Monday, August 31, 2009

Delicious

Delicious is a great site for managing bookmarks. I can see that it would be very helpful for those that teach or do reference work. Those people could share sites they had found without having to try to remember them all. It is also a good way to learn about new sites that are popular. Organizing by tags is also convenient and a time-saver, although I think I can probably do much the same with folders. This is a place in which I will need to spend more time in order to fully appreciate all that it can do!

LibraryThing

I was interested to look into LibraryThing since I had heard of it but had never taken the time to explore what all was there. I really liked it although I would rather spend more time reading than discussing the books. I think it will be helpful to keep track of books I am reading. I have just been doing this with a journal (when I remember to write them down). The ability to add tags is a plus. I did go to a couple of the groups to read postings and threads. This will be another useful site to tell patrons about if they are not already familiar with it. So many come in and can't remember if they have read a book or not. With LibraryThing, they can put their books into categories and make a list of books they want to read. I can see this being even more helpful with books in a series.Then they can get recommendations for similar books. The cataloging is fine for a personal library. I see no problem with it. This is another great tool that 23 Things has introduced me to!

You Tube

I had really only seen You Tube videos that people had sent me. I did some searching and watched some public library videos and also some book cart drills from Library Association meetings. Some are really good and some make me really appreciate how hard it must be to produce a good movie. I can see some good uses for public libraries--maybe a sample story time or video instructions on how to use the do-it-yourself check-out stations--maybe even short booktalks. I think it has great potential for library PR! (However, some of the comments can be cruel.)

More Facebook

I did become a fan of an organization. One of my favorite places is the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tennessee. They allow elephants that have been abused to live out their lives as elephants. They can roam the entire area, swim in the ponds, and bond with their friends. If you have not heard of them, I encourage you to check out their website and see what a difference they make in the lives of these magnificent creatures.
I must say in trying to find organizations on facebook, I did have a problem trying to distinguish between the actual organization and people who have just started up their own groups with that name.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Tagging

When I read about tagging, my first thoughts were "how chaotic" and "how can there not be standards." Then after thinking about it for awhile, I realized that I have to guess many times on the LC subject headings when looking for subject area books for a patron. It was interesting to read that this system does seem to work so people are able to find what they are looking for in most cases. It is just one more new idea for "traditional librarians" like me to embrace.

Google Docs

Google Docs is one of the best things I have seen in a long time. For people who don't want the expense of Microsoft Office, it is great. This is something that I will recommend to patrons in the library don't own computers or don't have Word. Word and Presentation were easy to use. I had more trouble with the Spreadsheet, but then I am not an Excel person so that was expected. Although there aren't as many choices for fonts, that is more than compensated for by the variety of templates, etc. In fact I have already used one of the monthly calendar templates and loved it. This is definitely something I will use and recommend to others.

Friday, August 28, 2009

LIBWORM

I had seen LIBWORM mentioned but had never taken a look at it before. I searched cataloging and came up with hits from controversies in libraries to job openings. I also searched for Internet policies and saw a variety of postings concerning that topic. I did search for my library and the first hit did mention us but it was an older item. That is not surprising since we are a small library. I think LIBWORM is a place I would visit occasionally just to see what the latest hot topics are in the library world.