Thing #6 Mash-ups

I love the Spell with Flickr application and think I would use it again. It would be a great tool to use for signs that are informal but eyecatching.

Thing #4 RSS

I opened my aggregator in google. I have added probably more feeds than I need but I understand how it works and after refining it I can certainly see where it would save time.

So far it seems like refining and arranging the blog is as important as what it contains. Right now mine looks a little like I have just thrown things at it which is basically what I have done.

I look forward to having more time to work on it.

Thing #3 Comparing the Blog Search Engines

Blogging and looking at blogs is still new to me, and in some ways seems like it could take a lot of time just picking a couple of blogs and keeping up with them. Is that what people do? I'm beginning to understand the usefulness of writing a blog, thanks to the Neflin 23 things project. If I were a teacher I can think of many things I would do with a blog...but as a library Circulation Specialist and Inter-Library Loan Tech, not so many uses. Putting my random thoughts out there makes me feel a little lame. Like, who cares? Besides me wanting to participate in the 23 things and it being a good way to keep track of all the things we are learning in this project I'm still confused.


Lots of people must have found a use for them though, since there are about 20 search engines dedicated to blogs. I am going to look at as many as I can today and perhaps I will figure out a use for these random writings. I'll be back later to blog about my findings. If anyone out there in cyberspace cares. I can't imagine.

Well, here I am back again after two hours of searching and looking at Blog Search Engines. As usual Google was my favorite! I found Technorati very cumbersome, I did mangae to "claim my blog" and to "ping my blog" although for the life of me I can't figure out why. Searching for Library Circulation in Technorati brought up 662 results but they seemed to consist of mostly irrelevant, disjointed information. Google turned up 124,878 for Library Circulation but then you had the option to sort them by "last hour", "Last 12 hours" etc. the information on the first page of results seemed like it was more on target.

I'm still confused about the significance of blogging or reading blogs as a tool. I understand some of the reasoning, like our "Library Director's Blog" where I work. It keeps everyone up to date on things happening in the library. But it seems most people just Blog for the sake of blogging and I don't understand that. Spending time reading other people's musings just seems a waste of time. I must be missing something, or expecting too much.

Thing # 2...Library 2.0

When my library career began 13 years ago as a para-professional, Circulation Specialist, I already had a computer with internet access via netscape at home. I was included in the beta group of people with netscape. I was actually technologically ahead of the library. There was internet access at the library but only Gopher the text version of the internet was available.


That all changed after a few months, when we moved to our new facility. Since that time I have worked hard to keep up with the changes. The first major change was getting internet access with a real web browser. The next big change was when we got Voyager our first web based library Catalog. When OCLC became webbased, was one of the happiest times of my library career.

Slowly I have watched our serials and professional journal hard copies dwindle since most all serials and journals are accessed through our many interactive databases. Our library recently got rid of more than 1/2 of our microfilm reader printers and microfilm due to the way information is accessed. These changes are all due to Library 2.0 or Web 2.0. The room that housed the reader printers and microfilm was turned into a much needed quiet area of the library.

At home I have reclaimed valuable square footage by entering into my present digital lifestyle, since I no longer have to store phonebooks, cookbooks, whole sets of encyclopedias with the yearly updates. Information is so accessible now, I often times joke that I think I must have had question marks instead of pupils in my eyes before google. It must have been a tedious process to acquire information and swap ideas with other librarians before.

Since my library career started at the the very beginning of the digital age, I feel very fortunate to have seen and been a part of the evolution of 2.0 up to this time, and will continue to embrace the changes and search for ways to make it relevant to my library and my position in the future.

Thing #1...And so it begins....

I have been looking forward to the start of 23 things by Neflin. Working in an academic library setting has allowed me to stay fairly current with library technology. Like most everyone though, I hear buzzwords about Library 2.0 applications I know nothing about. RSS feed for one and twittering. Some applications I know a little about like IM, and youtube.

It was comforting to hear during the video of Stephen Abrahms explaining the 23 things, that he has trouble with SKYPE since that is my current dilemma.

As libraries immerse themselves in technology; I, as a para-professional will be a more useful member of the library team if I keep up.

With a time investment of only 15 minutes per day to learn a variety of library 2.0 tools, this is definitely something worth doing.

I also look forward to networking with other Neflin members.

I'm excited and about to push the button to publish my first blog. Woo Hoo!