Wikis

I've always loved the concept of wikis. I spent much time thinking about the use of alternative media such as wikis and blogs as part of a course I took related to the news media last quarter. These tools, in that context, have helped facilitate citizen journalists.

For libraries, as for literally any field, I love the idea of using wikis as vehicles for information and idea sharing. Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki was a terrific example of what can evolve.

The bottomline: the Internet becomes a more dynamic collection resources all the time. Because news, or other types of information is constantly changing, wikis are just one way we can keep up.

LibraryThing

Wow! This is a cool site.

I'm going to have to get to work on My Library; it's pretty sparse. There's a few books in there right now; one's I'm listening to on CD during my commute to work and school.

My main problem now is that I don't have much time to read what interest me. Take this gem for example. I'm sure my nose will be buried in this one all quarter.

I think LibraryThing will work well as my own, personal reader's advisory tool this summer.

del.icio.us and Technorati

Seeing as I don't work in the library, I'm not going to comment on the potential of this tool for research assistance. I'm still undecided abotu it being an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere. I'm leaning toward it being information overload.

Technorati definetly seems more user-friendly than del.icio.us!

I guess I'm just not into tagging - too much work.

What about MySpace

There are so many things to like about MySpace. Like eBay, MySpace accounts obviously expand the size of your potential audience. In addition, the potential for institutions to connect with a new generation of users is appealing. Really, the possibilities are endless. At the same time, I wonder how easily a library MySpace page would get lost among the others online.

While I can understand some of the worries about the extra curricular or inappropriate activities that can occur online at this, or other social networking sites, I feel strongly that Web presences are vital to libraries staying relevant with new generations of library patrons.

RSS Feeds

I guess I never paid attention to how many websites had RSS Feeds. I suppose Bloglines is a centralized way to gather all the links to those sites in a centralized place. At the same time, I don't see what's different between that and bookmarking them in your Favorites. I'll have to give it some time to see how or if I'll use it.