Week 7: Thing 17

I'd love to be able to use wikis at work for planning meeting agendas. It would be great to be able to collaborate during the process vs just seeing the finished result. It could also elminate several people proposing the same topic or no one proposing something, based on the idea that someone else probably already did it. Even better would be having a discussions of what to not talk about. For every person who suggest "we aboslutely need to discuss x" is a person who thinks "I was at the beatings in Sept, Oct, and Nov of last year....isn't the horse dead yet?"

Week 7: Thing 16

I was surprised and impressed by the Stevens County Rural Library District's wiki. I have a bad habit of assuming that rural equals behind the times, but that's not the case at all. If they can do it, maybe we can to? My favourite article on their site was their Manga booklist. It's a list of the series that they own, and a brief summary of the series, with a link to their catalogue. At my last job I ordered the manga, and all I can say is "I wish I thought of that!" It's #9 on their list of popular articles, so I'm not the only one who likes it.

I don't understand what "What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?" is asking. Applications? I'll wait for the official week 7, ask for more information, and come back to this one.

Week 6: Thing 15

Library 2.0 sounds absolutely FANTASTIC! I am giddy with anticipation. It's what I dreamed being a librarian would be like. It's the library that attracts customers for more than just "it's free, and Blockbuster charges almost $5/movie..."

I heard Michael Stephens speak at CLA last year, and he definitely knows his stuff, which is why it pains me to disagree with one of his points. In his "Into a new world of librarianship" article he states "(t)his librarian asks what new technologies or new materials users need." This is Library 1.3. Library 2.0 would include "and providing them with what they need or finding an alternative solution."

For example, Library 1.3 provides customers with an opportunity to "Suggest a Purchase...." and then tells the customer we're not going to bother acknowleding your input or let you know if it's being purchased or not ie "Due to the large number of suggestions we receive, we cannot notify you about our decision regarding your request."

Library 2.0 provides customers with an opportunity to "Suggestion a Purchase for SJPL Collections" and then gets the item (either through purchase or ILL) for the person who requested it, and if the item can't be found/purchased that person is informed. Of course this is impossible, and the Santa Cruz City-County Library System needs to be informed, so they can cease and desist immediately.

Week 6: Thing 14

After looking at the number of redundant tags (library, libraries, librarian, librarians, etc) on one blog, it makes me fully realise why Mr. Dewey decided to use a controlled vocabulary, instead of natural language, in his catalogue. The naming of things seems so random and disjointed. This is hell for those of us who hated "I'm thinking of a number between 1-50. Guess what it is?" as kids. One of the primary benefits is that slang, words spelled incorrectly and "bad words" are useful search terms. A disadvantage of course is trying to "guess" what tag to use to find what you are looking for.

Something that I find interesting, is the "Top Searches" while I was working on my assignment, 2 of the top searches were 7. Hilary Clinton and 9. Barack Obama.

Blue team:2
Red team:0

Of course, I have no idea what this means. Republicans don't write about who they want to be president in 08? Republicans don't search blogs? Democrats should stop writing and start VOTING? Democrats need to back away from their monitors and go outside where First Life (no dot com necessary) is happening even as you read this? These are questions best left for the philosphers of our time.

Week 6: Thing 13

I'm curious about why del.icio.us was chosen as the name. I find it incredibly awkward, but there are side benefits. After looking at the site several times over the course of several days, I can spell delicious. All I have to do now is find my 4th grade teacher who told us "they easy way to remember the difference between dessert and desert is that desert has 1 s like sand, and dessert has 2 like delisious (sic)" and tell her of my discovery.

After spending more time on blogger, flickr, and now del.icio.us, I'm starting to think that "Web 2.0" really should be "Web 2.0: Good-bye to Privacy." Should everything be shared with everyone else? Are we really living in such a reality tv show world, that nothing should be kept to yourself? Nothing? Feel free to search for pregnant porn. There are a lot of people willing to share their favorite sites with the world.

In the book The Wisdom of Crowds (blah blah blah) the author states that the decision by a group is better than the decision by any one individual. When we apply this theory to del.icio.us for research purposes, we have more minds finding and tagging things that could be useful. The list that I make as an individual is going to be shorter than the list made by us.

I'm already happy collecting my bookmarks on my personalised google homepage. I already spend more than enough time online. Do I really need to look at thousands of bookmarks from thousands of strangers?

Libraries can take advantage of it by sharing sites they've used and liked. If I find a great craft site and share it with other Youth Services Librarians, I could be saving other hours of useless searching.

Week 5: Thing 12 - Part 2

I need a new pair of shoes. Dansko Clogs, professional, black, size 39, thank you very much. I named my searchroll Dansko Clogs, and added several sites that I've bought from before (ebay, amazon, zappos, overstock.) The results were underwhelming. It worked. I hope that's enough.

Select Search Engine...Dansko ClogsSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Week 5: Thing 12

This is not fun. On the not-fun scale this falls somewhere between 8. a poke in the eye with a stick and 14. a poke in the eye with a SHARP stick. I'm just not sure where.

It started ok...
Do you have a group of websites that are your favorites? YES
Or a set of online resources that are similar that you frequently use to answer homework or reference questions? YES

This is where I got lost...
Rollyo allows you to create your own search tool for the just the websites you know and trust.WHY? Sadly, searching my favourite websites (wikipedia, amazon, bank of america, netflix,etc.) all at the same time just makes a mess. They don't seem to "roll" together.

I know I'm doing it wrong. I'll have to redo it, to find out it's potential use, 'cause right now I don't see it.