If I am being very honest, this might be my least favorite "thing" so far. I did the searches assigned, some things of interest to me in the library world, and then the name of my library. Some fairly interesting things came up, but none so riveting and useful that I would go back and use it again, unless of course when it is out of the beta stage it goes on to do and contain bigger and better things.
Given that it is still in Beta I will take that into consideration. The layout was dull and where the searches did result in some interesting reading and articles, it seemed to be things I had seen, or could find, elsewhere.
Example: I did a search for twitter. To see if I could get some information on how libraries are utilizing Twitter in their services. One of the results I retrieved, and that I was aware of, BUT could have gone without being reminded of again, is how congressmen, while in session, are tweeting about what they are doing. That may be exciting to people working over at Twitter, but to me it was like announcing that high school kids are tweeting about what they do all day in school. We know what they do, we know what they SHOULD be doing, but do they really need to be preoccupying themselves by tweeting about very important decisions and ideas that will one day affect us all while they are in the process of making the decisions??? I will just go out on a virtual limb here and say a big no!
I followed many other links off libworm, and unlike the rest of the 23 things I never thought to myself "I can use this." Or I will return to read this in it's entirity. I think, even though this is a library-based website, that I find more interesting reading vvia delicious, even on many library-related topics. No, I am not searching cataloging or anything that library specific. But the things I did search wasn't that interesting.
I also search the name of my library. There were 3 results. 2 job descriptions that Ihad been posted out somewhere and one result of our Science & Engineering Library. Given that our library has been doing some very exciting things this past year, I found these results to be disappointing as well.
Again, I will cut libraryworm some slack since it is in beta, but don't think I will be revisiting the site anytime soon if I was to be very honest...and I always am!
Friday, August 14, 2009
Monday, August 10, 2009
That thing, that thing...that LibraryThing
This is another site that I love. Every month I make a feeble attempt at scoring an early reviewer's book from the list...and every month I get an email saying I didn't, try again. So even at my busiest I visit LibraryThing at least once a month.
I have many of my home-library books in there, but not even close to all! I just added 4 more that I had forgotten to add earlier.
I have a free LibraryThing account, so not all features are open for me, but the features that are open are very cool. I love looking at other's posts and new books coming out, and books I have missed. I enjoy the recommendations and featured authors sections too. Being in an academic library I miss some books that would be in a public library, so having suggestions on this site is great. It is a very multifaceted site with many wonderful features and functions.
The various blogs and groups are very cool and fun, I have yet to join any, all of my other social networking keeps me busy. But I was just on LibraryThing this morning prior to seeing it on the list, so I can definitely see why it is one of our 23 things!
I am:
swiftees
on the LibraryThing website.
THANKS!
I have many of my home-library books in there, but not even close to all! I just added 4 more that I had forgotten to add earlier.
I have a free LibraryThing account, so not all features are open for me, but the features that are open are very cool. I love looking at other's posts and new books coming out, and books I have missed. I enjoy the recommendations and featured authors sections too. Being in an academic library I miss some books that would be in a public library, so having suggestions on this site is great. It is a very multifaceted site with many wonderful features and functions.
The various blogs and groups are very cool and fun, I have yet to join any, all of my other social networking keeps me busy. But I was just on LibraryThing this morning prior to seeing it on the list, so I can definitely see why it is one of our 23 things!
I am:
swiftees
on the LibraryThing website.
THANKS!
Can you DIGG it?
Finally, a "thing" I have not had very much experience with. My brother often posts things from Digg on facebook, but I never really knew what it was until this thing. It's awesome too! I consider myself slighty Internet ADD...email, facebook, google reader, outlook, so on...all on ALL the time, for the most part. I enjoy Digg because it indulges that part of my personality. All kinds of stories, photos, cartoons, videos, images of documents, etc...everything. All in one place and by popularity, searchable, and easy to share the content with friends on facebook or twitter and email. Searchable by time, day, month, year...and by topic. I consider this a very user-friendly site which I look forward to using a lot.
Setting up my account and learning the ropes was very easy. They did not require too much info, and gave you options on adding a profile, etc. Easy registration is always nice.
Some of the information given has the potential to be very helpful, some very amusing, some very mind-boggling...and some a tad disgusting. But for me it is that diversity that makes it such a unique and fun site.
I am excited to start using it and even though I opened another of about 200 accounts I have...I can tell this is one I am going to use a lot!
