Question-week 3 – Social Networking Tools

I think the decision as to whether a library has a presence on MySpace or Facebook or not has much to do with the population the library serves. The library where I work is almost totally a graduate level library. Right now, I don’t believe our students are MySpace or Facebook fanatics, so I haven’t tried to reach them using these social networking tools. In other library situations, it might be worth having a library page – as an additional way, in a world where we try to reach users anyway we can, to reach yet one more user.  In Facebook, by having the ability to add applications, a student might turn his/her page into a sort of gateway to library resources.  Ask-a-librarian would be a good application to make available.

I’ve been in LinkedIn for quite some time and still have not really figured out what, if anything, to do with it.  I can see where it might be useful for MLA to use it for job advertisements and I personally might use it if I were looking for a job. I like that it is meant for professionals.

From what I’ve seen this week, I’m not convinced that these tools are going to become great avenues for libraries to pursue to reach users. I need more evidence.

Question-week2-Blogs vs. Wikis

After this brief introduction to both, I can clearly see that the wiki allows for active collaboration and could easily be used for work done by teams or committees no matter where the members of such reside. Before taking this class, I was ready to begin using a wiki as a communication tool with my staff members. I just hadn’t started it yet, but now I know that it will be quite useful and so will follow through with it. I had been debating wiki versus blog for this purpose, now there is no longer any debate in my mind. I find blogs to be very one-sided and linear, useful for reporting news items or announcements, and perhaps if (and this is a BIG if!) readers submit comments, useful as an online conversation albeit a moderated one.  I already use a blog in my library as an easy way to produce an online newsletter.

Question-week1-RSSfeeds

The value of RSS feeds for current awareness is obvious and current awareness (or SDIs) is a key service libraries have long been known to provide to users. I would certainly use the PubMed RSS feed to help researchers keep current with their specific research topics. The trick is getting researchers to change their habits and move to this current cutting edge (well, maybe not that new!) technology. Some are more willing than others to incorporate new technologies into their routines.

Libraries can also provide RSS feeds for any blogs or wikis or other electronic content they have created. Again, the difficulty is in getting users to subscribe. Content must be valuable and frequently updated.

Creating a blog using wordpress.com was a good experience for me because we use wordpress for our library’s news – but I didn’t set it up myself. Now I know have experienced the process I have a much better understanding of the terminology and general workings of the blog.

I had set up a bloglines account along time ago – and never  adapted to using it. Now I have started a reader in Google and will try to adapt again. In theory, RSS feeds seem great to help one keep current but finding the time and inclination to GO somewhere for the information is difficult.  It is a benefit to have everything you need at one location however.  I found that several of the journals I wanted to subscribe to didn’t have RSS feeds – that was frustrating.

Welcome!

Hello! Welcome to FHSL News. I hope to provide you with valuable information to help you learn to use the services and resources available to you through the Fordham Health Sciences Library website. Stay tuned for posts relating to database searching, workshops, new electronic journals, subscribing to RSS feeds and much, much, more.