Library 2.0

One of the tasks for this week was to read some interesting, but varied, perspectives on Library 2.0 and where we as a public library fit in the whole Web 2.0 world. Trying to figure out my own perspective is a little more difficult. I definitely think that the move toward Library 2.0 is a change in the way we think as public librarians. Less of a "what can we do for patrons at the library" and more of a "what do our patrons need and how best do we get that information to them" change of perspective. Dr. Wendy Schultz proposes Library 3.0 (Service) and Library 4.0 (Experience) as well. In reality, I think those are aspects of public libraries that we have always strived for, even in Library 1.0. But how those aspects are defined has changed, based on a Web 2.0 viewpoint).

Scrumptiously DELICIOUS!

I just love del.icio.us! For those of us who log onto the internet from home, from work, from a laptop... this is a way to keep track of all those websites that you want to be able to access at a moments notice. I tried for some time to keep "work" bookmarks separate from "personal" bookmarks. But after a while I realized there just was no way I could do that. Sometimes I needed to find a site at home that I use for work, but just couldn't remember how to get there. Or vice versa. Now there is no problem. I can save all of them here, and be able to access them from anywhere. Even on vacation! Click here to see what is on my del.icio.us account.

Library blogs on Bloglines

Whoopsie! Thanks to LibraryJoy's blog entry on L&P@CML, I double-checked my entries in the tracking log. I was one of those people who had entered a link other than my actual blog entry. I also noticed that on one of them (Step #9) I hadn't really blogged about it at all, and had presumed that my actual Bloglines account would show the (way too many) library related blogs I subscribe to. I was wrong! Ooops! I do have several subscriptions to library related blogs, most of which I have subscribed for quite some time. Michael Stephens is one. I subscribed to his blog after I had heard him speak at an OLC related event. Similar situation to Helene Blowers blog, when I heard her speak at a Tech Connections conference earlier in 2008. I also have subscriptions to organizational blogs, like PLA and ALA Online News. A few Ohio library blogs caught my eye, like OPLIN Forecast. I read a few personal blogs written by people who work in libraries, like The Shifted Librarian and Bookpusher. This exercise for L&P offered up a few new feeds, including iLibrarian and LibraryThing.

Tweets for my Peeps!

I seem to be in the same boat alot of people are by falling behind a little. I'm just now getting to posting about Twitter. I signed up for it earlier in the week, and even linked it to my blog along the right hand column. But before commenting on it in a post I wanted to play around with it a bit since I had never used it before (afterall it is play week). Initially, I couldn't really figure out what the purpose was for someone to use the service. Am I really that interesting that people would want to follow me around just to know what I am doing? Do I want people I don't know following me? I'm still a little skeptical about the latter, but the former I have resolved. I've seen several people refer to tweeting as "micro blogging" but I have a different analogy. Simply put, this is web-based texting, except that anyone can see your texts. Instead of sending multiple texts to people I know and care about, and who know and care about me, I can write one Tweet and everyone is updated. My family has recently gone through some medical crises, and we relied on texting to keep everyone up-to-date about what was going on. If we had tweeted instead, more people could have been reached because it isn't limited to the people I know who have cell phones that accept texts. Plus I don't bug anyone that has a cell with those capabilities but who has to pay for the text each time one comes in. After playing with it a little I figured out how to set Twitter up to automatically update my Facebook account too. Pretty cool. I think I am converted, at least for limited uses. My twitter account can be found here.

LibraryThing

Another tool we are supposed to "play" around on this week is LibraryThing. Okay, now this is something I can really play with. I already have an account with Shelfari, and even have "My Shelf" on the side of my blog. I have heard a couple of fellow librarians discussing LibraryThing but never really took the time to look at it beyond the first page. I guess I fell into that all too often familiar trap of "I already signed up for this one, do I really have time to sign up for another?". I'm so glad that I did take the time to look into LibraryThing. I really like it. My "Library" can be found here. If interested, my Shelfari shelf can be found here.

Sticky Notes!

Okay, I found one I totally love using! Sticky Notes. I have a thing for buying and using sticky notes so this is very appropriate.

Image Generators

I've been playing around with these for a little while now (a couple hours tops) and although entertaining, I've not found much use for them personally. The only one that really seems more than just a time waster is FD Toys that uses images from Flickr for various entertainment. It is the same one that we saw earlier on with the Librarian Trading Cards, but you can also use Flickr images for other entertainment. I especially liked the jigsaw puzzle maker, followed closely by the motivational poster maker.