I located this information on Digg and the progress and changes it has made lately...interesting read.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/09/digg-is-on-a-roll/
Setting up my account and learning the ropes was very easy. They did not require too much info, and gave you options on adding a profile, etc. Easy registration is always nice.
Some of the information given has the potential to be very helpful, some very amusing, some very mind-boggling...and some a tad disgusting. But for me it is that diversity that makes it such a unique and fun site.
I am excited to start using it and even though I opened another of about 200 accounts I have...I can tell this is one I am going to use a lot!
I located this information on Digg and the progress and changes it has made lately...interesting read.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/09/digg-is-on-a-roll/
MMMMM, that was a DELICIOUS THING!
As mentioned in my previous entry I have used delicious for a long time. I began using it at home over a year ago. Now I use it at work too. At our reference desks we have it marked and save frequently visited pages to it all the time.
My personal delicious contains 70 bookmarks. I added a few today, they are:
101 Awesome Free Blogger Templates and
Teriyaki cooking tips from Truly Hawaiian, a 100 year old recipe and
Truly Hawaiian's top tips for hosting a luau
~My birthday party this weekend will be a Hawaiin Luau, so I did some delicious tag searching and found some great recipes and ideas for the party Saturday!!!!
My delicious account user name is:
swiftees
delicious is just one more way to make life online and in the "real world" easier and I think it is a most valuable asset to anyone who users computers and the Internet.
My personal delicious contains 70 bookmarks. I added a few today, they are:
101 Awesome Free Blogger Templates and
Teriyaki cooking tips from Truly Hawaiian, a 100 year old recipe and
Truly Hawaiian's top tips for hosting a luau
~My birthday party this weekend will be a Hawaiin Luau, so I did some delicious tag searching and found some great recipes and ideas for the party Saturday!!!!
My delicious account user name is:
swiftees
delicious is just one more way to make life online and in the "real world" easier and I think it is a most valuable asset to anyone who users computers and the Internet.
TAG this is TAGGED!
YES...tagging is awesome! Recently our department head decided to transfer our entire reference desk manual into an online format. Each of us were assigned certain sections of the manual to move over into the new format. We previously had it all in a blog, but the newer format allowed us certain things that the blog did not. So we all cut and pasted, or typed in our assigned sections and were able to tag them. My section was different forms we have for our department. So my tags were: forms, reference, and various descriptive words indicating what type of form: fax cover, lost book, etc.
At our ref. desk we have also started a delicious account for pages we visit often. We use tags on those. I have my own personal delicious account and use tags for it, and I love the flexibility of tagging and searching the taggings of others. Searching with tags is forgiving, you can use slang terms, official terms, and don't need to know specifics, most of the time you can pull it up without.
I can see the potential for this to drive an OCD librarian right into an early retirement. But as mentioned in the assignment description for tagging, online tagging is the readers, researchers, writers, organizers FRIEND. It is forgiving and assists in locating things as well as organizing them. I use tagging in my personal blog, at work, my delicious accounts, basically anywhere I am able to organize in that way, I do.
As library staff for us to not embrace tagging for all the good things it offers would be a big mistake!
At our ref. desk we have also started a delicious account for pages we visit often. We use tags on those. I have my own personal delicious account and use tags for it, and I love the flexibility of tagging and searching the taggings of others. Searching with tags is forgiving, you can use slang terms, official terms, and don't need to know specifics, most of the time you can pull it up without.
I can see the potential for this to drive an OCD librarian right into an early retirement. But as mentioned in the assignment description for tagging, online tagging is the readers, researchers, writers, organizers FRIEND. It is forgiving and assists in locating things as well as organizing them. I use tagging in my personal blog, at work, my delicious accounts, basically anywhere I am able to organize in that way, I do.
As library staff for us to not embrace tagging for all the good things it offers would be a big mistake!
That Twitter Thing
I had a Twitter account prior to this "thing", I actually set it up months ago, and have used it a few times. When events occur that EVERYONE is talking about and following, I like to get on Twitter to follow what people are saying. I follow certain media outlets and news hosts, comedians, my brother, and just some twitter users whom I have found via Twitter.
What makes this thing so unusual for me is that last week when I went on to Twitter to login and post an update was the first time (that I know of) that Twitter and Facebook were in and out, on and off, due to a DDoS attack, them and a few other sites. I was able, finally, to login, and when I did I read a tweet regarding the Denial Of Service messages. Facebook was down that same day. It really made me think, and really made real to me how we take these things for granted and how easily they can be attacked. It was, for lack of better words, an eery feeling, a vunerable feeling, and just wondering "what's next?" "What's the extent of the attack and damage?" It turned out to be something that quickly subsided, but I am glad to have experienced what I did, just because it's a lesson-learning moment...that this Internet and alllllllll it holds, seems so permanent, the ties to people online so close...and how, with the evil doing of others with bad intentions it can all be altered.
