Wild for Wikis (Thing #16)

I've been using Wikipedia for awhile now, and so was excited to see that we'd be learning more about wikis as part of this challenge.

The site I liked best was the best practices wiki, since it provides lots of ideas and the ability to add our own.

I could see wikis being incorporated into the PLCMC Reader's Club website (ala the Princeton Library's Book Lovers wiki) and it would be interesting to see what kind of ideas could be brainstormed around getting the public more involved in the library, to feel as though they were active contributors to the services that a library provides, besides being the recipients of its benefits. I think teens would be particularly receptive to this idea. Perhaps even adding a 'reviews' wiki to the online catalog, or a 'if you liked X, you may also like A, B and C' and allowing the public to enter that information themselves. Basically, I think wikis provide a great opportunity for more interaction between library staff and patrons.

Which ties in with an exciting workshop that I attended today: Reader's Advisory: What's Next with Joyce Saricks. From the moment she began talking (with a slight Midwestern lilt that immediately reminded me of Garrison Keillor), you could tell that this woman was passionate about reading, that she truly loves it, and wants others to share in that enjoyment. She shared some great ideas for boosting RA within the library and extending into the community, and also sparked some thoughtful discussion among those in attendance. It will be interesting to see where and how Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 will affect and enhance Reader's Advisory.

Back to the Future (Thing #15)

So now we are coming to the crux of the matter. What place does technology have in libraries and how will libraries adapt, embrace and innovate as we move forward? I agree with all of the perspectives to one degree or another, but through it all, I'm seeing a lot of ideals, a lot of theory, but am still left wondering how this will all be played out in the real world.

And therein lies my real concern with all this talk about the next wave of libraries. It all seems somewhat elitist to me. I don't see any discussions about how this will affect those who don't fit within its parameters. I'm thinking of the senior population, the working class poor, and immigrants. Will the library of the future leave those people behind, or embrace them?

There's no question that we're in a transition period, and I'm the last one to consider myself some kind of Luddite, but it will be interesting to see how this all plays out, and if we can come through this better serving the communities to which we belong.

Technowhatty? (Thing #14)

I checked out Technorati today, another one of those little gems of the modern Internet. I staked my claim to this blog, as well as my other one and got access to all sorts of nifty little tidbits and stats. For example Bibliochick ranks at 865,633 and A Life in Books comes in at 111,184. I can really see the value in those features for people who use platforms such as Blogger for their blogs, since Blogger doesn't provide any of those stats in its features (at least the non-beta version doesn't, not sure about the new one). Things like recent comments and inbound links are especially helpful. People with more interactive blogging software, such as Wordpress, will find that they already have access to some of the features offered by Technorati.

I entered 'Learning 2.0' and searched blog posts (16 results in blog directory, 58 in tags, and a whopping 28,419 in blog posts - about to be one more after I publish this one). The most popular searches, tags, etc. is an interesting page and seems to run the gamut from celebrity fluff to hardcore geek stuff.

As far as the tags go, I especially like that feature for this blog, since Blogger doesn't have tags built into its site. But again, perhaps the beta version does, and I'm actually surprised they haven't already done so, considering how they already network people via shared interests, etc. on the profile page.

PLCMCL2

In the Press

One of my fellow PLCMC bloggers came up to me today and showed me the latest issue of School Library Journal, which features an article on the Learning 2.0 Challenge - how cool is that! Click here to read the online version. I love that people are already finding ways to incorporate what they're learning into our libraries and look forward to seeing what else people come up with.

Delicious? (Thing #13)

Okay, so unless you've been living under a rock in the online world, you've at least heard of Del.icio.us - but that's about as far as I'd gotten. I never bothered going to the site to check out what exactly this site was about, and why it was getting so much buzz. So, thanks to this challenge, I finally know what Del.icio.us is and why people think it's just so yummy.

I can definitely see the potential and uses for research purposes, and if I was back in college, I'm sure I'd be jumping on this site in a heartbeat. And if I was interested in more online social networking than I already do, then I'd also be joining for that aspect.

One of the informative links I found via the PLCMCL2 account was this one on Splogs, which includes the tidbit that 'some 56 percent of active English-language blogs are spam' - and the article explains why that's actually a very bad thing, including the following:

"Blogs are the leading edge of what is often called Web 2.0, the vision of the Internet as a bottom-up, communal platform for data of all sorts that is generated and continually updated by its users [...] Unfortunately, the very openness and ease of use that make these Web 2.0 sites popular will inevitably make them perfect targets for spammers [...] People in the industry disagree about how to beat back spam, or whether it can even be done. But there's no dispute that if the blogosphere and the rest of Web 2.0 can't find a way to stop the sleazeballs who are enveloping the Net in a haze of babble and cheesy marketing, then the best features of Web 2.0 will be turned off, and it will go the way of Usenet, which was driven to desuetude by spam."

