Week 6, #15 -- Perspectives on Web 2.0

I believe that the most significant improvements are those that Web 2.0 can bring to library services, such as using an open WorldCat, providing graphical means of searching by place, or using collective tags to make items more easily searchable. The harnessing of collective intelligence is a tool that will help libraries as well as their users.

Week 6, #14 -- Technorati

I spent some time in Technorati and found that a keyword search in posts (972), tags (672), and directory (775) yielded different results. This is not surprising, since people tag different ways and frequently may not tag at all. I searched through favorites, and I searched for blogs on hummingbirds and Rockport, Texas, since that is a topic that is of interest to me. I found 4. I elected not to claim my current blog. Perhaps in the future I may create a blog on hummingbirds and claim that one.

Week 6 -- #13, Tagging with del.icio.us

I created a del.icio.us account last year, and really haven't used it. Today, as I was working on this assignment, I attended a library program presented by one of our geography profs that really slammed home the power of tagging. He showed us a film clip about Photosynth, a new technology that takes images from the internet, analyzes their similarities, and seams them together to create a 3D visual representation of places. You can view the clip at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/129. The tagging issue is important, because the program relies on tags, such as those assigned to images in Flickr, to identify the images that it uses. Also, I like the fact that I can create a Favorites list that is accessible to me from any computer! I just moved my Outlook favorites list to del.icio.us.

Week 4, #12 -- Library Elf

I was able to register for this with no problems. It showed me the items that I have checked out and those that I am waiting for. I don't really see the advantage to this, however, since Horizon does the same thing. This would be great for patrons who do not have access to this type of information, but I don't see how it really helps me.

Week 5, #11

I already had a Library Thing account that I created last year. For this assignment, I added several titles, a link, and the author cloud. I think this is an interesting tool, but I don't really care to make my library public.

Week 5, #10 -- Avatar

This is fun!! This is the first avatar that I have ever tried to create, and I really enjoyed it. It reminds me of playing with paper dolls when I was a kid, only there aren't any little tabs for me to accidentally cut off! I will try some of the others, too.

Week 4, #8 and 9

This was an easier assignment than last week's. I had established a bloglines account some time ago, but I did delete some of my feeds and add others. I really like the library feeds. There are some very good ideas embedded there, but there is also a lot of superfluous talk at times. I also enjoyed Rhoda's report!


These are my current feeds:

Bloglines News

Cool Tools
Dictionary.com Word of the Day
Librarians' Internet Index: New This Week
Library Marketing - Thinking Outside the Book
The Shifted Librarian
Slate Magazine
U.S. News & World Report
Washington Post Book reviews
Wired Top Stories