My Learning 2.0 Experience

I really enjoyed this whole program, but probably my favorite tools to play with and experience would have to be the blog itself, Facebook, and Flickr. Though I had used blogs and Flickr before enrolling in this program, I learned quite a bit more than I had known coming into it. Most of this was due not only to the well structured lessons (what do you mean my nose is turning brown?), but also the great atmosphere of collaboration and sharing that we experienced at our library.

My goals for lifelong-learning have not really changed, I'll still be an autodidact until my dying day, but I have learned the value of looking outside of my own experience to enrich my learning experience by sharing it more with others. I have always been eager to share my knowledge with others, and receive theirs in turn, but this program really pointed out the wonderful benefits that can come from participating in a collective learning experience.

Checking out the blogs of my coworkers only highlighted the extent to which they have really embraced these "things" and used them as springboards to their own lifelong learning goals. I had a great time commenting on some of those that I explored, and it was very interesting to see how others approached the same challenges that I faced in my own journey. I also was surprised to learn a few things that I had missed in my initial evaluation of each of the "things", so the review and comment process was a valuable one in and of itself.

In conclusion:

Blogging, Good!

Learning 2.0, Good!

Blue hair, Good!

Thing 30

What a great series of trainings! I can't clap my hands loud enough in recognition of all the hard work that went into pulling all of this together for the enrichment of all participating VBPL staff... Kudos.

While I was previously aware of many of the sites and tools that we explored in this training, I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were many "things" that I was either completely unaware of or did not know the full potential of. Marrying these discovery exercises to library related services and concepts really brings them home for me in ways that looking at them for their own sake could not. I especially liked the pointed questions and discussion starters that helped me to focus my thoughts around how these new tools and gadgets could really make a difference in the way we do business here in library land. It is easy to become mired in the "this is how we have always done it" philosophical swamp, and these exercises were a great way of breaking out of that mold.

Finally, I especially enjoyed the collaborative aspect of the program, allowing and even encouraging staff to work through problems together for the benefit of all. It is my sincere hope that this strengthened spirit of teamwork and cooperation will continue to grow from this experience and will help an already wonderfully productive staff to work together even more smoothly in the future.

Rollyo

Select...Whole EarthSearch The Web

This is the Rollyo search bar I created for ecology/conservation related searches. This tool is pretty cool, but you have to be careful with it because it does not seem to do as much ranking as other search engines do, and it can potentially return a huge quantity of hits. Wading through all these hits can be much more time consuming than it would be to search individual sites, or even a more selective search engine such as Google or Exalead. I will play with it more to see if I can customize it to produce better results, but even so it is pretty neat to be able to customize the search in that way. Very interesting.

Library Thing

I like Library Thing! This is a really neat way to not only catalog and tag items that are part of your personal favorites, but to see other readers who are interested in the same types of items and how they have chosen to represent them in their own catalogs. This tool is similar in many ways to Shelfari, which I also subscribe to and am a big fan of, and it even seems to have some functionality associated with it that is not found in Shelfari. I am only just beginning to tap into the possibilities that Library Thing offers, but it seems that there are many ways that we might take advantage of it here in Libraryland. The Library Thing for Libraries feature, for example, would seem to be a great way to encourage customers to tag items in our catalog with their own info. The tag clouds that are generated from such input could potentially entice readers to try things that they might not if they are only looking at the cataloging that we generate. I plan to update this post once I have had a chance to play a bit more with the LT features, but till then I will just say that I am excited about this tool and am looking forward to using it more in the future.

Video and Audio

I have to say that I think there are many possibilities for using podcasting and vodcasting in the library environment. We could use this technology to advertise new programs, reach new audiences with recorded programs, and communicate more effectively with staff and customers in general. For example, it is logistically impossible to get all employees to each LCDT session, but if we created a video or audio recording of that program, we could share it with all staff on their own schedule. I think this is one of the more promising new technologies for us as a system and for libraries in general, and I look forward to exploring new ways of taking advantage of it.

Podcasting

Podcasts are a great way to stay up to date with my favorite radio content. I am an ardent supporter and fan of public radio, and their podcasts allow me to easily keep up with the news and programs I may have missed while at work. I also use the podcasts provided by the University of Tennessee for my online info science classes. This tool is a convenient way to review past lectures and stay on top of my coursework.

I have not tried creating my own podcast yet, mostly because I don't have a mic on this computer, but I plan to give it a go on my home computer! I have really enjoyed the podcasts Cindy has used in this series of exercises and I think that they can really add to the richness and depth of an online educational experience.

YouTube

I have used YouTube before to post video to my blog, so this one is not really new to me, but I think it works pretty well. I don't think the resolution is as high when video is added this way as opposed to say when I add it to my Facebook page, but it is a really easy way to get content up on your blog...

I chose to add this clip because it highlights some of the work I do with the VAQ Stranding Response Team, and because Andy Fox makes such a big deal of the smell. Enjoy!

Image Generators

My creation, originally uploaded by surfing librarian.

