I think wikis are neat, but I agree with Michael - there are situations in which wikis will work, and situations in which they might not be the best tool. Do I have a handle on which situations call for a wiki and which don't? I don't think so. And in some situations, it may come down to the people involved. Will they contribute and take advantage of the wiki's strengths?
Of the wikis I looked at, I really like the Library Success: A Best Practice Wiki. I have used it before when I was researching IM use by libraries. It is a great place to go to see what libraries are doing, and how they implement different programs/tools.
I also think the conference wiki is a great idea. What a neat way to coordinate activities with other conference attendees and make the experience richer and more rewarding. I love the way that any conference goer can add to it at any time. This makes it a real-time, dynamic resource!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Thing 15: Library 2.0
I liked what Rick Anderson had to say about the iceberg that is the "come to us" model of library service. Sad to say, I think it's true that not a lot of people use library websites as starting points when searching for information. So how do we make sure that the library winds up showing up on our patrons' radar?
I think a successful example of this is the Reference Desk's "Ask a Librarian" link on the state government website. People having trouble finding state government information would probably not think to contact the Library Commission or come to our website on their own. But when they are having trouble, they look up and see an "Ask a Librarian" link and click on it, and there is a box into which they can type their question (a MeeboMe widget). They don't even have to pick up the phone or access their email accounts.
In a way I think Flickr can work this way too. If you put pictures of library activities and events up on Flickr, and tag them with the name of your community (among other things), you may suddenly appear on the radar of other Flickr users from your community. They may see things going on at the library that they knew nothing about.
So I guess one challenge is figuring out where our patrons go when they need information, and coming up with ways to make sure we are there too--a combination of meeting patrons at their point of need and marketing/brand recognition.
I think a successful example of this is the Reference Desk's "Ask a Librarian" link on the state government website. People having trouble finding state government information would probably not think to contact the Library Commission or come to our website on their own. But when they are having trouble, they look up and see an "Ask a Librarian" link and click on it, and there is a box into which they can type their question (a MeeboMe widget). They don't even have to pick up the phone or access their email accounts.
In a way I think Flickr can work this way too. If you put pictures of library activities and events up on Flickr, and tag them with the name of your community (among other things), you may suddenly appear on the radar of other Flickr users from your community. They may see things going on at the library that they knew nothing about.
So I guess one challenge is figuring out where our patrons go when they need information, and coming up with ways to make sure we are there too--a combination of meeting patrons at their point of need and marketing/brand recognition.
Thing 14: Technorati
I just can't get into Technorati. I think it is just so broad and all-encompassing that I don't feel like I can get my bearings.
I recognize the titles of the most popular blogs -- you commonly hear them referenced in magazines, newspapers, etc. And I understand the value of being able to search for terms in blog posts, in tags, and in the blog directory. I don't imaging this will be the primary way I find blogs of interest, however. To me, the "authority" of people I know professionally is going to carry more wait than what shows up as a result of searches in Technorati.
I don't know - Technorati seemed like a combination of Entertainment Tonight, CNN, MacNeil-Lehrer, local news, network news, Frontline, Oprah, NOVA, etc. all intermixed.
I recognize the titles of the most popular blogs -- you commonly hear them referenced in magazines, newspapers, etc. And I understand the value of being able to search for terms in blog posts, in tags, and in the blog directory. I don't imaging this will be the primary way I find blogs of interest, however. To me, the "authority" of people I know professionally is going to carry more wait than what shows up as a result of searches in Technorati.
I don't know - Technorati seemed like a combination of Entertainment Tonight, CNN, MacNeil-Lehrer, local news, network news, Frontline, Oprah, NOVA, etc. all intermixed.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Thing 13: Tagging
I have been using del.icio.us for some time now as a way to collect bookmarks that I can access from home or work. I never used my browser-based bookmark option very much. I always seemed to be on the "wrong" computer when I ran across something I thought I might want to revisit later - work-related sites on my home computer and sites of personal interest on my work computer don't do me much good.
The one thing I don't like about del.iciou.us is the way it looks. To me it looks cluttered and busy. I wish I could fiddle with font faces, sizes, etc. This complaint isn't enough to stop me from using it, though.
I'm not very good at tagging things. Nevertheless, I really like looking at the tag cloud where my most frequently-used tags appear in a larger, bolder font. It's an interesting way to visualize what my primary interests are at a given point in time. You can see a subset of my tag cloud at the bottom of the sidebar to the right of my blog posts!
