Monday, October 20, 2008

Week 7, Thing 16

Wikis
I have been using wikis for various things over the years. I have even helped set some up in WetPaint. Generally they have been marginally useful.

They are also useful as the content that is in them. The ones that ALA and PLA have used for conferences are content rich and have been useful tools to use. I have never contributed to them, only used the information contained in them.

I have found the WikiNorthia project by Yarra Plenty Regional Library to be intriguing but it is also frustrating as it is missing so much.

The problem with wikis is that you need content and you need to get people contributing to them. I asked my husband if he used wikis at all with his students. He then told me he had set one up this semester for students to use in their logic class so they could work on answers and so on. And none of them were using it! This is meant to be the web 2.0 generation that is so connected to it all but they aren't using the tools provided.

The wiki we set up for Dangerous Ideas after our PLA presentation has been used a little bit to generate some discussions but not a lot. Again, it lacks a lot of content. And who is going to provide it?

I like and use wikipedia. I wouldn't use it as my only resource but as a wiki it works well. Other times I wonder. That said, i am wondering if a wiki would be more useful to TSRT to get members working together on projects. Overall, it seems that just because you set up a web 2.0 tool doesn't mean anyone is going to use it.

Week 6, Thing 15

Web 2.0 & libraries
I have been hearing about Web 2.0 for a few years now. It is really affecting libraries and is part of our need to adapt to new technologies and new tools. Web 2.0 is very pervasive. It is part of our personal and professional lives.

I feel like I am only slightly connected to it. I don't use social networks like FaceBook or MySpace -- I do have an account on one of them which I started in order to get in contact with one of my pages a few years ago when the phone numbers I had didn't work. But I have done little with it (I have thought about trying to create a Technical Services page and using that but haven't taken the time to do it yet).

However, web 2.0 is very important in the Next Generation catalog, something I am very concerned about. We need to have an online catalog that appeals to our patrons and especially to those who are using the internet. We also need to be responsive and use the web 2.0 tools for all sorts of things. We need to find ways to integrate them into various aspects of the library.

I have seen the Library learning 2.0 program AKA 23 Things AKA O! What a Geek as being one way to get OPL staff learning and using some of the tools. I am hoping that people will realise that some of the tool they might use in the personal lives can be used professionally too. And use them more. And teach others of us how to use them.

I also found Annette Lamb's keynote speech at NLA/NEMA on Thursday, October 16 -- Recipes for Success to be very useful to introduce even more web 2.0 tools and more importantly, how to use them in libraries of all sorts. There is much to think about there and how we might use them. I hope we can follow up on using these.

Week 6, Thing 14

Technorati revisited
My theme continues -- still not a convert. Maybe it is that I am not convinced of the usefulness of the blogosphere. I do enjoy blogs and I have found using RSS feeds and bloglines a useful way to keep up with blogs (note to self, remember to check bloglines feeds!).

And blogs are becoming an increasingly useful way to keep up with all sorts of things but Technorati does not do it for me. I found the blogs are very general in nature and the searching not very useful. I also found it difficult to go from the Technorati to the actual blog which seemed self defeating.

Unless the real aim is to keep you in the world of Technorati and to create a kind of sub world there. Which seems contrary to much of the web. I prefer interconnectedness. I appreciate things that make it easier to navigate the internet but I am not convinced of the usefulness of Rollyo or Technorati.

Perhaps it also has to do with these being older tools that were first part of the Learning 2.0 program in 2006 but now in 2008 they are dated and have not adapted enough to what is going on now. It is good to know that there are options to search in different ways but I won't be going to back to Technorati any time soon.

Week 6, Thing 13

Delicious
This I was skeptical about (hey, see a trend). But I have found delicious halfway useful. It was easy to convert my existing bookmarks into a delicious page. The difficulty I have is that I now have to tag them. And I get a scroll of most recently bookmarked sites but it really would be more useful to have a scroll of most USED sites.

I have tried for a couple of weeks not to use my favorites list from IE but have recently gone back to using it as it is easier to go to for somethings. I do like that delicious is available to me from anywhere but I have not yet become a convert.

I need to work more with this tool and over time I may come to like it more. I do see the usefulness of tags and would like to explore using them more -- both to explore what I have and what others have used with the same taxonomy. (Hey, I am a cataloger at heart).

Week 5, Thing 12

Rollyo -- well I have been avoiding this one. It just doesn't interest me that much. I am not sure I see the use of it. But maybe if I actually try it out I'll feel differently.

Well, I set up a simple Rollyo search for cooking -- searching both Epicurious and Vegetarian Times, the two sites I am most likely to search if I am looking for a recipe. The problem I had was first you had to enter the web address -- which means you have to find it, then copy and paste. Ugh --I'd rather use bookmarks and search each site myself. I usually know which site is more likely to have what I want.

Then when you perform a search you get lots of duplicated and plenty of ads sprinkled in your search results. It is worse than Google!

Obviously I am not a fan. Maybe if I was doing more public service I would want to use this but it seems like there are other ways to achieve the same thing that take less work.