Tags, flickr, and online communities

So this week I am suppossed to really dig deep and consider the significance of tags and what they allow users to do. I will try my best to fulfill this task. I think tags allow people to link themselves to eachother on the web. The internet is such a vast domain with so many places to go, things to discover, learn, play around with. It can be likened to the world's largest mall; walking through the mall with no friends and no particular destination in mind is kind of pointless and lonely, so it is with the world wide web. Tags help you group your searches around certain interests, ideas, hobbies, talents or whatever. The groupings in turn cause a ripple effect letting you connect with people who have similar groupings. So I guess tags, flickr, and other online communitites are the equivalent of meeting up with a group of friends at the mall and being able to visit your favorite stores with them. Yeah I know that my explanation of tags and what they allow users to do might sound simple and cheesy, but this is basically what tags and other aspects of web 2.0 technology mean to me.

Flickr

Alright. There are several beautiful images on flickr that I considered using for this post, problem? Flickr means business when it comes to security. Everything is copyrighted, which is actually an aspect of the site that I like a lot, but it didn't help me any when trying to do this assignment. Exploring the site was a lot of fun though. I looked for pictures with the search map and popular tags mainly. It worked perfectly I found beautiful pictures (both expectedly and unexpectedly) that looked like they had been taken by professional photographers. I think that I like the idea of friends and family being able to share important moments with each other through something like flickr. I liked it so much in fact that I myself joined the site. And wonder of wonders, while exploring the site through my account I found a link to some beautiful scenes of the city at night. Further exploration yielded the photo that is with this post now. I love this image, I love the look of the stars falling out of the sky like shooting diamonds sinking into a sea of white mist below. The twinkling orbs showing through the fog below gives the impression that the stars now falling are joining a magnificent tapestry of glowing lights below a velvety night sky. The angle of the shot only serves to enhance this impression. It's mysterious, and beautiful and awe-inspiring. I give my props to the photographer for his obvious talent and expertise and I give credit to flickr also for making it possible for this photo to be shared with the world.

And the Award goes to... Library Thing!

I have to fess up about my predisposed bias towards library thing. A friend at work told me a little about it, so when I saw it on the site I decided to give it a try. I loved it. It's basically a site where users can create their own personal libraries and find other users who like the same kind of books and topics, etc. One of the things that I liked about the site offhand? They don't ask you for a personal biography and password in order for you to join, more like just a username and password. Another thing I loved about the site was how easy it is to navigate around it. They don't throw a million things out at you on the first page so that you're completely overwhelmed, they keep it nice and simple. Beyond that the site lets avid readers do so many things. You are able to join discussion groups on various topics, you can find different blogs, you create your own library (up to 200 books free)...I know I'm not being particularly eloquent or specific with my site but it is one of those sites that you have to see for yourself in order to get it. One of the things I loved while exploring, was looking up my favorite authors and being able to see their most recent work. I didn't have to go through obscure involved links to get to them, they just came up in the regular search. Alright I am struggling with explaining this site in a way that does it justice, so let me just go ahead and tell you how I think it could be used in a library setting. I don't know how this would be possible, but I think it would be cool if when a patron entered an item, tag, author, title, into the search bar on one of our library computers if an entire library clearly showing all of the books came up. It would be different from the first one in that it would automatically reference every book that is in the VBPL database and it would offer a wider wealth of information about a particular book they may happen to look up. It is also a good way to connect with book fanatics. Wait I said that. I know- for someone who loves reading, I sure am stumbling over my words tonight. I can't be on my "A" game everyday. Librarything sure is though

