This was a really great treat for me and the only topic of the course I had not already investigated at all on my own. I am absolutely amazed at what has been created by “mashing up” data and the possibilities of what can be mashed seem endless. Thinking about what data you have available and how it can be combined with something else requires creative thinking – something I seem to lack to some extent. I’m sure there are many creative minds out there who will be working on mashups for some time. It would be particularly beneficial, I would think, to those with archival collections.
I discovered this website that lets you search and compare multiple search engines. Here’s a quote from the site: “It is a search visualization tool that enables you to compare, remix and share results from the best web, image, video, blog, tagging, news engines, Flickr images or RSS feeds. You can embed searchCrystal as a Widget on your site.”
The site uses a search of Van Gogh as an example. You can look at his art work from image databases including Flickr images, Google images, etc. Then you can look at web sites, news, and more. If you want all of that in a mashup, you can choose that option. For anyone who likes visual rather than text, this seems to be a great tool.
As to using the searchroll created by Gabe to find librarian blogs addressing privacy, I quickly discovered that the search engine isn’t all it might be. Actually finding a good “hit” to read wasn’t much fun.
I enjoyed this post from the shifted librarian on October 3, 2007:
Librarians are in a good position to try to help our users understand the online environment and how to protect our online identities. We should work harder at that.
My first introduction to YouTube was when the ALA meeting was in Seattle. One of the listservs had a link to the short video that was produced. I thought at the time, how cute. I have since seen some videos that medical students have made about their courses and their study habits. All in great fun. I have resisted actually visiting YouTube until this assignment because other librarians have told me of the time drain as you cruise from video to video. Well, tonight, I took the plunge and feel that it is still not worth my time. Or maybe I just didn’t find anything I thought was very useful. If I were looking for humor, it’s definitely there!
I see podcasting and videocasting as useful tools we can add to the many ways we get library information to our users – and especially serendipitously to our library non-users!
Great opportunity to learn about online photo sharing!
I’ve never had a reason to use Flickr because I have all of my photos on a server hosted by one of my sons. Certainly Flickr is not new to me as several friends have sent me links to their photo collections and also, I’ve searched Flickr at different times looking for pictures of various places and/or objects. The value of any web-based photo collection site is in the making of photos available for the public to see and use (if you wish) So, for libraries who might like to provide increased access to their archive collections of photographs or other content items that are digitized, Flickr would be an option as long as the copyright for them is not an issue. Our library is a member of OhioLINK, so we have other options available for posting photographs from archival collection and would not have a need for Flickr. I can’t really think of any other uses of Flickr that would apply to the library where I work.
The process of adding photos to Flickr was no problem, it was even easier and quicker to add photos to my Facebook account. Also, adding Flickr to this blog was simple.
I’m so glad I am at least able to do the minimal work for this class – and am learning lots!
I’ve tried using Google docs before. I think as long as you are not doing too complicated documents, spreadsheets or presentations, that it works just fine. The best part is the ability to work very easily in collaboration with others and keep versions of what you are working on straight. The second best thing is cutting down on all those emails, each with a different version of your project!
I’m going to keep watching this idea of web based office tools progress. Right now, I don’t see Google docs replacing regular Office products which can do so much more.
I love web-based products. They make much of my work so much easier. However, until all the production tools can be used both online and offline, they aren’t going to take over. Or, until you can access the internet for free from everywhere, they aren’t going to take over.
Social bookmarking tools have been around for awhile. Several years ago I was taking a course for my Educational Technology program where we were introduced to Backflip. At that time it was, to me, it was a very innovative product and I was excited about organizing my bookmarks and making them available on the web. Backflip uses folders to keep you organized which was fine for the time because that’s the way librarians try to do things. It’s a whole new world now, and I must say, I really find the tagging aspect of the newer tools to be absolutely great! We have been using Furl in our reference department as a way to manage useful bookmarks for answering questions at the information desk. We debated between Furl and del.icio.us and I’m not sure why we chose one over the other. Since then, del.icio.us seems to be the front runner, so we are going to switch to it.
I’m glad to have had the opportunity to rethink about social bookmarking. I think it could be useful if you are in a position where you are trying to help certain classes by providing appropriate websites. Personally, I find myself relying more on my searching skills to find sites than keeping a list of things I “might” need sometime.
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.
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.
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.
