Saturday, November 15, 2008

Thing #19: Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

Wow. I just tried http://forlater.net/ for a time-management helper. It (so far) seems to be great. I had it send me a reminder to do something, promptly forgot I was supposed to do something, and then it reminded me at the time I specified! Definitely a worthwhile tool. Hopefully it continues to work this well. All you do is specify your day, time, and then type in your reminder and email address. The only problem I can see is if your power or internet were down when you needed the reminder. But that doesn’t happen that frequently…

This would be great in the library setting in a number of ways. We could send out meeting-date reminders, project deadline reminders, program/event reminders, etc.

Thing #18: Web-based Apps

This is a test document for O What a Geek Thing #18.
Google Docs is a way for people to create and share documents without the need to email. No more worrying if you typed their email address correctly, if they have space in their inbox, or whatever. Google Docs offers a variety of different applications, similar to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, which will all work on whatever computer you are on. After playing around a little, it should be fairly easy for anyone remotely familiar with Microsoft products to be able to use this.

Again, this is similar to a wiki. Users can create documents that others can view or edit. But you can also restrict editing access to specified users. My previous employer did that. Everyone could view the schedules, but only supervisors had the authority granted to go in and edit them if there needed to be changes.

The only thing I worry about a little is: What if the site suddenly quits? Hopefully you backed up all your documents and aren't relying on their server or their staying in business...

I'm more-or-less sold on Google Docs. Now, it's just breaking the habit of going to Microsoft all the time...

Thing #16: What's in a Wiki?

One interesting thing I found is that very few libraries seem to allow the individual users to also participate in the wiki. Most were either by or for librarians and not the end user, and the user couldn’t edit or add to anything. I can see the point for both sides of this issue. If vandalism, misinformation, etc. occur on the site, chances are good that the librarians wouldn’t notice because most places don’t have enough staff to devote someone to just tracking the wiki. However, you would want to tap into the knowledge of your customers. You never know who is using the library and who may be able to expand on certain topics. Some libraries use wikis for staff only and not for public use at all – like schedules, website links for doing readers’ advisory, or staff information. All of the above are valid uses for wikis. It is another way that libraries are changing to fit the times.

Thing #15: Library 2.0

Library 2.0 is alive and well. It continually is growing and evolving to keep up with today’s societal needs. Library 2.0 is the new mindset that librarians need to incorporate. The newest librarians have probably grown up in the Web 2.0 world, so it is second nature to them. Library 2.0 is the provision of services based on the changing trends. For example, libraries responded to people being unable to visit during regular hours by providing e-books and downloadable audiobooks. Libraries also are trying virtual reference for people able to contact them via chat services or email. Often people can’t stop in or phone during open hours, so they can contact the library 24 hours a day in some areas. Library 2.0 is the willingness to incorporate new technologies into traditional services, like using ‘user ratings’ on the catalogs, or LibraryThing tagging/folksonomy for users to share what their keywords would be.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Thing #14: Technorati

Yes, I know, I went out of order. I panicked and did another easy one so I could feel like I got something accomplished...
But on to Technorati!
The search feature does give me different results in the different areas, I suppose because the search tool is designed to search specific areas of people’s blogs. I like this, because if I am specifically looking for a post about something, then I don’t end up with a bunch of videos, unless I click on the videos tab. It is nice that it – in a way – is filtering or categorizing the results for me, so I have less to wade through.
What I find interesting is the wide variety of topics. True, the number of topics are as different as the people that are writing blogs. I was a little surprised at some of their top 100 blogs. Some of the topics were absolutely uninteresting to me, yet they are among the most popular out there. Also, some of the tags that people were using were not what I would have used as a tag for that blog post or photo. But I also discovered that in the Delicious exercise. That is one thing that makes the internet both fascinating and intimidating.
Overall, I found Technorati to be interesting, and it is something I’ll share with my husband. (As if he needs something else to read on the internet!)

Thing #17: PBWiki

This was another easy task! We used PBWiki at my former library to maintain the schedules for volunteer schedules and tasks. I was one of the coordinators, so I used it daily. For this exploration, I added posts to the Favorite Book and Favorite TV Shows lists, and the Favorite Blogs. I really enjoy PB Wiki, and found it to be very useful for what we needed it for. It can also be a great way for everyone to share resources/ideas as a 'think-tank' type of tool.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Thing #13: Delicious

I used the us.ef.ul resource for the discovery exercise on delicious. It was very helpful and explained a lot of things. It made it very user-friendly for everyone. I then went to delicious with the provided link and explored some of their bookmarks and tags. I also experimented and typed in some other searches to see sites and tags.

I’m not entirely sold on delicious. I guess I really don’t have a lot of sites bookmarked in general, except the ones I’ve already added to my RSS reader and my Rollyo roll. Perhaps someone that has a million different bookmarks might find it more helpful, but I won’t sign up for my own account. It would be useful for people with a million bookmarks, especially if they don’t always use the same computer. I maybe could see it for research assistance, like a bunch of bookmarks all on reader’s advisory tools or health websites or something; but not for my personal use.

Thing #12: Rollyo

This was a fun activity. I have a couple of different sites that I find myself always trying to remember to go to and check on. I enjoy going to author signings/readings/ etc., and so I go to a variety of conventions. My search roll hits the major conventions so I can just pop in my search and see if there is anything new on those sites. Now I think I’ll be creating more rolls so I can explore some of the other topics that I always have to try to remember…
This is a great tool for people to use to track websites that don’t offer RSS. Just make a roll, then search your roll periodically for whatever you were interested in from those sites.
Check out my roll: http://rollyo.com/angel11398/sffantasy_cons/