I signed up for Facebook tonight. I found someone I knew in high school and sent a request to her to be a Facebook friend. She sent me zombies. I'm still not sure what the etiquette is about dealing with zombies, so I let them be, rather than passing them on. My Facebook profile can be viewed. For those of you in the class, feel free to request me as a friend.
I have a MySpace page already, so I have a little experience there.
Here's the questions we were asked...
How can social networking be used by MLA to connect members
It's easy to make connexions using social networking, so long as people are willing to participate. It's just a matter of clicking to send a friend request. If you have a centralised site for the MLA in terms of MySpace, that probably makes it easier. I'm not familiar enough with Facebook yet to know how best to go about using it specifically to help connect MLA, but once they are connected, it's fun to see differences and similarities...something far beyond just a name and contact info.
Should your library have a Facebook or MySpace page?
I think there's definitely an audience for public libraries. I don't know about hospital or medical ones. So much of the social networking arena is blocked by our tech departments, I don't know how useful it would be.
Are there privacy concerns for individuals when using social networking sites?
Of course, especially about minors, but they're the same as anywhere you go online--don't post information you wouldn't want you worst enemy to see. Simple as that!
What did you like or not like about your experience with Facebook or MySpace? I really like the applications they have, some just fun, some really useful. I did go into the zombie application and accidentally bit Bart Ragon, only to find that he is a super zombie lord with several zombies under him. :)
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
So we're up to wikis...
I've started a wiki called 'Rabid for 2.0' at WetPaint. There's a link to it and to the MLA class wiki on my blogroll.
So what are the differences between blogs? Whilst more than one person can contribute to a blog, they're meant as posts, much like news articles. Wikis, on the other hand, allow for total collaboration. They are a good way to disseminate information because 1) there's a certain shared authority, 2) everyone contributes a little to the whole, and 3) the results can be viewed like a regular web page rather than scrolling through lots of blog posts. Blogs are better for announcements or sharing links through a blogroll. Wikis are better for providing information that is meant to stay up in one place but can still be dynamic rather than static, such as policies, hours of operation, procedures, that sort of thing. This can be really useful for a library, as various staff members can work on the project and provide users with information, but they themselves can see what's up there, what needs to be changed, a history of edits, and generally not work at cross purposes but build something worthwhile.
So what are the differences between blogs? Whilst more than one person can contribute to a blog, they're meant as posts, much like news articles. Wikis, on the other hand, allow for total collaboration. They are a good way to disseminate information because 1) there's a certain shared authority, 2) everyone contributes a little to the whole, and 3) the results can be viewed like a regular web page rather than scrolling through lots of blog posts. Blogs are better for announcements or sharing links through a blogroll. Wikis are better for providing information that is meant to stay up in one place but can still be dynamic rather than static, such as policies, hours of operation, procedures, that sort of thing. This can be really useful for a library, as various staff members can work on the project and provide users with information, but they themselves can see what's up there, what needs to be changed, a history of edits, and generally not work at cross purposes but build something worthwhile.
So what do you do with RSS?
I've been using Google Reader for a little over a week now. It's not the first time I've used an aggregator, but it's the first portable, online one I've used, and I love it. The only trouble I've had is occasionally David Rothman's blog freezes up Internet Explorer. I'm not quite sure why, but the glitch seems to have resolved. What I've done is subscribe to the class blog and comments, several library-related and library news-related sites, a PubMed search for medical library-related research, table of contents for the Journal of the American Medical Association and the New England Journal of Medicine, plus a few fun ones--word-of-the-day, weird news, and a newsletter from the publisher of Call of Cthulhu, a game I play. I did subscribe to our local paper but I was getting over a thousand stories a day, mostly sports, which I didn't feel like reading. Oh, and I included my blogs to see how they come out on a feed. Fortunately it's easy to browse to find the ones to subscribe AND unsubscribe when you want. Because I'm using both Google Reader and Blogger, I can marked some stories as 'Shared' and have them display on my blogs using the widget you see on this page.
So, now to my assignment. What would I use RSS for in my library? For me professionally, it gives me instant access to a great deal of discussion on trends and tools that help me keep current in the field. I'd like to set up a library one for my patrons that would do the same in terms of orthopaedics, physical therapy, paediatrics, nursing, and other fields. By putting them in folders, the user can choose what she or he would like to read. I'd included those journals I could find that offer table-of-contents service through RSS, much like JAMA and the NEJM do. I'd like to put a link to it on the hospital intranet, once I can get a library page put there. Most of the professionals have internet access, so I think it could be a useful addition. Our intranet pages are actually set up a lot like a wiki, although only certain people can edit them. It's not in the final stages yet, but it looks promising.
Anyway, those are my thoughts of using RSS in my library. I'm thinking about running a class to promote various Web 2.0 technologies to my users and get their feedback. But I still have a lot to learn first. :)
So, now to my assignment. What would I use RSS for in my library? For me professionally, it gives me instant access to a great deal of discussion on trends and tools that help me keep current in the field. I'd like to set up a library one for my patrons that would do the same in terms of orthopaedics, physical therapy, paediatrics, nursing, and other fields. By putting them in folders, the user can choose what she or he would like to read. I'd included those journals I could find that offer table-of-contents service through RSS, much like JAMA and the NEJM do. I'd like to put a link to it on the hospital intranet, once I can get a library page put there. Most of the professionals have internet access, so I think it could be a useful addition. Our intranet pages are actually set up a lot like a wiki, although only certain people can edit them. It's not in the final stages yet, but it looks promising.
Anyway, those are my thoughts of using RSS in my library. I'm thinking about running a class to promote various Web 2.0 technologies to my users and get their feedback. But I still have a lot to learn first. :)
Saturday, March 15, 2008
A first post
A warning, first, that this blog is meant to be temporary. It's part of a class I'm taking through the Medical Library Association on Web 2.0 for Libraries.
So what is Web 2.0?
Well, of course I looked it up on Wikipedia. and found this definition:
Since blogs are part of the Web 2.0 experience, part of our first assignment was to create one. Now, I'm no stranger to blogs. I've had one since 2001, at http://rabid-librarian.blogspot.com. But that's for my own personal musings with a little library-related stuff along the way. I'm interested in how to put blogs to use for reaching library users and in using other Web 2.0 components to do the same, hence the class. (Plus, it was free and worth 8 hours of continuing education credit.) :) So here you go, the first post. Yay.
So what is Web 2.0?
Well, of course I looked it up on Wikipedia. and found this definition:
Web 2.0 is a trend in World Wide Web technology, and web design, a second generation of web-based communities and hosted services such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies, which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration, and sharing among users. The term became notable after the first O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways software developers and end-users use webs. According to Tim O'Reilly:Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the Internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform.
Since blogs are part of the Web 2.0 experience, part of our first assignment was to create one. Now, I'm no stranger to blogs. I've had one since 2001, at http://rabid-librarian.blogspot.com. But that's for my own personal musings with a little library-related stuff along the way. I'm interested in how to put blogs to use for reaching library users and in using other Web 2.0 components to do the same, hence the class. (Plus, it was free and worth 8 hours of continuing education credit.) :) So here you go, the first post. Yay.
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