#17 Playing Around with Wikis

Unfortunately, I didn't have a good experience playing with Wikis. Almost every Wiki I tried, I was blocked from editing and changing them. They all required a login name and password. Right now I don't even remember how many accounts I have since I started with Library Learning 2.0. I just don't want to have another one unless it is necessary. My colleague showed me one that didn't ask for login, and I tried it. It works, but I don't want to repeat other people's work. I think I will keep on trying until I find one. It is very time consuming!

#16 Wiki Me This

Wikis are so cool. They can be used to bridge the gaps between customers and the libraries and put the community resources under their control. St. Joseph Country Public Library System did a good job for their Subject Guides. The guides represent the collaboration between the library and its users and truly show the users real interests. The Guides not only help customers discover library materials but also events and activities. I took a look at the SJCPL Subject Guides and clicked on the entry of Jobs. I found information on Unemployment Info; Local Employers; Local Job Search Links; General Job Search Links; Relocation & Cost of Living; Resumers and Careers, so on and so forth. It is very comprehensive. On top of their webpage, it gives you the options to read, discuss, edit (only limited to librarians) and history - one of the features that earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated if needed. I tried to click on Discussion tap and wanted to make some comments without any success. It has some kind of control there. But I will try later. With Queens Library, I think our Community Database can use this Wiki format to pull all the agencies or organizations together and serve our customers better.

#15 On Library 2.0

Libary 2.0, an adaption from Web 2.0, is a user-centered, information and resource sharing web. Lots of people may have not realized that we are already a user of Web 2.0 and Library 2.0. This shared network space provides people with alomost everything they do.

With Library 2.0, more and more services are available to users. Users are encouraged for feedback and participation in the library services, such as Ask A Librarian, a two way communication. With Library 2.0, library can save shelf space by providing users with virtual reference. That's why we weeded our reference collection heavily and got rid of some of the "just in case" collection as Rick Anderson mentioned in his article Away from the "icebergs" . "It no longer makes sense to collect information products as if they wre hard to get." As libraries are moving into Web 2.0, our customers will expect access to everything. That places us into a new direction - "it means integrating our services into their daily patterns of work, study and play"(Rick Anderson).

#14 Technorati Navigation

I navigated on Technorati today, and there is so much information there. I was wondering who has time to sit there searching for all this information. Perhaps I am an old fashioned librarian and like things to be well organized, not like the information unfiltered in Technorati. But anyway, I tried the keyword searching for Learning 2.0. I got 2536 posts tagged Learning 2.0, and 37213 results from Learning 2.0 in the blog posts. What a difference! I also tried Queens Library as a tag in the Technorati search, and found the photo that I posted on flickr. Here it is: http://technorati.com/photos/tag/queens+library?page=3

#13 Tag!

I took a look at the Del.icio.us. There are so many delicious things there - tags/bookmarks. I checked QL L2.0 account, and found many useful resources there. I purposely clicked on a bookmark that has been bookmarked by very few users so that I wouldn't be sidetracked. I clicked on LANGUAGE, it opened up another page with TravelLiguist. On the right side of the page, it gives "related tags": reference, tools, youtube. I further clicked on "tools", then another page with related tags appeared, such as "archive, bibliographic, blog, citation, collaboration, directions, email...". I like it. They can be cross referenced.

#12 Rollyo Search Engine

I created my own search engine today. It is not a hard one compared with the other assignments, though the instructions are not specific. Your can bring all the sites that have the same interets under one subject like this one http://rollyo.com/jinglebell06/

Since we have a very large ESOL population in the community, we can use this search engine to find the information our ESOL students need (hopefully).

#11 Library Thing

I like it. I noticed that some customers like to take notes about what they have read. If they know how to use Library Thing, it will be very helpful for those customers. Also it is easy for those customers who just saw the cover once and didn't remember the exact title to identify which book they want by just looking at the images. I think I will book the Library Thing at the Ref Desk, and use it as a search tool.

P.S. I have some problems displaying my book shelf on the blog. I will try next time if I can get some help.

Here it is after our specialist showed me how to do it.