Thursday, September 27, 2007

Wikis

My favorite library wiki was Princeton Public Library's Book Lovers wiki. It is much more aesthetically pleasing than the average wiki, and I think using a wiki as a reader's advisory tool is a great idea. Maybe we should create one for young adults since they are much more inclined to listen to their peers anyway (no offense to our very hard working and knowledgeable YA Specialists!)

I added my blog to the Maryland Libraries Sandbox. It was surprisingly easy!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Google Docs

I've been using Google Docs for several months. I love that I can access my documents from any computer with internet access, but my favorite feature of Google Docs is the ability to collaborate with other authors. I only wish I knew about it when I was going to school and had so many group projects. It would have made my life a lot easier! However, as far as word processing goes...I don't think Google Docs is up to par on formatting options. I hear Zoho is much better, so I think I'll give that a try.
Note: This entry was created in Google Docs.

Tagging

The You Tube video "The Machine is Us/ing Us" raised a very important question: Who will organize all of this data? The answer given was: we will all organize the data.

Ok, this is where I admit that there is a bit of a traditional librarian in me. Organizing tons of data with tags and no other parameters may not be the best idea. I agree that there are benefits to tagging (mainly flexibility). However, tagging presents a challenge because not all people call something by the same name. For example, if I'm using Delicious to look for information about cars, do I search for car, cars, automobile, auto, autos, or automotive?? Delicious does provide a list of related terms, but not all are listed. And when I click on each term, I get completely different results.

Methods of data organization are way behind this Web 2.0 phenomenon. What a great opportunity for those who are known for their love of organization - librarians!

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Technorati

I have very little interest in reading blogs and seriously doubt that I will ever become a "blogger" . My opinion of the blogosphere is that there is lots of scrolling, skimming, and clicking for little return. I think I'll stick to reading journals, books, newspapers, newsletters, etc. It's much less time consuming and much more efficient.

As for Technorati....if one enjoys reading blogs, this is an excellent tool for finding interesting blogs and/or blog postings.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Del.icio.us

What I like about Del.icio.us is the prospect of finding good websites serendipitously. However, I won't be cataloging my own bookmarks because I find it (and many other sites) way too text heavy. How many links do we need on one page? I do, however, realize that many people are not as overwhelmed by chaotic web pages with 4 links per entry, word clouds, and an abundance of miscellaneous links. I'm sure many of those brave people would find a library's Del.icio.us page to be a useful resource. I don't think adding a small link to the library's home page that takes customers to the library's Del.icio.us page would be too obtrusive.