Exercise #16: wikid wikis

Yeah, so what wouldn't work for libraries employing the use of wikis? Seems to be so practical on so many levels as evidenced in the many examples throughout the exercise. As a collaborative exercise with the public we have peer-generated ratings for reading materials instead of just the "voice of the librarian," and also community wikis developing to share a myriad of info and links found by informed individuals. As a tool for staff purposes we have a replacement for an intranet structure where the gatekeepers write in code and need to be directed to post simple additions meant to share and facilitate a learning process. Lots of examples to ponder the benefits of utilizing multiple wikis, but let's not bore each other with the details and the obvious challenges to maintaining a strong wiki. Let's empower the willing and start creating more avenues to actually utilize the potential.

Exercise 15: Library 2.0

I am particular to the ideas expressed by Michael Stephens in his essay "Into a New World of Librarianship" as it seems to present a rational approach to the adoption of a mindset and the skills necessary to build a believable 2.0 existence. Specifically, I appreciate how he uses key phrases of simplicity addressing how libraries need to embrace web 2.0 tools to "... further the mission of the library ..." and how the technology must meets the needs of the users in a beneficial way and NOT for the sake of trends or status. The arguments he presents are lucid, practical, and present a groundwork on which one can easily relate to the promotion of all of the tools necessary to make 2.0 (and further) more than an idealization of concepts and models of service for the library of the future.

My feeling about the 2.0 future is, to say the least, ambivalent or at the least shrouded in a haze of uncertainty. I want to believe that the libraries of tomorrow will in fact adapt to technological trends and employ them in a manner which is functionally sound and benefits everyone involved. Do libraries need to evolve to fit into an ever-expanding technologically advanced world? Of course they do, but the traditions that have made libraries the valued institutions that educated societies recognize them to be probably shouldn't aspire to abandon those basic tenents and properties in a rush to fit in to the virtual future and beyond. Nobody, well at least nobody that I know, wants to be viewed as some outdated Luddite when it comes to adapting to technology and it's place in our world, but to presume that libraries need to rapidly adapt to 2.0 existences is a stretch that just isn't ready to happen on a large scale basis. But it's like the man said ... one boat at a time.

Exercise 14: Technorati and tags

Exploring Technorati at the least has given me some additional insight into the reality that as print and network news sources struggle to maintain readers and viewers, the blogosphere just continues to expand at an astounding exponential rate. Hard to believe that so many people want to be connected so much of the time, but then again we're talking about those denizens of the globe who are entrenched in an online existence and define themselves as such. While there still exists a very clear "digital divide," I believe that another separation is becoming quite prominent and that relates to how and what people are accessing online. How bloggers and the virtually connected utilize the web is still by and large vastly different from those still contentedly putzing around the web in more rudimentary (not meant as an insult) ways. Technorati is a great tool for searching the blogosphere and happening upon information that resides somewhere in the world between search engines like Google and traditional news sources and combined with del.icio.us it offers a simple combination of information gathering through the options of social bookmarking and tagging. My only problem with tags, however, is that the user driven definition of a tag can be almost anything according to the individual's preferences. There is no uniform terminology and thus it seems that searching by tags can be as random as can be expected by that lack of uniformity. This, I imagine, is where del.icio.us and folksonomies come into play in an attempt to create connections and group consensus or aggregations of info. At times, I'm not even sure I understand what I'm trying to communicate, and I apologize for that, but that's what is making this whole 2.0 exercise intriguing.

Exercise #13: del.icio.us ... the yellow haze of the sun

Social bookmarking. Hmmmph. After trying to grasp the basics of del.icio.us I've come to the conclusion that the way people use tags and bookmarking is purely for personal reasons first and foremost. So if the value of these tools is to build networks of shared information, is it really rational to think that this is in fact how the tools are initially used? I mean, I think that the majority of del.icio.us users probably are keen on the facility of personalized bookmarking that is free-roaming and not tied to a particular computer, but unless directed to utilize as an aggregated collection of tags and bookmarks, is everybody going to potentially use it as such. Hell, I don't know, but I plead ignorance because I'm not on the vanguard of tech tools and only with time and applied use will I understand the enormity (or proposed enormity) of utilizing this in our profession. One can see the possibilities of guiding library users to shared lists of recommended sites related to books, bookclubs, information of all stripes basically, but until I'm using it regularly it will remain an amorphous idea that will take shape slowly and , hopefully, surely.

exercise #12: Rollyo

I see the appeal of adding a Rollyo searchroll to a site seeking to limit searches. This, however, removes the potential for accessing new and unknown sources. Even though a general keyword search on Google can produce far too many results, the burden of collecting specific sites to add to a Rollyo searchroll can presume an authority that maybe is not comprehensive enough ... but maybe it shouldn't be. I guess that's the whole point, sites that you use most or trust most, but I'm not completely sold that it's a tool I would employ frequently if at all. The example of SJLearning Reference Rollyo does provide a simple and functional method for limited searching within a defined parameter. And it works like it should ... whatever. Oh yeah, here's the link to my searchroll, but don't bother unless you want to read about fúrgol and most of it will be in spanish or italian ... vamos: http://rollyo.com/chicoescuela/my_boixosbadalona/

exercise # 11: Web 2.0 awards

I have to say that the possibilities are infinitesimal and, frankly, too damn much to peruse in a short amount of time. I chose to investigate the "mashups & more" link and came across a site that really does a helluva job of visually presenting you with material related to your search for music or movie preferences. Frankly it did a pretty good job trying to connect you to films that may be similar in style (not so much in music, but it's all subjective). In other words, it gives suggestions for consumption that may be of interest based on the data entered and could be replicated as a rather cool and updated form of 2.0 readers advisory for the literary minded. What librarian wouldn't dig that?
The site: http://liveplasma.com Check it!

Exercise #10: Image Generators

Awright, more activities that I'm sure my son would love to spend hours playing around with. To that end, I certainly won't turn him on to the array of image generators, and besides, Club Penguin takes up all his online time anyhow. Ah, to be young and innocent again. I got my image through the Generator Blog and it's countless list of possibilities. Specifically, the link to the cassette generator as it plays on my old skool leanings: http://www.says-it.com/cassette/index.php