Tag: I'm lost

I was going to start this blog with a declrative statement. You see lately I have been realizing all of the reservations I seem to have about the new technology related to Web 2.0. I feel really guilty about this only because when I mentioned one of the lifelong habits of learning that is easiest for me in my first post, I said it was play. I said play because I like to explore things but lately reading my post you would think I'm anti-Web 2.0 (not true by the way). Anyway I was going to start this blog with a promise that I would be more open minded about whatever new technology I learned about today, here's the problem: I just learned about technorati. I watched the youtube video and it looked so interesting to me. They set up all of these sections for people new to blogs to give them some idea of what to read, they had most popular blog searches and tags, and basically they made me want to visit the site. What I found when I got there was not what was promised. In their defense (since I am still determined to stop sounding so whiny) the reason the page may have looked so different from the one on youtube is becuase I do not have a personal account with them; the youtube page may only show up after you sign into your own account which would explain it to some extent. But even the homepage looked different from the one I saw on the youtube video (the one for users who hadn't signed in yet). Tagging didn't really help me to find anything, probably because I had nothing on the page tagged but still I mean the blogs that the site found when I typed in a particular keyword didn't even seem related to the the word that I had used to begin with. I did end up finding some really interesting blogs when I typed on different subject bars at the top of the page like entertainment and lifestyle, but there were no blogs under them it looked like. Hey I know I didn't stay true to my original promise not to knock all this new technology, all I can say to redeem myself is go play for yourself. I did and it didn't work out it might be completely different for you. After all I'm not that technologically savvy. If you find out any other cool or helpful way for me to use the site without actually being signed into it, write back and tag it under found.

Tag: how to use internet blogs, new technologies,...

Blog, habits of play, 30 things, VBPL, 46 days, mp3 player, web program. These are all of the tags that Web 2.0 could be filed under. Alright so I stretched abit. My point I guess is that the only way that tagging could be useful for research and or referencing purposes for anyone would be if there were some method of standardization brought to it from a common source. This of course defeats the entire purpose of what tagging is about (user defined material). What motivates someone to categorize a topic as one thing may not be the same as what motivates another person. Two different users could be looking at completely similar or completely different aspects of the topic tagged. This means that any third party looking for the subject that these two users tagged completely differently is either going to get extremely confused, or they are going to miss out on valuable information about the topic; this applies to a library, research facility or any other place of buisness. In the article about how tagging could be implimented in different places of business including libraries, the author suggessted that buisness owners could take the most popular "tags" that people file topics under and use those key words. I believe they would most likely run into the problem that I described above. On another tangent though I think tags are a useful way to meet someone who might have similar interests as you. It would have to be implimented in a purely social sense. Meanwhile I have to decide what to tag this blog under...

myspace: pros and cons

I watched the tutorial on signing up for myspace for this week's assignment and it did look relatively easy. You put in your name email address, make-up a password, list your birthday, and you're done. I have to admit I thought the process of signing up for myspace would be a little more involved. I think I thought that because of the amount of things that myspace allows users to do, they had to basically sign their soul to them in return. As it turns out they do not ask you for your soul, just your name e-mail address and a password. My excercise did not change my feelings about myspace in general. I don't know that myspace is entirely bad at all, but it does seem like more trouble than it's worth. Most of my freinds have a myspace, and most of them never check them anymore. Someone stole my friend's password and put a bunch of crap up on her page; she was going to create a new password and account, but ended up deleting her page altogether. I'm sure that myspace has good intetnions, and I believe that most users on the site have good intentions. I just think that they have strayed too far from what the site was meant to be in the first place, somewhere where adolescents could keep in touch with their friends online. Now it's just a place for anyone like a chat room that provides screen names, and real names and birthdays and addresses. I think the reason that it is popular might have to do with the same reason why the internet itself is popular; it gives you innovative ways to talk to large amounts of friends and to make new friends all at one time. It gives you your own private forum to post your ideas and a chance to be exposed to new ones. Everything that a person normally loves to do with their friends (other than movie watching I supposse) can be done on myspace. It's showing the world who you are while still staying safe within the bounds of your own space (I know it might be the corniest sounding thing in recent history; sue me). I know that the title of the post tends to be misleading because I'm focusing more on the cons of myspace than the pros. Don't you know by now not to believe everything that you read?

