Wikis

I enjoyed looking at some of the different wikis as part of this exercise. I can see how this could be useful in libraries. Specifically, I liked the Library Success one because it created an opportunity for librarians to share resources and ideas about programs that were successful. I suppose we could contribute to this one as children's librarians or perhaps create our own wiki at KCLS to share story time ideas. I also like the Princeton Public Library Book Lovers' Wiki and think it would be great to have something like this in our own system, along with summer reading club for adults!

Thoughts on Del.icio.us

In library school I took a very interesting course on classification called "The Organization and Representation of Knowledge and Information," and I was reminded of that when I learned about "tagging" and Del.icio.us. If we are ever going to retrieve information that is important to us (and at my age it doesn't stay in my memory!), we need some way to classify and organize it. I can see how this tool/site might be a good way to save bookmarks, especially in the library where we find a good web site that is helpful for answering a reference question and want to save it for future use. This tool could make those sites accessible even though you are not at the same computer where you originally "saved" it as a favorite.

As far as making shared lists for collaboration on research projects, I don't see myself using this in the near future, but I can see it as something to suggest to people who are doing group projects. I liked the idea of the cookbook, and I can also see this as a useful thing for children's librarians who could build a shared list of good sites that have ideas and patterns that would help in planning story times.

Thoughts on Social Networking

I have to admit that this is all rather new and confusing to me. Just keeping up with "correspondence" on email is more than I can handle usually. Having read some of the arguments for and against having libraries involved with sites such as MySpace, I can see both sides. On the one hand, it seems like a good idea to have a presence where the patrons are "hanging out" so that libraries can communicate news and information to patrons who would use those sites. On the other hand, being a more conservative type, I would want to consider some of the possible implications of getting involved in sites in which there would be links or posts that are disturbing or inappropriate. But then, maybe I'm not really understanding how all this works. I'm in the "old dog" generation which is open to but not necessarily excited about learning all the new "tricks."