Google Docs (and everything else)

Interestingly enough (or maybe not, I don't know), on the same day that I complete this assignment I see a post on the Winnefox 2.0 blog about another blog called The Googlization of Everything. The blog is written by Siva Vaidhyanathan, whom you might remember as the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs. I think it can be difficult to look at Google as anything but wonderful when they make so many of these great tools available free of charge and without even pummeling users with too many ads. Seems worthwhile to be skeptical, though.

That said, Google Docs is really slick. Late last year I uploaded our various schedules in Google Docs so that my department would have easy access to them from outside the library. The collaborative aspect hadn't really occurred to me. I can certainly see using that feature in the future.

Week 1 - I'm IMin

I've been using IM, mostly at work, for more than a year since I learned about some of the features in AIM Pro. I thought that I might use the screen share feature quite a bit, which I don't, but I have become a regular IM user anyway. The Menasha Public Library uses a Meebo widget on ours contacts page (http://www.menashalibrary.org/contactus). I would say we get 1 or 2 questions via Meebo each week and for most of them, Meebo is a quick and efficient way to handle them. Most of my IMing occurs with other library staff, both here and at other libraries. I find it to be a very convenient way to communicate quickly. It's not as obtrusive as a phone call and it keeps the email inbox a little less cluttered.

I added the Meebo widget to my blog and was amazed by how easy it was to do so. I next added my professional AIM account (mpljoeb) and a personal IM account (with a grand total of two buddies) to my Meebo account. Rather than using AIM, I'm going to try using Meebo for a couple of days for all three and see how that works. I'm online most of the day while at work, so feel free to say hello!