Week 7 Assignment

Write a blog entry discussing how you felt about the experience of using YouTube and what you think about this service. Do you see any potential uses for Podcasting in the library? If so what and why?

YouTube is a mixed bag of amateur and professional clips, with varying degrees of quality. It is difficult to search, there is no thesaurus or subject approach. It is user generated, and there does not seem to be any attempt at quality control or quality collection.

Potential uses for podcasting: orientation tours, short how to guides (as database searches, resource and subject guides, recordings of library instruction sessions, added feature on staff directory page (each staff member could have an associated Youtube clip.

These uses could introduce the library and its services to patrons at their
convenience, and could assist them with their research (or at least get them started) when a librarian is not available. Youtube clips may be more easily
understood by those who find print and text resources challenging.

Week 4 Assignment -Step 4 (Social Bookmarking Remarks)

Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool.

De.licio.us was easy to use. I especially liked the auto fill in for tags.
I didn’t like trying to guess what tags I had used already. Going back
to the listing of tags I previously used was cumbersome and time consuming.

Nice to see comments of others, good not only for the information contained in the comments, but for potential sources of information and networking (submitter’s email, etc).

Overall, I prefer a controlled vocabulary, it aids one tremendously in finding
“things” (as articles, web pages, etc) on a topic. To be honest…I wonder
if all uncontrolled vocabulary is just going to compound the challenge of
finding relevant information…so many different words (& variant spellings)
to describe an item.

I was pleasantly surprised to see one can download from de.lico.us to EndNote.
This may be of great value, as I use EndNote to organize Web sites of note as
well as articles.

Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance?

This can assist one in their research, whether it is a solo project, or a project done with another person or a group.

Citulike is a good example of this.
One can gather ,collect, and store bibliographic information about Web published articles.
This is basically a linear process, not unlike the old days of index cards, etc.

One can go further, though, and share and discover links among academic papers.
Through user generated tags, RSS feeds and Watchlists, users can make there findings
available to others through the Web and find out what others are collecting.

Users can create personal collections and browse collections of others.

It can complement search engines and databases in retrieving and discovering papers.

(from…Citulike: A Researcher’s Social Bookmarking Service)
Drawbacks– only as good as those who input (willingness to share in regards to content
and through time), tags chosen, and capabilities of individuals to contribute to a particular subject)

Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?

Yes, it could be used that way. In that way it would not be dissimilar to a traveling
stand alone computer…isolated from others and not in the spirit of its intent as a social
tool.

Week 3 Assignment (Social Networking..)

Social networking, I believe, is a tool which can be used to augment other forms of written and spoken communication (face to face communication [which I hear is largely body language], article publication, email, telephone conversations, blogs, etc).As in other forms of communication, the content may be perceived by the receiver as beneficial or hurtful. Social networking has the potential of reaching a wider and more diverse “audience” than other forms of communication. This is because one chooses friends based on different facets of one’s life. So, it behooves (sorry it’s early AM!) one
to keep an audience in mind, and write and select friends and other items on one’s website accordingly. And one would be wise to read other websites with a bit of compassion, and not rush to judgment.

Social network websites are in different stages of development. However, they register on my brain overwhelmingly as static. So, I have to keep reminding myself they are works in progress and the views, friends chosen, etc do not reflect 100% of the person,
institution (as a library), group, etc.

My experience with Facebook
I liked the many different options [including editing] but overall found individual Web sites to be overwhelming…and perceived as clutter…but that happens to me with quite a few subscription databases from reputable publishers in the biomedical field.

To be honest, I wonder if I would have time to keep my Facebook page current, and wonder if what I post is reflective of what I want to share. ..and if what I wantto share is of value.

Should your library have a Facebook or MySpace page?
I think this is something the reference librarians should decide as a group.Two of our librarians are 27, the other 3 including me, are 40+. This is good…different ages and also different experiences.

My gut instinct says no to Facebook/MySpace. I tend to agree with a finding in Libraries and Social Networking. The authors state that both the general public and US library directors believe the library is for learning/information and do not see the connection with social networking and libraries.

However, this may change, with current trends, including information commonsareas in academic libraries. And a few libraries have started with using these websites as places to have library related activities…some traditional, some new (as making comments, signing up for RSS feeds (as holds/checkouts), interactive art, del.icio.us tags for additional links to library catalog, instructional/informative videos, library related advice, promoted events ).