mylibrary.com

I never really understood the fascination with Social Networking sites like myspace before; I just assumed it was a fad not unlike the Pokemon craze that took the nation by storm when I was nine. I have, however, created an account on facebook about a week or two ago and now understand the addictive power of these sites. A site like myspace could have a place in the VBPL system, but not on any practical level. It's a little difficult to explain. Libraries could use myspace for teens in the same way that they could use a wiki or even instant messaging. Teens could have a forum to talk about the Manga collection housed at a particular library or they could leave suggestions for librarians about what kind of library programs would be effective at mobilizing teens, basically it would be a myspace page for teens to talk about libraries.
I don't think that this particular feature of the web has any place in a library reference system though. Social networking sites, despite their mass popularity and the number of people utilizing them for things such as business, remain at heart a place for people to just talk to each other. I can't really picture an instance where someone on myspace would have a reference question about anything. I think more likely than not they would be at a library if they had a reference question and in that case a librarian who is in the immediate vicinity would be able to help them. IM would be more useful to utilize as a reference tool then myspace, but it could be a good place to set up a space for teens interested and committed to their local libraries.

Finally a wiki community for librarians

I just added my favorite book to the RA under staff pics for the wiki page that vbpl has set up now. I would like to digress here and say that it was painful to do; I hate having to choose my "favorite" book, it seems too final. Anyway on the plus side, actually adding my pick to the page was extremely easy. You just click the edit button add what you want and click save. Next thing you know, it's on the page. A wiki page for librarians could be very useful in a myriad of ways for basically all of the same reasons that I mentioned in my last post. Unfortunately I still haven't come up with any new ones for this post. But in the last one I suggested that they might be used to: 1. alert patrons about lost and found items at the library
2. allow librarians to communicate about programs at the library and any other ideas that they might have.

Wiki wiki-wow

I just finished reading and exploring a couple of different wiki. I am already familiar with them to some extent, we are required to have them in English at school. But reading about them has me thinking about all of the great things that they can be used for in libraries.
1. A wiki for lost items: It may sound a little cheesy at first but I think it could be extremely useful. Imagine a page that has a picture and a brief description of all of the items currently lost in our workroom. The relative ease of editing wiki pages means that it would be easily updated and that patrons could access if from home to find out if they have lost items.
2. A wiki for library programs: If a librarian is hosting a program they could give a detailed description of it on their wiki for patrons and workers to access. Again the ease of updating or changing a page would make it very easy to say, alert patrons of any changes in dates of a program, tell other librarians how many volunteers and children are expected to be there, materials needed for the program, etc. Librarians could post ideas for programs that they have and supervisors could simply go through and add some symbol next to the idea on the page to show that it's been approved.
3. A wiki for librarians (books): Librarians could use it to list the books that patrons seem to be responding to very well. Other librarians might then know what to stock their shelves with or even which books are most likely to be on hold.
4. A wiki for books on hold: that's another thing wiki might be good for: letting librarians know which books they might have that they have put a hold on. That way, if another librarian wanted a book they could check and see it's availability and even find out the quality of the book (if the librarian with the book were willing to write one).
There are a lot of other ways that wiki can be implemented in our library systems I'm sure, but these are the ones I came up with so far, I'd say they have a lot of potential...the wiki pages I mean not my ideas necessarily

Reference and IM: oppossites attract?

I think that this blog may sound a lot like the first part of my last one, minus the really long rant that took place at the end of that one. So basically, I think using IM in combination with reference resources at the library would be extremely beneficial on a practical level. I don't think it's an absolute must have, and honestly cannot see its purpose beyond use as reference and to communicate among co-workers at a library.
As a reference tool it could allow librarians to interact with struggling patrons in a way that they have never been able to before even in face to face conversations. I don't think that IM should permanently replace email and other reference resources though; at least not yet. But they might compliment each other very well in a library setting.

