Week Seven, Thing 16: Wikis

Let me go ahead and say it: I LOVE WIKIPEDIA!!

I know, I know--Wikipedia should never be a cited source in an academic paper, nor should it be the first place you turn if you are looking for authoritative information on a given subject.

However, the wonderful thing about Wikipedia (and wikis in general) is that the information is written by people who are passionate about their subject. Everything on Wikipedia is researched, written, and organized by people who simply want to share what they know with others. I find that amazing. Taken with the requisite grain of salt, Wikipedia can be a goldmine of information on every subject you can think of (and tons you can't.) Anything you want to know is a click away--history, pop culture, science, literature. Even better, many keywords are hyperlinked, so you can literally follow those threads along the site for hours.

Done gushing about Wikipedia now, I promise.

I found all the wikis listed under the discovery exercise to be wonderful as well. I'd love it if our library could have something like SJCPL's subject guides, which is almost like a FAQ in the amount of ground it covers. It strikes me as a wonderful way for customers to get their questions answered, with helpful links for them to follow as well. I also liked the booklover's wiki. Having something like this would be a great way for customers to interact with us and each other, as well as create browsing lists of titles for them to look through--after all, how many customers wish we had something like that for DVDs? This would be a great start.

Week Six, Thing 15: Library 2.0

It was interesting to read about the way Web 2.0 is changing the nature of library service. It's something I've been hearing about for years, so many of the ideas weren't new to me.

One interesting new idea I came across was an interactive library catalogue. I think it's a great idea to let customers "tag" our books or maybe write their own reviews. We could also have something like amazon's "list" feature so customers could share their favorite books with each other. Librarians could also have their own lists, and maybe we could have blogs on our website so customers could see what we're currently reading. It'd be a new way to bring people together and connect them to the library at the same time.

Overall, I think the library has done amazing things with new technologies to expand and improve our services to the community. Still, it's an uphill battle to get the word out to people about all we can do for them. So many people are surprised (and pleased) to discover all the new things the library has to offer--they still see us as just a place to come get books (and maybe movies). We have to work on raising awareness about the changing nature of the library and its place in the community. I agree with the end of the Web 2.0 article--the library of the future must encompass everything people already know and love about libraries, combined with the technologies that make us relevant to an increasingly tech-savvy population.

Week Six, Thing 14: Technorati

Here's the thing: technorati and I, much like RSS feeds and I, just don't mix, personality-wise.

Both of them begin with the premise that you are actively looking for more information, and I, for one, am not actively looking for more websites or blogs to add to my daily reading. For me, the process of collecting bookmarks is organic--it grows out of a network of sites or other sources I already trust. I guess the difference is like hearing about a great movie via word of mouth vs. finding it on a "if you liked this, you might like..." list on imdb.

Further, I'm definitely not the type to want to add my blog to technorati, even if I did understand the html to do it. I'm just now getting courageous enough to have a blog in the first place, let alone know that millions of people might see it!

It was interesting to look at the blogs that came up under their "humor" tags, though. I'm so predictable.

Week Six, Thing 13: Del.icio.us

Heheheh. Geek humor.

I found this picture on lolcats, a website listed under del.icio.us's "humor" tag. I was pleased to find a lot of sites I already knew about under the tag, and a few I didn't.

I'd known what tagging was before exploring del.icio.us. I'd seen it mainly used on Youtube and Livejournal, as a way to find related posts or videos. Tagging is very useful on Youtube, because if you can't remember the exact title of the video you're trying to find, odds are good that your search will fit one or more of the tags someone created for it instead.

I'd never thought of tags as a useful research tool before, but now I see how they can be like a folder of shared information about a topic. Interesting!

In the spirit of things, I've even tagged this post. Yay!

Week Five, Thing 12: Rollyo

I must confess my experiences with Rollyo have left a bad taste in my mouth.

I tried to make a searchroll for "movies," including some big-name sites like imdb and rottentomatoes, but also featuring some smaller-profile review sites that I like. When I try to search, however, all I got were results from the big two--even when I deliberately searched for things I knew I could find on the other sites. (Not to mention the results page was crawling with "sponsor's links" and other ads.) If the purpose of the site is to create a way to narrow down information so you only see what's relevant to you, they do a pretty poor job of it, in my opinion.

Either that, or my search choices just don't fit with what your average Rollyo user would like to see.

Week Five, Thing 11: Library Thing

Oh dear, I think I could get addicted to this.

At first, I wasn't sure what the point of Library Thing was, except as a way to compile all my favorite books into a list. For me, it was going under my profile and seeing all the users who had similar books on their lists that really changed the way I saw the site. I started with about 13 books, and then looked at my profile links and kept seeing stuff I wanted to add. Now I am at 48 books!

And I haven't even started rating them yet...

Honestly, the only thing that would keep me from being involved in this site more is time, specifically, lack of it. Otherwise, it seems really fun.

Here's a link to my library:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/sophiasaklas

Week Five, Thing 10: Image Generator

My favorite image generator was the ID badge maker. Similar to the trading card maker, it lets you add an image with accompanying text. Of course, I had to do a kitty.

Here's the link:

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/badge.php