Fireworks provided by Sunsurfr on FlickrSo here we are - the end. I'm struggling to overcome the urge to print the lyrics to My Way here......
So far resisted!
I'm struggling to write this blog (same as reflection week) so I'm going to go through each Thing one by one to try to briefly sum them up.
Thing 1
iGoogle. I struggled to see the point of iGoogle at first. It's cluttered and makes my PC go slow. Having looked at Delicious later on I dislike it even more. I fail to see what it can do that delicious can't (unless you really want a virtual monkey). I can't see it being useful to a library - maybe more useful for individual library staff. Not for me though.
Thing 2
RSS feeds. Easy to use but only really useful if you read blogs on a regular basis. I've read a lot of Cam23 blogs but once we're all finished I probably won't be a regular blog reader. Again I think this is going to be useful for some Library staff but not others.
Things 3 & 4
Blogging. I really like blogging and have been glad to have a purpose to blog over the last few weeks. I think I enjoy writing them more than people enjoy reading them but I don't mind that so much. Library blogs seem very popular at the moment and the ESS team are now communicating with library staff via a blog.
Thing 5
Doodle. I had already used this in the Library and would do so again. Very easy way to get a meeting organised.
Thing 6
Google Calendar. Love it! Have used it frequently to keep on top of late duty swaps and other important thing. The single most life changing Thing because I've set up a weekly reminder on Thursdays to fetch the Tray from the labellers - something which in the past has frequently been forgotten until late on Thursday night! Now I get a polite email at 4.50pm to remind me. I've also synched it to my iphone calendar. The sharing function means that it could be used by a whole department, but we use the intranet calendar which works fine.
Thing 7
Twitter. First I hated it then Josh completely changed my perspective of it . I became a reader rather than a tweeter (although I do tweet occasionally). I don't think it's all that useful to Libraries although I don't think keeping a library account can be all that much work so why not?
Thing 8
Tagging. Previosuly I had only tagged photos on Facebook. Now I have tagged photos, books, blog posts and bookmarks. Since tags are so personal to the person applying them I'm not sure that they will work that well in libraries. They are like personal keywords.
Things 9&10
Flickr. Loved, loved, loved Flickr! If I were in charge of finding images for library advertsing and stuff I would definitely use Flickr to find Creative Commons lisenced stuff rather than ripping off pictures from Google image like I usually do (I mean used to do).
Thing 11
Slideshare. The first Thing I really didn't like. The slide shows I looked at made no sense without a presenter and I would always be more comfortable writing my own presentation. As with many online tools there's a lot of rubbish to sift through before you find a gem. Could be useful to some libraries but since the UL has it's own house style for the slides I don't think converting a presentation from slideshare would be any quicker than writing a brand new one.
Thing 12
Delicious. One of my favourite things. So much better than ordinary bookmarks as they can be sorted, tagged and accessed from any PC. I think this would be useful as an alternative to reading lists.
Thing 13
Reflection. I reflected - it was useful.
Things 14&15
LibraryThing. From a personal point of view I love LibraryThing and I have even started reading more so that I can add new books - well done cam23 team for inspiring me to read more rather than watching repeats of Frasier on Comedy Central:-) From a library point of view I really don't know. I don't have cataloguing experience so I'm not sure whether this would be good as a library system or not.
Thing 16
Facebook. Personally I've been using it for years. I remain unconvinced that it can be useful for libraries. I wonder how many people who 'like' a library group actually ever look at the page again? I feel that people who 'like' something on Facebook are really just showing some appreciation for whatever it is that they 'like' - they're not going there for information. It's nice for people to be able to do that but should so much effort be put into creating a Facebook page if this is it's primary function?
Thing 17
LinkedIn. Hated everything about it. Maybe useful if you're a high flyer who wants to be noticed but that's not me. I also think that people put too much information on their profiles - it's up to them but I wouldn't want things like my educational background made available to any Tom, Dick or Harry (Good god, I sound like my Nan!)
Thing 18
Zotero. I struggled to make sense of this. The 'Quick-start' guide was pages and pages long and I lost interest very quickly. Someone suggested I didn't find it intuitive because I'm not a cataloguer. I'm not sure about that but for me it's just not worth the effort of figuring out how to use it when Delicious does everything I want.
Thing 19
Marketing. See previous post here.
Thing 20
Google Docs. I had used this previously but only to sign up to a rota. I don't like the Google software but the sharing facility is really useful.
Thing 21
Podcasts and YouTube. I had a bit of a rant here. It was a combination of a bad day and the 23Cam team trying to make me consider YouTube as a work tool! Despite a few interesting comments I still refuse to see YouTube as anything but entertainment. I think that written library information would be more benificial than a library induction video, for example, as it can be printed, transported and refered back to more easily than a video. As much as I love my iphone skipping to certain parts of a video on it can be a pain (and my cat chewed through my headphones so I'd have to be one of those annoying people who plays things on their phone out loud - idiots!) Podcasts I just don't get. I've tried but I get annoyed with the presenter so easily that it's just not worth it.
Thing 22
Wikis. I use wikipedia frequently but have never used any other wiki. I think the benefits are huge and I will be attempting to create one for library use very soon:-)
Thing 23
Look at all of the above!
Final thoughts
My favourite Things were Flickr, Delicious and LibraryThing. My least favourite thing by far was Zotero. The Thing that surprised me most was Twitter. I've gone from a non-beliver to a frequent user and it's all Josh's fault! Google Calendar has changed Thursdays forever and I'm going to create a new account to share with other West Room staff - it will only have the tray reminder on it but then no one will forget it when I'm away!
The Cam23 blog asks for our thoughts on how social media and web 2.0 is shaping library services. My feeling is that libraries are trying to use all the technology available to them and that some of this technology isn't really useful or appropriate. I have said it before and I will say it again - if I want information on a library service I will go to their offical website. For me that makes Facebook, Twitter and YouTube irrelevant. There may well be Library related content on these sites but how do you find out who is looking at it, how often and whether they are finding it useful? Is it just other librarians who are looking for ideas for promoting their library services? Whatever happened to good old fashioned in house advertising, web site advertising and briefing staff on new services offered? I know that libraries want to appear to be down with the kids, but 5 years on an enquiry desk has taught me one thing - the kids just want to get out of the library as quickly as possible so they can go down the pub. Our 'die hard' readers are all middle aged or older and probably wouldn't know a tweet if it it kicked them in the head. So instead of having information all over the web why not just have it on one easy to find, easy to use website - the library's official website.
Super summary
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