. It was cool to see that postecret ( http://postsecret.blogspot.com/) was there. i got a book out from work a while ago with some of these in it, and it seems pretty interesting if not a little emo. :)

I love the way when you search for something, you get a little graph showing how many blogposts there have been mentioning your search term in the last 30 days. It's kind of mind blowing really. Led Zeppelin were at the top of the most popular page when I took a look there, and since Dec 9th, the number of posts has gone up by about 250 which is fascinating.

I actually found a great blog in a google search for a photo of a worm on the concrete after the rain ( don't ask). I talked about how great that blog was on my journal and tagged it in there and the woman who publishes the blog found it, and left me a nice comment, which was cool. I wonder how she found me, maybe it was through technorati! Maybe not. Who knows.

My only tiny problem with this site is that in the popular tags of the moment was something i had never heard of (well I had, but only in context) which was 'bbw'. One simple click lead me to a wealth of big beautiful women porn, and the associated tags ad photos were defintely NSFW ( not safe for work). I'm not a prude by any means (this could be considered a plus by some!) but I also know some people could have a problem with it.

Here's hoping ITC don't check my history and fire me.

:)

Week6 # 13-Del.icio.us

First thing I noticed when I went to the del.icio.us homepage, was that I was just totally overwhelmed by the layout! i swear my heart rate increased just looking at the bright blue and varied fonts and everythingjustjumpsatyouandyoucan'treallyseeanythingandarghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I think I totally hate it, but I can see that tagging is a valuable way of finding other resources that may assist in reference. Again, my only concern is the element of peer review, and people not knowing what they are talking about tagging things potentially incorrectly... but i guess the numbers of people tagging something as "x" could be a good indicator of it's value.

I tend to email myself lists of favourite sites to my gmail if i will be away from my computer for a while, so i suppose this could fill the role of a 'portable favourites' as well, but it seems like too much hard work for me. Perhaps Xmas coming up is sapping my interest in doing things the jazzy way...

It could be just me, but i also have no idea whay this site is called what it is. Am I missing something really obvious?

Week5 # 12- Rollyo

I wish I had known about this when I was doing my MLIS projects! It could have made things a lot easier!
I've made a searchroll for Vinyl art toys NZ, which has a combination of New Zealand and International sites and shops. I intend to use it fairly often!

I'm trying to find where I delete the crappy ones I made when I was learning...hmm...I have no idea how to do it.
Ah well, hopefully no-one will search my crap ones for things.

EDIT: aha! I have found the place to delete them! hooray!

I think this would be potentially quite valuable to libraries, as a way to quickly search sites without needing to constantly evaluate the sources of the information, like you do with a web search. However, I guess your knowledge could be limited by which sites you chose to include on your searchroll.

I'm finding this all really interesting. I had no idea things like this were out there and so heavily used!

Week 5 has been a real eye opener for me!

Week 5 #11-LibraryThing

I can easily see how I could become addicted to LibraryThing.

Here is my one http://www.librarything.com/catalog/TheChair

I love that it offers suggestions for things you might like to read, but in a less...well...pushy way than Amazon. I also really like that you can view other people's LibraryThing and find people with similar tastes to yourself.
I think i'll find a lot of new material on this site, and I can't believe I hadn't come here earlier, even though I had heard of it.

I added an LT Searchbox, but until I have more things in my library, it may not be too exciting for anyone to search my library of a whole 7 titles!

Week 5 # 10

Man, this week was so incredibly fun, and I'm getting back into the swing of things which is good.
Firstly, I cannot *believe* the number of things the internet provides to keep us entertained! How fantastic!!!I loved the Generator blog, I was blown away by the number of fun activites this blog mentioned, about 408 of which I have tried today.

I loved this ticket generator- I got to create the concert of my dreams, and all for only $25. Unfortunately it clashes with the best Christmas party in the world, so I will have to think long and hard about which I go to!

I also made this one for Postlapsaria

Okay, just one more...

This one is totally cool:

I can see that I'll be back to Generator Blog, and probably fairly frequently at that!

I'm baaaaack- Week 4 Exercise 8 and 9

I want that damn MP3 player, and so I'm going to finish this!!!

Bloglines searching was pretty amazing, and seemed really comprehensive in the things it covers.
I added more feeds to my bloglines using that and Technorati.
Originally I tried to get in to Feedster, but I kept getting a connection error, so I gave up.

Technorati was my favourite though. It felt the easiest to search, and I liked the layout. I searched the blogs for 'Library NZ', and found the blog of a guy I emailed once or twice during library school, which was cool. But I was surprised that was the only one I found that looked like a personal blog. To be honest, the personal blog is really my area of interest here, I prefer reading about some person in the same industry as me hanging out with friends, than long spiels about their opinions on the dewy decimal system.

I'm amazed and overwhelmed by the sheer number of blogs that are out there, about all sorts of, if not every topic under the sun. I was laying about in bed the other day and I was reading BBC news on my mobile phone's RSS feed section, and feeling very technologically savvy.

General opinion, I think that RSS feeds are not for me, because you lose the joy of discovery a little. I enjoy the way I find blogs to read and sites that I enjoy, which is often from a random Google search, or by clicking the links from a site I like and seeing where it takes me.