Del.icio.us

Firstly, thanks to Aaron Landry for the picture of Strawberry Macaroon Cupcakes, acquired via FlickrCC.


To be honest I'm in two minds about this "thing" called del.icio.us which to begin with makes me think of all things tasty - those who know me well will know I have an exceedingly sweet tooth! Sometimes even chocolate doesn't cut it. Anyway, that's rather beside the point. Aside from it's strange name, I can understand why this resource has, according to some of the literature, taken off rather less among libraries. The big undoubted bonus is portability and the strength of this bonus grows the more you need to move from machine to machine - working on an enquiry desk, giving presentations, job-sharing, working from home etc. It strikes me, however, that to be successful this tool would demand much greater administration to make it work well for libraries if used in a public setting. It doesn't, for example, create a good impression to readers if the library is providing out-of-date bookmarks, broken links or links which for one reason or another simply don't work anymore. Similarly Rethlefsen's article interested me by describing the way the Bibliotheques de l'Universite Paris-Sorbonne was using delicious. Isn't the "extensivley organised" way in which it "divvies up" by tags/time/period/discipline/format etc. becoming more like a classification scheme for online resources? If so this demonstrates well the skills of the librarian but again would need constant attention. Arguably, I think this "thing" would work better for more subject specialist libraries or be best found on the web pages of individual departments where subject specific bookmarks could be provided. The fact patrons can contribute suggestions is also useful as a form of peer support. I don't think I'll be subscribing too soon. I spend a limited amount of time away from the same computer at work and would just use Google or email myself a link in advance if using another machine.

Slideshare

Another invaluable tool on the 23 things programme. I can see this being greatly beneficial for preparing presentations - seeing what is out there, what issues others have covered, how they have branded their presentations, used images and humour to get their points across etc. Though a bit dated now, having been created for a plenary talk at the "Library of the Future" forum, Learning Resources Services Network, Western Australia in 29 November 2007, I particularly liked this one:

Five Social Software Sites that libraries shouldn't ignore

View more presentations from sirexkat.

I'm not convinced mining SlideShare for actual presentations, in their entirety, would be terribly useful to libraries but for mining ideas and to save reinventing the wheel this tool has to be an absolute plus. The importance of marketing / selling your library does, however, surely need to be borne out by the branding given by the institution / individual within the institution creating the presentation. In this respect the main benefit of posting your slideshow / presentation on Slideshare after it has been given is to try and encourage some of your end users to embed it in their websites. For example, a library as large as the UL could perhaps encourage faculties, departments, the university admissions office etc. to embed introductions to the library, presentations on research skills etc. into their own pages. This would make the presentation available to the reader in new social spaces and hopefully capitalise on sites they are already visiting. The potential for receiving user feedback on SlideShare must also be a bonus for making improvements to further presentations and in finding out what users actually want and how this can be catered for. The facility for the creator being able to delete comments deemed inappropriate should also hopefully ensure commenting remains relevant.

I suspect I will be using SlideShare in the future if not to create a presentation, to keep up-to-date with new technologies and to enhance my professional development. I love slideshows like this that give you a quick brief overview to something new leaving the potential to research further when time permits.

Flickr

Thanks to LHZ for the artistic image of the UL's ex libris public artwork for this weeks blog on things 9 and 10 (Flickr). Getting towards half way there and I feel I am learning quite a lot. I particularly enjoyed this week. I love looking at images and whether we think visually or not believe they have a massive impact in making things look more interesting and drawing our attention to them. Something I believe exhibtions in particular can suffer quite severely from. I can't believe I didn't realise that so many of these images were freely available to use, or available to use with so few limitations. A definite plus. I've already bookmarked FlickrCC for future use. One thing that does concern me though is whether the people sharing their photos on Flickr in the first place have considered their right to do so. Still, I suppose this shouldn't really worry me as having checked the rights provided when using the image I would be acting in good faith. One related question about images to other Cam23 participants: What's the best way to give an image in a blog, such as the one I have used above, a caption?

