Thing #7

I read Elyssa Kroski's blog post (Kroski, Ellyssa, “The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging,” http://infotangle.blogsome.com/2005/12/07/the-hive-mind-folksonomies-and-user-based-tagging/) and I liked her discussion of the democratizing power of tagging. It seems like a method of organization that Sanford Berman would dig. People do have power. But are they using it?

I think that really effective use of tagging will come later. In library circles we say that everyone does it -- uses flickr and tags -- but I think that is just our peer group. We're librarians. We love to organize things. I'd like to see the Pollak Library catalog include user-generated tags. That would also be an additional wonderful way for students to access the databases. But I think that the best way to get students here to be comfortable creating tags is to have them do it as part of a class assignment or library instruction session. I think tagging would be an excellent way to make whatever will replace Research Guides or other finding aids more user-friendly. But I also don't want to see our lovely controlled vocabulary/hierchial subject headings go away. It's one of the ways I can help students find "all" the info we have on subjects I don't understand. I love those ERIC descriptors.

Here's the link to my delicious account: http://delicious.com/grrlibrarian

Thing #6

I enjoyed playing around with Firefox as I normally use IE. I downloaded Email this but wasn't able to fully set it up because I don't know my Google Apps domain name. I probably don't have one because I am a bit paranoid about Google. I also downloaded World Language but got annoyed trying to set that one up, too.

I can see how LibX would be really useful and appealing to members of our community -- especially faculty -- who really think about their research interests all the time. I think I'll offer faculty in the College of Ed a little mini-lesson of how to download and use Lib X as a workshop I can do at their departmental meetings in the fall. I'll just make sure I play around with the Beta IE version, too. I don't see how LibX will make my job easier because I don't find looking for known items from other sources all that burdensome. I do see how it would make the procurement of research materials easier for faculty or graduate students b/c they are often looking for books to buy and something like LibX would our resources more transparent.

Thing #5

Jing is great, but I have discovered that I really don't like my optical mouse. It's like that House of Pain song, "Jump Around." Here's the link to my screencast that shows how to find exciting picture of stacks on the NYPL Digital Gallery:http://screencast.com/t/zqf85WQDPL4

Jing can be used to send quick vids to students when it's easier to show someone how to do something than to tell them. I think I'll get a mic that always works (w/o being charged) b/c I think that will make these videos easier to understand. I think I'll use JING for on-the-fly work, but I like Camtasia better for other things b/c you can pan/zoom and the size of type/images can be made bigger.

Thing #4

We could use flickr to documents events that take place at the library or to give information about some of our special collections. This is how the LoC or NYPL use it.

I love cigarette cards. Here's a cool one I found on flickr:

I found it at http://www.flickr.com/photos/saintplan/2427655203/in/pool-cigarettecards

Thing #3

The only way RSS feeds would help the Pollak Library communicate with our community would be if members of our community subscribed to them.  I think one of the first audiences we should target are new faculty and the Pollak Library's RSS feeds should be introduced along w/ those of journals and other information sources the faculty really want access to.  I sometimes introduce RSS feeds to grad students, but I think they are too overwhelmed to really get excited about them. Faculty do get excited and maybe after a while the use of RSS feeds will trickle down to the students. They may already subscribe to some and they certainly are receiving them through their social networking sites, right?

Thing #3 was useful.  It was a little annoying b/c I already use bloglines, but I understand that it's easier to help people learn something if everyone is using the same platform.

Thing #2

What are your initial thoughts about using "Library 2.0" technology? At this point, can you think of anything new or different we might do either behind the scenes or in public service?

The things that are most interesting to me are the ways that users can add value. I like the idea of our users tagging, adding reviews, etc. I'd also like for the library to start "publishing" or housing student-produced material. I think we have to accept that only a few people will contribute and I think acknowledging that usually stops us from continuing with projects, but that's the way it is in the Worldwide Web, too, right? At least according to the What is Web 2.0? article. So we should just do it. I also am not too comfortable with launching things when they are still in the beta stage, but I guess if Google does it, that's ok, too?