IM that IM

I just got finished learning about instant messaging and I have to say that I like what I heard so far.
From the information I gathered in the assigned articles it seems like IM would be a god-send to a reference librarian. It's not like the phone where someone might tell a patron to go to a particular screen by clicking such and such link to whcih the patron responds "I don't see the link." With IM all the librarian would have to do is send the person the link and they would recieve it almost immediately depending on the availability of said librarian. You can show people what it is that you're talking about by sending them photos or using a webcam. Basically it seems like the perfect tool for any library, but it isn't necesarily.
I can see how it can be useful for reference, but I think it may be hard to impliment it on more than that practical level. There are the issues of security and accountability with IM, and besides that with everything that librarians have to deal with in day I don't know how they could manange to fit IM into their schedule. Most likely they are going to focus their time and energy on those patrons who are standing right in front of their face than on the faceless users online.
Libraries should care about IM to some extent. As a practical tool for improving communication between patrons and co-workers, but I don't think that any library has to fear the loss of the millenial generation by refusing to offer IM. IM is like a quick fix. It solves an immediate problem of communication between two or more people immedieately and it's relatively painless to users in most cases. But I just don't think of libraries as being "quick fixes" they always seemed like more of a place for research and exploration in general and I think that that should be respeceted as well. Millenials are suppossed to want information quickly. "I want it right here right now with little or no cost to me," that's the attitude generally ascribed to them, "it's not a technology, it's an accessory," information, information information, and everyone has been accomaditing us. The business world, the entertainment world, every spehere of life seems to be trying to fill this demand for more information more readily: and they're good at it. RSS feeds, instant messging, blogs, podcasts. I think that people of the millenial generation and my own might be getting a little tired of the noise. We are bombarded with information constatntly. I bet half of the reason that e-mail is falling out of style (as several of the articles claimed) is because no one has time to check and absorb all of the endless information. And what's worse all of its coming a mile a minute becuase everyone assumes that this generation wants that. And I have to say that in some cases that rings true. I start verbally abusing my computer in the worst ways when it takes me more than two seconds to get online, but libraries are different. A library is a place where you can come in, relax a little bit, and for once sample the information that you want rather than having it jump off the shelf at you. I think people especially our techonology crazy generation need at least one place where everything that they're being bombarded with is voluntary. So I say keep IM around (yes even in libraries) as a back-up to e-mails and for reference when patrons need it. But keep the library too. That whole make new things but keep the old, one is silver the other is gold.

Mission Find the Feed

I have to say that going through the RSS feeds proved to be easier than I thought it was. I have a co-worker to thank for that. I used topix.net which I didn't think I would like. I was against it maninly because of the homescreen. If I go to a search engine online and its really crowded with photos and news and...just plain old information, I get really overwhelmed. I thought the same thing would happen at topiz.net so I went straight to the search bar on their page. That did wonders. It took about two seconds for a screen to come up with a really cool graph above it. Turns out the graph shows the most recent articles that they have on whatever topic you're looking for and you can choose how far on the graph you want to go forwards or backwords. I found a feed really quickly about a librarian who was posting his personal choices for the best books, magazines, etc. of the year. It was the first blog that I subscribed to on my google reader. This is where the co-worker came in. I had trouble remembering how to get the blog over to my google reader. My co-worker came over and showed me the simplest way of copying and pasting the blog's URL onto the reader and wah-lah! I had an RSS feed that I subscribed to and a pretty cool one at that. I can't say that my search of the other engines was too extensive though; I'm like that. When I find something that works really well for me, I tend to stick with it. But I really did end up liking topix.net and I would very much like to explore it in more detail. I did try some of the other ones. I think I tried feedster.com but I didn't like it as much. It was more confusing for me to use the search engine on their site. So lessons learned this week: never judge a search engine by its cover and there are some really cool blogs out there.