Just one more fun FD toy I thought I'd add to the blog... this is a bit scary, but really cool at the same time. I can think of plenty of uses for this in the library environment, such as creating posters for programs or displays. Fun!

Flickr Toys

What fun! I love that so many users have devoted their time to creating fun and exciting tools that other Flickr users can make use of for their own enjoyment. This is one of the great things about Web 2.0 technology in my opinion: Users take the services in new and perhaps unanticipated new directions, creating new functionalities along the way and making the tools living, growing entities rather than letting them stagnate. These piggyback tools not only allow users to expand upon the original service in creative ways, they also offer new opportunities for their creators to potentially profit from them in ways that were not possible in the Web 1.0 model.

Tagging with Flickr

Tagging is one of the features that sets Flickr apart from other photo sharing sites because it allows users to categorize the images in ways that make sense to them which, in theory, facilitates access and retrieval of those images. Of course tagging lacks the authority of a controlled vocabulary, but this is somewhat mitigated by the idea of a tag cloud which emphasizes frequently used tags over those that appear only sporadically. The result is a kind of democratized naming authority that may make use of terms and phrases not traditionally found in controlled vocabularies. Though Flickr is not the only means of collaborative photo sharing, it is certainly one of the simplest to use and has the added benefit of being one of the more popular sites. This means that more images are available to use and tag, and this is undoubtedly better for all users.

deep

deep, originally uploaded by surfing librarian.

This is a photo of me surfing in Kitty Hawk back in March of 2003 or 2004... time flies, so it is hard to keep up. This was a great day though, and everytime I look at this picture I get a warm fuzzy feeling all over remembering it. On the subject of posting photos to the blog via this Flickr tool, I really like the option to add content in this way. It makes it very easy to search for photos and to then link them to my blog without having to wory about crediting the photographer or other rights issues. Very nice.

Web 2.0 Awards - Threadless

This is a really cool way to explore the best of what's out there in the web 2.0 universe, and I found many sites that I had not known existed. Also, this seems like a good way to sift through the plethora of sites and tools that are multiplying like rabbits and pick out the best from amongst them. I was pleased to see how many categories of sites and services are covered in this process as well.

I have used Threadless before to shop for cool T-shirt designs, but I had not really thought of it as a Web 2.0 tool until I saw it listed on this awards page. In retrospect, this site is certainly in line with the Web 2.0 philosophy of user generated content and it is a great example of how we are fast becoming the arbiters of cool rather than simply consumers of what others think is cool. Kind of like the democratization of cool, since designs can be added by customers and "voted" on in a sense by the number of people who purchase them. This site also offers designers an interesting way to be compensated for their work, so that is an added bonus for users to contemplate when evaluating the site. All in all, I think the award for best retail site was well chosen in the case of Threadless, and I urge those who have not yet checked it out to do so.

Technocrati

The concept behind Technocrati is interesting, and I like the idea of assigning authority to blogs to help readers discern their worth. Unfortunately, I don't think I am a big fan of the way in which that "authority" is measured. While I think that measuring the number of blogs that link to any other can certainly help one to determine if a blog is popular, I don't necessarily think that popularity in this sense can be viewed as authority in the way that we are used to thinking of it. Beyond that, I can see how this measurement could prove useful for those wishing to see what all the other sheepole are viewing... OK so maybe some of that is just sour grapes because I only have an authority ranking of 2...

Claiming My Blog With Technocrati

Technorati Profile

del.icio.us

Mmmm Mmmm, it really is delicious to use del.icio.us... I have been using this tool for quite some time to deal with a problem we face in the library system, namely that our favorites do not follow us from computer to computer. Del.icio.us solves this problem by creating a centralized place for me to store my Internet favorites so that I can pull them up on any computer I am logged onto, even away from work.

To tell the truth though, I had not really considered using del.icio.us to help me develop reading lists as is described in the web tutorial. This is an interesting feature that seems to be well suited towards those of us who need to keep up with current research on any particular topic. I was interested to hear the commentator speaking about the "magic middle" and about the need to be judicious when balancing the amount of content that can be realistically processed by any one person. I have similar feelings about the overwhelming amount of material that can be found online and also feel strongly that as information professionals we need to understand the best ways to sift through all of that info. Unfortunately, while tagging can lead you to content that you might not have reached through other means, there is also the quite real problem of false drops associated with synonymy, homonymy, and polysemy. I think that tagging has great potential to help us to better categorize and classify the vast amount of content available on the Internet, but I also think that the technology is still in its infancy and will have to undergo several growth spurts before it becomes as functional as it might be.

Facebook

As mentioned in my last post, I am not a big fan of Rupert Murdoch and his multimedia empire. Because of that dislike, which I will not elaborate on here, I have chosen to use Facebook as my online social networking outlet. Facebook works more with educational entities than other OSNs and this is another reason that I feel this service is a good fit for my purpose. I have many classmates who use Facebook, and since many of them have at least some interests in common with me, this just seems to be a natural choice.

