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I created a wikidot wiki for our college Academic Technology Committee and just invited them all in. I had help from Rosemary in this group and some folks here.

I didn't think I had time or interest in RSS or Delicious, but now I'm so into them thanks to the course. I didn't understand how grown ups could use these for our idea of useful purposes because everything I've read about them was about teens and pop culture uses.

I set up Google Reader with some blogs I like. I enjoyed the RSS audio lecture/visuals from Social Library.

With Delicious, it's so great because I've been interested in ways to organize research and have used lots of software of that type and even tried to develop my own. It's all obliterated by the total simplicity of Delicious. Can't wait to start building up tags on my various interests.

I'm listening to the Delicious audio lecture right now from Social Library. Pretty good so far.

I viewed & listened to Rebecca Hedreen's presentation on blogs, "A 21st Century Printing Press: Blogs as Publishing Mechanism."

I thought the following uses for blogs were very creative. I'm keeping a list of what I'd like to try.

  • Use blog for presentatons (put screenshots in, redo date stamps)
  • Put CV into blog
  • Blog as an online research guide - use Wordpress categories and redo date stamps. The presenter's Online Research Guide was quite impressive.
  • Maintain a CV as a blog

Other ideas? If you have tried any of the above, I'd be interested in learning about it.

Re: Blogs by bjhcimlibbjhcimlib, 22 Feb 2007 20:30

Hi Rosemary,
I have joined late so I have some catching up to do. I love this wiki because it gives us practical experience. Once I got on to it though, it was easy. I appreciate all you have done to get us started! Mary Ann Laun

Re: Checking by maryannmaryann, 21 Feb 2007 05:40

I've listened to the first two live class sessions on blogging. I hadn't used a technology of audio file and blog for the visuals. That was pretty good low-tech. I've been pushing our college to get live webcast like Elluminate or WebEx but they aren't that eager, so it was interesting to see the low-budget version, although I guess they actually were using Drupal. Does anyone know what that costs? Is it as good as Elluminate or Webex? (By the way, I just heard a great live webcast on InSync by Jane Bozarth about her book "E-Learning Solutions on a Shoestring." She was great—I believe its archived if you want to listen to it.)

I found the first live class interesting, but not the second. Sorry, I can't remember why—I think I already knew most of what she said in the second one.

I've read a lot of the articles on blogging, mostly to try to decide blog vs. wiki for my needs. I'm going to be constructing a wiki on Friday with a friend's help.

Anyone else? What do you think of the Social Libraries course so far?

Yes, I hope you keep the wiki going. I want to discuss the course as I've been listening to the webcasts. I think I'll start a thread on that. Thanks for your work. Just using this wiki this much has been very helpful to me. On Friday I'm constructing a wiki with a colleague so that our college Academic Technology Committee can communicate and also so all the members can become familiar with wikis.

Re: Checking by MaidaMaida, 20 Feb 2007 20:28

Hi, I am checking to see if any of the wiki members are using this wiki. I am wondering whether to continue to update or to let it go. Let me know by responding to this post, please! Thanks!

Checking by RoseMaryRoseMary, 19 Feb 2007 23:28

Drupal is awesome!

We just got it set up and it is beautiful!

Fully customizable, and easy to use once installedif you know your way around serversI think it would be easy to set up as well.

I HIGHLY recommend Drupal!

Anyone else using it?

Re: Drupal? by Max MaciasMax Macias, 15 Feb 2007 16:06

What is Online Northwest?

Online Northwest is a conference focusing on the use of technology within libraries. It was created by the Oregon University System Library Council to help librarians around Oregon learn how to use early online searching tools. As information technology and librarians have increased in sophistication over the years, so has the conference. The conference is held in late January or early February.

Online Northwest has evolved as a forum to discuss technical, social, and policy issues associated with information technology. Online Northwest regularly attracts information professionals from Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and northern California. The bulk of attendees typically work in academic, public, or school libraries. However, a significant number of corporate librarians and a few systems people usually attend meetings.

Attendance is capped at between 200-225 participants.

link:

http://www.ous.edu/onlinenw/

This is my favorite conference of the year—they cover all kinds of interesting aspects of our work.

If you are in the NW—check it out!

Now that’s an interesting subject. Communication and collaboration make people smarter. Social networking in itself is NOTHING, but with a good group of people networking and collaborating on things—new ideas will arise. New ideas about old things will also arise.

I hear you on the organization role—organizing info role of the librarian—however, I would say that applies to the old concept of the library. I think the one new concept (that has really been applied) is to collaborate with people both within and without the library industry.
I think it is a common mind set, but it will be replaced by the collaborative librarian, the librarian who interacts with their patrons in the most efficient and effective manners.
We now buy databases of information and don’t really organize them—we access them, and show others how.
There is still info-organizing going on, but that has taken a back seat to info-literacy.
Librarians can innovate, but they do need to work within the organization—as you have pointed out. I think that with proper clearance—we should always be pushing—as much as our times allow.

I agree that we still need both groups of people—organizers and innovators, but I would add that Librarianship—has an ever-changing definition, and would not say that we are merely information organizers any longer.

Thanks for the great post Rosemary!

Does anyone else have any ideas on this subject?

THANKS!