So, the question is how much does a library lead or follow? Personally, I haven’t come to terms with that.However, if a decision has a sound base, progress will be made, even if the library “changes its mind”, I think. Sound base would include patron info seeking habits and their use and perception of social networking Web sites.

Are there privacy concerns for individuals when using social networking sites?
Yes, anytime one publishes online with any personal information (even if one’s name is not included); there is the potential that the information may be used wrongfully by others or it may come back in ways unintended. Adults targeting children, bullying, job interviews (so, what else went on in that party?) and the shunning of a person due to political/religious views come to mind.

Friends by invitation only and mindful postings can address and resolve many privacy related issues. However, no combination of actions will be 100% effective. Curiosity, fear, and other human emotions are potentially very strong motivators.

How can social networking be used by MLA to connect members?
It could be used as a meeting place to discuss issues; place to share what works/doesn’t work in one’s library; networking hub to work with colleagues facing similar challenges and similar projects; place to work together on implementing objectives of MLA.

Week 2 Assignment -Step 7 (Differences between blogs and wikis)

Blogs and wikis are both social networking tools which can be used by the “owner(s)” to share information with others and receive information through their readers . They may
be published by anyone. Peer review would only take place if the owner sets it up that way. Readers would be wise to evaluate them much like they would evaluate Web pages.

• Blogs are like diaries or journals. The individual posts are written, and posted.It seems to be similar to a set of Word documents in reverse chronological order.One can scroll down to read them. Most blogs, I believe have search capabilities through a sidebar (as date, subjects created by the owner, links [including other blogs]). Blog options include the capabilitity of readers to comment on posts and the sharing of blogs among blog owners.
• Blogs are best suited when there is one owner, a fairly narrow topic is involved , and when the owner wishes to be in control of content.

• Wikkis are websites where the owners can create, organize, and revise content directly through a web browser (Firefox, Internet Explorer). The content and organization is much more fluid and user generated than blogs. (Blogs are essentially canned programs). Content may be arranged in folders, much like blogs. However the content is generally not arranged by date, largely because it is generally a work in progress, with the content constantly revised. One or more owners may be involved in one wikki. People are invited to participate on a number of editorial levels (from contributors to editors).

• Wikkis are best suited when a larger topic or subject matter as library resources. (Think thesauri and subject headings and their related narrower subject headings.) They are also useful when there are two or more contributors working together on large project that benefits from a shared memory and shared workspace (support for courses, planning/developing/supporting conferences and meetings , preparing articles for submission to journals).

[revised] Week 1 Discovery Exercise Step 4 (use of RSS feeds)

How do you think you could use RSS feeds at your library?

• For Patrons
  • Biomedical News folder containing a short, select list RSS biomedical news feeds . It could include those that are general (as New England Journal of Medicine) or would be of interest to a large population (as germane to a center of excellence at one’s institution)
    Medworm.com would be a good source to use
  • RSS feeds published by health care providers as physicians and nurses
    Bloglines.com has a search for feeds feature, I bet there are other services!
  • One could generate feed at one’s libary (alone or with colleagues) that
    would announce services (as instructional sessions), new books, newly subscribed databases, databases with new interfaces, onsite technical
    glitches, Internet resources of note, [similar to our library's blog]
  • Podcasts , audio, and video RSS feeds as described in Make Your Own “Medical Journal” with iGoogle Personalized Pages
• By Staff (“Staff only” RSS feed )
  • Staff members could contribute by posting relevant items and discuss them, as professional journalarticles, committee business, challenging reference questions
  • RSS feeds of relevant professional journals could be included
• Individual Staff Members
  • Subscribe to RSS feeds of interest using sites as MedLib blogs
  • Share RSS feeds with others to discuss items of common interest

How do you think patrons could use RSS feeds?

• Patrons could use use a news aggregator to set up their own feeds in areasof interest to them, which hopefully would include their library!
• Patrons could leave comments on their library generated RSS feed as podcasts,news articles, challenges with searching new databases or new database interfaces,
  and their thoughts on advertised library instructional sessions. [However, spamming could be a problem!]

MLA

• MLA generated feed could include breaking news items (as government actions, pending legislation), perhaps with option to comment by MLA members
• RSS feeds that would be of interest to most, or some (subfolders)
  as journal feeds, libary related feeds