You can view my review video below. I apologize for the light text, it appeared much darker when I was creating the video. Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite writers, so this book was a natural choice for me. If you haven't read Blink or any of his other books, I highly recommend you do. His topics are very thought provoking and his writing style is captivating. I used Windows Movie Maker to create the video.
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Exploring Sites
Over the past week I have been exploring some of the sites suggested by Suellen and sites classmates have mentioned. I have been using goodreads for about a month now. I actually noticed it on someone's blog for LSC597 and thought it looked like fun. I always have scraps of paper with book titles scribbled on them. Goodreads is a great place to organize all of the books I've read and would like to read. I also like the ability to join in on discussions. Seldom someone else is reading the same book I am in my day to day, and the discussion and comment features of the site let you get out all your excited/angry/sad/irritated/delighted comments.
I took the flickr tour, and while I haven't used the site myself, family members often post photos to share and my library has a photo stream for event photos. I didn't realize how many features that the site had available, like editing and annotating photos. I liked that the privacy levels on photos or albums are easy to adjust, based on who you want seeing what. Overall, the interaction between other social media sites like Twitter and Blogger appears to make sharing a quick and easy process.
CiteULike is clearly for serious research sharing and organizing, and outside of higher education, I can't see librarians necessarily recommending this site. As another classmate mentioned, for my own research purposes, I would rather just use the tools the databases provide. However, if you were working on a large, collaborative paper or project, the site would definitely be useful.
I took the flickr tour, and while I haven't used the site myself, family members often post photos to share and my library has a photo stream for event photos. I didn't realize how many features that the site had available, like editing and annotating photos. I liked that the privacy levels on photos or albums are easy to adjust, based on who you want seeing what. Overall, the interaction between other social media sites like Twitter and Blogger appears to make sharing a quick and easy process.
CiteULike is clearly for serious research sharing and organizing, and outside of higher education, I can't see librarians necessarily recommending this site. As another classmate mentioned, for my own research purposes, I would rather just use the tools the databases provide. However, if you were working on a large, collaborative paper or project, the site would definitely be useful.
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Tagging
I possibly have the worst memory of anyone I have ever met. I find myself immediately forgetting things. For example, the sunblock I meant to bring with me to the park on Sunday. As soon as I opened the bathroom door to retrieve it, I was immediately distracted by a stray towel or a speck of dust or a ray of light or...who knows. Let's just say my boyfriend and I are nursing some pretty uncomfortable sunburns (sorry Tyler!)
Although I haven't experimented with social tagging much, I can see how useful it could be for someone like me. It would help me to easily retrieve a site organized by my own specific language, or by reminders from others' tags. (I must confess that when I find a cool site, I often forget to bookmark it!) I see how helpful the bookmarking sites can be for librarians and educators too, who generally work with a variety of sites and sources and need help organizing them for easily access.
As the article posted on Sakai mentioned, social tagging has become popular for introducing people to new sites. When URI changed the HELIN catalog to Encore, the only thing I liked about the new site was the tags and tag clouds that could direct you to more sources that shared similar tags, helping to narrow your search without having to use the subject headings. I see the tags incorporated into the catalog as extremely helpful to students who are typically more familiar with keyword searching as opposed to controlled language.
Although I haven't experimented with social tagging much, I can see how useful it could be for someone like me. It would help me to easily retrieve a site organized by my own specific language, or by reminders from others' tags. (I must confess that when I find a cool site, I often forget to bookmark it!) I see how helpful the bookmarking sites can be for librarians and educators too, who generally work with a variety of sites and sources and need help organizing them for easily access.
As the article posted on Sakai mentioned, social tagging has become popular for introducing people to new sites. When URI changed the HELIN catalog to Encore, the only thing I liked about the new site was the tags and tag clouds that could direct you to more sources that shared similar tags, helping to narrow your search without having to use the subject headings. I see the tags incorporated into the catalog as extremely helpful to students who are typically more familiar with keyword searching as opposed to controlled language.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Learning About Twitter
I have been exploring Twitter of the past couple of weeks. You can follow me by clicking on the link in the left sidebar. So far, I think I'm getting a better graspof its uses. For the most part I have been observing what others are tweeting and not doing much tweeting myself, but I am still trying to feel it out. I have been following a few of our classmates and the organizations listed below:
ALA Connect: @alaconnect
Library Journal: @LibraryJournal
ALA Booklist: @ALA_Booklist
Women's Health: @WomensHealthMag
URI: @URINews
The article posted on Sakai by Kivi Leroux Miller, "Tips for Writing Facebook and Twitter Updates" says organizations should use their updates to get followers do three things: do something, think something or feel something. Libraries have to ability to hit on all three. We can call people to action as advocates, we get them thinking by presenting great resources, and we can make them feel involved by creating a online community that mirrors our physical one. Thinking about these three elements of social media updates helps me think outside of the usual "Library Event Tonight!" post.
