MLIS 757 Blog

My experience with social software - podcasts

2006-12-09T10:36:00.000-05:00

Reading my blog you'd think I had no life outside work, but I actually have a 5-year old girl and a 3-year old boy. I am fortunate that both like books, but my daughter is also proficient with Barbie.com and my son is a Star Wars addict (he knows the names of members of the jedi council beyond Yoda and Obi-One). When researching for my podcasting presentation, I came accross Book Talks. My daughter was very intrigued by the book reviews of children's books and I even suggested we go out and get a couple of the books reviewed. There are podcasts by Disney and others which honestly are really boring, but the book reviews were short, fun and the podcast graphic is a little mesmerizing. I actually think babies would watch the graphics.

My experience with social software - social tagging

2006-12-09T10:29:00.000-05:00

Great tool. I have access to a lot of commercial business, legal and tax research tools and all of them have a "briefcase feature" which I use to manage research results. Even with all these expensive and top of the market tools, I still go to Google for more especially for private companies. Delicious is my Google briefcase and I thank this course for allowing me to discover it.

My experience with social software - instant messaging

2006-12-09T10:20:00.000-05:00

I don't use ms instant messenger. I feel bad ignoring people and saying I'm busy and often set the status to show offline so no one will be insulted. At work however I am on a team of business researchers located all over North America and I've even been sametimed by a colleague in Japan. We are required to use the instant message software in lotus which is sametime and have it open for the entire working day. One feature which I find really useful in sametime is the ability to indicate more that just "I am away" you can state "back in 5minute" or "in a meeting till 4." This really helps coleagues who are often really time pressured and need to consult you. They know when you're going to be around and don't have to keep checking to see if your status has changed. The only trick is you have to keep updating your staus and putting in the details.

My experiences with social software - Blogs

2006-12-09T10:05:00.000-05:00

I am a more private person and tend to shy away from communication on the internet which can be read by anyone except for my use of these tools for this course. However, I was involved in a project at work for delivering a course on tax research to junior and beginner tax professionals (working on getting CAs). Even for those whose careers are in tax, it can be a pretty dry subject. To elicit some class interaction as much of the material is self-study and online, I suggested using a blog for students to raise questions and issues they encountered during the course so we could address these in a series of seminars being held via webcast and face to face in some locations. No one contributed to the blog. I suppose it mught have been seen as exposing ignorance or lack of understanding and where this is a work setting not just a learning forum, employees might be even more sensitive to this. The blog was set up as an internet cafe with a blog post started on a number of topics which the students were invited to comment on. This structure might have made it too formal. I think people are used to using this kind of blog as a social space and have difficulty communicating in a work social space.

Does social software have a place in library service provision

2006-12-03T19:08:00.000-05:00

I think social software can be used by libraries in a number of ways.

The blog is an excellent medium for organizing information on particular issues. Libraries often have a useful links page which has a simple list of sites where information can be found, but as new and interesting websites keep getting added to the internet daily this kind of list is not as useful anymore. Blogs can help organize the links into specific categories of interest. RSS feeds keep the content up to date and the posts and comments allow for interaction. Blogs are also great for libraries to use as electronic message boards.

Social tagging is a great way for libraries to improve internet searching and assist in finding information for library users. It can also serve like blogs as a means of organizing links to website into various categories for library users.

Instant messaging has a place in the library and can add to library services. It is very useful for pushing links to library users and to provide library users with an instant connection which leaving an e-mail request can't do.

Podcasting could be used to give voice to the library and to communicate in spoken conversation with library users on the internet. This could enhance library services.

Wikis can be a collaberative tool for libraries, but except for working on a resaerch project with a team or other internal team projects, I don't see the wiki as being that applicable to library services. I also don't see social networks contributing much to library services. I think they are useful for connecting to the greater library community and for library users to connect to each other.

