Socializing isn’t about spending time with friends you made in person anymore. Now it’s about viewing the web pages of friends, real and virtual, and sending them comments. Those social networking sites that make it possible for users to have personalized web pages and have also become centers of socializing as well. When people are too busy to plan and coordinate time to spend together, they can visit each other’s pages and leave little messages or cute graphics. Friends aren’t limited by distance anymore.
My sense of the people writing these articles on Social Networking is that they probably don’t use these sites themselves. The explanations tend to focus on the dangers of online social networking, possible benefits that outweigh the dangers, and the statistics of users and user activities. Really, the articles are dry and boring stuff that don’t really explain much on why social networking is so appealing (or why anyone would want to sign up for one in the first place).
Should the Library jump on the bandwagon? I’m not so sure. Teens might appreciate the fact that the Library is willing to communicate with them on their own turf, but if our social networking is not up to their standards, I’m not sure if they’ll feel more enticed to use the Library services. The Library needs to change with the times and we need to keep up with what our customers know. We are supposed to be custodians of knowledge, right?
Monday, December 31, 2007
Now, Let Me Share My Expertise
I find it funny that part of the assignment encourages tagging of your entry, but the lesson on tagging is later! Learn on the spot, I suppose. And I probably did it wrong anyway, because I typed in some keywords and they don’t link to anything like I’ve seen tags on other websites do.
Much as I like to say some of the books I read are great and others should read them, I find it hard putting into words why someone should read my book. And that doesn’t even take into account that I have to limit myself to one favorite book when I have so many books that would fall into that category. So this exercise wasn’t too bad except that I had to write a short blurb about my favorite book. Ironically, I think writing that blurb took the most time in this exercise (Certainly more than writing this blog did!).
I found it daunting to be a contributor and add an entry. I feel slightly concerned that I’m doing it wrong when there aren’t a lot of instructions either. So when I finally took a deep breath and clicked on the “Edit this Page” button, I found it surprisingly easy, though I wasn’t sure if I the entries were alphabetical because we Library people are conscientious enough to organize our favorite authors that way or if the entries were automatically sorted. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that I didn’t have to format my entry, because while I was searching for a way to format my entry to look like everyone else’s, the text was formatted while I wasn’t looking!
It’s scary how easy it is to add and edit entries. Hmm, does this mean anyone could go around editing all the other entries? If the Library uses wikis, I think guidelines would be needed concerning adding, editing and deleting entries. It’s amazing that a lot of people could add their input, but then who goes around verifying that the information is accurate?
Wow, Who Would Have Thought There Was More to Wikis than Wikipedia?
Okay, I admit, before this Library 2.0 journey I didn’t really know what a wiki was except that it was part of Wikipedia’s name. But now…the possibilities with wikis just boggle the mind.
A wiki is knowledge pool where anyone or a group of people can constantly add information and edit the contents. This is 2.0 in action! The knowledge pool is fluid and never in a state of permanence, since there’s always room for new discoveries and understanding.
I saw wikis for general knowledge, for specific events, and even a library catalog! Even when wikis were used for all these different purposes, I was surprised at how similar they all looked: plain and yet chock full of links to additional information.
How can the Library use wikis? Good question. Now let me think about this…
The possibilities are endless, but here are a few that come to mind. Why not have place for customers to review books online and share it with each other? When the Library has big system-wide programs, how about having a wiki of the events and links to the presenters’ websites (if they have one) or additional information related to the events? Would a policy & procedure wiki affect the speed that staff will get the latest revisions of a procedure or updates to a policy?
The Library wikis would, of course, probably need to have some restrictions on who can edit them. Sounds fun, right?
A wiki is knowledge pool where anyone or a group of people can constantly add information and edit the contents. This is 2.0 in action! The knowledge pool is fluid and never in a state of permanence, since there’s always room for new discoveries and understanding.
I saw wikis for general knowledge, for specific events, and even a library catalog! Even when wikis were used for all these different purposes, I was surprised at how similar they all looked: plain and yet chock full of links to additional information.
