The wonderful world of wikis. I have used Wikipedia a fair amount but had not really explored other wikis until this week. I think wikis are very useful. Wikipedia, for example, is a great tool. When looking for facts and information, Wikipedia is easy to find, easy to use and contains tons of information. There is a downside, of course, and it is huge. Since anyone can contribute information to a wiki, one cannot assume that what is there is completely accurate. I use Wikipedia as a starting place.
Explored the wiki links in this week's assignment. Played with the 'Mfagan wiki' (maps from Waterloo and area) for awhile. There was a UW map that shows the entire campus, plus a list of things you can select (visitor parking, accessible buildings) which are then transposed onto the map. In a few seconds you can have a map of the campus with all the visitor parking places marked clearly. A neat combination of useful online information, customized to meet a specific person's need. However, this site is a good example of how wikis can go wrong. Yes, there is a great collection of maps of the area but there is also lots of unrelated stuff that has nothing to do with mapping. There is an entire section named, 'Businesses, organizations, things to do, etc'. This wiki has morphed into more than it needs to be.
Found the 'Waterloo Way' wiki to be neat and organized. It highlights stories of entrepreneurship in the Waterloo Region. However, another way a wiki has gone wrong. I checked the 'history' tab and found that this site was last updated in May 2007. Yikes. Surely there have been entrepreneurial successes in our Region since then.
This week, I helped a young patron find information on John McCrae's poem, 'In Flanders Fields'. We started at Wikipedia, got some basic info (correct spelling of McCrae's name, date of the poem), then I showed him how to find other sources (websites, books, encyclopedias) to collect more in depth information. The entire interaction took about 5 minutes. He was able to collect the rest of the info by himself. Using Wikipedia to quickly get the most basic info, the search for more was quite easy.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Sunday, November 2, 2008
The results of my last poll are in. 5 people voted on the Milne character they most relate to. Tigger won with 2 votes. Pooh Bear, Eeyore & Owl all tied with 1. OK, not an overwhelming response but I can't have every poll about chocolate! My kids were disappointed that Piglet didn't appear on the list of choices. I am only allowed 4 choices and I thought I'd better include Owl because I'm doing this as part of a library group. My apologies to all the Piglet fans out there.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Assignment # 7
Lots of reading this week. Found the articles helpful. I had never been quite sure what Library 2.0 (or Web 2.0) really meant. Was there a Library 1.0 (or Web 1.0)?
I liked Meredith Farkas' approach. Her advice is to focus on our patrons' needs, not just the cool tools. The big question is, 'how do we assess our patrons' needs?'. How do we know what tools the patrons will use the most until we try them all? We also need staff time to implement these things. It would be great to be able to help patrons explore and learn these new tools but we really don't have the time to do that. She also cautioned that using these new tools to promote the library is only a positive change if the tools are updated regularly. I agree. There's nothing more frustrating than an out of date website.
'Away from the Iceberg', gave me lots to think about. Reduce our print collection? Eek! His point was that as patrons get used to the new technology (blogs, digital books), they will need books in traditional print form less. Made me think about the way I personally use the library. It is not often that I actually go to the shelf to browse for a title. I keep up to date on what is being published and place holds on the titles I want and wait for them to arrive, regularly checking my place in line, of course. Thank goodness not all patrons do that! He also mentioned that libraries used to have a monopoly on information. If you needed to find information, you went to the library and looked it up in a print source. We no longer have that monopoly. What can we do to acknowledge & adapt to that change?
'To better bibliographic services' by John Riemer, gave us some specific goals.
1) package & print metadata
2) broaden relevance ranking
3) adopt web features
4) expand delivery
5) streamline metadata creation (share info between institutions)
His challenge is that libraries should do more with the metadata they create.
In, 'To a temporary place in time', Dr. Wendy Schultz took me on a quick tour of Libraries 1.0-4.0.
1.0 = commodity; 2.0 = product; 3.0 = service; 4.0 = experience
Loved her description of the 4.0 neo library - 'a retreat from technohustle, with comfortable chairs, quiet, good light, coffee & single malt'. Hmmm... think of all the libraries you have been in and then narrow the list down to a few favourites. I'll bet they had most of these qualities (maybe not the single malt). I hope that no matter how much change there is in the way we exchange information from person to person, there will always be a room full of shelved books to do it in.
I liked Meredith Farkas' approach. Her advice is to focus on our patrons' needs, not just the cool tools. The big question is, 'how do we assess our patrons' needs?'. How do we know what tools the patrons will use the most until we try them all? We also need staff time to implement these things. It would be great to be able to help patrons explore and learn these new tools but we really don't have the time to do that. She also cautioned that using these new tools to promote the library is only a positive change if the tools are updated regularly. I agree. There's nothing more frustrating than an out of date website.