Those are my initial thoughts. Will post more later

Case studies for week 12

2006-11-27T20:14:00.000-05:00

The use of podcats by the Thomas Ford Memorial Library which provide teen reviews of books makes sense to me. Do teens really want to hear what they should read from a librarian who is at least ten years older than them? and can a librarian talk teen language enough to make a book sound interesting? I know I can't.

The libraries that use podcasting Dowling Public Library, ASU Libraries , and Lansing Public Library and the Thomas Ford Memorial Library all give some description of the podcast so that you don't download it without knowing what it's about and then have to delete it. I think this is important as it takes some effort and bandwidth to download.

I checked out some of the libraries on the list of Libraries using IM reference. I noticed that most of them were offline at 9:30pm on Monday night. As I indicated in my post reading from week 12 - instant messaging, for IM to be effective it really has to be available whenever users are likely to be online and that might not be 9-5.

I also checked out some of the libraries using flikr and found that a lot of them use flikr to post pictures of library events like book signings. This seems like a good way to build a community. I think libraries would have to careful to take pictures of lots of different people and not make the photos too cliquey.

Can podcasting be interactive?

2006-11-27T19:51:00.000-05:00

The article 7 Things you should know about podcasting suggests that one of the downsides to podcasting is that it's not interactive. Ithink that podcasting has the ability to be interactive especially with new technologies such as Wildvoice and Yamji which allow users to leave audio comments in response to each other. I see this as a kind of audio blog and I think it could be very effective. I think that people tune into radio shows hosted by personalities because it makes one feel like you have a friend when you're sitting in a traffic jam and that you're part of a listening audience that is sharing an experience. I think the podcasts could provide the same kind of connection for listeners.

readings week 12 (IM)

2006-11-22T21:21:00.000-05:00

The article U R the best: Community building through chat noted an interesting issue about instant messaging crank calls. One of the main problems that I see with instant messaging is being able to restrict access to people in the library community. If anyone anywhere can access the virtual librarian then how do you ensure that the community that funds you is being served.

The article IM me raised some interesting points about using IM for reference. One thing that bugs me about IM reference interviews is that you have to remember to create a record or transcript of the dialogue. When you're on the phone you write down notes and email creates the record, but IM is easy to close (doh!). I also find it really slow, way slower than just talking. At my office all business researchers have to have sametime (our im application) open when you're available. You have to change your status if your in a meeting on a conference call or too busy to be disturbed. IM is used to say "hi do you have a sec" or "can I call you." If anything with detail needs to be discussed we do it via e-mail or phone. One thing it is great for is sending links as mentione in the blog, Give Them What They Already Use - AOL Instant Messanger: A Case Study. I agree with Schmidt and Stevens, the authors of IM me that the library community is increasingly connecting to the library on the internet and offering virtual reference through im is one way to reach out to this community.

The SUNY Morrisville College Library mentioned in the blog Give Them What They Already Use - AOL Instant Messanger: A Case Study devote a lot of staff to manning their virtual reference. The blogger maintains that they are open 82 hours a week during fall and winter. While an academic library might be able to train and dedicate staff to virtual reference, I don't think that public libraries have those kind of resources.

week 10 readings

2006-11-08T21:40:00.000-05:00

The wikipedia definition of Social Network reveals that social networking on the internet is still about people connecting to each other. However, traditional social network theory involves the connections of people from different social groups whereas social networking on the internet seems to be more about people within a social community connecting without geographic limitations. Facebook allows one to register not just as a University student or alumni with a University e-mail account, but also as an employee of a major company, or as a highschool student. These types of social networks are more about connecting to the people within your social community and can be somewhat exclusive.

The article "Identity Production in a networked culture: why youth heart myspace" is interesting. Personally I had enough of the drama and angst of highschool when I was at highschool and after reading this article plan to stay away from myspace. I'm sure that developing an online identity is part of developing personal identity and might assist teens to experiment somewhat, but what's so great about an online identity that seeks popularity and of what value is a social network where one has to constantly flatter those you want to keep as "friends." I'm sorry, but teenagers are not "running ragged without any time to simply chill amongst friends." If they were they certainly wouldn't be able to spend so much time instant messaging and keeping up their social network on myspace.

