Alternate title: Wiki-Wiki-Tavi
So yeah!
I do think wikis are pretty useful. Despite Wikipedia's lack of official reliability, I start out there for basic information a lot (and I use the external links for a possible source of sites of official reliability).
I think of smaller scale wikis as bulletin boards, without the danger that your flyer's gonna get ripped down and lost forever (hooray for page roll back). And, of course, you don't have to actually swing by the building that the bulletin board is located in. Handy dandy, that.
I made a wiki for the Special Assignment Librarians way back when to help us keep track of assignment requests, and who was where, and so on. Useful! So I do like them quite a bit.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thing the 15: Library 2.0
Ya know, I'd love to talk about "Library 2.0," but I'm not sure I fully grasp it as a thing to which we move. Does that make sense? Hmm...
At any rate, even with all the talk of decreased circulation, do any of us truly believe that print is dead? Despite what Rick Anderson's piece says about looking "skeptically at the very idea of a library 'collection,'" have any of us managed to get along without a print collection yet? (It's not retortical--I'm not aware of a library doing that myself; tell me if there is one.) I also seem to recall reading recently, although I don't know how current the article was, that there have been problems with some digitizing: footnotes have been left out, that sort of thing. Information has been left incomplete, which is sloppy and shortsighted.
Staying current and relevant is going to involve embracing the idea of evolving, though--I like "living, breathing technology" plans. I like connected. Wee!
But I think success means a melding of the building and the page with the electronic and the digital. Most of us who work here, we've already got a foot in each pond as users ourselves, I'm willing to bet.
At any rate, even with all the talk of decreased circulation, do any of us truly believe that print is dead? Despite what Rick Anderson's piece says about looking "skeptically at the very idea of a library 'collection,'" have any of us managed to get along without a print collection yet? (It's not retortical--I'm not aware of a library doing that myself; tell me if there is one.) I also seem to recall reading recently, although I don't know how current the article was, that there have been problems with some digitizing: footnotes have been left out, that sort of thing. Information has been left incomplete, which is sloppy and shortsighted.
Staying current and relevant is going to involve embracing the idea of evolving, though--I like "living, breathing technology" plans. I like connected. Wee!
But I think success means a melding of the building and the page with the electronic and the digital. Most of us who work here, we've already got a foot in each pond as users ourselves, I'm willing to bet.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Technorati: Better Than "Technosia"
I will admit that I was slightly surprised by the Technorati Popular lists. Maybe not the top five blogs. That didn't really surprise me. But the top searches? Yeah. Vanessa Minnillo? Has she done something recently that I am unaware of? To be fair, if she has done something recently, I am more likely than not to be unaware of it. But I see my share of gossip headlines and such. If she's in the top 10 search list of anything, she surely should have done something that would have crossed my awareness threshold. Number five on the list is "men," which seems kind of cryptic to me. As in, "chemical components"? "Locations of"? "Known weaknesses?" "A Primer on"? What?
None of the video clips caught my attention as particularly unexpected...until I got to the NBS Nightly News with Ted Phillips from March 11, 1970. I became extraordinary paranoid that something way significant happened that day, and I had no idea. I Googled it, then watched the clip: it's viral marketing for Watchmen. Haha. Watch it. It's actually pretty cool. And because it's been three posts since I had any pictures, here's one related to Watchmen:
Yay! I haven't read it yet, but I'm about to. I wasn't really a fan of V for Vendetta, so we'll see how I like this one.
SAPLL2
None of the video clips caught my attention as particularly unexpected...until I got to the NBS Nightly News with Ted Phillips from March 11, 1970. I became extraordinary paranoid that something way significant happened that day, and I had no idea. I Googled it, then watched the clip: it's viral marketing for Watchmen. Haha. Watch it. It's actually pretty cool. And because it's been three posts since I had any pictures, here's one related to Watchmen:
Yay! I haven't read it yet, but I'm about to. I wasn't really a fan of V for Vendetta, so we'll see how I like this one.
SAPLL2
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Mmmm...Del.icio.us
I DO THIS TOO! YAY!!
Okay. So, yes. Del.icio.us can be a useful tool. You can potentially find useful things in that other people have tagged. BUT--I am really suspicious of letting just anybody create tags for pieces of information. It's all well and good, until you're poking through clips on YouTube, for example. I have seen cases where people really want their own clips viewed, and so they pack the tag field with all kinds of tags that have nothing to do with their videos. Now, I understand that such things probably offend me more deeply than they do normal people. But that is EXACTLY the kind of thing that will PLUNGE the world into darkness and bring on the apocalypse.
Okay. So, yes. Del.icio.us can be a useful tool. You can potentially find useful things in that other people have tagged. BUT--I am really suspicious of letting just anybody create tags for pieces of information. It's all well and good, until you're poking through clips on YouTube, for example. I have seen cases where people really want their own clips viewed, and so they pack the tag field with all kinds of tags that have nothing to do with their videos. Now, I understand that such things probably offend me more deeply than they do normal people. But that is EXACTLY the kind of thing that will PLUNGE the world into darkness and bring on the apocalypse.
Rollyo: Now All I Can Think About Are Rollo Candies
Hmm, I didn't really like Rollyo that much. I thought that the results were really redundant; Google is pretty good at minimizing that. I know, for example, that some of the sites I put in have scads of information on the search terms I entered. I don't need returns to every single mention. And, those sites dominated the search returns, so in the end, I didn't get anything helpful out of it.
All the same, here's my link. Yes, I reinvented the wheel, but I already had a bunch of these sources bookmarked. I can report that I'm pretty hooked on RSS feeds now though.
All the same, here's my link. Yes, I reinvented the wheel, but I already had a bunch of these sources bookmarked. I can report that I'm pretty hooked on RSS feeds now though.
Goodreads is Goodreadiness!
Okay, this was an EASY one! 'Cause I already HAD a Goodreads! My friend Suzanne, who went to library school under my influence (isn't that awesome? I should get a merit badge! Or maybe go to jail. But she seems happy!), introduced me to it! Now, even though we live many states apart, I can still feel inferior to the amount she reads and knits all while have twice the amount of kids I do.
Goodreads is, in this way, very helpful! If a little damaging in the self esteem department. It is, though, really cool to be able to keep up with Suzanne like this. Some people write nice little traditional reviews of the books they read, which is great, but since there are so many of those types, I just tend to bang out a couple of sentences based purely on the book's raw emotional value for me. Don't expect much, is what I'm saying.
The Goodreads widgets sure are nifty doohickeys! See the sidebar!
Goodreads is, in this way, very helpful! If a little damaging in the self esteem department. It is, though, really cool to be able to keep up with Suzanne like this. Some people write nice little traditional reviews of the books they read, which is great, but since there are so many of those types, I just tend to bang out a couple of sentences based purely on the book's raw emotional value for me. Don't expect much, is what I'm saying.
The Goodreads widgets sure are nifty doohickeys! See the sidebar!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Lesson the Tenth: Image Generators!
Sorry, Didi: the answer to the "Cake and Companion Cube" question is that it's from the truly wonderful game, Portal. If you like puzzle games, and you do not own this, it is really a steal at something like ten bucks.
For this one, I made the trading card:
For this one, I made the trading card:
And also, I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted. I didn't mean to get so dang busy. I'm gonna try to sprint my way to the end of the 23 Things before the end of the month. Wish me luck.
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