Week 6 #15

I found all these articles interesting yet difficult to follow. My experience in the library is very limited. I think I have been here for 2 months but prior to that, my experience in the library dates back to my college years...late 80's early 90s and only when I had to go.

So in regards to reference librarian, I fear I am a weak one. I do my best to muddle through the requests but I read these articles from the perspective of a patron. I do need help searching. Joe Blow walking in from the street has no clue as to what the library has to offer. And will only learn after many uses. The percentage of the community that comes to the library is small compared to the community itself. I see many patrons but many of them come everyday to study (they bring their own books from school or grab a book that is needed for school) or they sit at the computers writing emails and logging into MySpace.

How does library 2.0 fit into that forum? We seem to be encouraging people to stay at home and visit their library virtually. Don't get me wrong...my title is Technology Training Assistant and I LOVE technology but I think we are beginning the lose the social aspect of society. Case in point, my daughter, 11 years old, has been brought up in the technology age. She has had her own computer for 4 years and has learned to respect it but when her friends come over to play, an odd thing happens. she logs into my computer and her friend logs into hers and they chat online instead of face to face. Is that the future? Everyone order take out and stay at home and visit your library from there?

What kind of information will people find on their own? Can you count how many emails you have had forwarded to you from others that were forwarded as fact and when you research it, you find out that it isn't? We need librarians to help us laymen people try to weed through all the garbage. You are right, there is tons of information on the web and not all of it correct. Someone needs to guide us in the truthful direction and my hopes is that it is the librarians. Many of todays youth prefer visual aides such as videos or hands on work to studying with books or experiencing stories. I digress...I have changed the topic...let me pull back a bit. As for tagging, I love tagging my personal items but sometimes I have been tagged with bogus tags because some weird person finds it funny.

All I am saying is that I love technology but we can't sacrifice the human aspect of the library. Read my blog a few weeks ago about the sounds of the library. Those sounds weren't just songs playing over some speakers....those were sounds of life....sounds of people in a building. Leaving breathing people and not avatars.

Week 6 #14

Ok so I went to Technorati, with each search of learning 2.0 my responses became more within my requests as I did blog directory versus blog posts.

I went to the poplular ones and was surprised that the largest had less than 3000 members (Boing Boing) but I really didn't know what to expect.

Week 6 #13

So I went on line with del and looked at some tags. I contemplated putting some bogus tags but decided not to do it. It could be useful for references. For example, I searched for HCPL and I found Harford County PL 23 things exercises and their blogs. I didn''t realize this was something offered to different public libraries. Very interesting.

Week 5 #12 ELF

So I created an account on ELF. I am not sure how it works differently than my HCPL account since I already receive emails regarding my due dates and I believe if we have requested a book, the system will automatically send me an email (provided that I have given the library my email address).

Week 5 #11

So I went to Library Thing and added a few of my favorite books. I have to admit, I didn't see any use for this website at first. But I love the fact that I can add the HMTL to my blog and any other profile I have (ie MySpace). So I will definitely use it and I am glad we did this.

So instead of adding a link, I added the information to the right side of my blog. Check it out!!! These books are worth the read...especially for women

MEEZ Week5 #10

So I have a Meez that I created at Meez.com http://meez.com. I already had one for other sites but I created one just for the library. (Truth be known, I created it about 2 or 3 weeks ago and to my surprise this exercise was to create one....Hey consider it as me thinking ahead. LOL

The actual location or background at Meez is the Library and I am in an office chair. Not that I would do this at work but hey this is me in my virtual world.

Finding RSS

I tried Technorati and it seemed the easiest for me. However, I found most of my RSS by going to my favorite websites and subscribing to their RSS.

RSS feeds

So I signed up for some RSS feeds. I signed up for some that were of interest to me and others just because I needed ten. I also signed up for someone's feeds from hcpl.

Here is my berry picture with a watercolor effect that has been cropped.