Thing 8

Web communication & instant messaging tools.

While I am an avid user of both instant and text messaging in my personal life, I've never used either in a professional setting.

The articles about SMS and instant messaging were really eye-opening. It was surprising to read about the librarian that had to get permission to use instant messaging at her library because it was blocked. Instant messaging for reference work seems like a great concept! And we all know that instant gratification is what is expected these days when it comes to information. With that in mind, I would be interested in trying out instant messaging for reference work -- it would be so useful in our youth services department because I would bet there are kids out there who need homework help but don't have access to the library because they don't have a ride or just need an answer right away, and instant messaging with a librarian or reference assistant would be a great way to get the help they need.

It would also be a positive way to promote the library!, though some might argue that a physical library isn't needed if instant messaging reference questions is available. One thing that might be troubling for instant message reference work would be how busy the library or reference desk might be at any one time. Sometimes, we are so busy at the YS ref desk that there might be a queue five people long waiting for help (photocopying, computer questions, reference desk, readers advisory, phone call, etc.), and we have only one person staffed at our YS ref desk at any given time. So throw instant messaging reference work into the mix, and that might really make things confusing. In theory though, it's a great idea, and I would love to be able to try it out at the library sometime!

The SMS messaging is a little trickier. I don't know how useful a 160-character answer can be for someone that has an in-depth question, but if a simple question was asked that required ready reference material or just a quick little answer (country population, dates, names, physical addresses & phone numbers, etc.), then SMS applications might be useful. It would be good for people on the go. But with today's smart phones, I wonder if there would be as great a need for this kind of service as there might have been 5 years ago when the article on SMS was written.

Thing 7

Online Image Generators can apparently be LOTS of fun! I came across this little gem on The Generator Blog. My coworkers and I were cracking up. Oh, fun times! This particular application would really serve no use in the library world (that I could imagine anyway), but I'm sure some of the other image generators would prove more useful! :)

Erin is doing the Ugly Dance!

Thing 6

Spelling things with flickr! This is cool! I've always wanted one of those pictures with my last name spelled out like this...



As far as usefulness in the workplace - I'm not so sure how useful this would be for my library. Sharing photos online, however, is very useful for promoting programming or the library itself. I like the idea of highlighting certain parts of the collection, maybe a special collection or an underused area, new books, audio books, etc., so that patrons can see them on the website and maybe come in to check out the items in person. I brought this idea up at a meeting a few months ago, so it will be interesting to see if anything actually happens with it. Libraries could link a Facebook (or flickr) account to their website to promote programs and areas.

Thing 5

Ahh. Flickr. So I've had a Flickr account for some years now, but with the exception of last year's addition of my "townhouse in progress" photos, it's been stagnant for at least a few of them. With the advent of Myspace (my account there is also stagnant and should really just be deleted) and then Facebook, I kind of let my Flickr account fall to the wayside. It was just easier to upload pictures to a site that all my friends and many of my family members were already using daily.

Flickr is pretty cool though. It's nice to be able to join the different groups/communities on there. I'll admit to not having looked at the site in quite some time, but I did like it when I actually used it. As far as using it for the library, I used to think it would be a cool thing (we actually covered Flickr in my Library 2.0 workshop that I took a year or so ago, and I linked my Flickr photostream to that blog). But now that my library's YS department has its own Facebook page, we just upload all our program pictures to that, for the same reasons I do it for my person page. It's just easier. But that's not to knock Flickr. I've seen photostreams from several libraries that use it. When I was looking for information on Lego Clubs in the library, I happened upon a few Flickr pages that featured children's programming, so it's definitely useful. I think the only drawback would be having to link it to Facebook or something.

That being said, I'll post my Flickr photostream here anyway. The first pictures are of my townhouse, right after I bought it when my family and I started doing all the renovations. It looks quite different now (but my "after" pictures are all on Facebook), and the later photos are from some of my visits to other states, etc...

Thing 4

The requirement for Thing 4 was to subscribe to at least three feeds from different blogs or news sources. I realized I was already subscribed to the youth services department blog at work and to a blog for another class (LIS 661). So I subscribed to the blogs of two of my co-students and also to the Unshelved comic and the Fox News National Headlines. I'm sure trying to keep up with just these few blogs and news feeds will keep me rather busy!

I decided to use the Google Reader to organize and subscribe to the feeds. I like that it was extremely easy to use (and the step-by-step directions were very clear). The good part of having all the news feeds on one page is the simplicity of it all! Things I might be interested in reading are all right there, together! How easy is that? It will certainly save time since different pages/sites won't have to be loaded up every time I'd like to read something.

For my professional life, RSS feeds would be useful for subscribing to blogs relative to the workplace -- having all the updated information available with a single mouse click would save a lot of time from searching for updates on other sites that are related to the workplace.

For the news feeds I added, it was super simple! I just copied the link for the Unshelved comic into the Google Reader "add a subscription" box. And for FoxNews, I found an RSS Feeds link at the bottom of the homepage, clicked that, then clicked the feed I was interested in (I chose National Headlines), clicked on the Google button, and that was that! Super simple. Now it's just a matter of remembering to read them all! :)

Thing 3

Thing 3 deals with searching Technorati.com and another blog search engine using the same search terms and comparing results. For my second blog search engine, I used Google Blog Search. An initial comparison of the two engines makes me favor Google over Technorati. The layout and user interface are much cleaner on Google, and the ads that are present on Technorati really distract from the overall look of the page. I felt that Technorati looked like a much cheaper site, maybe even bordering on spammy. Google's site was more professional and clean, and I preferred it based on initial impression.