Setting up an account in Facebook is very easy, as is adding content to my profile and searching for friends. Though my profile is very sparse right now, there seems to be many interesting ways to customize it without having it become overly visually confusing, a problem that seems to plague other services. I can't say that I have too much more to add about the process at this point, but I am sure that as I explore the ins and outs of the service I will have much more to discuss. With that in mind I will probably come back to this post to add any thoughts I have about the experience once I have more experience with it.

I know what you're thinking: "what does Matt in a kayak have to do with Facebook?"... well this is the picture I used on my profile, so there's your tie in.

PS. Come visit me on Facebook and we can make like friends :)

Online Social Networking and Libraries

You may notice that I am not specifically referring to MySpace in the title of this post. This is largely a reflection of my opposition to so many of the things that the owner of MySpace (Rupert Murdoch) stands for, and you couldn't make me like him or it in a thousand years... having said that, I'll write the rest of this with an eye to the concept of online social networking in general, rather than focusing on specific sites.

Like many of those whose articles are featured in this discovery exercise, I think that online social networking is a very interesting and intriguing development, and one that holds much potential for librarians and libraries. The idea of libraries connecting with these established and growing online communities is especially interesting since it represents new ways of thinking about promotion of our programs and services. The ability to connect with large numbers of users at once presents us with a wealth of new opportunities to market to these communities and to help them to better understand what the library can be and do for them. OSN also presents us with a unique channel for receiving feedback from customers and potential customers about the quality of our current services, and new ways to connect those customers to our services as well.

Of course, there are some concerns that OSN use raises, and these are not to be taken lightly. However, institutional use of these networks does not expose us to the same types of risks that individual users face, and even presents us with some opportunities that are not available to individual users as well. Overall, I think that many libraries could benefit from establishing an online presence in these communities as long as they are willing and able to keep up with the added work and responsibility that may accompany that presence. I am excited that we, as a system, are actively engaged in exploring these communities and thinking about how we might use them to our benefit.

The RA Wiki

I have mixed feelings about this wiki for several reasons. On the one hand, this is a great space for staff to share a book/author they think is worthwhile, but the fact that everyone can not only add their own entry, but alter others entries is problematic. It may turn out to work fine in this setting where all of the contributors are fairly homogeneous and well meaning, but in circumstances where that is not the case I think the lack of registration could present problems. The interface here was pretty simple, but a little tricky as well in spots, and it took me a while to figure out that you could fix the editing bar in place while scrolling far down the page. Other than that it worked pretty well and the changes were easy to make (after the edit bar thing).

Tagging was not really useful in this instance, since there is no way to really tag each entry without just putting it at the end as many people did. (Tags: Sci-Fi, Space, etc.) Because you can see most of the stuff that would be in the tags in the main entry it seemed kind of pointless. By the same token, if you were to add all the collected tags from each entry to the entire page, you would have a huge mish mash of tags that would perhaps aid searching, but would create many false hits as well.

Wikiworld

Wikis, in my humble opinion, are cool as all get out... I love that you can so easily create and maintain a web space that can be used collaboratively with others. The possibilities for their usefulness are wide and really only limited by our own imaginations, especially in the library setting. Obviously the examples shown in this exercise provide a good cross sampling of some of these many uses, and highlight the ways in which wikis can be used as collaborative tools to enhance productivity and enrich library services. I particularly like the Princeton RA wiki and the Library Success wiki because they are wonderful examples of this collaborative spirit at work.

In the Library Success wiki, we as librarians find both a portal for exploring what others in the profession find works well for them, and a forum for contributing to that discussion as well. Similarly, the Princeton RA wiki provides a space for that community to share their reading suggestions and to link to library materials and services in unique ways. Both wikis require passwords to edit content as well, so there is a fair degree of control over the content that is included on their site. I am excited that we have begun to use wikis for our system, even if they are still kind of unofficial from what I understand, and look forward to reaping the rewards of the collaborative interaction that they offer.

Ask VBPL... Maybe I'll Answer

I am approaching this from the perspective of a convert to the way IM can be used for reference services... I love our new IM reference service (Ask VBPL), and really have enjoyed using it from both sides of the interface. The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that IM and text messaging are the preferred tools of younger Americans, and we can infer, younger library users. For this reason alone it would be irresponsible on our part to ignore the possibilities this communication format offers. But it is not only tweens, teens, and twenty-somethings that are making use of the connection to library services through IM. Though we don't ask for a birth certificate when conducting IM transactions, I am positive that I have helped several people that are older than what we might stereotypically think a user of IM would be. I think that many adults are making use of this technology and are finding it to be a useful way to connect to the library as well. While we are only just beginning to tap the possibilities that IM services can make available to us and our customers, I think we are heading in the right direction by getting our feet wet now. Additionally, while the technology will almost certainly change and evolve as time goes by, I think that we will be well served (as will our customers) to keep up with those changes and look for new ways to take advantage of them.