The Need is Obvious

Geez. With 70 million blogs out there, I certainly see the need for Technorati.

That's a lot of stuff to sort through. I, myself, would only be interested in what 69.999999 million of you might have to say: The rest of you, not so much. Technorati looks like a good way to find the specific topics and people I'd like to keep in touch with and filter out the rest.

Not that all 70 million of you aren't perfectly wonderful people...

Simple is Best

I got lost sorting through the options to learn about social bookmarking and Del.icio.us--too much information! I learned that I need to look for the briefest explanations, preferably webcasts of 5 minutes or under--to get the point without being overwhelmed.

'Social Bookmarking in Plain English' by CommonCraft did the trick. It was a very useful and informative 3 minutes and 25 seconds. The example of math teachers bookmarking and organizing useful sites made perfect sense to me.

MySpacial Relationships

I've created a page on MySpace, but not without some frustrations. Answering the profile questions was kinda fun--it seemed almost like a dating service questionnaire. I couldn't get my photo to upload, though, which was disappointing. The Internet access I have is filtered, and I couldn't make the upload happen.



Rats. That's the main annoyance in learning new technologies, capacities, etc. When there's some unanticipated road block that halts the process, suddenly it's no fun anymore.

There's Something Happenin' Here...

...what it is ain't exactly clear.

Don't you just love it when a song from 40 years ago captures 2007 reality? Many thanks to the Buffalo Springfield.

Back when the original counterculture was making itself known, those with "moral panic" disorder would have been labeled "The MAN." "Don't let old fogey adults tell you what you can and cannot do" is not a new concept.

I just hope some of the communication on MySpace and other social networking sites involves a discussion of the current state of the world and what we need to do to fix it--or at least make the future better for us all. I sound like some leftist hippie librarian, don't I?...Geez, maybe I am, minus the hippie part.

Peace, Sisters and Brothers.

RA Hurray!

Wow. The Library's Readers Advisory wiki is REALLY easy to use! I've gotten hung up a few times working through the Library 2.0 things, but adding a title to the 'Staff Recommends' list was a breeze. Plus I got some great ideas for books to read in the bargain.

Woo hoo! Maybe I'll make my way through this Brave New World unscathed after all...

Wiki Wacky

It was fun reviewing other libraries' wikis. I really like the customer reviews and feedback on books. It reminds me of the review section of amazon a bit.

Especially I like it that the reviewers are library customers. That means they truly are book people who see the big picture and value all that a library can offer them.

IM what IM

I IM-ed a reference question to the VBPL staff manning the instant messaging service. I think I asked something that was too time consuming--I'd heard about a magazine article by a certain writer on a particular subject from a few years ago, and I was trying to get the citation or a copy of it.

They were really nice and said they could get back to me, but right at that moment they were helping another IM reference customer and wouldn't be able to check it immediately. THAT could be a real problem with IM reference service if it's a really busy shift and only one or two staff members juggling a bunch of customers and questions at once...very stressful for the staff!

I'm going to seek out an IM information provider and ask how they handle it when they have two or three (or more!) people all at once.