Friday, August 21, 2009
Thing 17 -- LibWorm
It's a cool concept. LibWorm is still in the beta version, so it may still have some bugs to work out, but I like the idea. I looked up terms such as information literacy, challenged books, intellectual freedom, and Bluebonnet Award List. Some of the hits were relevant, and some, not so much. I tried looking up Stephan Krashen, but nothing came up, nor did I get any hits searching for my own school library (and I do have a blog for it). I did find some relevant hits for the Austin Public Library, some from the APL blog, and some from stories in the news. I think the idea of a search engine that only searches library related sites is a great way to filter searches, however I don't think the Worm is finding all of the library sites and blogs, even some of the most relevant and prominent library blogs seem to be missing from the results lists. With time, I think this will become more and more useful as a tool for librarians.
Thing 16 -- LibraryThing
This is not the first time I've heard of LibraryThing. It came up at one of our district library meetings last year. One of the librarians told us about how she was using it to help organize the library at her church and to create a searchable catalog for it. I didn't really play around with it then, but I've spent the past few evenings exploring LibraryThing. I've joined groups, participated in discussions, added (and tagged) books to my own library, and just clicked here, there, and everywhere. I never did find the ThingLang, ISBN Check, and MARCThing sections we were supposed to read (if anyone can post some comments about how to find them, that would be great). I did find the Thingology and LibraryThing blogs and poked around there for a while. Good stuff. I especially liked the local venues section--now I can find libraries, bookstores, and book-related events around town with the click of a mouse. I'll probably keep coming back to this Thing on a regular basis.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Thing 15 -- Digg
I totally Digg it! What a cool idea! I had a blast browsing through the various articles, reading comments, and finding out what seems to be "hot" in the news right now. The idea of the community dictating what stories it deems newsworthy makes a lot of sense. How many times have we watched the news and thought, "Do they really need to spend this much time and energy on a story like this?" Well with Digg, the community decides what is important, so the junk may fall to the wayside. I also like the idea of "self-policing." If something is inappropriate or not considered worthy of attention, it can be buried. That helps maintain higher standards of quality for the stories being posted. I may have to frequent this site to get my news in a more filtered manner.
I honestly don't know if I'll join this network--thanks to the 23 Things, I've joined way more social networks than I ever anticipated. I can only handle so much virtual socializing. I need to focus on the actual people in front of me, too, you know. This is one concern that I have with social networking in general. Are people spending more time in the virtual social world than with the people in close proximity? It irks me to no end to see young people texting when there are other people sitting with them at the same table. Don't the people in your presence deserve your attention more than someone on the other end of a cell phone (or social networking site)? I guess I'm just getting old, but I think some cell phone etiquette or "textiquette" is in order.
Wow...that was an aside I wasn't expecting. I just don't want to become one of those people that is so absorbed with social networking and technological hype that I begin to neglect the important things and people in my life. I've seen it happen too many times. As much as I love technology and the fact that social networking has brought me back into contact with so many people I've lost touch with, I can't lose touch with the reality of the present.
I honestly don't know if I'll join this network--thanks to the 23 Things, I've joined way more social networks than I ever anticipated. I can only handle so much virtual socializing. I need to focus on the actual people in front of me, too, you know. This is one concern that I have with social networking in general. Are people spending more time in the virtual social world than with the people in close proximity? It irks me to no end to see young people texting when there are other people sitting with them at the same table. Don't the people in your presence deserve your attention more than someone on the other end of a cell phone (or social networking site)? I guess I'm just getting old, but I think some cell phone etiquette or "textiquette" is in order.
Wow...that was an aside I wasn't expecting. I just don't want to become one of those people that is so absorbed with social networking and technological hype that I begin to neglect the important things and people in my life. I've seen it happen too many times. As much as I love technology and the fact that social networking has brought me back into contact with so many people I've lost touch with, I can't lose touch with the reality of the present.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Thing 14 -- Delicious
This reminds me of ikeepbookmarks.com , a very similar web based bookmarking site. It has the option of keeping things public or private or both, so things can be shared (or not). I've had an account with ikeepbookmarks.com since 2003, but I haven't used it much lately. I think I might have to add the Delicious toolbar to my workstations in the library. It would be super handy to have all of my bookmarks in the same place and be able to access them easily.