The one thing I don't like about del.iciou.us is the way it looks. To me it looks cluttered and busy. I wish I could fiddle with font faces, sizes, etc. This complaint isn't enough to stop me from using it, though.
I'm not very good at tagging things. Nevertheless, I really like looking at the tag cloud where my most frequently-used tags appear in a larger, bolder font. It's an interesting way to visualize what my primary interests are at a given point in time. You can see a subset of my tag cloud at the bottom of the sidebar to the right of my blog posts!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Thing 12: Rollyo
Well, like many other participants in our Learning 2.0 program, I am still skeptical about the value of Rollyo to me. I look at it, and I just don't get it. I look at other search rolls on the site, and I don't feel inspired to search them.
I think it has something to do with the fact that if I'm not familiar with the sites, I'd rather go browse them to see if they might have content of interest to me. I guess I sort of feel like if I'm just going to do a keyword search of some sort, I might as well cast my net wider and do a google search.
My reaction to Rollyo doesn't have to do just with the fact that I don't know who created a particular roll, and therefore don't know if I should trust their choices of sites. It extends to my own rolled search too.
First of all, it was really hard for me to buckle down and think of a topic around which to create a search. If it's a topic of interst, I've probably already found the sites I'm interested in looking at and I go to them directly.
I think it's a matter of how I like to search - I don't mind using a search engine like Google to find sites that might contain information on a topic of interest. But once I go to the site I want to explore it on its own terms, using the local navigation and contextual clues, as opposed to pulling up random pages in response to a 3rd-party or meta-search search.
Despite my reservations, I went ahead and created my own searchroll, which I titled Vision & Learning Search. This searchroll searches four web sites that I have used to educate myself about vision-related learning problems and vision therapy.
To tell you the truth, though, even though I'm the one who chose the sites, I'd still prefer to go to each site individually and explore it as opposed to trying to use my Rollyo searchroll.
I think it has something to do with the fact that if I'm not familiar with the sites, I'd rather go browse them to see if they might have content of interest to me. I guess I sort of feel like if I'm just going to do a keyword search of some sort, I might as well cast my net wider and do a google search.
My reaction to Rollyo doesn't have to do just with the fact that I don't know who created a particular roll, and therefore don't know if I should trust their choices of sites. It extends to my own rolled search too.
First of all, it was really hard for me to buckle down and think of a topic around which to create a search. If it's a topic of interst, I've probably already found the sites I'm interested in looking at and I go to them directly.
I think it's a matter of how I like to search - I don't mind using a search engine like Google to find sites that might contain information on a topic of interest. But once I go to the site I want to explore it on its own terms, using the local navigation and contextual clues, as opposed to pulling up random pages in response to a 3rd-party or meta-search search.
Despite my reservations, I went ahead and created my own searchroll, which I titled Vision & Learning Search. This searchroll searches four web sites that I have used to educate myself about vision-related learning problems and vision therapy.
To tell you the truth, though, even though I'm the one who chose the sites, I'd still prefer to go to each site individually and explore it as opposed to trying to use my Rollyo searchroll.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Thing 11: Library Thing
I created an account on LibraryThing several months ago. I think it's really neat, but I just don't have a lot of time to play with it. I have been using it to enter books I read, as opposed to books I own.
The thing I like best is the ability to follow links to the libraries of other people who've read the same book. I can then look through their libraries to see if they've identified additional titles on the topic that I may have missed.
For this exercise I added a widget to my blog sidebar displaying recent books from my library. If you look at my recent reads you'll see that I've definitely been leaning toward non-fiction lately.
The thing I like best is the ability to follow links to the libraries of other people who've read the same book. I can then look through their libraries to see if they've identified additional titles on the topic that I may have missed.
For this exercise I added a widget to my blog sidebar displaying recent books from my library. If you look at my recent reads you'll see that I've definitely been leaning toward non-fiction lately.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Thing 10: Image Generators
Since I created this magazine cover for our Learning 2.0 project, I thought I'd include it in my "Thing 10" blog post.
One thing I like about image generators is the ability to easily create professional-looking, yet customized images with text for work-related purposes. It can take less time than creating something from scratch, yet it looks slick AND personalized. The best of both worlds!
One thing I like about image generators is the ability to easily create professional-looking, yet customized images with text for work-related purposes. It can take less time than creating something from scratch, yet it looks slick AND personalized. The best of both worlds!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)