In the article Myspace and Facebook: What higher-ed can learn from social computing, the author suggests that students enthusiasm for Facebook and Myspace is a reflection of their need to connect and interact and that this should be brought into a University classroom which is too controlled and where content is dictated by the professors. Again, I find myself apologizing for being so conservative, but I didn't pay tuition to listen to what my classmates think I should be taught. I want a professor to provide me with his or her knowledge in a discipline or subject in which he or she is expert. I agree that class discussion assists in learning and a lot can be learned from other students and their opinions and thoughts are of great value in the learning process, but the teaching of a professor with years of experience is also valuable and shouldn't be dismissed because its not as exciting as what your buddy did last night.

The Deleting Online Predators Act reffered to in The Moral Panic Over Social Networking Sites is a bit extreme. It's too bad that children and teens whose only access to the internet is through federally funded schools and libraries may be denied access to a technology which wealthier peers are not. I don't fully appreciate the value of social networks like Facebook and Myspace, but they are an evolving form of communication and allow children and teens to develop communication skills in the electronic world. As the article Social Networking: A new tech tool and a new security concern for schools and teens and the blog post What DOPA means for education suggest, maybe schools, parents and legislators should be focussing on teaching children and teens about how to communicate in the electronic world safely instead of trying to protect them from the evils that are lurking in their social spaces.

case studies from week 7

2006-10-29T14:47:00.000-05:00

The case studies for the libraries for week 7 seem to be using tags to keep their communities connected to information in the same way that we are using the lis757 tag. The use of a common tag by libraries presupposes that everyone in the community is interested in similar information which I don't believe is always the case. I think that tags need to be more specific to be of use to those who are seeking information on a topic. Even within our lis757 tag each of have varied interests and information needs which influence what we tag. I'm sure that most of the documents that I tag are completely irrelevant to anyone but me. Unless you're checking your RSS aggregator very regularly (which I'll be honest I only do a couple time a week) you miss many of the documents being tagged because there is just too much information to review it all just in case its relevant. I did go into the lis757 tag to search for articles on a research project for work that I was working on. Using del.icio.us to research for articles on the internet may turn up more results than google/yahoo/msn but searching through the quantity of information on a concept popularly tagged would be inefficient and possible endless.

readings - week 7

2006-10-18T21:25:00.000-04:00

Many of this weeks' readings discuss the two competing purposes of tagging and bookmarking using software like del.icio.us. The first purpose is to manage one's personal information sources and the second is to share those sources with others. In The de.licio.us lesson, Joshua Porter argues that users tag and bookmark primarily for personal management and that the social aspect of tagging and bookmarking is secondary or even incidental. Porter suggests that bookmarking and tagging features in software should first and formost be of value to users individual needs. Using tags and bookmarks to personally manage information means that the tags used are more unique and individual than tags which are created to share information would be. As pointed out in the article Folksonomies - Cooperative Classification and Communication through Shared Metadata, the use of free-form tagging as opposed to a controlled vocabulary makes it more difficult to classify information into similar subject areas to facilitate the sharing of information. While del.icio.us suggests tags that other users have assigned, that list could be infinite. The aggregate list of information assigned to a specific tag could also be full of irrelevant information to an individual user looking for information on a topic. One way to get around this is for groups of users to agree on a controlled vocabulary as we have for this course by using lis757 to tag entries we think are related to the course content.

possible applications of wiki in library

2006-10-15T22:23:00.000-04:00

Wikis, to me, seem to be the ideal application for collaberation and team work. They also are a good way to involve users in insuring that content that matters to them is correct and fullsome. Many public libraries provide information on community services as well as other types of information. A community services wiki maintained by the organizations who offer programs and services in the community would greatly assist the public library in keeping information up to date and informative.