Tagging may be a difference with Delicious and ikeepbookmarks. I don't think there was an option for tagging, although there was a way to put things into folders and rate sites according to usefulness. I was a bit confused when I first opened up my imported bookmarks because there no longer are any folders. I like the hierarchical organizational scheme of my bookmarks being in folders. There was just a random list of 223 bookmarks! But then I noticed the tags. Upon importing the bookmarks, all of the folder names were converted into tags, so to find the items in a folder, I just click on the corresponding tab and it straightens it all out for me. Pretty cool!
Delicious might be a tool that librarians and teachers can use so that students can access a bibliography of preselected websites for research or units of study. This would narrow their number of resources, and by having them selected in advance, the sites can be evaluated for usefulness, accuracy, bias, currency, and relevance.
Tagging may be a difference with Delicious and ikeepbookmarks. I don't think there was an option for tagging, although there was a way to put things into folders and rate sites according to usefulness. I was a bit confused when I first opened up my imported bookmarks because there no longer are any folders. I like the hierarchical organizational scheme of my bookmarks being in folders. There was just a random list of 223 bookmarks! But then I noticed the tags. Upon importing the bookmarks, all of the folder names were converted into tags, so to find the items in a folder, I just click on the corresponding tab and it straightens it all out for me. Pretty cool!
Delicious might be a tool that librarians and teachers can use so that students can access a bibliography of preselected websites for research or units of study. This would narrow their number of resources, and by having them selected in advance, the sites can be evaluated for usefulness, accuracy, bias, currency, and relevance.
Thing 13 -- Tagging
What an interesting concept! I love the idea of "folksonomies." In our library courses, we studied metadata, discussed hierarchies and thesauri, and created our own metadata schemes of organization with broader terms, narrower terms, and related terms. This type of metadata, however, is organized chaos, which may bother some librarians who are organized to the point of rigidity (unlike myself-the most disorganized librarian I know). The users get to pick the terms that describe the information object, and they can use any term that makes sense to them rather than being forced to choose from a list.
I have used tagging with social networking, blogging, Flickr, and Shelfari (which, by the way, you have GOT to check out). Our library's automation system, Follett's Destiny, now has an option for user tagging. I think it's a good idea for people who are used to tagging. Sometimes users have a better way of classifying something, or at least a more common sense way, rather than trying to force a concept or idea into a predefined set of terms. At the elementary school level, I'm not sure that it will be utilized much, but I can definitely see it as a plus at the middle school/high school level, especially when kids are already so well versed in the web 2.0 world.
I have used tagging with social networking, blogging, Flickr, and Shelfari (which, by the way, you have GOT to check out). Our library's automation system, Follett's Destiny, now has an option for user tagging. I think it's a good idea for people who are used to tagging. Sometimes users have a better way of classifying something, or at least a more common sense way, rather than trying to force a concept or idea into a predefined set of terms. At the elementary school level, I'm not sure that it will be utilized much, but I can definitely see it as a plus at the middle school/high school level, especially when kids are already so well versed in the web 2.0 world.
Thing 12 -- Twitter
Honestly, I have been dreading this Thing since I saw it on the list. I did not want to be a part of the Twitter frenzie! But now I have succumb to the pressure and I am part of the tweetiverse. Don't tell my husband. I refuse to get updates on my phone, however. Even if I had a fancy phone, I still wouldn't want to be a slave to other people's tweets all the time!
I can't believe that I've been on Twitter for 7 minutes and I already have a follower. I have no idea who she is or how she found me! She will be sorely disappointed by my boring life, I am sure. I will not update every time I change activities. No one really wants to know if I'm eating a sandwich, watching the Daily Show, or going to the john. I don't think I'll really use it much. However, I am now following a few people.