How can the Library use wikis? Good question. Now let me think about this…
The possibilities are endless, but here are a few that come to mind. Why not have place for customers to review books online and share it with each other? When the Library has big system-wide programs, how about having a wiki of the events and links to the presenters’ websites (if they have one) or additional information related to the events? Would a policy & procedure wiki affect the speed that staff will get the latest revisions of a procedure or updates to a policy?
The Library wikis would, of course, probably need to have some restrictions on who can edit them. Sounds fun, right?
Saturday, December 29, 2007
IM Ur Librarian. R U a Customer?
I do IM Reference at my library, and the question that often runs through my head during IM transactions is unfortunately something along the lines of: Is this really a customer or library staff posing as a customer? It’s all too easy to log on anonymously to ask questions in Ask VBPL.
The funny thing is that a lot of my co-workers feel the same way about their transactions. It’s usually something in the way the questions are worded; having no visual or audio cues simply adds to the suspicion. Perhaps there’s a sense that the IM customer knows too well the way the library works or have the mannerisms of an overly obnoxious customer. It’s disturbing to feel so mistrustful of your IM customers and suspect them of being fakes when they could really be customers looking for answers.
A lot of the questions from the IM transactions are questions that often come up on the phone and oddly enough remind me of the sample questions from IM training. Some customers ask about information on their library accounts, and these transactions go smoothly enough, but it’s the reference questions that leave me feeling that the transaction could have been handled more satisfactorily if I could keep up with the customer, if I didn’t have to keep communicating and researching at the same time, if I only had to give the customer a quick answer, etc. I found that some of the more involved reference questions would be more quickly and better answered if the customers talked to a library staff in person or over the phone.
No one has asked me if I’m a real person or a robot yet (except another staff member who IMed me).
I’ve gone on the Ask VBPL website to anonymously ask IM Reference a question before, and I have to say that it’s easier to be the customer than the Reference person. As the customer I find that my questions or comments come faster than staff can answer or reply, since they have to research my question while I wait for an answer. I have a hard time thinking of IM Reference as a rewarding experience for the customer, because the questions sometimes can’t be answered thoroughly enough in IM.
While I agree that the library should offer IM Reference, I feel that we need to improve the quality of this new service. Since the nature of IM is for quick, instantaneous communication, I think involved reference questions are poorly served in this capacity.
The funny thing is that a lot of my co-workers feel the same way about their transactions. It’s usually something in the way the questions are worded; having no visual or audio cues simply adds to the suspicion. Perhaps there’s a sense that the IM customer knows too well the way the library works or have the mannerisms of an overly obnoxious customer. It’s disturbing to feel so mistrustful of your IM customers and suspect them of being fakes when they could really be customers looking for answers.
A lot of the questions from the IM transactions are questions that often come up on the phone and oddly enough remind me of the sample questions from IM training. Some customers ask about information on their library accounts, and these transactions go smoothly enough, but it’s the reference questions that leave me feeling that the transaction could have been handled more satisfactorily if I could keep up with the customer, if I didn’t have to keep communicating and researching at the same time, if I only had to give the customer a quick answer, etc. I found that some of the more involved reference questions would be more quickly and better answered if the customers talked to a library staff in person or over the phone.
No one has asked me if I’m a real person or a robot yet (except another staff member who IMed me).
I’ve gone on the Ask VBPL website to anonymously ask IM Reference a question before, and I have to say that it’s easier to be the customer than the Reference person. As the customer I find that my questions or comments come faster than staff can answer or reply, since they have to research my question while I wait for an answer. I have a hard time thinking of IM Reference as a rewarding experience for the customer, because the questions sometimes can’t be answered thoroughly enough in IM.
While I agree that the library should offer IM Reference, I feel that we need to improve the quality of this new service. Since the nature of IM is for quick, instantaneous communication, I think involved reference questions are poorly served in this capacity.
Librarians Can IM? No Way!