case studies week 6

2006-10-15T21:52:00.000-04:00

Bull Run Library uses a wiki to allow library users to recommend books and internet links. I think that this is great. When it comes to links users can correct or delete links which don’t work instead of e-mailing the webmaster. As library users recommendations on books and links are immediately published on the site, they know that the library values their opinions and comments. The Wyoming Authors wiki is a great way to get people who are really interested in a subject like Wyoming authors to do the research that one or even several librarians could not do as efficiently. They are also doing it for free. It also makes the library user feel more engaged and part of the library community.

Butler WikiRef also allows the library users to recommend sources, but in this case the users are University staff, faculty, students and librarians. In a University setting, where there can be deep specialization in a discipline or subdiscipline, the wiki allows specialists to share what the best sources of information are within their specialization and to keep these sources as up to date as possible.

The Ohio University Library’s biz wiki is an example of a wiki maintained by the business department at Ohio University. The booklovers wiki is interesting because it can contain different viewpoints and is less of a collaborative work. Ii think that a blog would have been better because there is no danger of anyone erasing anyone else’s comments with which they disagree and there can be an interactive dialogue as opposed to a series of reviews.

The subject guides wiki can only be edited by librarians, but users can see that it is a wiki. Allowing all librarians editing privileges in a wiki language is much more efficient that having only one web editor. I assume that the USC Aiken Gregg-Graniteville Library site is a wiki where editing privileges are restricted to librarians. There is no obvious place to click to edit the site. Again allowing all the librarians in the different subject specialties to edit the site is more efficient than having this task delegated to one librarian.

editing presentation wiki

2006-10-15T20:23:00.000-04:00

I was not very adventurous in editing the wiki. I added just a couple of words. The wiki language used on pbwiki is easier than html, but a lot of people don't have to understand html to make a website because Microsoft Frontpage or Macromedia Dreamweaver will convert your formatting instructons into html code for you. One could get used to writing in the wiki language, but it would take some time. I wonder if there could be a simple wiki writer developed to make it even easier.

readings - week 6

2006-10-11T22:01:00.000-04:00

I noticed that most of the readings - Wiki entry in Wikipedia, Wide Open Spaces: Wikis Ready or Not , Wikis in the Workplace: How Wikis can Help Manage Knowledge in Library Reference Services, TechEssence.Info White Paper on Wikis - stated that one of the uses for wikis was team collaberation on a document which all members of the team can access and edit. I think that for this to work the team members have to value each others contributions and truly collaborate. Due to the editorial freedom of the wiki, there is a danger that one team member could delete another team member's work that he or she considers irrelevant or inaccurate. I know that in Wide Open Spaces: Wikis Ready or Not the author refers to this as the "standard objection" and refutes the objection with the idea that the community polices itself. He uses Wikipedia as an example of a wiki which does this. I dont disagree that in a large community of editors and contributors this policing might occur, but in a small team the "vandal" is a coworker and there is likely to be open conflict. The article Wide Open Spaces: Wikis ready or not does point out that wikis are very flexible and can be used as brainstorming boards. If team members were told to insert a comment next to parts of a document that they questioned and told not to delete something that they did not agree should be included, I think that the wiki could be used for team collaboration on a project. The article On Uses for Wikis and Gardening indicates that some Wikis provide a discussion space so that changes can be discussed before implemented. Also as stated in Wikis in the Workplace: How Wikis can Help Manage Knowledge in Library Reference Services, wikis work best in environments where there is a high degree of trust.

case studies week 5

2006-10-09T11:09:00.000-04:00

The Seattle Public Library feed doesn't indicate if these are new titles added, and if so when were they added. One of the books I clicked on was published in 2002. If this is based on a saved search, then a more recent date restriction should probably be included in the search.

