I'm creating my first document in Google Docs for 23 Things. The program seems easy to use, though it lacks a fair number of font options that typically show up in Word. One of the major benefits is that you can just share your document online so you don't have to worry about file sizes for email attachments.

Thing 17 - Playing in the Sandbox

So, after exploring the wiki for a little while, I decided to go ahead and add my blog to the list. It was really easy to add anything I wanted to the wiki pages. Conversely, I could have really messed the site up (at least temporarily) if I had accidentally deleted stuff. I did stumble across blogs from a few people I went through LATI with while I was "in the sandbox", which was cool. I still don't know if I'll be posting on too many wikis any time soon. Maybe if I find one that actually seems interesting...

Thing 16 - Wikis...

I use Wikipedia to find answers to trivia questions. If you need a credible source, it's probably not the best site since anyone can add or delete information. You can find just about anything on wikis, they can be create for any subject. I wiki is just a way for multiple people to collaborate/have input on one site. One thing I don't like about a lot of wikis is that they're really busy looking. Sometimes they are 3 different columns of text and it's a lot of information to digest at once.

While exploring, I saw several potential applications for wikis within libraries. The library could set up an internal wiki (not viewable to the public) where staff could share ideas and insights about library operations or information sources. Another potential application coudl be either internal or public. Much like the Book Lover's wiki at the Princeton Public Library, a wiki could act as a reader's advisory tool. Staff (and maybe public too, though adding public would require a great deal more monitoring of posts) could post reviews of books that they read. This would allow other staff members to provide better readers advisory in unfamiliar genres and possibly provide an answer to the "What did you think of this book?" question. (if someone else has read it and posted a review).

I haven't actually posted anything to a wiki yet, I think that's the next "thing".

Release day for "Eclipse"! oh yeah, and Thing 15...

Stephenie Meyer's book "Eclipse" came out today. I've been waiting all summer for this book.

While I'm waiting for my copy to arrive, I'll share my thoughts on Library 2.0. I think there is a very real need for libraries to embrace some new technologies in order to better serve their patrons. One of the articles mentioned seeing a drop in circulation within the author's library system. I'm not sure that we're to that point yet in our system, but it's pretty obvious that our computer labs are a big draw to our patrons. I also hear from a lot of patrons who use the Internet to montior their library accounts and place holds. We already use sources from the Internet for a lot of our reference work. I think we're going to have to make more use of web-based technology in the future to improve our customer service. Some examples to consider might be teen-specific blogs/websites or even RSS feeds from the library webpage so patrons wouldn't have to pull up our page to find out about the latest programs.

I think the demand for actual books will continue to bring people into the library since many people people don't want to or unable to download books to their personal computers. However, if libraries are to continue to stay competitive in the literary and information markets they must embrace technological change.

Thing 14 - Technorati

I didn't really know what to expect from Technorati going into this "thing". After exploring the site for a while, I don't think I'll be using it very often. I think it falls into the "too much of a good thing" trap. More often then not, when I searched for a specific subject I got hundreds or thousands of results. I don't have time to sift through that many blogs and posts. I guess if blogging took up a big part of your day the site would be great. I don't so it doesn't seem like anything special in my opinion.

Searching for "learning 2.0" under blog posts brings up every blog post that contains that phrase somewhere in its text (well over 3,000). Doing the same search as a tag search brings up blogs tagged as "learning 2.0", as well as photos and videos containing that tag. A blog directory search appears to only include entire blogs that are tagged (I assume) with "learning 2.0". Most have that phrase somewhere in their titles or page descriptions.

A lot of the top "favorited" blogs and top blogs are the same. Many of the highest ranked ones are somehow related to technology. Based on those results, you'd think the top searches would be technology-related as well. However, most of the top searches were music-related (typically a specific artist) or social networking searches (MySpace, Facebook, etc.)

While the site compiles a lot of information, the volume of search results doesn't seem to make it practical for library reference purposes.

Is anyone reading this?

I know I don't have much exciting on this blog since it's a work assignment and I barely have time to get the work part of it posted. But I don't have any comments on it so I'm just wondering if anyone even looks at it...


Okay, I guess the answer is yes and I just missed the one comment until a few minutes ago. It's kind of cool that someone completely outside of our assignment stumbled across my blog! :-)

Week 6, Thing 13

The del.icio.us tutorial link on our 23 things page was broken. Thanks to Kevin, I was able to watch a different one and get the general concept before exploring the site. It's a good way to see what sites other people find interesting and useful. For instance, howstuffworks.com has been bookmarked by over 1,000 people. I don't think I use enough of the same websites at home or work to make it worth my time to create a list of bookmarks that I can access anywhere.

In other notes, I've actually ended up using my bloglines account several times a week, which is more than I expected.