First, let me get this out…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
This can’t be the entire lesson on IM! Why aren’t we experimenting with IM? Why not create a personal IM account? Why not let us discover the fun features available in IM? It’s boring to just read the articles instead of playing around with IM features.
Ahem. Now that I’ve aired out my grievances, here’s my serious post.
Incorporating Instant Messaging into a Library service is quite a stepping stone for the Library. IM has gone from being a frowned upon pastime to being regarded with respect as an innovative form of communication. With the editing capabilities of a word processor (you can edit your message before sending it) and the instantaneous communication of a telephone (immediate feedback), IM is a popular communication tool.
Realizing that a lot of the younger generation of folks who don’t frequent the library but socialize via IM, the Library’s attempt to reach them on their own grounds is incredible. Away with the wait-for-them-to-come-to-us approach, the library seeks to reach the customers who don’t ever step in a library.
Having staff learn the joys of IM also supports the Library’s mission to encourage lifelong learning. We had to receive on-the-job training to be on the IM Reference team, and for some of us, learning to IM was a new thing. No one is too old to learn to socialize through Instant Messaging! There's always new things to learn!
IM might actually be good for the library.
This can’t be the entire lesson on IM! Why aren’t we experimenting with IM? Why not create a personal IM account? Why not let us discover the fun features available in IM? It’s boring to just read the articles instead of playing around with IM features.
Ahem. Now that I’ve aired out my grievances, here’s my serious post.
Incorporating Instant Messaging into a Library service is quite a stepping stone for the Library. IM has gone from being a frowned upon pastime to being regarded with respect as an innovative form of communication. With the editing capabilities of a word processor (you can edit your message before sending it) and the instantaneous communication of a telephone (immediate feedback), IM is a popular communication tool.
Realizing that a lot of the younger generation of folks who don’t frequent the library but socialize via IM, the Library’s attempt to reach them on their own grounds is incredible. Away with the wait-for-them-to-come-to-us approach, the library seeks to reach the customers who don’t ever step in a library.
Having staff learn the joys of IM also supports the Library’s mission to encourage lifelong learning. We had to receive on-the-job training to be on the IM Reference team, and for some of us, learning to IM was a new thing. No one is too old to learn to socialize through Instant Messaging! There's always new things to learn!
IM might actually be good for the library.
Really Simple Stuff (If You Know What You’re Doing)
I found this lesson less than edifying. Sure there’s websites that are all about feeds so that you don’t have to search for feeds, but how do you navigate them? Where are the Help options? Where’s the gentle tutorial for using RSS directories and databases in this lesson? Ironically, setting up a Reader account was easier and had loads of instructions, but using these RSS search tools is more frustrating and we get no help or tutorials!
I checked out all the search tools in the discovery exercise and was most unimpressed with them. Feedster—the largest collection of RSS feeds—is down for construction. TopixNet had tons of topic and forums, but no easy way to get the facts and details instead of everyone’s opinion on a particular topic. Syndic8 can pull up lots of results, but all you learn is the different state for the feeds, from Desiring Syndication to Dead. I can’t say Technorati was particularly exciting and the tutorial wasn’t particularly informative or inspiring.
I found Bloglines and Google Reader’s feed finders more to my liking. They found me websites with information instead of blogs about my search topic and they didn’t leave me feeling overwhelmed with the technicality of RSS feeds like the search tools in the exercise.
While doing this exercise, I kept asking myself this: Why do I want blogs about news instead of the news itself? I think I’ll stick to finding RSS feeds myself instead of using these feeder directories, thank you very much.
I checked out all the search tools in the discovery exercise and was most unimpressed with them. Feedster—the largest collection of RSS feeds—is down for construction. TopixNet had tons of topic and forums, but no easy way to get the facts and details instead of everyone’s opinion on a particular topic. Syndic8 can pull up lots of results, but all you learn is the different state for the feeds, from Desiring Syndication to Dead. I can’t say Technorati was particularly exciting and the tutorial wasn’t particularly informative or inspiring.
