Tagging

This is my first experience with del.icio.us and I could instantly see its usefulness. I will have to spend more time with it, but this is definitely something I will be using. As a substitute librarian who works in many different branches, I want to make my favorites portable. I also enjoy the social aspect of it and I think I can learn from others that have tagged before me.

Instant Messaging

I have dabbled with instant messaging, but I must admit I have resisted it and will continue to do so. Part of the problem is that I am a substitute librarian and I don't want to download an instant messaging program onto some one's computer. I don't have an instant messaging program on my computer at home because I just can't take another form of instant communication. I have voicemail, text messaging and seven different e-mail addresses. I feel like instant messaging will take me over the edge!

I have used instant messaging in a library setting. I used to do virtual reference and chatting was our mode of communication. It is a valuable tool and one that I would not resist in a work setting. But I am steering clear of it in my personal life. I need some time away from technology.

Wikis

I remember first hearing about wikis and the fear it sparked in librarians. Anyone can change content! Students will use wikipedia and all of their research will be wrong! I attended a lecture that Jimmy Wales gave at my local library in Florida (he lives in St. Petersburg). He assured the librarians in the crowd that he didn't want students using wikipedia as a "source" for papers. As he pointed out, students (especially in college) shouldn't be citing an encyclopedia as a source anyway.

There was an attempt to start a wiki at the newspaper I worked at in Florida. The idea was for the whole newsroom to contribute to it. There was hesitance from the old-timers and it seemed like only a few people devoted an enormous amount of time to it. Perhaps the time wasn't right. I see the usefulness of wikis and feel that libraries will continue to use them in the future.

YouTube, Hulu and Fancast — streaming video

I am quite familiar with YouTube. I was able to find both informational library entries and entertaining ones. I think it's a great place to put various talks from conferences. I also viewed a government informational video on librarians from 1946 and a music video that featured librarians who killed a patron by crushing him in between the sliding shelves.

Before this assignment I was not familiar with Hulu and Fancast. I had no idea that there were so many television programs available to watch for free. The next time I have a desire to watch Fantasy Island I'll head right over to Hulu.

Social Networking Sites

I have to admit that I've been on MySpace for quite awhile now and it takes up way too much of my time. I intend to just quickly log on to check messages and an hour later I'm looking at a a profile for someone in Australia. On the plus side, it is a good way to keep in touch with friends and to find new (and old) music.

I'm not that thrilled with Facebook. I don't like the layout as much and I don't like that it tells you EVERYTHING that every friend is doing. Do I care that Dick and Jane just had a conversation? Do I care that Stacy just downloaded and application? And don't get me started on those applications! There are hundreds of them and they are very annoying.

My new favorite addiction is GoodReads. It's the MySpace for book lovers. I love to see what my friends are reading and I like to have a place where I can keep track of what I've read and what I want to read in the future. I come across so many interesting books during the course of a day and it's nice to have a place to compile a list.

I checked out LibraryThing and I didn't really like the interface. I was also turned off by the fee. It looks like you can only enter 200 books before they start charging a fee. GoodReads is free and I'll be sticking with that site.

Flickr

Flickr is a great site to host images, view photos that your friends and family have taken or to just peruse random things. I'm not that familiar with it because most of my family and friends use Kodak Gallery or Snapfish. But this assignment gave me a great excuse to look at the photos of my friend's son. We went to graduate school together, but now live on opposite ends of the country. I especially like this photo of him as the Little Mermaid. :)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rayvigg/2190935900/in/set-72157603704323488/

Podcasts

Before I moved to Seattle I worked for a newspaper in Florida. One of my jobs was co-host of a podcast called Stuck in the '80s. My two co-hosts and I chatted about all things '80s about once a week. It was great fun, but it was hard to know if we had an audience out there. It turned out through listener mail and calls that we did and the audience was all over the world. We had Igor from the Ukraine and Six in New York and a radio show in New Zealand broadcast our podcast as well.

One of the highlights was meeting and interviewing Rick Springfield:




http://www.sptimes.com/INCLUDE/specials/80s-podcast/index.shtml