Sunday, June 28, 2009

Digg

When I go online, one of the first things I do is check the news, usually on Yahoo. Because I'm often crunched for time, sometimes I just read the headlines. (At least this way I won't be totally unconnected to the world.) I like the idea of this site, but not enough to sign up. Because sources can be from anywhere on the web (Twitter, for example), they may not be reliable or authoritative. While the AP makes mistakes sometimes, I feel like I can trust most of what I read. I would therefore have to take many of these news stories with a grain of salt. If you were someone who really wanted to be on top of pop culture, this site is a good barometer of mainstream society. The "upcoming" feature makes it a potentially good source for breaking news. I also found some of the "offbeat" stories amusing. I'm glad to know of this site, but I'm too busy to search for stories myself. The premise of this website reminded me of a young adult novel I read a while back (Extras by Scott Westerfeld) in which people in the future live in a "reputation economy." The more the main character can break cool news stories, the more her popularity rank increases. This leads to some trouble, of course.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Delicious

This site is exactly what I was looking for- I love it! After figuring out the basics, I went to town bookmarking the sites in my "favorites." Then I searched other people's bookmarks and saved some of those. Because it is accessible from any computer with Internet access, the possibilities are endless. Because the entries are tagged in a way that is meaningful to you, it is easy to retrieve the sites you want. The only thing I haven't figured out is how to combine multiple words in a tag. For example, I want "search engine" to pull up together (not "search" and "engine"). You could always omit the space ("searchengine"), but that bugs me. I noticed someone else solved that problem by doing this "search_engine." Click here for my bookmarks.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Tagging

I went ahead and tagged my photos in Flickr for fun. I'm an advocate of tagging and natural language searches. Your average library patron knows little if anything about controlled vocabularies and will give up a search if the terms used do not match the appropriate subject heading. Ideally, tags and controlled vocabularies can work together. Most folks like and understand the Google-type search, so libraries and catalogs should incorporate both. In a way, we use tagging in our school catalog. If students are not pulling up an item we know would be relevant using their search terms, we go into the record and add those terms to the content notes or summary so they are accessible. The problem with this method is that you end up retrieving more irrelevant items when you add terms at random like this. With our small collection, it isn't a problem. With a big collection, however, the results list might be too overwhelming to sift through. Folksonomies are obviously more wrought with inaccuracy and bias, but the pros probably still outweigh the cons.

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Twitter

Unless you happen to be at your computer or carrying a cell with texting capability, Twitter isn't always about what is going on right now. I heard about Twitter before I really knew what it was, which (sadly) wasn't all that long ago. Another librarian gave me the gist of it, though she didn't tweet either. I learned more about it when I read an article on the merits of Twitter in a magazine (the title of which I have since forgotten). Anyway, I watched the video on the Twitter site before I did anything else- a concise summary of features. I fiddled with my settings, then went searching. I found another N. TX 23 participant and sent her a reply (Hi Rebecca!). I noticed that a lot of folks either have no picture or something else in its stead- an icon, anime drawing... There were a lot of groups (corporations/organizations) in addition to individuals. I like that the posts on Twitter are limited to 140 characters (but why that #?) because it forces you to economize on words, making it easier for the reader. It has a number of potential uses in the workplace. Only one employee can go to the conference or meeting? No problem- that person can tweet what is going on to the folks back at the office (or library in my case). Yes, it could get out of control, but it isn't a good idea to throw the baby out with the bathwater on this one either. (Click here for my Twitter URL.)

Instant Messaging

IM isn't a particularly new technology. I used to IM my husband (10?) years ago, but stopped doing it because we haven't had the need since he's not traveling so much. My husband IMs our daughters from work, so I went ahead and signed up with MSN in order to be able to IM in their network. (librarybridge@live.com) IM is a great tool, if you have use for it. School librarians (particularly at the elementary school level) often work in isolation. If the other librarians in the district were all in the same IM network, they could IM one another with quick questions throughout the day. It is more time efficient than waiting for email responses. I like the abbeviation dictionary- useful for texting as well.