ALA Connect: @alaconnect
Library Journal: @LibraryJournal
ALA Booklist: @ALA_Booklist
Women's Health: @WomensHealthMag
URI: @URINews
The article posted on Sakai by Kivi Leroux Miller, "Tips for Writing Facebook and Twitter Updates" says organizations should use their updates to get followers do three things: do something, think something or feel something. Libraries have to ability to hit on all three. We can call people to action as advocates, we get them thinking by presenting great resources, and we can make them feel involved by creating a online community that mirrors our physical one. Thinking about these three elements of social media updates helps me think outside of the usual "Library Event Tonight!" post.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Wikis for Collaboration and Training
The article "Blogs, Mashups, & Wikis, Oh My!" by Bruce W. Dearstyne helped me to better understand the diverse uses for wikis and blogs. Sometimes I am so immersed in thinking of how applications work for libraries, I forget to consider how collaborative web 2.0 tools help in other fields. Particularly for corporations and businesses that have branches and satellite offices scattered all over, wikis can connect employees working on projects from different locations, or while they travel. I also think wikis can be great resources for training, whether for new hires, brushing up on policies and procedures, or disseminating new information. A wiki can provide interactive tools like step by step video instruction as well as external links; emails generally are not that dynamic. Wikis are a great way organize policies that can be updated regularly with ease, rather then a printing and reprinting handbooks.
Yet, as the article mentioned, security and maintenance are important considerations. Who will "guard" the wiki? Who will be responsible for updates? How will they be compensated? Who will have access to the wiki? Who will have editing access? Are there legal issues regarding the information shared? Clearly organizations have to carefully consider every angle before proceeding.
Yet, as the article mentioned, security and maintenance are important considerations. Who will "guard" the wiki? Who will be responsible for updates? How will they be compensated? Who will have access to the wiki? Who will have editing access? Are there legal issues regarding the information shared? Clearly organizations have to carefully consider every angle before proceeding.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Pros and cons of this revolution
I think I have a have a more finely tuned idea of Library 2.0 really means after reading Tom Kwanya's article where he offers this definition from Scott Walter:
In the Sandra Ordonez piece, a portion of the Matt Hinckley quote really caught my attention: "the increasing proliferation of choices means that news consumers can choose to focus exclusively on 'infotainment,' and thus disengage from serious coverage of critical issues." Its the equivalent of only reading the headlines, and never getting to the details. My boyfriend glances over world and local news sites regularly. When I asked him why he doesn't watch the news or read the paper for something he might have missed, he responded "Why bother. By the time I get to it, its already old news" (read: not valuable). If it's not coming from a website, it doesn't feel current. I'm afraid he is not alone in his sentiment. To echo Hinckley, speed of delivery and access trump range of coverage, accuracy, and source for many. Yet, as Sasha Pasulka argues, are we more informed because of our proximity to information? Although social media may put us closer to news and information, it doesn't help us to critically evaluate it by providing time to digest after consumption. Also, as Kwanya mentioned, it can be very partisan in nature, which can be a problem for those who lack the ability to discern a reliable source from a questionable one.
"Library 2.0 is a commitment to assess, improve, integrate and communicate library services using the newest information technology and the tried and true "human technology". It is any service, physical or virtual, that successfully reaches users, is evaluated frequently, and makes use of customer input (Casey and Savastinuk 2007)."Elsewhere Kwanya refers to Library 2.0 as user-driven service. This appeals to me, as I personally feel services should be guided by users needs and lifestyles. As much of the literature suggests, our flexibility as librarians is our key to survival. Hence me taking this course.
In the Sandra Ordonez piece, a portion of the Matt Hinckley quote really caught my attention: "the increasing proliferation of choices means that news consumers can choose to focus exclusively on 'infotainment,' and thus disengage from serious coverage of critical issues." Its the equivalent of only reading the headlines, and never getting to the details. My boyfriend glances over world and local news sites regularly. When I asked him why he doesn't watch the news or read the paper for something he might have missed, he responded "Why bother. By the time I get to it, its already old news" (read: not valuable). If it's not coming from a website, it doesn't feel current. I'm afraid he is not alone in his sentiment. To echo Hinckley, speed of delivery and access trump range of coverage, accuracy, and source for many. Yet, as Sasha Pasulka argues, are we more informed because of our proximity to information? Although social media may put us closer to news and information, it doesn't help us to critically evaluate it by providing time to digest after consumption. Also, as Kwanya mentioned, it can be very partisan in nature, which can be a problem for those who lack the ability to discern a reliable source from a questionable one.
Social Media Resumes?
I found this article in American Libraries Direct about social media resumes. Some of you may have seen it if you receive the newsletter in your email. The resumes incorporate facebook, video, and other media rather than a traditional paper resume. Job-seekers certainly want to stand out, but a juicebox resume? Some are incredibly creative and no doubt would be eye-catching to recruiters, but do you think social media resumes are professional? They generally have a playful nature that could be discouraging to some conservative employers. Do you think that interactive resumes and artistic representations of qualifications would work for job-seekers outside of the fields of media, technology, and the arts?
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