Bookpile

Here is one of my bookpiles on Flikr (I always want to say dogpile). Anyway, I am going to have to think about the final project for awhile. Our final project is to use our dog… er bookpile in some type of mashup. Would be kind of fun but I have work to do!!!!

Homework: Mashups

I have heard of Zillow which is a website where you can look up real estate listings. But, I had not heard of Trulia, which combines Google maps with real estate listings – pretty cool.

I Googled the 2008 Horizon Report and was led to the “NMC” website which stated: “On April 1-3, 2008, the New Media Consortium will convene an online conversation about mashups.” The online conversation will discuss among other things how mashups can be used in an educational environment. Might be interesting if you have a spare $149.00 lying around to register.

Homework: LibraryThing

I cheated a little bit and added books I have read in the last year and not books I own. Gotta love that LinkPlus!

LibraryThing

LibraryThing is easy to use although I am having a hard time figuring out how to add favorite authors. I can get to the author but then I don’t see a place to “click” to add to favorite author list.

I got carried away and added 22 books (so easy) so I’ll just list the books that have the least and the most number of other users attached:

Least: Dough: a memoir 11 users.

Most: A thousand splendid suns 4191 users.

I was surprised to see Comfort me with Apples only had 7 other users but then it dawned on me that I had the 2001 edition. That is probably one of the downfalls – there may be numerous editions of a book and the users might be attached to a different edition than yours.

I’m not sure about the application at an academic library but I can see how a public library could benefit from something like LibraryThing where users log and review the books they read.  I need to use it for awhile to figure out if it is easier to use than our OPAC.

Blogs

Beyond the Lions

There I go reading The Library Journal again. On page 26 of the March 15th issue there is an article by Michael Casey & Michael Stephens that mentions the State Library of South Carolina for “its engaging, personalized web portal created with Joomla. Other state libraries should look to this as a model: blogging state librarians, open online forums for discussion, and shared videos of South Carolina librarians.”

Also in the same article “Cheers to the many librarians who have joined the local and global conversation via blogs, wikis, Flickr, and other social networks.  The expression of shared ideas, feedback, and solutions furthers the professional discourse.”

Homework: Flickr

If you click on my eraser (picture taken by me in Washington D.C. last year) it takes you to all flickr account pictures with the ssu20class tag! (Thanks to a little help from Kathryn). My photos are the techsrvs8 ones.

I looked at photos that libraries have put up on Flickr and although it looks like the staff is having a lot of fun taking and posting the pictures I’m not sure how many patrons are looking at them.

Homework: YouTube

I haven’t seen many YouTube videos in my day but I love the classic “The Landlord” with Will Ferrell. This one also tickles my funny bone:

Maybe the library could make a YouTube video about how to search the catalog or how to get a PIN?????

del.icio.us

Not feeling the love – just one more place to look

Blogs

Reading the March 1st copy of Library Journal at lunch I came across an editorial that mentioned Technorati.com which is a site that tracks more than 100 million blogs. Has anyone looked at or used the site? Also mentioned were Keotag and Serph for simultaneous searching of social network conversations. The latter I have heard of but once again never used. Anybody out there use?

Homework: del.icio.us account

I have used del.icio.us before. In fact, I had an account and ended up deleting it as I did not find it very useful. It is interesting to see who has tagged what out there and to see other user comments but personally I found bookmarks, RSS feeds and blogarithm.com more to my liking. I have signed up for another account and will give it the old college try again and see if I change my mind.

Homework: RSS newsreaders, wikis and blogs

Week 2 for our homework we have to create an RSS feeder. I already use blogarithm.com. I receive one email a day that lists the blogs I have added to my feeder, with new posts and their url. I have numerous library blogs that are on my list. I usually don’t look at them every day but there are a few like Annoyed Librarian and Librarian in Black that are entertaining and that I look at now and then.

We also have to look at and comment about a wiki for our homework. I often use Wikipedia for personal use and at work. When I come across a term or something unfamiliar here at work Wikipedia will often be my first stop. For example, yesterday we were talking about closed captioning and wondered what the difference between that and films for the hearing impaired was. Wikipedia was our first stop to try and get a handle on the terms. I usually don’t rely on Wikipedia as the know all and be all answer but it is a nice place to start when you are researching a topic or an item.

We have a wiki here in our department that we post all our workflow, procedures and meeting minutes and notes on. I love it to death as before the wiki we each wrote up our own notes or “cheat sheets” and there was no consistency and everybody had something different written down.

We are suppose to comment on what we think our final assignment will be – don’t know but looking forward to it!