Monday, June 15, 2009

Ning

I'm not going to open a Ning account at this time. It isn't that I'm against technology or personal growth through social networking- it's more about privacy and commitment. Do I want my information out there? Do I have enough time to devote to establishing and maintaining these connections in a way that adds value at either end? The answer is (currently, anyway) no to both. I do recognize the value, the usefulness of these tools. That being said, I had a few thoughts as I explored this "thing." During the tutorial, it was a good idea to point out the privacy default settings. It's a little shady how the default is set for minimal privacy. If you were careless in setting up your account, you could end up more exposed then you intended. I did various searches on topics of interest. Because I'm considering the purchase of a pair of library guinea pigs, I searched "guinea pigs." At least one of the networks appeared to be established by a minor. It just goes to show that pretty much anybody could join these networks and it pays to be cautious. There was a Texas School Librarians network that looked interesting. Some of the bigger networks are a little overwhelming. How personal can a network with 20,000 members possibly be? Having specialized groups within networks alleviates this problem to a certain extent, but makes everything a little more complicated. Besides the privacy and commitment issues, I wonder if there is some other reason I'm not interested in social networks. It is sort of like armchair warriors- watching TV instead of actually engaging in the activity. It doesn't seem very real.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

More Facebook

Still a little uncomfortable, I fiddled with the privacy settings until I didn't feel like I was hanging all my lingerie out to dry in the front yard. I already had three friends when I signed up, so I manually requested a few more- my best friend, sister-in-law, sorority sister... I became a fan of running and joined ALA, TLA and the chapter of my college sorority. I wrote an introductory statement on my wall and then another that included a link to ALA's Great Web Sites for Kids. I took a walk down memory lane while searching for old classmates. I have weird feelings about this whole thing. I can't control what my "friends" might post. Like with other technology, I can't pick up on nonverbal cues. It is like personal advertising- who knows what is real or true? While I can pull off extroversion, I'm an introvert deep down and this means of social interaction does not appeal to me. I feel like a voyeur and, alternately, an exhibitionist. Time will tell if I find a comfort zone in Facebook.

Facebook

I was really reluctant to get a Facebook account. I prize my anonymity (see earlier posts) and I don't have a lot of spare time to participate in social networking. A friend has been bugging me about getting on Facebook for a while now, but I just haven't been interested. When I signed up for my account, 3 people I knew were already waiting for me to be their friend. It was kind of cool and scary at the same time that Facebook could use my Outlook information to find more friends. I opted to skip some steps and decided to find friends on my own. It is kind of like jr. high in a way- a cyber popularity contest. Anyway, it was both amazing and disturbing how many people I knew in the suggestions that Facebook offered. More people than I thought already have accounts. I feel kind of socially roped in- now I have to maintain these virtual relationships in addition to my real ones.

Monday, June 8, 2009

RSS Feeds

Thing 7 explains thing 6 a bit more. Again, RSS feeds are very handy for managing a large number of blogs. I looked around for some school library blogs that might be useful and added them to Reader. I chose the AASL and School Library Activities Monthly blogs. What I really would like to find is a blog in which a librarian comments on weekly lessons and activities in general- curriculum tie-ins, collaboration with teachers, reading programs, the incorporation of technology into library lessons, etc. I want to know what and how different school librarians teach in their libraries. Using the Google blog search option, I found a good one, but the author stopped adding to it in 2005. They must be out there somewhere, but I guess not enough web crawlers have put them on the search engine maps yet. Maybe this is something I need to contribute to by starting my own such blog. In the meantime, I'll keep searching and, when I find them, add them to Reader.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Blog Readers

Google Reader is definitely useful for the right person- someone who follows multiple blogs. It is akin to saving websites to a favorites list. In addition to the N. TX 23 and my own blog, I added a friend's financial blog: http://www.nutchelle.com/nutchelle.com/Nutchelle_diaries/Nutchelle_diaries.html
I noted a couple interesting things when I tried to add her blog. One, I had to use the blog page address itself. Her blog is located within her website. Initially, I tried to use the URL address for her home page and it wouldn't work. Two, the title of her blog is listed as "unknown" on Google Reader. I'm not sure if this is because the blog is located within a website, her blog is simply too small in web terms to be recognized or if she just didn't bother to name it. In sum, Google Reader will be helpful in following the N. TX 23 blog, but I won't personally use it for much at this point. I know it's there now and can use it or recommend it when the need arises.