I found Bloglines and Google Reader’s feed finders more to my liking. They found me websites with information instead of blogs about my search topic and they didn’t leave me feeling overwhelmed with the technicality of RSS feeds like the search tools in the exercise.
While doing this exercise, I kept asking myself this: Why do I want blogs about news instead of the news itself? I think I’ll stick to finding RSS feeds myself instead of using these feeder directories, thank you very much.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Really Simple—Sure!
Up to this point, this lesson was where my progress came to a screeching halt. It wasn’t really that I found the tasks difficult; it was simply daunting looking at all the explanation, tutorial lessons, and the discovery exercises (some optional, no less!) that I could do. And the warning that this was the most difficult Thing had me putting it off to do another day. And another. Repeat.
When I finally created the RSS reader, the setup was easy enough surprisingly. Certainly simpler than what the copious volumes of Discovery materials led me to believe.
I had created a Google account for the blogging exercise, and imagine my delight when I found that I could set up an RSS reader through the same account. I started adding all the RSS feeds that were recommended in Thing 9, and that was when I ran into some trouble. The most important RSS feed—the one for L2 Chronicles wasn’t working! I was crushed.
I asked around and eventually learned that I could just copy the URL and paste it into my Subscription section. I wanted to add the Ask VBPL andRA Gourmet, too, but I couldn’t find any RSS feeds. However, after the little tip, I copied the URLs and now have one place to go see all the updates from Ask VBPL, RA Gourmet and L2 Chronicles!
Fired up with the success of a Reader, I went ahead and created a Bloglines account for my personal use. Really, the easiest part about RSS readers is setting up the account. The difficulty arises with having too much features that are available, figuring out what they do and how to use them and them struggling to keep from getting overwhelmed with all the available tools.
I was quite curious to see how different the Google Reader and Bloglines were, since I heard contradicting opinions about one being easier than the other. Buoyed by the ease of creating a Reader and finding feeds, I set off to gather the RSS feeds from websites I like to frequent.
Alas, I found to my dismay that most of the websites I wanted to subscribe to had no RSS feeds. These websites usually sent newsletters directly to your inbox after you subscribe your e-mail address to their mailing lists. Oh well, I guess some websites haven’t caught on about including feeds for their new contents.
When I finally created the RSS reader, the setup was easy enough surprisingly. Certainly simpler than what the copious volumes of Discovery materials led me to believe.
I had created a Google account for the blogging exercise, and imagine my delight when I found that I could set up an RSS reader through the same account. I started adding all the RSS feeds that were recommended in Thing 9, and that was when I ran into some trouble. The most important RSS feed—the one for L2 Chronicles wasn’t working! I was crushed.
I asked around and eventually learned that I could just copy the URL and paste it into my Subscription section. I wanted to add the Ask VBPL andRA Gourmet, too, but I couldn’t find any RSS feeds. However, after the little tip, I copied the URLs and now have one place to go see all the updates from Ask VBPL, RA Gourmet and L2 Chronicles!
Fired up with the success of a Reader, I went ahead and created a Bloglines account for my personal use. Really, the easiest part about RSS readers is setting up the account. The difficulty arises with having too much features that are available, figuring out what they do and how to use them and them struggling to keep from getting overwhelmed with all the available tools.
I was quite curious to see how different the Google Reader and Bloglines were, since I heard contradicting opinions about one being easier than the other. Buoyed by the ease of creating a Reader and finding feeds, I set off to gather the RSS feeds from websites I like to frequent.
Alas, I found to my dismay that most of the websites I wanted to subscribe to had no RSS feeds. These websites usually sent newsletters directly to your inbox after you subscribe your e-mail address to their mailing lists. Oh well, I guess some websites haven’t caught on about including feeds for their new contents.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
1.0, 2.0, 3.0? What's the Latest Version Now?