Tagging

The debate between folksonomies and more formal classifciation is an interesting one and one that will no doubt continue for a few years yet. I recall writing an essay on the topic at library school several years ago.
As a cataloguer and classifier I have to admit I am a bit traditionalist about the whole thing and having just tried to tag my earlier posts have to say I probably remain so. How frustrating was it that if you had tagged something with a similar tag before blogger tried to change it to that tag even if this would result in some nuances of meaning being lost? Rather than free-styling I was having to think about using different vocabulary to try and express such differences.
I also think that advocates of folksonomies are a bit harsh on more traditional hierarchical systems of arrangement. Although admittedly in terms of classifcation with a shelfmark / number something for reasons of physicality has to be more one thing than another no matter how cross-disciplinary, this needn't necessarily apply to the subject headings given to that same item. The use of more than one subject heading can express such 'otherness'. Subject headings are by nature a more evolutionary form of classification and new ones can be proposed expressing new concepts (I think of the LCSH "dog scootering" here - yes it exists!) more easily than new classification numbers.
I also don't agree with the idea that someone searching for information on 'films' doesn't want to know about 'movies' just because they have chosen not to use that term. Surely it is because they do that some Web 2.o technologies display / suggest related terms to the user.
I think ulitmately it depends on the reason behind the tagging. If we are to consider serious research / archiving then the likelihood is that a common controlled term is going to be more useful no matter how that term was suggested in the first place. If terminology is related to the age in which it is used terms will become obsolete and valuable information lost if it is not indexed / recorded in some way. However, if we are just tagging photos of our friends with their names, for example, then we are not likely to care about what term we have used.
I await the barrage of comments from those less traditional among you!

Twitter, tweets and tweeple - Aah! Not twits.

Have to admit if it had not been for 23 Things in all likelihood I wouldn't have signed up for Twitter. I knew little about it but had heard all the celebrity talk of people posting what they ate for lunch etc. and thought what a waste of time, I'm not getting into that! However, I am now beginning to see it has value. In particular I can see the benefit of libraries being able to share links and provide very brief updates without expending large amounts of time and energy. I also saw the fact it can be used via SMS as an advantage though am now wondering how significant a benefit this actually is when I consider how many people now carry pocket size devices of various types which allow them to access the internet? Being able to search tweets by subject is arguably a useful facility though sometimes the results may be so large in number that information is found more easily through a careful selection of people / places / lists "followed".

I read with interest the further reading which stated that currently libraries tend to use Twitter as a broadcast mechanism rather than interactively. Though I can see the benefit of library-user interaction I would be slightly concerned about the lack of filtering. There is surely a risk of receiving unhelpful responses as a result of the low character limit and tendency when using such tools to shoot off an immediate response on a matter which one might normally give much more consideration. Also, of interest was the issue of future potential charging for the service which once established would in all likelihood have to be continued, even at an unknown cost. How easy would it be to find a similar service at no / less cost that was compatible with what the library had already established?

On a more personal level I found some of the terms rather off-putting. I loathe the term 'tweeple' and found the idea of stalking (oops, no sorry following) a bit odd. Unlike on facebook where friend requests can be rejected I initially thought anyone could follow the tweets of a person / institution and was concerned about the potential of ending up being associated with the views of followers, who would be listed as such, who held views that you / your institution wouldn't want to be associated with. Through the further reading, however, I realised, with some relief, that you can pick and choose who you want to follow you.

Google calendar

The potential for the use of this tool in the library world is by far the most obvious to me so far. It opens up a whole plethora of opportunities for communicating with users. I feel by following the simple instructions provided by the Cam23 team (thank goodness for them) that I have just dipped my toe in the ocean and the potential for drowning in the technical side of things scares me. Connecting calendars with other calendars etc. all sounds a bit complicated to a novice like me. Still the instructions were easy to follow and I created a few events, two of which I've asked to be sent a reminder about so I wait with interest to see whether I have been successful in doing this and it actually happens - spot the slightly technophobic sceptic. How did I manage to get so far behind with all this technology? Still, hopefully redressing the problem by doing 23 things. The calendar was easy to set up and offered lots of sensible options for recurring events, events lasting a specified amount of time, all day or with no previously known fixed end and having it on my iGoogle page rather than having to bookmark it separately is a bonus. Reading the further reading also showed me how compatible and adaptable this tool really seems to be and for something that is free and easy to use that is saying a lot. Will have to try connecting with another calendar soon ...