The vendor information on RSS from Ebsco was pretty minimal. The information on Engineering Village and Proquest was much better becuase of the explanation of RSS provided. I particularly liked Proquest.

I am surprised that the vendors of information don't promote RSS better, but as I indicated in an earlier post, this is likely because they don't own the copyright and have to restrict access. Since the vendors have likely developed the email alert system already, they may not be that keen on promoting RSS which may be more difficult to secure.

Libraries and OPML

2006-10-09T10:59:00.000-04:00

OPML seems like an important tool for team work. Similar to the way we used the OPML file in this class, if a team were each creatng a blog to chart their progress on a project and the gliches that have come up, how they solved them, and if they couldn't solve them, then other team members and especially managers could assist before the team gets frustrated or does unnecessary work. This would work far better that an e-mail chain because people ignore email and because the blog medium allows for more analysis and thought. Comments can also be made privately by email if appropriate.

incorporating RSS feeds into blog

2006-10-09T10:42:00.000-04:00

I used feed2js to incorporate the latest BBC world news into my blog and it looks like it has worked. I initially tried rss2html but there was a complete lack of meaningful instructions so I gave up. Having taken the MLIS course on web design I at least have some knowledge of html and where to insert code into the blogger template, but I'm not totally comfortable with my abilities (I did use microsoft frontpage to design my website). It would have helped greatly if there had been instructions about where to paste the code provided by feed2js. They just said "cut and paste." I didn't bother messing with the CSS code because I'm pretty sure I'd mess it up. This is not something that average bloggers could do (unless I'm below average in technical skills for a blogger which is entirely possible). I guess most librarians would figure out how to do this and it would be a good way to incorporate community news into the library website or blog.

readings for week 5

2006-10-09T08:24:00.000-04:00

In Weblogs and RSS in information work the authors list 4 different uses for Blogs and RSS by libraries - directing users to resources, commenting on national activities and events related to library and information, providing news, and engaging with users through requested feedback. I have noticed that most of the library blogs that I've looked at in case studies and for the blog review don't use their blogs and RSS features to really engage users. This might be due to the fact that the creators of library blogs are more interested in information pushing rather that the exchange of information, but many blogs explain in great detail what a blog is and what RSS is and yet there are almost no comments left by users. It make me wonder why that is.

In Success Story: RSS Moves into the Mainstream at the University of Alberta Libraries the author states that he is surprized none of the students in the undergraduate course that he is teaching at the University of Alberta know what RSS or even weblogs are. The article is dated June 2005. This is supposed to be the techno-savy/information generation.

When it comes to technological innovation, I think you really need the power of microsoft or some other corporate entity to market software and web applications. Until you have mass use of RSS most users won't understand the concept. The average library users are even less techno-savy than the average university undergrad. Even if there was a social software for dummies (If there is one already please excuse my ignorance), it would help to get more people engaged in blogging and RSS and other social software.

There are also a lot of applications which seem to do what RSS does through email. I bought one book from Amazon in the spring (the text for 506) and I have been getting e-mails from them ever since on products I might be interested in. I know this is different in that I didn't choose to receive the emails (or I forgot to check the litle box indicating I didn't want to receive the emails), but the vast majority of library users might think that RSS is the same sort of thing and that they will be inundated with unwanted email.

They also have to sign up on an aggregator and follow instructions on adding a feed. While we have all done it for this class, for a lot of people it's too much effort and too complicated and they'd rather just bookmark their favourite sites and visit them from time to time.

I don't see that library blogs in the immediate future will have much luck turning their websites into interactive community spaces through blogs and RSS.

Case studies week 4

2006-10-01T20:02:00.000-04:00

The Kansas City Public Library provides an RSS feed for all of its subject guides while the Hennepin County Library allows users to choose to subscribe to feeds for any of a number of different subject guides or all of them. I prefer the latter approach because I want to mimimize the amount of information that I receive through RSS feeds.