The buzz about Web 2.0 is overrated. It’s even worse when these articles try to break down what Web 2.0 is and in explaining Web 2.0, they leave me more confused than I was before. It’s supposed to be amazing and revolutionary, right? Then when the library incorporates Web 2.0 into its services, the name changes and it becomes Library 2.0. Woo hoo!
Thinking of Library 2.0 as a service for the next-generation library instead of exclusively focusing on the technology aspect makes more sense. It is more the ideas and tools of Web 2.0 that will revolutionize how the library offers its services than the gathering of the latest technology. The article from the Library Journal leaves me with better appreciation for how it is more of rethinking how we offer library services and interact with our customers.
At the heart of Library 2.0 is the change from the “come to us” approach to a more user-centered focus where user participation and feedback is encouraged to direct changes in library services. These same services are constantly reevaluated and improved on with purposeful changes.
I liked the way Library 2.0 service is defined as any service, physical or virtual, that successfully reaches user, is evaluated frequently, and makes use of customer input. The article brings up a very valid point that new does not necessarily make a service 2.0, since older, traditional services can be considered a Library 2.0 service if it meets all the criteria.
I laughed at the droll observation that “libraries have a tendency to plan, implement, and forget,” but I’m sure we won’t go that way (cross my fingers!).
Thinking of Library 2.0 as a service for the next-generation library instead of exclusively focusing on the technology aspect makes more sense. It is more the ideas and tools of Web 2.0 that will revolutionize how the library offers its services than the gathering of the latest technology. The article from the Library Journal leaves me with better appreciation for how it is more of rethinking how we offer library services and interact with our customers.
At the heart of Library 2.0 is the change from the “come to us” approach to a more user-centered focus where user participation and feedback is encouraged to direct changes in library services. These same services are constantly reevaluated and improved on with purposeful changes.
I liked the way Library 2.0 service is defined as any service, physical or virtual, that successfully reaches user, is evaluated frequently, and makes use of customer input. The article brings up a very valid point that new does not necessarily make a service 2.0, since older, traditional services can be considered a Library 2.0 service if it meets all the criteria.
I laughed at the droll observation that “libraries have a tendency to plan, implement, and forget,” but I’m sure we won’t go that way (cross my fingers!).
Thursday, December 13, 2007
7.5 Habits to Challege the Procrastinator
I am disturbed to find that I actually have a couple habits that I find difficult to do.
Hmm, what does this say about me (and my chances of success)?
I have trouble with Habit 3. When I have problems or stumble into a challenge in work or in my life, I can’t think of it as a learning moment. Instead, I become frustrated and pull my hair out.
Habit 5 is a hoot! I am not organized enough to put together all the “tools” for my learning tool box.
Let’s talk about Habit 6. I think I'm pretty good with technology, but when a new technology comes around, I find that I am pretty reluctant to try them out. Take MySpace or FaceBook, for example. They've been around for years and I've finally created a profile this year, though I can't muster the energy to maintain my page or add things to it. Even now, I still have no profile picture up yet, I don't post pictures from my life, and I don't write blogs for my page.
I have to say, my favorite habit is 7.5. I like to learn by playing, I am curious about new information, and I enjoy reading (which is probably I’m working in a library).
Hmm, what does this say about me (and my chances of success)?
I have trouble with Habit 3. When I have problems or stumble into a challenge in work or in my life, I can’t think of it as a learning moment. Instead, I become frustrated and pull my hair out.
Habit 5 is a hoot! I am not organized enough to put together all the “tools” for my learning tool box.
Let’s talk about Habit 6. I think I'm pretty good with technology, but when a new technology comes around, I find that I am pretty reluctant to try them out. Take MySpace or FaceBook, for example. They've been around for years and I've finally created a profile this year, though I can't muster the energy to maintain my page or add things to it. Even now, I still have no profile picture up yet, I don't post pictures from my life, and I don't write blogs for my page.
I have to say, my favorite habit is 7.5. I like to learn by playing, I am curious about new information, and I enjoy reading (which is probably I’m working in a library).
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