Thing #18, Zoho Writer

The Andersons
Originally uploaded by andersonjp81

I was surprised to find all the templates available for use in Zoho Writer. They have both business and personal applications. I especially liked the Meeting Notes template and will tell my son, Zach, who recently graduated from Towson with a degree in Computer Science, about the IT Resume template. In other words, hint - hint...get a job, Zach!

Thing #17, Add an entry to the Sandbox Wiki

Deep breath. Linking my blog to the Favorite Blogs page was very time consuming. The instructions on the page itself to create the link were inadequate at best and inaccurate at worst. However, after 1 hour and 6 minutes, I succeeded! Thank goodness it's a slow night on the desk.

Thing #16, Wikis

I was interested to discover that wikis can be used as Intranets. Since they are easy to use and collaborative, we might try creating one to facilitate communication in the Reference Department. Wikis are another way to gather input from library users. Another usage, I found interesting were Subject Guides. The example was very comprehensive. This is a labor and time intensive project.

Thing #15, Web 2.0

In "Into a new world of librarianship", Michael Stephens lays out the principals that Librarians 2.0 live by. Central to Librarian 2.0 is library user participation in forming the concept of libraries in the future. Stephens recognizes the environment of rapid change in the virtual world and emphasizes recognizing trends coupled with rapid implementation of new technologies that are meaningful to the user and not just the latest fad.

After reading a sampling of the suggested articles, I have a better understanding of the way libraries are beginning to conceptualize themselves in the future. Web 2.0 is just the commencement into the increasing interactive virtual world. As demographics change and younger and more technologically oriented people become leaders in society, public libraries will be able to meet the challenge of providing quality library service because of the Web 2.0 program and its succeeding evolutions.

Thing #14, Technorati

Searching blogs with Technorati is imprecise (as library staff, we like controlled vocabulary). I tried a search on "Hillary Clinton" and got about 175,000 hits. I didn't see any tips for searching so I wouldn't know how to narrow the search. Some related tags came up but these categories were too broad to make a search more effective. Technorati describes blogs as 'personal journals' so it would not be a good place to find authoritative information. It is a place more focused on opinion and with this in mind it can be effective for businesses to find reactions to products and determine trends.

According to Technorati, the blogosphere is growing exponentially and it looks as though business savvy folks are already blogging for profit (which makes their information suspect). I don't think; however, even with a staggering growth rate, blogs are mainstream or have much of an impact on society as a whole...yet. It will be interesting to see what happens in the future.

Thing #13 Del.icio.us

Delicious is a great way to 'bookmark', organize and share reference websites with coworkers. Since a lot of us don't have our own PC, it has personal applications as well. It looks like a fair amount of libraries are already using Del.icio.us because it is fairly stable by virtue of its purchase by Yahoo. I liked the 'imbedded chat' or IM capability that some library's are using on their webpages. I would never have discovered it if I hadn't followed a frequently viewed bookmark from a library's del.cio.us page. I will definately set up an account when time allows!

Thing # 12 Rollyo

Rollyo could be used as a Readers'Advisory tool. There are several good websites geared toward different genres, such as Romance, Mysteries and Historical Fiction. The sites compliment eachother and can be searched simultaneously with Rollyo.

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