The NHMCCD - RSS feeds provides a very detailed explanation of RSS including a tutorial which would really assist those who are new to RSS. I thought it was a great idea to include a sample of what is being subscribed to so that people now exactly what they are signing up for.

The Tacoma Public Library and the University of Oklahoma Libraries use RSS to advise library users of new content in their collection by subject area. This makes a lot of sense to me because this type of information doesn't easily get conveyed to library users and could really assist in promoting circulation of new acquisitions including electronic resources.

The Western Kentucky University Libraries provide RSS feeds for the different parts of their website, but you have to know what these pages contain by visiting them before subscribing to the feeds. The category "stuff" is not very informative. They've also provided a feed for "past events" which isn't likely to be updated except when material is archived and probably isn't the kind of information that anyone is interested in when it isn't current.

Comments on Rojo and Netvibe

2006-10-01T19:42:00.000-04:00

Rojo is a simply laid out aggregator, but the home page sort of summed up the kind of content that I'd rather avoid on the internet. Although I will admit that Duck fader was pretty funny and I did check out the site, I would get annoyed by what is probably advertising on the home page

I actually liked Netvibes which pulled together a lot of things I bookmark like the weather and google and yahoo search engines. I also like the fact that you could set up e-mail, del.icio.us, calendar and to do list and aggregate rss feeds all in one place. Unlike rojo you could choose what to read and click on.

Additional thoughts on RSS

2006-10-01T16:24:00.000-04:00

I am new to the RSS game. In terms of using RSS as a source of information such as recent news, I prefer to look for my own information which I know is relevant. While RSS feeds deliver information up to the minute, I don't really have any reason to know any particular information before it hits the newspapers and TV braodcasts.

I understand that some people might have really unique interests and information needs and as the number of blogs and websites has become exponential, having the information from specific sites and blogs that one wants to track accessible in one place makes sense. Still, relying on specific sources can limit research. Who knows what new sites or blogs on a topic might be published.

I do appreciate the use of RSS as we are using it in this course for keeping track of the postings of a community be it students taking a course or a team of librarians or researchers. If these blogs contain links to sources of information that collegues have found reliable and informative then it could be a great resource.

readings - week 4

2006-09-27T22:27:00.000-04:00

Most people will probably find it amusing that I've had an imac for almost 4 years with Safari 2.0 and I had no idea what RSS was until I took this course. I am pleasantly surprised after reading this week's articles and looking up RSS for Macs that my computer has a built in RSS aggregator with up to date news from the Washington Post and the New York Times just a click away. My husband is going to be so happy that he can get sports scores so easily. Which actually leads into my main thoughts on RSS that I took from the readings - RSS is great for information that has a greater value the more current it is. Most of the research I do requires currency, but equally important and sometimes more so is relevance and authority. RSS might assist with routine searches for information like information on a law firm's client (as long as the client isn't Walmart or some other huge company that has 30 news items a day published about it). However, librarians and information professionals usually get unique research requests or are looking for specific information which requires complicated searches that aren't possible using RSS. I can also see how database vendors like Factiva won't provide an RSS feed because they may not own the original copyright and therefore need to ensure that they control access to their database and because they already have enough subscibers especially for business and corporate information. Government websites on the other hand should provide an RSS feed because it is important that the public gets information on changes to laws, regulations and procedures quickly and in any manner possible that allows for wide dissemination.

Thoughts on case studies - week 3

2006-09-26T20:34:00.000-04:00

Of this weeks case studies I preferred those which had a search feature and grouped the blogs into categories which could be browsed such as Lamson Library and Virginia Commonwealth Library Suggestion Box. This way one could browse through all posts on a topic or do a pinpoint search depending on your information need.

The blogs for Garfield Library Lounge and St Joseph Library Game Blog seemed the least organized of the blogs and information was hard to find without using a search feature.