It's a long article but well worth the read. Ever wonder why Blogger and other sites require you to type in a 'word verification' sequence of distorted letters and/or numbers? Those are 'Captchas' (an acronym standing for 'completely automated public Turing tests to tell computers and humans apart').

But anyway, back to Del.icio.us!

I think it's a great idea but just not a site I would really utilize. Therefore, I didn't create my own account - it would have required installing some options and I tend not to do that unless absolutely necessary. Still, I'm glad I found about what the site's all about and perhaps someday I'll be in a position to either need and/or want to use it.

Roll with it (Thing #12)

I created my Rollyo account, and while I was a bit skeptical about its personal useability at first, I have since come round and think this is something I'll be permanently adding to my online interactions. I tend to restrict my online searching to Google but am frequently frustrated with the results - there's just so much that comes up, much of it not relevant, that it can take some time to sift through the searches. Still, they are the search engine I prefer to use and I don't think I'll be giving them up in favor of Rollyo, but I can see using them in tandem.

I also turn to Wikipedia quite often for more specialized searches, so I was pleased to see the 'Reference Search' Searchroll, which included not only Wikipedia but also other useful sites.

Rollyo is something I could see PLCMC putting on their main site, for our patrons to use in searching our various websites.

What is REALLY cool, in my opinion, is that you can edit existing searchrolls and thereby add them to your own searchroll list. That's what I did with the 'Books and Authors' searchroll. I added the PLCMC Reader's Club site, which made that category show up on my account.

I like that people could search my blog for particular content, and have added a searchbox to the sidebar here. You can search this blog, my main blog, or the web. Neat!

Lovin' LibraryThing (Thing #11)

Well, besides having a blog, LibraryThing was one of the few 'things' with which I was already familiar. I discovered LT back in June, promptly posted about it, and have been steadily cataloging my book collection ever since. People use LT in various ways - some catalog their wishlists, some any book they've ever read, etc. Myself, I choose to only add those books that I have in my possession. So, I don't count books that I borrow from the library, or those that I've already set aside for BookCrossing.

One of the best new features at LT are their groups, which allow you to talk with others interested in the group topic - whether it's 'awful literature' or the 'Hogwarts Express' and anything else you can think of (and if you don't see a group you think should be there, you can create it yourself). There's even a Librarians who LibraryThing group!

*Incidentally, the folks over at LT make use of Technorati, one of the feed search tools mentioned in Thing Nine. A couple days after I made the above linked post, I was contacted by Abby at LT who asked to use part of my post as a blurb on their buzz page - to which I of course said yes!

A picture is worth a thousand words ... (Thing #10)

I had some fun this evening with some of the image generators - I've used various name generators and whatnot in the past, but this was my first time playing around with images. I chose the tarot card generator, which I got from the fabulously frivolous and fun Generator Blog. Sadly, the site only included the major arcana, but I went ahead and chose the Tower card, for its imagery signifying what it feels like during a Southern summer when the AC goes out - especially at work!

I was going to create a literary themed seal, but surprisingly, although they have an amish guy, a whole host of star trek symbols (hmmm ...) and the Linux penguin, they don't have a single book symbol. Go figure.

Happy Belated Blog Day!

Well, everything else seems to have its own 'day' so why not blogs? I'm a bit late posting this (I was down in Atlanta visiting family with no real online access), but figure I wanted to give my shout-outs to some fellow PLCMC bloggers:

PLCMC Blogger Babe - for taking on this challenge with gusto!

Piratical Pages - for giving me a chuckle or two just with the first post

sukhava bodhe - a peaceful spot amongst the fray

adventures - another one braving the technology waters

furballdetox - I have no idea who this person is, but ever since s/he called turn signals 'ike the little arms on a T-Rex-useless' I've been hooked

Feed me, Seymour! (Thing #9)

I checked out the search tools for feeds, using Bookwormz as the search term. I was surprised to see the site (which my husband and I designed) mentioned in a couple places I hadn't known about.

Personally, I liked both Feedster and Technorati best, not only for their ease-of-use but also for their visual qualities. Topix, I could see myself using for more specialized searches. But, I'm still not convinced that these sites are something I'd use for myself on an ongoing basis. We'll have to wait and see!

Finally, I figure out these RSS thingamabobs (Thing #8)

I've been seeing these RSS feed buttons popping up all over the web, and even have a couple on my main blog, but wasn't really sure how they worked and tended to just ignore them altogether. Number Eight on our 23 Things list changed all that.

It was a little overwhelming at first, but the various tutorials really helped. I've set up my own bloglines account, with the requisite number of feeds added (plus a few more) and have added that list as part of the sidebar here on this blog.

It'll take some time playing around on it and using it for me to decide whether I'll keep using this feature past the challenge and incorporate it into my online activities.