Social networking & Web 2.0

Go With the Flow: Selling Social Networking

 

Do your peers run the other way when you mention blogs and wikis? These talking points can help turn the tide.

 

http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6610498.html

You Tube

I did some exploring and searching on You Tube today and encountered a couple interesting videos that I can relate to work or libraries, or something other than the random wackiness that most of the vidoes fall under.

Since I was just scrolling around and not looking for anything in particular, I noticed some things I hadn’t before, like the links to “most viewed”, “most discussed”, and “top favorited”. If CML does eventually embrace more Web 2.0 technologies on our website, like tagging and sharing, I could see these also being fun to incorporate. Here are a couple examples:

• Looking for a good book? Log on to CML’s catalog and take a look at the top favorited books of CML customers and staff.
• Need a title for your book discussion group? Check out the most discussed books in CML’s catalog.

So, that’s my take on You Tube for libraries. (Aside from the obvious, and already ’standard’ practice of using You Tube to connect with teens, virtual library users, or those who have not yet discovered CML.)

And, I even took on libraryjoy’s challenge and embedded a video below! This video was the first result when I searched ‘Columbus library’, and I think it’s a cool video/pop-up book commercial for the Columbus Library (Columbus, NE, that is)!

del.icio.us take 2

Well, in this catch-up week I’ve gone back to delicious and created an account. It’s still not much of a profile yet, so I’m not making it public, but probably will when I get more comfortable with it. From what I’ve read about delicious, here are the features that I like and look forward to using:

• ability to view “all” or “popular”
• reading list
• syllabus–access via URL
• create a shared tag–create a unique tag, designate others to create that same tag and then everyone posts their findings there
• the magic middle–put others to work for you–their bookmarks and tags have filtered sites for you 
• potential tool for research assistance

del.icio.us

Wow. I used to think I was up on a lot of the hip places online, but since beginning Learn & Play, I realize there’s a lot I’ve been missing. I’ve heard of del.icio.us, but never taken a moment to scope it out and see what it’s all about. I should have! This is a great tool. I can definitely see its potential in assisting with research–I wish it had been around when I was in college! It also appears to be a smart organizational tool, which, considering the vastness of the internet, who couldn’t appreciate? As a Rover, I could see del.icio.us being quite helpful as sort of a virtual rolodex.

tweet, tweet

I created a twitter account, and posted a couple tweets for this Learn and Play exercise. I guess I have mixed feelings about it. I like the idea that I could go down to Barnes & Noble or something to hang out, tweet about it, and then possibly find out a friend was somewhere nearby and we could “randomly” get together. That said, though, it seems like people spend a lot of time tweeting back and forth about what they are doing instead of actually doing it. And, sometimes all these blogs and tweets and IMs and texts just make people seem self-absorbed.

On the contrary, though, I do think it’s cool that libraries are using twitter the same way they are using flickr, facebook, and myspace: as a way to connect with people that is very easy, free, and “pushes” the library out into the face of potential library users who may not come to us. Since Columbus is a large and very diverse city, I think it makes perfect sense to create a twitter page to promote some of our programs or resources. Or, if we followed discussions on twitter about, say wi-fi, CML would be able to inform/remind people that we have free, unlimited access. It would also be an additional venue to post news or updates about power outages, closings, website problems or special events.

library thing

In the spirit of Learn & Play, I created a library thing account, although I already have (and love) a goodreads account. ( I have cataloged almost 600 books on goodreads, so I’m afraid there’s no turing back and switching to another server at this point!)

There are some features I like better on goodreads, like the overall layout, but the process of adding books  is much easier on librarything. Like most librarians, I constantly check out more books than I can possibly read. I love having a virtual “to read” list on goodreads to keep track of books that I want (and will!) get to eventually. And, although I’m not that big into the online social networking scene, I do like checking out people’s reviews, and sharing and recommending books with friends. 

Cataloging and discussing the books I’ve read has helped me to improve my reviewing skills and I find that I really like writing book reviews. I suppose it brings out the English major in me. ;)

My virtual bookshelf has also enabled me to tag and categorize books so that I can easily access titles, authors, reviews, summaries, etc. This was very helpful as I worked on a project last month, writing 6 book reviews for CML’s spot in Columbus Parent, which will be printed in the October issue. 

So, here it is: my librarything library:  http://www.librarything.com/catalog/k8y