Thing #13

Twitter

Well I gave Twitter a try. I did like Twitter Vision. I went into it with a pretty negative attitude at first. I also don't use my cell phone for texts or anything data related (I'm a cheapo!) so those features aren't useful for me. I first learned of Twitter through some personal blogs of a few people I follow. I found the concept kind of annoying but I like the potential for posting and seeing interesting links. I'd rather just read people's status updates about what they are thinking or feeling or doing on Facebook and update my status with what I'm thinking or doing. I feel like there is more content there and little on Twitter. I can see photos, videos,cool apps, games, events etc. on Facebook. Maybe that's why people like it? Because of the simplicity?

Facebook with its redesign has turned into a bit more like Twitter and moved more into micro-blogging. With old Facebook you couldn't comment on people's statuses or every little thing they did- you could pretty much send a private message or write on their wall. Now the little things there can become topics for conversation and interaction.

I added a few of the people mentioned in the Library Journal article, a few commission people and a few personal friends who use it. By doing an Omaha search, I discovered that the general manager of Omaha Public Radio uses it. I've enjoyed so far the updates from the commission's reference questions. We don't get a lot of reference questions here since we are rather specialized so that's kind of entertaining.

As far as the library goes in terms of serving our "customers", there isn't much of an active Twitter following here. I've never heard or seen any of our students use Twitter. They're more of a Facebook crowd. I searched for references to our college or the library and got none.

A few possible uses I'd consider trying if there was a Twitter community here:

• sending out links of interest to student resources we've found on the web
• reporting glitches in our systems, outages, databases errors, etc.
• sending out reminders about changes in hours, special last minute closings such as snow related ones

I liked the mention of using it to tell students when computers labs were full or available, that'd be really helpful at a large university or with a large public library, especially for users who have updates sent to their cell phones.

I don't see us using it at work until we know our students are into it. Personally, I might check it a bit here and there and see if anything interesting comes my way and maybe post interesting links.

You can find me (or not find me) at
http://www.twitter.com/kitschqueen

Thing #12

Library Thing

I set up a Shelfari a few months ago and think LibraryThing is a similar concept but much more detailed. Shelfari too seems a lot more commercial since it has the links now to Amazon with every book to entice you into buying it.

You can see my LibraryThing here:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/kitschqueen

I like the feature of seeing who you have the most books in common with. I also enjoy knowing how many other people have a book. I see it is a fun challenge to think of the most obscure books I have and then discover how many other people have read it or own it.

The integration of LibraryThing tag data into library catalogs is useful because I think users telling each other how to describe a book is very important. Subject headings mean nothing to some of them. The widget would allow us to put something on our website to display our new books. We could also use it internally to rate, review, tag and keep track of the books the staff uses for copyright, instruction, etc.

Thing #11

A blog about technology

I enjoy technology and I embrace a lot of it. I've spent some time this week brainstorming on a group wiki how we can revamp our website and a lot of the ideas I've come up with would be implemented with "new technology". So I'm excited to get a few things underway.

But I thought I'd maybe mention a few things that annoy me.

1. It's fleeting and migratory.
Sites become popular and amass these huge followings. But then the interest migrates elsewhere. Myspace was hugely popular and now people seem to be abandoning it for Facebook. Constantly moving around and following your friends and contacts and perhaps even your own content can get to be a hassle.

2. 1 ID and password doesn't fit all.
I try to keep a lot of my user names and passwords the same and sign up with the same email address for a lot of these sites. But then you run into the site that has different requirements for setting up a user name and password. Some allow spaces, some don't. Some require capitalization and numbers, some don't. Then you have sites like Flickr that are tied to your Yahoo ID while Blogger is tied to your Google ID. I don't like being forced to have an account with a certain entity in order to access something. I'm okay with having a blanket Google ID since I use countless Google products but I mostly use Yahoo for my junk type email and have a hard time using it for my Flickr.

3. The corporate IT mindset may not get it.
We've had a lot of issues here with the blanket IT department blocking sites that they deem inappropriate or not work related. They used to block things like Myspace, Facebook and YouTube but not sites like Livejournal. Let me tell you, I could waste a lot of work time using Livejournal for non-work related purposes or CNN or most other websites if that was my prerogative. What they choose to block seems arbitrary. Also, a lot of emails such as the confirmation emails to fully register for a site get blocked in our spam filter. We have a spam folder but nothing ever seems to get actually in there- it gets weeded out before that point. So I tend to use a personal account to sign up with these websites.

Since we've managed to get You Tube, Myspace and Facebook unblocked, one of my goals it to find ways for us to use it for "legitimate" purposes. I'm afraid we'll have to defend it down the line and prove again that we should actually have access to it.

Thing #10

Image Generators

1. Speech Bubbler
2. Custom Computer Keyboard
3. Einstein

I really like the Custom Keyboard generator. I think it provides nice, simple graphics and it is endless the types of "tech" words that could go on it.

Thing #9

I've never used the all the different Flickr apps before. From reading some of the other participants' blogs, it seems people are struggling to come up with a lot good uses. I've thought of a few:

• direct students to Flickr for images for Power Point presentations (creative commons material would be ideal) I figure many of them just do a google image search for a photo so they might just want to use Flickr instead to avoid any copyright issues.
  
• use in library promotional materials to create graphics, signage, presentations, etc. (creative commons photos again)
• use in instructional tutorials
  
• keep track of colleagues with some of the Flickr mapping tools
• use the Picmarkr application to watermark library photos to "brand" our photos.
  

For fun, I also tried out the Bubblr, Flickr Logo Maker, Montager, Postcard Browser, and Colrpckr and spelling with Flickr.

Thing #8

This image may not be that interesting from a composition standpoint since it is just a screenshot, but I think Flickr is a great way to record a library's marketing on their website. It looks like this isn't from a library's site but instead references something happening at a library. Having a collection of your marketing would be good to show to other libraries. Or you could document the good (and bad too if you want) press your library receives. Or if you are routinely responsible for marketing at your library, this might be an option for showcasing your work to future employers if you are job seeking.

Also, preserving the library's website's different components and content over time is an interesting way to use Flickr. If you are going to document your library with a Flickr account it makes sense to include screenshots of your online presence since that is how some of our users probably know us the best!

And here's my cat, Aja. I've added her to the Flickr group Pets of Nebraska Librarians