Challenge 17

Challenge:
1. Access the SJLibraryLearning 2.0 Favorites wiki and create a login account for yourself.

2. Add your blog to the Favorite Blogs page. That's how we'll know that you've been there.

3. Create a post in your blog about the experience. How might you use wikis in your work at the Library?

This is so cool! I love playing around with fun favorites.

I added my blog to the sandbox, my favorite book, and a favorite animal.


I think the best way to use wikis in my work at the Library is to place procedures onto a wiki. It might make it easier to update them and have the procedures more accessible to the department and student assistants.

Challenge 16

Challenge:
1. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at some library wikis and blog about your findings.

2. Create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?

Once in a department meeting, MinervaShelved asked me to quickly come up with the definition of "wiki", which of course, caught me off guard and excruciatingly slowly the definition came to mind...it's the Hawaiian word for "quickly, very fast". It's also the name of the little bus that will take you to the various terminals in the Honolulu airport.

The first wiki I looked at Book Lovers Wiki. It didn't look at all as to most wikis that I've looked at. Most of the wikis I've seen really do seem like they're pages out of an encyclopedia. This wiki was so much more colorful and Amazon-like. I had fun perusing all the different books that the summer readers have read and reviewed. A very cool community project!

The next wiki I looked at was the Bull Run Library Wiki and it also didn't feel like a wiki to me. It was more like a webpage for the library...though I could go through and see all the updates over a 3 week history.

I liked the concept of the Albany County Public Library Staff Wiki. The procedures documentation along with photos was really nice to see. I did find it awkward navigating through the wiki. After reading a page, I'd have to navigate with the back button or the home button to reach another topic I was interested in. I guess I'm just used to navigating webpages and not wikis.

What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?

I like the idea of placing our department procedures on a wiki, but maybe having a menu or link at the bottom of the page so after you're done reading the entry, you can move on to the next topic of interest within the wiki.

Challenge 15

Challenge:
1. Read two or three of the perspectives on Library 2.0 from the list above. Create a blog post about your thoughts on any one of these.

2. Library 2.0 - It's many things to many people. What does it mean to you?

The OCLC newsletter was very informative in seeing how various people see how they can create libraries of the future...in being proactive about making information much more accessible to library users. The authors have a much more in-depth perspective than I do....metadata, instant messaging, 2nd life. Things that are not very second nature to me.

My school days encompassed photocopying journal articles one page at a time...not much online access available. It's sometimes difficult for me to try to envision how today's students want to access their information...though EASY would be a good start.

What does Library 2.0 mean to me?
I'm tending to agree some of the statements by the author Dr. Wendy Schultz of "To a temporary place in time...On the way to the library experience of the future." I'm loving how things are now...such as the library being part of the community...where I can currently hear author talks or presentations regarding current events. Library 2.0 is making it easy for me to look up whatever information I want, wherever I want....with coffee or hot chocolate in hand, preferably with a toasted croissant (where the hardest choice to make would be chocolate or almond filling).

Challenge 14

Challenge:
1. Take a look at Technorati and try doing a keyword search for “Learning 2.0” in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory. Are the results different?

2. Explore popular blog, searches and tags. Is anything interesting or surprising in your results?

3. Create a blog post about your discoveries on this site.

4. Now that we’ve worked with tags in Flickr, Del.icio.us, and Technorati, what are your thoughts about tagging? What are its advantages? What are its disadvantages?


I took a look at the keyword searching. The results were very different. The blog post search was too general, pulling up 30,610 blogs with "Learning" and "2.0" within the posts....Office 2.0, Community 2.0, E Learning, Web 2.0, etc. The tag search was more specific with only 274 blogs, as well as videos and photos. The blog directory was the most specific pulling up library specific learning 2.0 blogs, including the SJSU/SJPL blog.

When searching the popular blogs, it was interesting to see "Boing Boing" as a familiar name.....from the RSS Feed/Bloglines exercise. I found a Boing Boing post about Headless Cockroaches being able to survive for weeks. They have an open circulatory system, unlike people, so there's not a significant drop in blood pressure when decapitated. They also breathe through pores in various parts of their body, so repiration is not badly affected either. It sounds like they would likely expire due to infection or lack of nutrition.

Thoughts about tagging.....I think it's a great advantage to be able to pull up information that other people have tagged on topics that pique my interest. The disadvantage is sometimes thinking of tags to add onto information that I'm "putting out there". Are people really that interested?

Challenge 13

Challenge: View Del.icio.us tutorial, explore SJ Learning 2.0 del.icio.us account, and create a blog post.

I like the idea....of being able to have your bookmarks with you on something like del.icio.us and to be able to pull them up wherever you are, but I'm not that mobile computer-wise yet. I have the important bookmarks memorized....kind of like the phone numbers that I think are important. I don't do speed dial very often, unless it's someone's phone number that I'd have to look up anyways.

Right now it seems like quite a bit of work to pull a del.icio.us bookmarking page together for my purposes.

I see people like my brother and my boyfriend putting every kind of music that they have onto the tiny ipods.....so they can leave everything at home and only take their little gadget with them wherever they go. I have yet to find time to scan in some favorite photos onto a computer, so that I'll have digital access to them instead of digging through a box in the garage when I need to find a photo of something.



What I did love about the SJ Learning Del.icio.us account was being able to find interesting articles and blog posts such as "When tags work and when they don't: Amazon and LibraryThing", "Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services", and "Flickr Photos from Innovative Interfaces". These are things that I wouldn't ordinarily search out...but I do benefit from if someone else organizes them all together for me and has them all in one place.

Very cool. But would I set up my own? Maybe tomorrow.....

Challenge 12

Select Search Engine...WildlifeConservationSearch The Web

Powered by Rollyo

Challenge: Explore Rollyo and create an account for yourself. Create a search roll for any subject you like. Create a post in your blog about your experience and link to your search roll. Can you see a potential use for tools like this? OPTIONAL: Add your searchroll to your blog using the "Create a Searchbox" tool.

Rollyo was a new concept that took me a little while to wrap my head around. I understand the idea of limiting searches, but I guess I'm concerned I'd be limiting too much by only searching the websites that I'm familiar with.

The next challenge was that I had to think about the topic I wanted to create a search roll for.

I considered some library related topics, but then ultimately decided there were more wildlife conservation websites that I was familiar with.

Rollyo Experimentation

Mountain Gorillas - Adult Female
Originally uploaded by Lucy in London.

I listened to the podcast and tried out some of the Rollyo links.

I didn't exactly find what I was looking for in the Public Domain ebook search or the Rare Book Library search.

I had fun with the Free Photos searching mountain gorillas, I found this beautiful photo and thought I would share it before moving on to Challenge 12.