My job in this elementary school library has been more involved with day-to-day operations of the library than with philosophical discussions about the future of libraries.
But after reading these perspectives, I agree with Michael Stephens that we must be sure to plan for our users and base our services, materials and outreach on their needs and wants. This includes being a trendspotter and controlling technolust (neither of which are easy!). But perhaps the most important role is getting access to good reliable content. Chip Nilges says something similar when he talks about building better data.
I find myself somewhat in disagreement with Rick Anderson when he says we must "focus our attention, not on teaching research skills but on eliminating the barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need so they spend as little time as possible wrestling with lousy search interfaces and as much time as possible actually reading and learning." I agree that we should eliminate as many barriers and lousy search interfaces as possible, but, as an elementary school library, we must teach good research skills. The biggest task facing all people today isn't finding information, it's sorting through the deluge of information to find reliable and relevant information. Not everything on the internet is true or objective.
I commend Nebraskaccess as a good example of Library 2.0 in getting good, reliable content, and for going the second mile, so to speak, in putting such good slideshows on Slideshare to teach people how to access the information they personally need. This, I think, is taking the library to the people, which I see as part of Library 2.0.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
#15 SlideShare
SlideShare has the potential for being enormously helpful, especially to busy educators who don't have the time to put together a presentation for every topic they teach. However, I found some slideshows more informative than others.
I am interested in origami and found one slideshow that consisted simply of the scanned-in pages of an origami instruction book. This is very helpful in learning to do origami, but I wonder if it isn't a copyright infringement.
The slideshows that are my favorites relate to organizing paper and clutter and I can always use help in that department. I left a comment on one of them.
My SlideShare account is at http://www.slideshare.net/RaeS
I am interested in origami and found one slideshow that consisted simply of the scanned-in pages of an origami instruction book. This is very helpful in learning to do origami, but I wonder if it isn't a copyright infringement.
The slideshows that are my favorites relate to organizing paper and clutter and I can always use help in that department. I left a comment on one of them.
My SlideShare account is at http://www.slideshare.net/RaeS
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
#14 Delicious
The video on Delicious was very informative and helpful. I think Delicious is a wonderful thing. I will refer to it often in the future, I’m sure.
I love the Delicious tagroll on the Holdrege Public Library website. What an attractive and concise way to direct people to a variety of good websites!
If I were to assign tags to the NebraskAccess website I would use the following: reference databases Nebraska. I also think that the tag, NebraskAccess, would be appropriate since it encompasses so very much material.
Delicious is a good way to access your bookmarks from anywhere, but the open, social aspect of Delicious also makes it a good tool for research, as well as sharing bookmarks with friends, family, groups, etc.
I love the Delicious tagroll on the Holdrege Public Library website. What an attractive and concise way to direct people to a variety of good websites!
If I were to assign tags to the NebraskAccess website I would use the following: reference databases Nebraska. I also think that the tag, NebraskAccess, would be appropriate since it encompasses so very much material.
Delicious is a good way to access your bookmarks from anywhere, but the open, social aspect of Delicious also makes it a good tool for research, as well as sharing bookmarks with friends, family, groups, etc.
Monday, January 12, 2009
#13 Twitter
I have explored the Twitter resources, followed Jessamyn West and Michael Sauers to some extent, set up my account and made a couple tweets. It seems that Twitter can be as simple or as complicated as each person desires.
Perhaps the most helpful information I saw was the Five Fast Twitter Tips at the end of Ellyssa Kroski’s article, just under the pictures of the 10 more followed librarians. It helped some of the tweets make more sense to me.
I didn’t get any results when I searched for references to my town, so we must not be Twittering yet. I also searched a few topics of interest and found references to
www.origami-club.com/en/, which I have just recently found as well.
I think the most practical professional use of Twitter is embedded in Library web sites for reference questions (especially the NLC_Reference) or announcements of late-breaking occurrences.
Something I also discovered is that Twitter can take up a lot of time!
Perhaps the most helpful information I saw was the Five Fast Twitter Tips at the end of Ellyssa Kroski’s article, just under the pictures of the 10 more followed librarians. It helped some of the tweets make more sense to me.
I didn’t get any results when I searched for references to my town, so we must not be Twittering yet. I also searched a few topics of interest and found references to
www.origami-club.com/en/, which I have just recently found as well.
I think the most practical professional use of Twitter is embedded in Library web sites for reference questions (especially the NLC_Reference) or announcements of late-breaking occurrences.
Something I also discovered is that Twitter can take up a lot of time!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
#12 LibraryThing
LibraryThing is amazing. I wish I had more time to check it out. When I browsed the authors I found that Michael Sauers is listed there!
After I added my books I was dismayed to find that no one else had a couple of them. And these are my favorite authors! But upon browsing the catalogs of people who did have some of my books I found that at least one had other books by these authors. I'm always glad to find others who enjoy their books too.
My catalog can be found at: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Rae_S.
After I added my books I was dismayed to find that no one else had a couple of them. And these are my favorite authors! But upon browsing the catalogs of people who did have some of my books I found that at least one had other books by these authors. I'm always glad to find others who enjoy their books too.
My catalog can be found at: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/Rae_S.
#11 Technology Blog
I would echo what others have said, technology is wonderful when it is working right and a pain when it's not.
But I think there's another dimension to the issue as well. Technology gives us more control over our jobs, schedules, communications, etc., but the more we use it, the more dependent we become upon it. Should our computer crash or our internet connection go down, our day can be ruined. That control is gone, at least temporarily. If the internet should be disrupted or (heaven forbid!) the power grid go down for more than a few minutes, our lives would be thrust into chaos in short order. We gain control by yielding it to an entity that we view to be stronger than we are. Thankfully, most of the time, it works.
On the lighter side, I have often chuckled to myself that if I ever have to go to a nursing home I'll have to pick one that will let me have my computer and a high speed internet hookup in my room!
But I think there's another dimension to the issue as well. Technology gives us more control over our jobs, schedules, communications, etc., but the more we use it, the more dependent we become upon it. Should our computer crash or our internet connection go down, our day can be ruined. That control is gone, at least temporarily. If the internet should be disrupted or (heaven forbid!) the power grid go down for more than a few minutes, our lives would be thrust into chaos in short order. We gain control by yielding it to an entity that we view to be stronger than we are. Thankfully, most of the time, it works.
On the lighter side, I have often chuckled to myself that if I ever have to go to a nursing home I'll have to pick one that will let me have my computer and a high speed internet hookup in my room!
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Image Generators
What fun! A person could get lost in the Generator Blog for days. My favorite, though, was glowtxt.com and I made some glowing pink "Elementary Library" text.
I especially liked the Mini-READ posters and made a couple using student pictures (because those were the only digital pictures I have on this computer). We have the CD from ALA to make more posters and I'm going to have to take some time to learn how to use it.
The Librarian Trading Cards Pool was also interesting. I like that idea.
Thanks for showing us some fun things to do to liven up our lives with technology.
I especially liked the Mini-READ posters and made a couple using student pictures (because those were the only digital pictures I have on this computer). We have the CD from ALA to make more posters and I'm going to have to take some time to learn how to use it.
The Librarian Trading Cards Pool was also interesting. I like that idea.
Thanks for showing us some fun things to do to liven up our lives with technology.
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