I searched for "board games" in both engines. Technorati returned 251 results in blogs and 153 results in posts. Google Blog search returned over 1 million. Wow. WOW! What a huge difference. I wonder what accounts for such a gigantic variance in the result numbers between the two search engines. I liked the way the results were returned on both sites. Technorati showed a screenshot of each blog next to a short sentence from the blog. Google showed a typical Google results listing of text with a headline linked above a snippet of the actual blog entry. The included images on the Technorati search were appealing, though I am still drawn to the clean page on Google. Maybe I'm just biased since Google is my main search engine of choice in everyday life. Yes, I find something I like and stick with it although in this case it would probably be good to venture out and see what other search engines have to offer...

Features of Google Blog Search that I like: ability to arrange/filter results by last update and the advanced blog search and preference options to really pinpoint what you're looking for. I find myself extremely turned off and distracted by the ads on the Technorati site almost to the point that I don't even want to explore it anymore.

I suppose one of the positive aspects of Technorati, as far as the results go, is that fewer results means less time spent going through them all to really find what you're looking for. A million results for "board games" on Google Blog Search is definitely overwhelming to say the least while 251 is a much more manageable number. Overall, however, Google Blog Search gets my vote for the best of the two based on its cleaner look and interface. For anyone familiar with Google, the Blog Search page looks quite similar, and that brings a sense of comfort and reliability without the distracting ads and colors used by Technorati.

Thing 2

* Why are you participating in 23 Things @ NEFLIN? What do you hope to learn?

I am participating in 23 Things as a requirement for my LIS 635 Reference course. By completing the 23 Things, I hope to learn more information about Library 2.0 as well as additional tips and examples of ways to incorporate L2 techniques and changes into my professional career.

* How has the Internet and the vast resource it can be affected your use of time at work and/or at home?

When I first used the Internet in 1996, I was simply amazed at the wonder if it all. How incredible and unbelievable it was when my brother and I first "chatted" together for a few minutes with someone from Oregon! I didn't believe my brother when he said we were actually typing to someone who lived halfway across the country and that that person was instantly receiving our messages and responding to them. But it turns out he wasn't kidding, and thanks to the wonder of the Internet, I've since made some real-life (not just online) friends in many states across the country.

Nowadays, with the endless amounts of information and websites available online, I feel almost overwhelmed when searching for information on specific topics of interest. The public web is overwrought with information -- some good, some bad -- and every now and then I feel as though I'm drowning in a sea of websites and conflicting "facts."

That's certainly not to say the Internet doesn't serve an incredible purpose for me, both at home and at work. I use it on an almost-daily basis, for even on days when I'm too busy to actually surf the web or log into Facebook or my other daily sites, I still check my personal email, whether on my work computer, my personal laptop, or my cell phone. It's amazing how the Internet has completely changed my personal habits and routines. When I first moved into my townhouse, I went without my own Internet connection for several months, during which time I used unreliable unprotected network signals that my laptop picked up (and usually dropped after several minutes). I felt slightly lost, but at the same time, I found other ways to manage my time -- books! :-)

At work, I use the internet daily, for tasks that include such things as checking email and looking up information for storytimes and additional programs, and using our book vendors' websites to look up book information and reviews when doing collection development (including both ordering and weeding). And, of course, I use the Internet when working the service desk -- aside from our online card catalog, Amazon is extremely helpful for looking up books for patrons, and I make use of websites that list information on series books and databases for kids who need information for class reports.

The Internet has certainly changed the way I (and probably the vast majority of people who have regular access to it) use and spend my time and the way I look up information. Overwhelming? Certainly! But useful all the while.

* Where are you in your knowledge and use of Web 2.0 tools? How about your library?

I completed an online workshop last year on Web 2.0 tools, and it was interesting seeing the various kinds of resources available that could benefit libraries. My children's department at work has a Facebook page and a blog. The library as a whole has a Twitter account. I would love to have some kind of additional photo-sharing account (such as Flickr) for not just posting photos from programs, but for marketing parts of the library that people might not know about. We have a rather large collection of quilting books. How many people really know about all these great resources? What about our Playaways? Our private study rooms? It would be nice to have a Flickr account, or some other such means of sharing photos to highlight these areas and resources that we offer to our patrons. Within the last few years, we started creating videos to show at the schools when we make our yearly visits in May to promote our youth summer reading program, and we now have a YouTube account to which we post these videos.

So, while I'm quite familiar with using some of these well-known and common resources, it was interesting to learn about other resources in the Web 2.0 workshop last year. The point of the workshop was to familiarize its participants with different forms of Web 2.0 tools available for use on the professional level, and while I played around with many of them as requirements for the course, very few additional ones, aside from the ones mentioned above, actually stuck with me. Though I'm sure with additional practice and use of the other sources, my coworkers (and other library staff) and I would find more use for them.