My Twitter ID is: Lizees
The last time I heard of Twitter. Everywhere! We use it at work to update students on things. I use it to talk/goof off with my brother occasionally during the day. I have use and do use hashtags to locate things and see what's out there regarding certain things, people, etc. At work we view TED talks once a week, and even in some of the TED talks Twitter is mentioned. I don't know how long it will last, what all it may eventually do, and when it will one day become yesterday's news, but it is here now and seems to be growing in popularity. It even has it's own jargon and terms, which are tongue twisters and quite funny.
It's not my favorite of the things, but it's not too bad!
What makes this thing so unusual for me is that last week when I went on to Twitter to login and post an update was the first time (that I know of) that Twitter and Facebook were in and out, on and off, due to a DDoS attack, them and a few other sites. I was able, finally, to login, and when I did I read a tweet regarding the Denial Of Service messages. Facebook was down that same day. It really made me think, and really made real to me how we take these things for granted and how easily they can be attacked. It was, for lack of better words, an eery feeling, a vunerable feeling, and just wondering "what's next?" "What's the extent of the attack and damage?" It turned out to be something that quickly subsided, but I am glad to have experienced what I did, just because it's a lesson-learning moment...that this Internet and alllllllll it holds, seems so permanent, the ties to people online so close...and how, with the evil doing of others with bad intentions it can all be altered.
My Twitter ID is: Lizees
The last time I heard of Twitter. Everywhere! We use it at work to update students on things. I use it to talk/goof off with my brother occasionally during the day. I have use and do use hashtags to locate things and see what's out there regarding certain things, people, etc. At work we view TED talks once a week, and even in some of the TED talks Twitter is mentioned. I don't know how long it will last, what all it may eventually do, and when it will one day become yesterday's news, but it is here now and seems to be growing in popularity. It even has it's own jargon and terms, which are tongue twisters and quite funny.
It's not my favorite of the things, but it's not too bad!
Monday, August 3, 2009
My Lucky number 11...IMing
I have registered with the Meebo.com IM service. My user name is:
swiftees.
This service includes my yahoo and facebook account info, so that I am able to chat with the folks on those sites also.
I don't use chat very often in my personal life, I used to, but in the past few years I have just not had time for that. Occasionally I will speak to old friends via the facebook chat service, but it's not a form of communication that I utilize very often.
Here at work we use the meebo IMing service to provide reference assistance. After a brief slow start, the popularity and use of our IMing service has really grown to be very popular and we have been able to use it to answer questions of all types.We offer this service from 8am-midnight each week night, except Fridays when we close at 8pm. We still cover some Question Point service points, but we have taken most of it away and replaced it with Meebo chat/IMing service. I love doing reference in IM because I can push them the pages I am looking at, they enjoy that and it makes things easier for me.
Admittedly, for some users it does make more sense to ask them to call us, and usually they are glad to do so. That is often for the in-depth answers, or responses where there is a long answering process.
I don't mind at all doing reference via chat, or IMing, but I prefer not to communicate with friends that way very often...for no other reason than I am a tad lazy and spoiled on text messaging. :)
swiftees.
This service includes my yahoo and facebook account info, so that I am able to chat with the folks on those sites also.
I don't use chat very often in my personal life, I used to, but in the past few years I have just not had time for that. Occasionally I will speak to old friends via the facebook chat service, but it's not a form of communication that I utilize very often.
Here at work we use the meebo IMing service to provide reference assistance. After a brief slow start, the popularity and use of our IMing service has really grown to be very popular and we have been able to use it to answer questions of all types.We offer this service from 8am-midnight each week night, except Fridays when we close at 8pm. We still cover some Question Point service points, but we have taken most of it away and replaced it with Meebo chat/IMing service. I love doing reference in IM because I can push them the pages I am looking at, they enjoy that and it makes things easier for me.
Admittedly, for some users it does make more sense to ask them to call us, and usually they are glad to do so. That is often for the in-depth answers, or responses where there is a long answering process.
I don't mind at all doing reference via chat, or IMing, but I prefer not to communicate with friends that way very often...for no other reason than I am a tad lazy and spoiled on text messaging. :)
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