Weblogs: their use and application in science and technology libraries
It was very interesting to read about the development of blogs. I had never thought of their evolution before. Blogs are a great way to share information because as the article said, it's a "bottom up" form of communication. So this allows anyone to start a blog and start sharing their ideas with the rest of the internet. I had also never thought of using blogs in the library setting to communicate with coworkers and such. This article focused on science and technology libraries. But what about other libraries? Does anyone think that blogs would be used any differently in say, a university library, or a public library?
Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program: Sharing knowledge to better serve patrons
Like the first article, I found the use of communication technology in this article interesting. The librarians were using wikis to collaborate on course content. I have never used a wiki, but taking into consideration all the praise they get nowadays, I'm assuming I will sometime in the future. I actually really want to use on. I think it might make group projects easier. Or at least sharing information about what each person is working on easier. It would cut back on the constant flooding of everyone in the group's inbox with project updates. Has anyone used a wiki before? Did you love it/hate it?
Creating the academic library folksonomy: Put social tagging to work at your institution
I think tagging in libraries sounds really cool. Sometimes you know that the information you want is out there, but you are just thinking of it in a different way than how it was cataloged. What do you think of opening up tagging to library users? Would it help in this manner? Or would it just put too much information out there?
How a ragtag band created Wikipedia
I think that Wikipedia has really transformed the way people think about information, both where to find it, and their role in creating and editing it. It allows people to have a much more participatory role in information.I think what really impresses me about Wikipedia is that people are so willing to spend their free time creating content. They're not getting paid, but they see benefits in what they're doing. I think that libraries could make a wikipedia type thing for their users. Like you could have pages about how to use different databases (some are sort of finicky, so it could be a place where you could add advice on how to adjust search terms for instance), how to find certain things in the library, etc. What do you think?
I’m a big proponent of allowing users to tag entries in a library’s OPAC. Then again I’m for just about anything that will help patrons find what they’re looking for. I know a number of librarians are against this since what patrons are going to apply to works isn’t as “authoritative” as cataloger's classifications, but I think they’re missing the point. This is a service based industry, we need to keep that in mind. Check out the Anne Arbor District Library catalog, they allow tagging and have some other functionality that most OPAC’s don’t. I think it’s a step in the right direction.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.aadl.org/catalog
Regarding the weblog article, I think that weblogs used in public or university libraries would contain more divergent information, and would appeal to different academic fields of study. University and public libraries would probably offer users a greater selection of ways to communicate with other users, because of the diversity of the weblog users.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of wikis. I have not used wikis before but we've all used Google Docs (which I imagine is similar) for our midterm and final study guides for LIS 2000. I love the collaborative nature of these social softwares and they do make collective projects easier.
ReplyDeleteThe company I used to work for was in the process of creating an in-house employee wiki when I left. They saw it as a way to provide a source of training that would be easily accessible to all new employees. Since I was in a job position in which I trained people all the time, I could see how wikis would help people learn new things. When people start new jobs they have to learn a lot and it's hard to remember everything they are told in training. A wiki is a good resource that they can refer to during the course of the day when they have questions but don't want to bother the supervisor. Employees really liked the idea of providing a wiki that they could edit and refer to. I think this could apply in libraries in a positive way.
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