Week 3 -Social Networking

I'm happy the Social Networking instructions were posted early - that way I was able to start this at home on the weekend, which was good, as I'm pretty sure facebook is blocked at work.

I signed up for a facebook account, invited some friends (and I think I invited some people I didn't mean to include, also - won't they be surprised!) and did some looking around. I thought it was fun, but didn't really see how this was going to be work related until I tried the UAB catalog search, the PubMed search and the WorldCat search. WOW Now I see some potential for people who want to connect to the Library from within their facebook accounts! While I'm not sure (yet) what needs to be done on the Library's end to be an "application" - I could see "announcing" new books, faculty publications, and general library news. I also signed up to be part of my workplace's community. Not sure what will happen since this is blocked at work, and I sure hope I don't "get in any trouble."

Next I signed up for LinkedIn. This seemed much more "professional" to me and I felt this was a more appropriate site to investigate, from a personal standpoint. My college-aged daughter feels strongly that facebook should have remained a "college-protected" environment, and I tend to agree with her - or at least I want to support her by not "invading" her "private" space. That being said, though, our users will include people who rely heavily on facebook, and if this is where they want to communicate with us, we need to be poised to do this. Although I found many more "friends" with facebook accounts than with LinkedIn accounts. I saw more potential in communicating with other librarians and professionals from within LinkedIn than from within facebook. But, to optimally use this site, it appears you need to upgrade your membership, for a "small fee." Doubt I'll do that - so LinkedIn is probably out, for now.

I found some myspace pages to be interesting, but, think that this site is not as popular as it used to be. I have a gut feeling that our users, if asked to pick one type of access they would want us to pursue, would pick facebook....

One of the questions I know we're supposed to answer is "How can social networking be used by MLA to connect members?" Well, I think MLA could be a facebook application and MLA members could add this application to their profiles. I also think they could easily be set up as a group within LinkedIn, but, my growing concern, now, is how to keep up with everything that I'm now creating and learning? There's the blog, and the wiki, and now facebook and LinkedIn, and we're only at the beginning of Week 3! How many things can we keep adding and keep doing them well? I think this will be a major challenge. I don't think, as libraries, we want to create a bunch of new access methods and then let them slide, or not stay current, relevant and meaningful to our users.

An observation - it's been 5 days since I wrote the above post. Other than the library "friends" I connected with as part of the assignment, I have found few other friends in either facebook or LinkedIn. The ones I did find still have not responded to me, which leads me to believe that perhaps these tools are not being used as much as they once were, or they aren't being used as much for professional, non-social functions. While I found exposure to these sites to be worthwhile, I'm not sure how often I will "check in" to see what's going on - at least for now...

Week 2 Wikis

I started a Wiki on Penguins - thought this just might be fun. But, maybe I should have done something library related. The wiki site has so many options and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed by it all, but, I can see some interesting applications - I think maybe more for library staff than for providing library services, but, maybe I need to experiment some more with this. I could see collaboratively working on a Procedure Manual, or co-writing a paper, or planning an event.

As I see it, the blog is "flat" with little room for collaboration, other than through comments. It's a way to disburse information. A wiki has its strength in collaboration. One can start with something very small and let others contribute, which would allow it to be more comprehensive and less one-sided. I don't know how you monitor quality, though. What would prevent someone from adding incorrect, misleading or inappropriate information to your wiki?

As I currently see it, something better suited for a blog, would be something that needs to be conveyed and is either personal or total fact - for example library hours, a menu, a class syllabus, a travel log. Something better suited for a wiki would be something where you want others to contribute to help provide a better product/response. Examples might be ideas on how to answer a tough reference question, how to catalog a book that covers more than one subject area, or suggestions on where to entertain an out-of-town guest.

Am I getting it? I hope so...

Week 1 continues

Well, I just added an RSS feed to this blog. I picked David Pogue's Pages because I can't read enough of his stuff. I saw him (on television) when he spoke at Cleveland's City Club Forum, and I was hooked. He's so easy to understand, and tells it like it is. I'm curious to see how the RSS feed will work within this blog.

MLA CE - Week 1 comments

Well, I think I did it! I have subscribed to some RSS feeds, loaded a picture, and have started writing this blog. I didn't have too many problems - just a small one when trying to add the RSS Feed from a PubMed search. It didn't work as I had expected, but, now I think I have gotten it to work properly.

In terms of how to use this, I think RSS feeds can take the place of many of the "SDI" emails I receive. For example, subscribing to the comic strip, "Unshelved" as an RSS feed will mean I can delete the daily emails, which will free up some much-needed mailbox space.

I think patrons may prefer RSS feeds compared to emailed Table of Contents, but, I need to do more investigating.

Also, I can collect my favorite blogs and other websites in one place and not need to visit the sites directly to look for updates.

I wasn't able to do this assignment at work due to the blocking of You Tube, so, I needed to do it "all at once" from home. It took me about 90 minutes, including watching the videos, setting up the accounts, and trying to get it all to work....

I look forward to experimenting the rest of the week; maybe I'll even add an audio clip!

Week 1 - Entering the 2.0 World

Well, here I am - embarking on the world of the Web 2.0. I'm excited - when it's all said and done, maybe I'll know as much as my 21 year old daughter!