Random thoughts on Part 8

Email Best Practices: it's good to remember to always be careful when emailing, and that sarcasm doesn't necessarily translate in print!

Shared Calendars: I use shared calendars to book programs in the children's programming room. I've also booked meetings, which is kind of fun.

Office 2007: so far I'm finding it fairly easy to use. I like things that are fairly intuitive, as I don't like reading manuals. This is not always a good thing: I remember way back when, when Word Perfect first came out and we had just got a home computer. I tried to teach myself WP while typing an essay that was due tomorrow. It was a bit tense. Also, I've never figured out Excel because I don't have the patience for it. Something to work on!

Subscription Databases: Confession time-- I don't use these near as much as I probably should. I have taken webinars for QP Legaleze and other products, but I rarely use them. It's good to remember we have World Book in French.

Askaway: I have done the Askaway training, but have yet to do an actual session yet. I've tried Askaway as a patron, and it felt a bit weird waiting for replies and I felt vaguely rude when I signed off abruptly. But it's a good service for people who don't think to use the phone (!) or who don't have physical access to enhanced library services.

Library 2.0

First Impression of Library 2.0?
Originally uploaded by mstephens7

Library 2.0

The short essays in the discovery exercise seemed mostly focused on academic libraries, but there are plenty of applications for public libraries. I think one of the challenges is identifying which aspects of Library 2.0 fit with our strategic plan and then implementing them in a timely manner. I think there's a tendency to talk a lot about it, but not actually do anything!

I was at a party on the weekend and eavesdropped on a conversation where one person was explaining del.icio.us and tagging to another, and comparing it to library subject headings, and even used the term Web 2.0. Wow, I thought, civilians talking about social networking and all in Real Life. Later I was introduced to the speaker, and it turns out she's in SLAIS. Oh well.

Social Networking

I looked over Elizabeth's shoulder to see Facebook in action, as it appears you can no longer take a Facebook tour (I guess you're just suppose to want to sign up regardless). It is definitely geared to inviduals, but I can see the library using it to reach out to potential users instead of waiting for them to come to us.

MySpace seems especially good for finding your favourite obscure singer/songwriter, but Friendster seems (and don't be offended if you belong!)a bit desperate-- the most important information about you appears to be your age and relationship status.

I'm not inclined to sign up for any-- as Dehydra noted, I'm pretty sure once the shiny newness wore off, I wouldn't have much to say and it would become like work keeping up with everyone. I've just been persuaded to attend my 25th High School Reunion, and that will be enough catching up for the next 25 years.

Technorati

Well, Technorati sounded good on the pod & videocasts. I liked the idea of being able to search within the blog posting, by tags, or by a blog directory, but unless I was doing something wrong, you can only have those search options by joining Technorati, and I didn't want to join one more thing. Nothing on the front page made me change my mind, either.

Yesterday, election day, I wanted to see if I could find blogs of people who were posting the results during the blackout, but I found Technorati unhelpful. I can see how Technorati may be useful if you spend a lot of time reading blogs, but I don't see myself using it.

Del.icio.us

I visited Del.icio.us, and can see how it could be extremely useful as a reference tool for us (Askaway has already done it). It's a more sophisticated way of bookmarking useful sites, and will come in handy when the "usual suspects" of homework assignments start up.

Despite the fact that the social aspect of sharing sites is supposed to be a big part of Del.iciolus, I didn't find that many people make notes about the sites they tagged. I guess the tags are enough. And really, who cares how many other people have tagged Wikipedia?

I added Unshelved to NVDPL's sites, but I didn't create my own account. Being one of the five people in North America who do not have a home computer, I don't need to worry about saving bookmarks on different computers.

And why is it written that way? Because people can't spell "delicious" without help?

Note that this is the first post I have tagged.