PBWiki Sandbox

Urrrrgh.... I've found that most of the things on this tutorial have been very easy, but adding my blog to the NSULibs Wiki sucked! It took me about 7 minutes to figure it out! Yeah, once you know what you're doing its really easy- but I would not say its intuitive. Of course, signing in to the bcltlc wiki was a snap once I had edited the NSULibs Wiki.

Wikis

I decided to take a look at the SJCPL Subject Guides wiki. At first, I thought it was a great idea because it would enable the library users to add their own links to the subject guides (Who better than the people that have to use them in real life?). However, I soon found out that this particular wiki is restricted and only SJCPL staff are allowed to edit it. I'm sure that allowing library users access to this wiki might pose some problems with appropriateness and relevance, but I still think that in the spirit of Library 2.0 it would be worth it. I find the idea of library users helping eachother to be very cool! Isn't that what an online community is all about? (Maybe they could have a disclaimer) As a wiki it is still very useful because it allows for easy access and editing by SJCPL staff - this is important because of the tenuous nature of Internet links.

I also looked at library success.org. I'm think this could be a really useful tool for librarians, but it needs more people to contribute. I found many topics that I searched for had yet to be added. Maybe I could put in my two cents worth!

Library 2.0

One of the opinions about Library 2.0 that really caught my attention was "Away from Icebergs" :http://www.oclc.org/nextspace/002/2.htm
The author discussed 3 potentional icebergs for libraries if they do not go gentle into that good library 2.0. "Just in case" print collections, user education and the expectation that library users come to us. I can see where he is coming from with these potential hang ups, but I think his ideas about user education were slightly off the mark. He writes, "We need to focus our efforts not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need..." Yes, of course things should be easy to use - that's a no brainer. Intuitive interface is essential, but library users first need to know where to locate these tools, secondly, they need to formulate a concise and effective search strategy, and thirdly, they need to be able to evalute the resources that they find. Providing easy access to information cannot and should not replace research skills. Information literacy should be the cornerstone of library education and library 2.0.

Roll over for Rollyo

I really dig this! I created a search roll for Education resources because I get a lot of reference questions on this topic. When I tried a search on my newly created search roll, it worked really well. I also like that you can see what search rolls other people have created about similar topics. I added my rollyo search engine to my blog (its under "Recent books from my library") , but you can also visit it at: http://rollyo.com/acmcguire/

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that its not hard to move your page elements around. When you are in Dashboard click on Manage: "Layout" and all you have to do is click and drag.

Library Thinga-ma-whatsit

I already mentioned Library Thing in one of my previous journals, but I'll go ahead and talk about it again! Hey, this time I get paid to mess around with it a bit more - Wicked Good! Another cool feature I have discovered about Library Thing is the ability to display your catalog in 5 different ways. Maybe when dealing with your own catalog this isn't as helpful, but if you are browsing someone elses catalog this could be a real benefit. In the spirit of web 2.0 there is also a feature which lets you create a list of random books or recent additions from your catalog and add it to your website or blog. I added one to my blog. Its on the upper left side. I think I may try to move it - wish me luck. The only thing you have to be careful about is that clicking on the image of the book will link you to Amazon. However, you can create widget lists that contain only text if you are squimish about schilling for Amazon.

So here is my Library Thing catalog. Its not much but I hope to have my whole library cataloged one day (sigh).... http://www.librarything.com/catalog/acmcguire

Yes, I'm sure we have all experienced the pain of Clippy popping up to give us unsolicited advice. I generated this image using Image Generator.net http://www.imagegenerator.net/

This site had a lot of interesting images that you could personalize with your own text. I suppose besides having fun (which is important) you could add these images to power point presentations for library instruction classes, library blogs.... (Does everything have to have a professional application? Well, I am at work so my mind tends to bend in that direction - no offense Clippy!) Although, I think Clippy should be saying something a bit more constructive. He's a cheecky little monkey isn't he?