Last month, a friend of mine (who I met through my husband), found out I was about to graduate with my MLS, and then asked if I was on Twitter. He told me if I joined, I should follow his dad. He thought I might find some useful insight if I decided to follow him. "Who's your dad?" I asked. "Stephen Krashen," said he. "Are you kidding me? THE Stephen Krashen? That's your dad? I had no idea!!!" was my reply. I've read articles by him, my library director has recommended his book, and he's been mentioned in many of my SLIS courses. So the first person I looked up on Twitter was Stephen Krashen, and the next person was his son. I looked up Jon Stewart (but decided not to become a follower), but through his page, I found Stephen Colbert and NPR, both of whom I am now following. I think I'll stick with 4 people to follow for now--that's probably plenty!
I've been trying to keep somewhat anonymous, but what the heck! If you'd like to be a follower, go to http://twitter.com/estheruribe. But don't say I didn't warn you--it will be boring!
I can't believe that I've been on Twitter for 7 minutes and I already have a follower. I have no idea who she is or how she found me! She will be sorely disappointed by my boring life, I am sure. I will not update every time I change activities. No one really wants to know if I'm eating a sandwich, watching the Daily Show, or going to the john. I don't think I'll really use it much. However, I am now following a few people.
Last month, a friend of mine (who I met through my husband), found out I was about to graduate with my MLS, and then asked if I was on Twitter. He told me if I joined, I should follow his dad. He thought I might find some useful insight if I decided to follow him. "Who's your dad?" I asked. "Stephen Krashen," said he. "Are you kidding me? THE Stephen Krashen? That's your dad? I had no idea!!!" was my reply. I've read articles by him, my library director has recommended his book, and he's been mentioned in many of my SLIS courses. So the first person I looked up on Twitter was Stephen Krashen, and the next person was his son. I looked up Jon Stewart (but decided not to become a follower), but through his page, I found Stephen Colbert and NPR, both of whom I am now following. I think I'll stick with 4 people to follow for now--that's probably plenty!
I've been trying to keep somewhat anonymous, but what the heck! If you'd like to be a follower, go to http://twitter.com/estheruribe. But don't say I didn't warn you--it will be boring!
Thing 11 -- Instant Messaging
I've been IMing since before IMing was invented! Is that really possible? Maybe not, but let me explain anyway.
When I was a child, my father was a "sysop" for a BBS long before the Internet became common place. I learned to chat in real time back then with people who visited my dad's BBS. Then, when I went off to college, I would chat with a friend of mine from high school through the Unix based system at my University. Now instant messaging has become more user friendly and has a nicer interface. I don't have much need for it anymore, but I still occasionally find myself chatting with old friends who pop up.
I have seen many useful applications in the business/customer service world, and I've even used it with a reference librarian before. I don't think it will go away anytime soon, and I'm sure people will continue to find ways to use IMing to their advantage.
I found the link to IM lingo to be quite interesting. I had made up my own abbreviations way back in the day when I first started chatting with people. I used "somth" for something, "ppl" for people, and "L8R" among others. Some of those made it onto the list. I have also been using TTFN for years, since it originated with Tigger on Winnie the Pooh. Glad to see that classic children's entertainment has found it's way into the high tech world. :-)
When I was a child, my father was a "sysop" for a BBS long before the Internet became common place. I learned to chat in real time back then with people who visited my dad's BBS. Then, when I went off to college, I would chat with a friend of mine from high school through the Unix based system at my University. Now instant messaging has become more user friendly and has a nicer interface. I don't have much need for it anymore, but I still occasionally find myself chatting with old friends who pop up.
I have seen many useful applications in the business/customer service world, and I've even used it with a reference librarian before. I don't think it will go away anytime soon, and I'm sure people will continue to find ways to use IMing to their advantage.
I found the link to IM lingo to be quite interesting. I had made up my own abbreviations way back in the day when I first started chatting with people. I used "somth" for something, "ppl" for people, and "L8R" among others. Some of those made it onto the list. I have also been using TTFN for years, since it originated with Tigger on Winnie the Pooh. Glad to see that classic children's entertainment has found it's way into the high tech world. :-)
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