Wikis (# 16 & 17)

Wikis can be a great way to pool information. We use one for the Metro Virtual Reference SIG and, although I haven’t contributed to it, I refer to it a lot since I can’t go to all of the meetings. While the greatest danger with wikis is the fact that anyone can pretty much add whatever they want, in most cases rudeness or inappropriateness is quickly recognized and challenged by the community itself.

I edited a few entries on wikihow: mostly just spelling mistakes. It’s remarkably easy and I like that it just registers your ip address so I don’t have to give them any personal info or sign up for anything.

Libary 2.Doh!

Maybe it’s because the concept of Library 2.0 have been around since I was in Library School, but I just don’t get what the big deal is. Any successful organization or company adapts to the available technology and needs of the users, don’t they? Libraries have been around for a looong time and they have always changed and adapted. Where did this idea come from that libraries, or more specifically: Librarians, are a bunch of unyielding ludites?
Most of the librarians I know adapt to technological innovation as best they can. Maybe they don’t jump on every bandwagon to pass through town, but they do cherrypick the things that will work best for them.

I think we sometimes confuse the wants of the customers with the needs. They might want journal articles to be available free online through google, but what they need to is to be taught how to find them in the databases. Is that forcing them to conform to my old fashioned ways? I don’t thinks so. It’s about me showing them how to use the best technology in a given situation. In this case, database searching is a better use of technology than a search engine.

Now, excuse me while I go telegraph holiday wishes to my friends.

# 14

Technorati is pretty good. I wouldn’t use it for “serious” research since the blog-based searching adds another level of questionable authority, but it’s good for general information. I haven’t come across anything for which it is the first place I would go for answers, mostly because, like Google, you have to sift through a lot of irrelevant listings to get to what you really want.

I tried searching for Web 2.0 articles (Thing #15) and using “Web 2.0” as search terms, well, the first listing was in German, the second was in Italian the third was only on Twitter and the fourth was in Chinese.
Hmm, not so useful…

Del.ici-wha?

Del.icio.us is really starting to grow on me. It’s handy to be able to access my bookmarks regardless of what computer I’m using and share them with others. I don’t really use it for personal bookmarking (yet) but it’s really handy for work. We use it in Telephone Reference to share useful pages and pinpoint specific information. If for example, we notice that we’ve had a few calls asking about one of the presidential candidates speeches, we can tag the press release and it’s easily accessible to whomever is on the desk.
It’s also handy for locating information. By browsing through other people’s collections and find some new pages or sites.
The only real problem I have with it is that remembering where the .'s in the name go is a pain in the neck.

LibraryThing

I already had a GoodReads account, but i might like LibraryThing better. I havent decided yet. Good Reads lets you choose different shelves, such as currently reading, read in 2007, etc, but the formatting is kind of weird and I ended up having to delete everything and start over, so not the biggest fan.
So far LibraryThing has caused me no heartache. I like the format, and although I haven't entered enough books to really make use of the tags, I think that would be a great resourse down the road.

Image generators

Note to self:

Se7en

I’m a little uncomfortable with how much of the “new” technology is geared toward, if not entirely based on, social interaction. Obviously blogs, Myspace and Secondlife exist specifically to create some sort of interaction with other people. Flickr, Snapfish and others sharing sites are a great way to share photos with friends or, if you prefer, total strangers.

Library Thing, del.icio.us, Good Reads and the like seem to cater specifically to some sort of sharing impulse. It’s not enough for me to keep track of the books I’ve read, I need to let everyone know. Sure, I can keep bookmarks of my favorite websites in my “Favorites” tab, but what good is that if no one else can see it? Clearly there are reasons other than ego to share such information with the world at large: We in telephone reference use de.licio.us to share links and pages that can help us do our job better. In a world of shared computers, online applications go with you. So why am I so uncomfortable with such cyber-sharing?

Maybe I’m a bit leery of having too much personal information out there for anyone to find. Maybe I feel like it’s too braggey to think that my opinion matters to anyone other than my close friends. Or maybe I’m just too lazy to bother updateing so many different accounts and blogs and forums.
The world may never know…