Wiki-Wiki

Aloha! It's "Talk Hawaiian Day" here at FVRL Discover 2.0. So I better get going on this wiki blog wiki-wiki.

I've learned many things about wikis from this exercise. That they're easy to create, easy to edit, and a great way of getting input from a lot of people organized efficiently. They're also often uncontrolled. You can't necessarily believe everything you read on a wiki because the info is only as good as the source.

Still, they seem like a good way of assembling information. The websites I looked at were hoping for input, whether from librarians about successful programs, or from community members about the fascinating features of their community. A real necessity would be getting your audience to know that the wiki is there at all, and then persuading them to contribute. I liked the advice by Meredith Farkas in this article that the creators of wikis should post some items first, as an example, because people can be hesitant to be the first poster.

I think wikis sound like fun, as well as a good way to tap the collective intelligence.

Aloha and mahalo nui loa for reading!

LibraryThingishness

I started an account with LibraryThing. This does seem like a great way to a) keep track of your own books, b) find other similar books, and c) connect with other folks who like the same kind of books. I also like the fact that you can pick the correct cover for your edition coughgeekcough.

I think the shelf idea for goodreads sounds interesting, though, and it would be nice if LibraryThing had the "read" choice instead of only "currently reading" and "to read."

It will take more digging around in both sites, I'm sure, to reap all of their benefits. But being able to quickly find reviews and ratings of books (a feature I really like on Amazon) is very handy. And the unsuggester is quite nice.

Technorati

Technorati seems like a very excellent way to use up a lot of time! But since there are over 100 million blogs, it's good to have a way to search them.

Things I found interesting or surprising:
1) how many people use bad language/grammar/etc. in their blogs which can be read by zillions of people. Yes, that's prissy, but come on, folks, learn to write!
2) how many blogs there are that I'm not interested in, which is good, because I don't think I have time for 100 million of them. And thanks to Technorati, it'll be easier to find the ones I am interested in.
3) how much new stuff is pouring into the blogosphere every moment. Yipes!

I'm not sure what the writer of the Discover 2.0 instructions meant by "blog directory" as opposed to "blog posts" or "tags," but when I searched, I did find a big difference between a keyword search in blog posts vs. searching tags. The results in the tags search seemed much more to the point.

Delicious Tags

Now here's something that looks useful. I can see the handiness of having my bookmarks being accessible from home, work, or anywhere. I also like being able to follow the network of tags and bookmarks to find other sites that might be interesting to me.

For research assistance, del.icio.us could be used with caution. After all, it doesn't rank bookmarks by accuracy. On the other hand, descriptions of the sites might give one an idea of the content and how reliable it was. And going to the most popular bookmarks for a subject could be useful, too.

I just don't think I'll be using the RSS feature! ;)

Back in the saddle again...fortunately

The Discover 2.0 saddle, that is.

I have a facebook account now (http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1127841232). The two "friends" I found on there are actually my two daughters, so I've been able to coughspyonthemcough see some photos I hadn't seen before!

I also went back to Bloglines. I'm still trying to get it to display photos for all the subscriptions. Some do, some don't. Sigh. Whether I will actually use RSS very much, I don't know.

Then I made the above fortune cookie sign. I also made it reflect on the Reflectionmaker site, but I didn't care for it. It would be great for a more scenic image, I think.

On to Item 13!

Social Networking

The feeling I get is that libraries' use of Facebook or MySpace is a type of outreach. Young people aren't in the library, they're on MySpace, so let's go there to reach them.

I have no problem with this, and I expect that it could be useful in reaching kids who are already predisposed towards the library. As a tool they're using for communication, social networking is important, so why shouldn't libraries have their presence there?

It could be a part of a library's communication/outreach program. I don't think we're going to reach seniors there. And how much effect it would have on young people who weren't already using the library, I don't know. Are there stats on that, I wonder? "We built our YAAB group through MySpace!" That sort of thing.

Meebo Success!

Wow! It only took about half an hour, but I finally figured out how to get the Meebo widget onto my page. Hooray for me.

I think instant messaging could be very handy as a reference tool. For instance, it could be used by the deaf community much more easily than using TTY technology. And some people prefer the distancing that comes from typing rather than talking. Also, the librarian wouldn't have to try to decode what someone was saying if the person's speech was hard to understand. Of course, their spelling might leave much to be desired also, but that's life. As a quick way to do reference interviews in writing, IM seems great. Possible negatives...folks who just want to chat, inability to get some of the nonverbal communication that comes with speech--but that's what emoticons are for, right ;)--, not enough staff...

IM could also be used for interdepartment communications, like when departments are spread over different floors *coughbkccough*. Or it could be used for folks at the island check-out to call for help if they need it!