Reflections

I have enjoyed Project Play from start to finish and am really looking forward to Semester 2. I came into this with varying degrees of familiarity with these tools and was eager to learn more. I do manage a certain level of self-guided exploration in the area of new technology, but there's a lot to be said for a structured approach, especially when it's put together as well as Project Play has been.

With the possible exception of LibraryThing, I expect to be using all of these tools in my professional and/or personal life. I not only have a much better sense of how to use these tools, but perhaps more importantly, I have a far greater idea of *when* to use them. I have a pretty good knack for figuring out new technology, but it's especially helpful to have it placed in a context that allows me to see where a it's been useful (or not).

Stiki Wiki

While I have found every week of Project Play to be informative, this might be the week where I will take the information and put it to immediate use. My Adult Services department has been charged with adapting/rewriting our Internet Acceptable Use Policy. I already knew that we wouldn't be able to find the time to sit down as a department and work on this face to face. I also knew that email would be too cumbersome. I started the conversation on our departmental blog, but now I'm convinced that a Wiki is the answer. I've already signed us up at PBWiki and am waiting for the email confirmation. I think this will be the perfect way for us to collaborate!

As for the assignment, I really had to look hard for a Wikipedia page that didn't already have the library linked. I tried the library where I work (Menasha), used to work (Neenah), and live (Oshkosh), but they all had links. So, I started to think of other Wisconsin cities. Apparently, as a librarian, my mind works alphabetically because now the good folks at the Antigo Public Library will find a link for their library in Wikipedia. You're welcome! :)

I also played around in the sandbox a little bit, adding a couple of my favorite authors (Jim Harrison, Jonathan Carroll, Wallace Stegner) and titles to the long list of contributions.

del.icio.us

I *think* del.icio.us is finally starting to click (pun intended) for me. I've been at the Menasha Public Library since June. Our del.icio.us page is one of those listed as an example this week, but I have to admit that I didn't quite understand the appeal the first couple of times I looked at it. I'm still not all of the way there, but I'm getting there. It becomes a lot more clear when you create and account and start to tag your own sites, as opposed to seeing only the finished product. I still don't care for the look of the site - it's a little too spare. At least now, though, I see the benefit.

As far as other uses, I think there's potential for us with a library's local history collection. Like most libraries, we have many photographs in our collection with little to no description. Opening these up to tagging might result in people adding information about these photos that we didn't know.

I'm not a cataloger. In fact, I didn't even have to take cataloging in library school. In spite of that, I like controlled vocabulary. While 'cookery' is a confusing heading for most people, at least you know that by using it, you should get all of the cookbooks in the library. Tagging seems far more likely to result in missing a resource.

Flickering

Dave_and_Joe
Originally uploaded by Joe Bongers

I happened to have this photo handy in an email message, so I thought I would use it to start my Flickr account. That's me on the left with a good friend that I hadn't seen in more than 3 years. When I walked in the door, he handed the camera to his 4 year old daughter and told her to take our picture. I think she did a nice job.

Prior to working on this assignment, I had only visited Flickr a few times. I usually ended up here following links from a blog post or website. It's so incredibly easy to use, though, I'm not sure why I didn't investigate it sooner. It seems like a great way to stay in touch with friends and family.

The most obvious use for Flickr in libraries is the promotion of events. It helps to generate interest in future events if you can show how much fun people have had at past events! There is also a tremendous opportunity in a site like Flickr where you might be able to catch the interest of someone who might not find themselves on your library's website.

No dislikes or favorite features at this point. Everything seems very easy!

LibraryThing

Here's the starter list of books I added to LibraryThing. I gave LibraryThing a try a few years ago and expected to really get into it, but it never took. I'm not sure why. I currently keep track of books I've read and books I want to read in a very 1.0 way - lists in Yahoo Notepad. It seems to work for me. I really enjoy the serendipity of coming across a book, either in conversation, on a website, in a journal, etc, that sounds intriguing and either reading it right away or adding it to my list and finding it later. Sites like LibraryThing produce an overwhelming number of results that I find too difficult and suspect to wade through.

I also find the search a little confusing. I expect the Amazon results to be a little goofy, but the LOC results didn't make any sense either. Being a librarian, I guess I prefer a basic title browse.

Week 4: Feedback

I'm finally getting around to the Week 4 exercises and discovered that there were already some interesting comments left on my blog. That was a pleasant surprise.

I have been using our website/blog at the Menasha Public Libray to promote our fall concert series both before and after the events. I've been posting photos and video to draw attention to the events and hopefully to interest people in upcoming concerts. Comments are enabled, but I haven't actively solicited them, so I just went back and edited my last post and invited people to comment on our concert series. If anybody has any suggestions, please let me know!

Bloglines vs. Google Reader

Since I'm already a regular user of Google Reader I thought that I would take a look at the feeds that I already subscribe to in Bloglines. The first thing I noticed was an import/export feature in Google Reader that saved me from manually resubscribing in Bloglines. Very handy! Almost immediately, I discovered a significant difference between the two services. In Google Reader I can click on a feed and it leaves the individual posts unread until I've clicked on them. Bloglines, however, marks all of the posts as read the moment I open the feed. I do see that there's a "keep new" function, but I often have several posts waiting for me (Project Play is not the only thing I'm behind on!) and it's just easier for me if they are left unread until I select them. Of course, it's entirely possible that there is a setting to change this and I just haven't found it yet! For now, I'm sticking with Google Reader.

Better Late Than Never (?)

I'm finally catching up with Week 2 and posting my first blog entry! I have limited experience contributing to blogs in my new position at the Menasha Public Library (www.menashalibrary.org). The front page of our website is blog-based and I contribute both as myself and through the Reference account.

I have recently started reading blogs as a substitute for various library-related lists, which were clogging my inbox with a lot messages that weren't all that substantive. Instead, I use Google Reader to stay up-to-date on issues and innovations in libraryland. Here are a couple of the blogs I have found so far:

http://www.lisnews.com/ - General library news blog.

http://www.nonanon.com/ - Interesting commentary on nonfiction titles from a staffperson at the Madison Public Library.

http://newcybrary.blogspot.com/ - Blog maintained by the director at the Appleton Public Library.