'Away from the Iceberg', gave me lots to think about. Reduce our print collection? Eek! His point was that as patrons get used to the new technology (blogs, digital books), they will need books in traditional print form less. Made me think about the way I personally use the library. It is not often that I actually go to the shelf to browse for a title. I keep up to date on what is being published and place holds on the titles I want and wait for them to arrive, regularly checking my place in line, of course. Thank goodness not all patrons do that! He also mentioned that libraries used to have a monopoly on information. If you needed to find information, you went to the library and looked it up in a print source. We no longer have that monopoly. What can we do to acknowledge & adapt to that change?
'To better bibliographic services' by John Riemer, gave us some specific goals.
1) package & print metadata
2) broaden relevance ranking
3) adopt web features
4) expand delivery
5) streamline metadata creation (share info between institutions)
His challenge is that libraries should do more with the metadata they create.
In, 'To a temporary place in time', Dr. Wendy Schultz took me on a quick tour of Libraries 1.0-4.0.
1.0 = commodity; 2.0 = product; 3.0 = service; 4.0 = experience
Loved her description of the 4.0 neo library - 'a retreat from technohustle, with comfortable chairs, quiet, good light, coffee & single malt'. Hmmm... think of all the libraries you have been in and then narrow the list down to a few favourites. I'll bet they had most of these qualities (maybe not the single malt). I hope that no matter how much change there is in the way we exchange information from person to person, there will always be a room full of shelved books to do it in.
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Assignment # 6
Whew! What a week. Had a kid-related mini-crisis this week that took up a lot of time. Certainly not a major problem in the grand scheme of the universe but in my tiny corner of the world, enough to stress me out for a few days. Don't you find that even tiny problems can really bug you? OK, enough. Let me try to focus.
Del.icio.us & Technorati. Signed up on both sites. They took the same user name - yeah! Spent some time exploring. Found Del.icio.us easier overall to navigate. Can't help but feel like I don't really get it this week. Not sure how these sites would benefit me in my daily life or work. Why are these better than a google search? I realize that you get comments from others and it is easy to see what links are most popular but that doesn't necessarily give them more credibility for me. I think I need to explore further.
Will watch my classmates' entries with interest this week. Hopefully someone will be super keen on one of these sites and be able to explain to me why it is useful.
My second poll closed. A clear majority of those polled prefer peanut M&Ms. Yum. This topic gave me the munchies. My new question has nothing to do with food.
Del.icio.us & Technorati. Signed up on both sites. They took the same user name - yeah! Spent some time exploring. Found Del.icio.us easier overall to navigate. Can't help but feel like I don't really get it this week. Not sure how these sites would benefit me in my daily life or work. Why are these better than a google search? I realize that you get comments from others and it is easy to see what links are most popular but that doesn't necessarily give them more credibility for me. I think I need to explore further.
Will watch my classmates' entries with interest this week. Hopefully someone will be super keen on one of these sites and be able to explain to me why it is useful.
My second poll closed. A clear majority of those polled prefer peanut M&Ms. Yum. This topic gave me the munchies. My new question has nothing to do with food.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
In honour of the federal election, here are some quotes:
'Vote early and vote often.' - Al Capone
'A vote is like a rifle: it's usefulness depends upon the character of the individual.' - Theodore Roosevelt
(advice to students)'All you need to do is to show up with some official looking mail with your address on it, your student card and your ID. And not your fake ID either, your real one.' - Rick Mercer
Democracy only works when people show up at the polls.
Take the time to vote today. No excuses.
'Vote early and vote often.' - Al Capone
'A vote is like a rifle: it's usefulness depends upon the character of the individual.' - Theodore Roosevelt
(advice to students)'All you need to do is to show up with some official looking mail with your address on it, your student card and your ID. And not your fake ID either, your real one.' - Rick Mercer
Democracy only works when people show up at the polls.
Take the time to vote today. No excuses.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Assignment # 5
Had a lot of fun playing with Library Thing. What a neat website. Sign up process was extremely easy. Quickly added a bunch of books to my list. Not sure that I will keep this up though. I have a good system in place for keeping track of the books I've read on (gasp) paper. In all likelihood, I will continue with my established system for the simple reason that it's quicker and will leave me more time to read. I do plan to spend more time on Library Thing checking out some book reviews.
Now for Facebook. Believe it or not, I had never been on Facebook before. (Perhaps the last human being to venture there?) I have promised myself that I will become a member when one of my kids signs up, so I can keep an eye on them. Had a look at the Green page. Was interesting to read but in my humble opinion it seemed like very few posts actually had anything worthwhile to say. Lots of whining, complaining, swearing, bad grammer and spelling - all things I would like to see less of in the world. From what I have seen this week on Facebook, I don't really think that the library would benefit from having a page there.
Now for Facebook. Believe it or not, I had never been on Facebook before. (Perhaps the last human being to venture there?) I have promised myself that I will become a member when one of my kids signs up, so I can keep an eye on them. Had a look at the Green page. Was interesting to read but in my humble opinion it seemed like very few posts actually had anything worthwhile to say. Lots of whining, complaining, swearing, bad grammer and spelling - all things I would like to see less of in the world. From what I have seen this week on Facebook, I don't really think that the library would benefit from having a page there.
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