I found that the Darian Library Blog looked like an ad and made me think I was on a commercial site. Even the pictures looked like products. In “Net Rage: A Study of Blogs and Usability,” the study observed that internet users were afraid of spam when posting on a blog. I suspected that I was going to get unsolicited e-mail by subscribing to feeds for the listed blogs.

The Mabry online blogs and Virginia Commonwealth Library Suggestion Box were the most innovative and imaginative in their use of the blog. Although, I thought that the VCL blog was less of a suggestion box than an “ask the library” blog. It was interesting that the VCL blog let patrons determine the postings as opposed to the library.

multi-author blogs

2006-09-24T21:21:00.000-04:00

Even though it may seem less coherent, I think that a multi-authored blog could work if each of the authors made sure to post or sign off in their name so readers knew who was posting. You could have different authors who specialized in different genres of literature or library departments (ie. history, science, or business) posting on a regular basis. This way the library might be seen as a connected community. Library users who only use the library's fiction collection, for instance, might become interested in the library's local history collection by reading a post on the library blog. It would also mean that the library could share the maintenance of the blog between staff more equitably. Librarians could each take on one week a month to post on a topic within their specialty. To make the blog more coherent the postings could all centre on a particular topic such as "Black History" month. This might give library users some idea of the breadth and richness of the library's resources.

week 3 - readings

2006-09-20T21:18:00.000-04:00

This week's readings fell into three categories for me: marketing a blog, creating a usable blog and ethical blogs. I found the articles on marketing and creating usable blogs interesting and helpful. If I were trying to ensure that the messages in my blog were seen by a specific audience and was more usable by that audience, then I would definitely consider customizing my "about me" page, adding a picture of myself and ensuring that the titles of my entries were sufficiently on point and conveyed the content of the posts as suggested in the article found at http://www.useit.com/alertbox/weblogs.html. I did find, however that it was assumed that I was publishing a blog to promote something and myself as opposed to just reflecting or recording thoughts on significant events or interests.

Rebecca Blood's article (http://www.rebeccablood.net/handbook/excerpts/weblog_ethics.html) and the article from the library journal (http://libraryjournal.com/article/CA515805.html) concerned me just a little. I agree that librarian's who are publishing blogs with the library's name on it or who promote their blogs by stating that they are expert researchers on a particular topic should be careful not to disclose confidential information, breach copyright or publish information which is not verified. However, I think it's a bit much to impose a "code of ethics" on bloggers who just want to express an opinion. Freedom of expression is an important right. If works are intended for a scholarly community then obviously certain standards need to be met, but sometimes people need a place to rant maybe even at each other. I don't quote the editorial section of a newspaper when looking for facts and the same goes for blog. In addition, not everyone has a university education. I don't think these people are unethical for posting blogs without proper citation. ( I guess that's my rant)

New Generation Library Blogs

2006-09-18T20:51:00.000-04:00

I think that public libraries could have a blog book group where library users can go to discuss certain books and the issues raised in them. The library would have to keep sufficient copies of books on hand, but it could improve circulation of some old classics as well as new releases. A service that delivers books to the disabled and those who cannot easily get to the library could be combined with the blog. You could also use blogs in the way that the Western Spring site which was a case study for week 2 did. You could link the catalogue to a blog for each book that allows people to make comments. Amazon and Chapters already do this.

Do Blog providers back-up and save Blogs?

2006-09-17T21:03:00.000-04:00

One thing that I didn't find in the readings or maybe I missed was whether blog providers like blogger.com save all the blogs on some secure server somewhere. The only reason I thought of this was that my husband was considering using a blog to record family memories that disappear so quickly and would be fun to look back on at sometime. For example, my son had a good/guy bad guy phase which involved making us tell him whether every person, animal or even thing was a good guy or bad guy in books we read to him. This dominated our lives for months. He doesn't do it anymore and in two years I'm sure that we'll forget he ever did that. If we recorded these things which my husband tries to in a paper notebook then we'd have a record. A blog would be cleaner and easier and grandparents might get a kick out of it and post a comment or two. However, if blogger disappears so would the blog and all of our memories. Besides creating our own blog which I have no time to do, there must be some blog providers who scurely save information that bloggers don't want to lose.