Quilting

They suggested blogging about a hobby, so I guess I will talk about a sort-of love/hate hobby of mine which is quilting. For some reason, I decided to hand-stich a quilt about a 2 years ago. I guess I though it seemed romantic or some such thing. Also I don't have a sewing machine! So I patched together the whole thing and began to do the actually quilting and it looked terrible. I am a bit of a perfectionist and when I realized it wasn't going to turn out the way I wanted it to, I just stopped. About a year later a friend asked me if I wanted to go the Gees Bend quilt exibition at the Fort Lauderdale Art Museum. I had never heard of Gees Bend and I was expecting these perfectly done quilts. Boy, was I wrong. While they were beautiful, they were anything but perfect. The quilts were created to be used and a couple misplaced stiches wouldn't hinder that in any way. These women had created works of art, not because of perfection but because of the distinctive touches that they gave to their work. Going to the exhibition really inspired me to start again. I do not think so much of my quilt as full of mistakes but as something only I could have created.

Take a bite its Del.icio.us!

I have heard other people talk about del.icio.us, but I never got around to trying it. From what people were saying, I thought it was just a way to store your bookmarks in a web-based format. Easy access it great, but it didn't really spark my interest. I'm glad that this activity "forced" me to try it! It is so much more than just a bookmarking tool. I absolutely love the sharing feature. I just type in what tags I would use to look up info. and voila, I get a list of websites other people have saved on the same topics. (Some of the results were off the mark, but what do you expect when there is no controlled vocabulary.) Del.icio.us tells me how many people have saved this website and lets me read the person's comments on the site. Another helpful feature is the common tags for the website. These tags give me new ideas for keywords when I search online databases and even the catalog- that I might not thought of before. I think that del.icio.us can be a valuable reference resource.

Let's Talk Technology

I'm not really sure what to write about... I'm not a super techno person and I'm certainly not a Luddite but... well ... Okay I'm stalling... I'll write about LibraryThing.com. Its really cool how you can catalog your books according to how the world makes sense to you, and not how it makes sense to a cataloger. An added bonus is that it is open source software! This means that it is free to the individual and costs almost nothing for non-profit organizations. I also really like the sharing component as this is very important with any web 2.0 application. We don't want to just store information anymore, we want people to accesss it, comment on it and maybe even learn from it. It would be nice if libraries OPACs could offer similar features.

Flickr mashups and Trading Card

My creation
Originally uploaded by anna.mcguire

I'm not sure of the professional applications of this (business cards?) but it was a lot of fun to do.

Speaking of professional applications for Flickr? I guess you could use the Flickr groups option for your library- maybe create a sense of community? Or you could take your BI class through a virtual tour of the library with pictures of the important places (restrooms!!) The personal applications are very apparent and the mosaic and color matching sites were great. It makes attaining step 7 1/2 easy peasy.

Sparkling Clean Floor

Sparkling Clean Floor
Originally uploaded by mesastreatexit

I was curious to see if there were any pictures of Broward County Libraries on Flickr and as it turns out there were several pictures. This one is of the Main Library. Gee, I thought that photography of any kind was against library policy unless you got permission (maybe they did)! Well, sites like Flickr do let you see how people perceive the library both visually (pictures) and in written form (comments). Anyways, I like how easy it is to search for pictures and upload them to your blog. Until, I get a digital camera that's about all I will be able to do.

Useful blogs & feeds

Let me first say that I did not understand how Feedster worked! I kept trying different search terms and the results were completely unrelated. It just looked like they were trying to sell me things. I'm sure this is due to my own ignorance, but its certainly not an intuitive design. Bloglines Search Tool is very easy to figure out and I got the results that I expected. It is also simple to subscribe to these feeds. Topix.Net is a useful site in that you can use it to get the latest news or you can use it to find news feeds. It is organized well with a list of topics or subject headings that made browsing possible. However, adding the feeds to my Bloglines Account was not straightforward. Syndic8.com is a bit clunky, but the results are relevant. I especially liked that the provided the feed URL. That made adding it to bloglines nice n' easy.