My indoctrination into web 2.0 and library 2.0 has come to an end as I have completed Helene Blowers' 23 Things and Meredith Farkas and Company's 5 Weeks to A Social Library. Below is a list of some of my most significant discoveries.
1. Delicious is now one of my most used web tools. I hadn't used it in the past because I wasn't interested in a tool that I thought was a duplication of something I didn't use that often anyway (bookmarks). I have a pretty good memory and recall and since Google is so easy to use I thought I was saving a step by just repeating searches. But then I realized how inefficient and time consuming that could be if my memory wasn't as strong as I expected. With Delicious, I don't have to have superhuman memory or incredible search skills. Whenever I find a site that will be useful for research or returning to later I simply post it in Delicious and tag it so I can locate it later. Using Delicious has already improved presentations, instruction sessions, and reference help.
To make life really easy, I have installed the Delicious add-ons into Firefox so I don't even have to locate the Delicious homepage to post an article.
2. StumbleUpon: see this post for my thoughts on this search technology. It works best in conjunction with Delicious. I am not convinced that I will be using SU a year from now.
3. WordPress: I had always used Blogger before but messing around with WordPress has been fun and beneficial to other blog efforts I am involved in.
4. Flickr: Photos have always put me off because of how you usually have to adjust and modify them once they are on your hard drive. I don't have the time or in most cases the expertise to do this easily. Flickr takes the adjustment level out of photo storage and continues to find new ways to make photo sharing enjoyable.
5. If I spend 70% of my work time on the internet it just makes more sense for me to want to do my wordprocessing and database doodling with a web based service that I can return to on my laptop or at home instead of holding my work hostage on my office computer. Google Docs is easy to use and improving all the time and I have used Zoho some as well.
6. This entire process has inspired me to share some of the things I have learned with my co-workers and we are in our second month of training in Web 2.0. The response has been very positive.
Showing posts with label academic library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label academic library. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Are You As Smart As A Freshman?
I haven't been able to post much lately and have neglected some of the Librarian on Location duties so that I could organize and put on the second installment of Are You As Smart As A Freshman? Similar to the TV version - Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?, our game has upperclassmen contestants competing for prizes with the help of Freshmen. It has been great fun and positive for the library.
If you have attended any library conferences in the past year you know that Gaming is certainly a buzzword among librarians. I have had trouble understanding the significance for libraries beyond the value of offering an up-to-date entertainment and information medium. Also, I haven't seen any real relevance with offering Gaming opportunities in the academic library setting except on a special event basis. But wouldn't Student Life do a better job with this than the library? So here is where our game comes in.
When we started this we had two goals in mine. 1) To offer information literacy in a fun and creative way. 2) To portray the library as a lively, up-beat, and exciting place. I believe we have accomplished the first goal by reaching more students who would have never come to our old Library workshops. After each answer in the game, a brief Did You Know? library resource fact related to the answer is displayed on the game screen and mentioned by the host (me). We also have fliers that list the Reference Desk contact information.
The second goal is my favorite one to try to meet. Is there a more stereotyped institution in our country than the library? Television has portrayed the library as either this exciting place to learn, read, and discover for kids(watch any PBS Kids show block and count how many times "library"is mentioned) or a hum drum, stuffy, bookish bore where only nerds hang out (the most common adult portrayal). Which portrayal do you think most college students identify with? Both probably and that is the problem. In their mind, libraries are for kids or for geeks but not for a young adult chasing a career, a date, and a social life.
The value I see in our game is the reality that something exciting, slightly edgy, and enjoyable can happen within the walls of the library. Hopefully this begins to crack the iron curtain of misconceptions about the library and tells students that to set foot in the library is not stepping foot into a boutique for only the literati, teacher's pets, and anti-social book rats. In some ways I think we have succeeded.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Study Space
Our library is suffering from some serious space issues. Group study space is non-existent and quiet study space is at a premium. So I find myself fantasizing about library space and perusing other libraries and their use of space. I found these photos from Glasgow Caledonian University in Glasgow, Scotland. Inflatable offices? Private study shelters? Interesting.
Where is the mahogany? They don't even have library themed upholstery. What is this world coming to?
*photos taken by edublogger
Monday, January 7, 2008
What I Liked About 2007 - Library Edition
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