Case studies week 2

2006-09-17T20:28:00.000-04:00

Of the case studies we were asked to look at this week, I liked the Georgia State Universty blog best. I found it easy to navigate and figure out and I appreciated that I could see a list of all the blogs on my sceen when the page opened instead of having to scroll through it. I also found the content most interesting. I like the idea of the blog being a medium for debate and a forum for the interaction of ideas. Of course this is the perfect blog for a University. The Jefferson Library and the AADL blogs were designed more as conveyers of news. What kind of comment would you get abut the announcement of an event. These blogs had more links in them. These blogs are designed to meet the needs of the communities they serve. Using a blog to announce events makes sense as it is always current easy to update unlike a website. The Western Spring blog was interesting in that it serves as a means of gathering information and research as well as a means of presenting that research. The blog invites users to comment on a property that they see perhaps by relating a story from their past which involves the property. Ultimately the blog, like website works if the community needs are met. The community itself has some say in the content of the blog and can therefore ensure that the information found in the blog meets the individual members needs.

week 2- readings

2006-09-13T21:25:00.000-04:00

Rebecca Blood's articles on the history of blogging were very thought provoking though they presented somewhat of an idealistic idea of communication and self realization through blog. Being a part-time student allows me to appreciate University education for something that can get lost when working and living a busy life - forced reflection and critical thinking on topics that ordinarily you wouldn't make time to think about. Rebecca Blood's picture of blogging includes the ability to maintain academic exchanges with people who are interested in a topic. In that sense blogging provides a forum which is similar to a Univerity grad club. Blood goes on to observe that there is now such an abundance of blogs that no one can find a blog on a particular topic and provide the interactive postings which made blogs such a great means of debate and exchange of ideas. I think that's a shame. At the same time, the internet used to be used primarily by higher educated white men and if the cost of greater access comes at the expense of quality blog exchanges then I'm prepared to accept that. Based on the history of blogging outlined n Blood's articles, blogging seems to evolve as does the use of the internet as more and more people gain access and less techncal skills are required. Perhaps the purpose of blogs will change now that there are so many of them.

The readings which explained blogging jargon and tools were informative. I'm a big fan of the user-friendy-templated blogger.com. It makes sense for someone like me who just wants to enter the content and doesn't want to "personalize" the "face."

Week 1 Readings

2006-09-10T19:52:00.000-04:00

One of the themes that caught my interest in the readings for this week was group dynamics and behaviour using social software. I am currently working in an organization where we use Lotus Notes and Sametime which is, just as its name suggests, a sametime communication feature that allows "chat" (like ms messenger). We also use depositories for information that we want to share with each other in the research group. Being new to the organization, I've had to work out what the conventions are for using the various social software. Sametime leaves it up to members of the organization to choose who is in the list of contacts always displayed when you open the tool. As the article "Are you ready for social software?" and "Social software and the politics of groups" point out, social software like Sametime allows new groups to form that are not based on those imposed by an organization. People naturally reach out and share infomation with people who help you do your job. It is so important to learn the proper conventions for social software and people have figured out some interesting ways of communicating effectively. For instance, researchers looking for another researcher to take on a project communicate by mass e-mail, but the information you need to be able to delete or open the message is in the subject line. Sametime is also effective for caucusing during teleconferences. I'm sure that I'm not using the social software at my organization to its full potential and am fascinated by how communication itself is evolving and shaping how we socialize.

week 1 - September 6, 2006

2006-09-05T21:45:00.000-04:00

Hello all. I'm Katharine Thompson. I kept a blog for MLIS 515 over a year ago and never kept it up. I know what a blog is, but I don't know what RSS or wikis are. I'm looking forward to learning about these things and other types of social software that could make my job easier and more fun.