Thing #11: Tagging and Del.icio.us

After setting up an account with Del.icio.us, I can see the potential usefulness of using tools like this- instead of the bookmarking on my browser. The use of tags makes this VERY useful- especially for us librarians!So far, I have added a few sites with book discussion guides (for when we do book club kit selection each year). But I though of another way to use Del.icio.us that would be useful: the other day, I was helping a patron find consumer information on central air conditioners. I remember doing this same search for other patrons, and then for myself also when I was faced with selecting an air conditioner and furnace for my home. I remember NOT finding much consumer info/ ratings in magazine articles. But I did find several websites were helpful- and I wish now that I had written these down! Now I can simply tag these sites and refer to del.icio.us when this comes up again. One of many potential applications.

Thing #10: Collaboration: Wikis

I recently did a bit of research on wikis and presented a brief introduction to wikis at one of our monthly reference workshops, so I've been learning about and exploring wikis over the summer.

At first, I had NO idea what a wiki was! I viewed the Common Craft video "Wikis in Plain English" on Youtube and found that very helpful in getting a grasp of what wikis are. I explored several wikis, such as ALA's Every Child Ready to Read wiki, Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki, and Megalibrarian (I found several good storytime and craft ideas in this wiki).

Finally, I actually CREATED my own simple wiki on Wikispaces.com, so that I could actually show the other librarians I was presenting to- how to create, edit or add to a wiki. I thought it might be useful to make a wiki where the librarians doing storytime at our branch could collaborate on/ get ideas about various themes and titles to read. I thought a wiki would be more practical than all of us e-mailing and copying eachother on e-mail, etc. I created a simple wiki using a table format with theme at the top and then title ideas for that theme in the lines below.

Thing #9: Collaboration: Zoho vs. Google Docs

I tried Zoho out- editing the Declaration of Independence document. (I haven't been able to successfully get into Google Docs). I honestly don't really know how we would ever use this here at the library. To me, it just seems easier to send e-mail attachments. But then, it may just be the nature of our work- in other professions, such as book editing or advertising, these collaboration tools might be very useful.

Thing #8: My Creation from Picture Trail

Thing #8: Experimenting with Picture Trail

I chose Picture Trail to experiment with for this "Thing 8: Share Your Creations." I found Picture Trail very easy to use- very user friendly for beginners like me. It was easy to upload photos and to play with the different ways to display my photos. I chose the "cube" style.What uses might this have for personal or library use? I think the possibilities are endless. Big Huge Labs, for example, offers posters, trading cards, and other features that especially our younger patrons would love. I was reading how other librarians have used the trading cards to motivate young readers. Lazybase (or other tools like this) could be useful to librarians- where other librarians have access (or can edit also) to a list of books, for example. That might be something we could create for our reference librarians in our librarian system- to help us in reader's advisory, for example.

Thing # 7.4: Web Conferencing

It was interesting to listen to Tom Peters talk about the use of web-conferencing by librarians and in libraries. He pointed out that basically this is a way for people to meet online in lieu of an "in-person" meeting. Libraries can use web-conferencing for meetings, workshops and even for public programming for patrons. This is an interesting idea: providing mini "webinars" for patrons interested in learning to use various library services and/or resources. I can see that being a well-used service in our busy metropolitan branch, with our patrons being very computer-savvy and interested in learning to use our databases, MNLINK database for ILL requests, and other resources. Web-conferencing and workshops might be a good way to meet the needs of our home-bound patrons who want to participate in our programs, but have difficulty getting to the library.

Thing #7.3: Text Messaging (SMS—Short Message Service)

I've often asked friends and family who are avid texters, "why text?" I never really understood what the advantages were to texting (over e-mail or even phoning!) After reading the material in this section, I have a better understanding of what texting, or SMS is. I can see that it is a more private, less disruptive and less time-consuming than a phone call and a more efficient, to the point way of communicating.

The article on using SMS in libraries was interesting to me. I think it's a great idea that patrons would have the option to be notified that their items are in - via texting. Also, providing reference services via texting is a great idea. Again, it might be a challenge to come up with enough staff to provide these services like SMS reference and IM. But with the rise in texting (and perhaps the fading away of traditional e-mail), we librarians will need to be open to meeting the needs of customers who prefer to communicate with us in these newer ways.