I was talking to my director about this today…. it began with a discussion of how social networking affects jobs and does it make teens "smarter", etc.
She is a Baby Boomer like me and I think we are getting to that time when we think what do we need all this stuff for? And that segued into the innovation and where it comes from and the leaders/managers thing. She had an interesting pov about what the role of librarianship is, which is organizing information, and always being the people coming after the information is there to organize it and clean it up so it can be found again.
If that is a common librarian mindset, then it makes sense that most librarians would be in the information management business… organizing it, making it work now. The innovators in library technology are not librarians, but are computer wizards without a librarian background. I think that is why a new system never works exactly the way you need it to because the innovators aren't thinking on the librarian management level. So… I am still thinking libraries need both, but librarianship, by nature doesn't exactly attract innovators.

A good point for discussion. I agree that there needs to be leadership in the organization for innovative ideas to be received. Some institutions are more forward thinking and have the resources and staff to be more innovative. In other organizations, there might be various reasons for the absence of innovation. One could be that there are a lack of resources or work load is incredibly high.

I've found it better to start with what I can accomplish given my resources and time and expand from there. My institution has a great IT staff but I recognize that they have a lot on their plate. I don't expect them at this time to expend resources and time on Web 2.0 exploration. So I choose to use services like Wordpress and Flickr instead of asking the IT department to set up such resources. And this is the great thing about blogs, they can exist to some extent "outside" the local network. However, I did make sure to gain the necessary approval from my library director, the IT department and other interested parties since this blog does represent the institution.

I usually ask myself "what can I do in my current environment?" and begin there.
Of course, I am not in a large institution and there is a bit more flexibility in how I accomplish these things.

Good discussion.

thats a great and understandable answer!

I'm glad we have choices!

:-)

Re: Welcome to the forum by Max MaciasMax Macias, 08 Feb 2007 21:42

Nice—thanks for the reply Rosemary!

Your post gives me something to think about.

I see what you are sayingand agree to a certain extent, butthere is little if any innovation coming out of institutions AT ALL.

All the great Web 2.0 ideas have come from people outside of the istitution.

By the time a good leader of an institution gets ahold of a good idea, and can grasp its usage, then there are already several newer ideas.

This leaves the institution as a follower, who is constantly tryint to catch up to the private or individual leaders of the pack.

Librarians are the ones who call themselves "information professionals' but they are NOT the leaders of innovation.

Thanks for your post Rosemary—you have given me something to think about.

Anyone else?

The library tech calls those shots. I use at home what I use at work so my brain doesn't fry. *G*

Re: Welcome to the forum by RoseMaryRoseMary, 08 Feb 2007 20:27

I attended an interesting workshop on leadership last fall that talked about the difference between leaders and managers. Leaders move us from one paradigm to another, while managers make the paradigm work. So you have two different roles needed in a successful institution, leaders always looking to the future and managers making the present work. Some people are better at one than the other. It isn't often that you are in a position to be both. That made a lot of sense to me when I thought about it in regards to business and government and even libraries.

One of the things I notice about Web 2.0 concepts and applications is that they almost always come from without institutions.

I have a few theories about this.

One of them being that institutions are resistant to change, and that they also impose drastic restrictions to what can be done—thereby limiting new ideas, and concepts.

I think that it is interesting that the library world was left in the dust so to speak with these types of developments—especially since information organization and sharing is OUR FIELD.

How can we bring innovation to our institutions in a more rapid and freer manner?

One idea I have is to collaborate with the IT department and form a Web 2.0 team for my institution.

I think there must be a team of free-thinkers given more freedom to experiment and try new ideas and applications.

What do you think about these ideas?

ANY ANSWER WILL BE APPRECIATED!

Thank you!

Why are you using IE?

Firefox is superior.

Firefox is a great example of open source development.

Just look at the amount of plugins and such that are rapidly being created.

I love Firefox browsing.

Re: Welcome to the forum by Max MaciasMax Macias, 08 Feb 2007 18:16

Nice looking Blog Maida!

Good job!

Also thanks for the link to the tutorial!

Don't be worried about being a beginner—we all are.

Anybody who fancies themselves an expert is fooling themselves.

One of the main precepts of Libary 2.0 is SHARING, and you are doing much better on here than 90% of the people registered.

I am disappointed there has been little discussion, or interactio—which is what Web 2.0 is all about.

COLLABORATION brings about great change.

Isolation brings about stagnation.

Thanks for your participation!

Re: Blogs by Max MaciasMax Macias, 08 Feb 2007 18:10
Re: Blogs
MaidaMaida 07 Feb 2007 23:16
in discussion General Discussion / General Discussion » Blogs

I just created a blog on blogger using a fantastically easy tutorial in the site "Academic Blogging" which was linked in the Social Libraries course. It's at http://edtech.tennessee.edu/~set31/03_01.htm

My new blog is called "Library Updates" and it is at http://libraryupdatestryit.blogspot.com/

I'm thrilled to get this far, as I was feeling way more of a beginner than others in this group. Thanks so much for being there because otherwise I probably wouldn't have even tried. Plus I guess I'm also learning to participate in a wiki! Wow!

Re: Blogs by MaidaMaida, 07 Feb 2007 23:16
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