Doodle - not only a random sketch

Doodle! Mmm, interesting name and formerly known to me as a random scribble - something reportedly drawn in boring meetings from what I have heard - not guilty of this myself of course! Turns out it is actually quite a useful Web 2.0 tool though. Have now tried it out and was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was both to send out meeting invitations and to view results. Didn't have to register, provide more information than was required or any of that nonsense. Don't have a need to set up meetings in my current job though so my use is probably going to be limited in the foreseeable future - I think my friends may think me a bit strange if I tried to use Doodle to set up a social gathering! It may take off in this respect though! Still in terms of library work I can see the advantages particularly for trying to organise meetings between people in disparate locations. Am wondering what the optimum number of invites is though - not too many I suspect. Aside from needing to know too many email addresses one wouldn't want to have to scroll down pages of results to find the most convenient time. Is it possible to send a Doodle request to a list (like users@lib.ac.uk)? Is there a case for this for setting up user education etc.? As one blogger pointed out several sessions could be set up at once in this way after all only those with the intention of attending would respond. Presumably all sessions stemming from one Doodle request would have to be on the same topic though?

Thing 4

Have had a look at the blogs of other Cam23 participants and was interested to see the variation not only in iGoogle and blog page design but more significantly in levels of experience of Web 2.0 technology from the beginner like myself to those already talking about things I have no concept of - Netvibe, Zotero and Mendeley - and those racing ahead to things much further on in the programme.

The questions I am thinking about at the moment are 1) How to find blogs worth following without spending an age? - in terms of personal / leisure interest blogs this could well be a matter of personal opinion whereas in terms of blogs on professional issues this should hopefully be a bit clearer - there are just so many out there ; 2) What are the copyright issues for blogs? - particularly with regard to using images - I assume these are the same as using them on any other web page ...

... and of course the value of commenting. This is an interesting topic and I think really boils down to what is actually said. If a genuine debate is opened up then great but posts of the type "Oh yeah, I agree" seem generally to be of little value though admittedly there may be some circumstances in which this is of use - getting a straw poll on an issue for example. In-depth posts, however, have to be inspired by the content of the blog and a desire to learn more or open up a debate. In order to do some of the Further Reading suggested by the 23 Things programme I, in true traditionalist style, printed some of it off. In these circumstances the comments (some of which were of little added value) were quite annoying as far more pages than I needed were printed. Is there a way of filtering the comments to only retain what you want when printing? Perhaps lacking in the spirit of the programme I haven't commented on anyone else's blog yet though can see this is easily done. I have become a follower of one blogger and may well be inspired to write a comment a blog writer will value at a later date.

Success! First image loaded into a blog. How rewarding. Definitely makes the blog less text heavy and consequently less boring. I enjoyed creating the iGoogle page. It was quite user-friendly and the instructions from the Cam23 team fool-proof. Thanks guys. May have taken me a bit longer to get to grips with otherwise - time playing around trying to work out what I was doing. Adding stuff was a joy but more important for me was deleting some of the stuff the page seemed to come with. I can understand having a few things on there so that you can see what type of thing is available but the screen just seemed a bit crowded until you get in there and have a good sort and clear out. Some of the things you can add are invaluable and if you use them regularly enough I can see the advantage of having them there rather than searching using the traditional Google search engine each time. For example, I have kept the weather report and added a Dictionary, wikipedia search engine, currency converter and arabic-roman numeral converter. Some of the boxes seem to take up too much unnecessary space though and I found this particularly true of the YouTube one. This has now been duly filed in a folder on the left menu bar. Organising things around the screen was really straightforward and allowed me to customise my page with heavily used things at the very top so that I don't have to scroll which I found to be a good thing. There seem to be no restrictions on this. There is nothing that has to stay which allows more freedom than I might have expected.

With regard to RSS feeds. Well I'd seen them and used them but never for one moment expected to add one to my own page. This was easily done and the fact RSS feeds are updated without me actually having to do anything to them or having to revisit the page is fantastic. I can certainly see the attraction of these and how they might be a valuable tool for libraries, or indeed, any other institution wanting to keep its customers / clients / members up-to-date - the possibilities do seem quite endless. The advantages of spam protection and easy cancellation for the user are also attractive ones. It may be, for example, that you are only attached to an institution for a fixed period of time. Adding an RSS feed doesn't have the same feel as saying you are happy to receive endless emails from some marketing monster just because you once expressed an interest in something. Its up-to-date information of interest to you where you want it and when you want it. Having said that, I'm not sure I fancy creating an RSS feed. That part of the article by Zeki Celikbas scared me off a bit! In that respect I'd hope it was easy to maintain one once it had been established.