Why am I doing this - one might well ask? It's Sunday evening and it's work tomorrow! The web connection is getting slower and slower obviously everyone else is watching IPlayer, doing their shopping online, browsing the internet and downloading the latest hits (legally of course!). And I'm trying to write this blooming blog about why I want to do 23 Things.
Yes, I really want to do 23 Things! Why? Because I want to discover what Web 2.0 applications are and explore their potential for enhancing library resources and services. I confess to being unsure as how they might contribute but I am becoming converted. 23 Things seems to offer a systematic introduction with fun tasks and the opportunity to reflect on the usefulness of the applications. 23 Things also offers a sense of community of like minded individuals struggling with the same tasks week by week. Then there is a feeling of support from those with more expertise than me. The programme assists me in actually making time to investigate Web 2.0 rather than saying I'll do it later or tomorrow and actually doing it sometime never. There are of course the added incentives of a certificate of completion and prizes - not that this blog will ever win one!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Tasks in Reverse Order
I already had an iGoogle account and a few random gadgets. I must have been experimenting sometime in the past. Here was the opportunity to give it another go. The actual process was very easy. However, selecting gadgets can be so time consuming. There are so many of them. I felt compelled to use only those which would be specifically work related but eventually succumbed to kitten of the day and a virtual ferret. I can put my 23 tasks in my "To do List". I've had trouble finding a currency converter that will load. Perhaps I'm a bit odd but it would be great to have a gadget for regnal years. I have a SPLD (Dyslexia) and actually find customising the screen in this way rather distracting and disorientating. Visually, I find a single plain screen with one task at time more helpful. Does anyone else find this? Well anyway perhaps people would like to see what I came up with?
My Blog Is Taking over my Life
Help my blog is taking over my life. It's becoming compulsive. Not only do I feel I have to express my latest thoughts on blogs but how do I stop mine from looking so green? How do I create those wonderful backgrounds that others have? I am so envious.
Do others find the entering text rather limited in colour and font and layout. I also find editing quite cumbersome without the copy, cut and paste functionality. Ease of editing is really important as I have SPLD and the number of times I have edit my text after posting is very time consuming.
Again, as I found with IGoggle, just how many gadgets can one person add? I have however added a search function gadget.
Really getting into this blog stuff now and I have added a couple more blogs to follow. When will I have time to read them. A handy displacement activity for just about everything I should be doing including lunch!
Do others find the entering text rather limited in colour and font and layout. I also find editing quite cumbersome without the copy, cut and paste functionality. Ease of editing is really important as I have SPLD and the number of times I have edit my text after posting is very time consuming.
Again, as I found with IGoggle, just how many gadgets can one person add? I have however added a search function gadget.
Really getting into this blog stuff now and I have added a couple more blogs to follow. When will I have time to read them. A handy displacement activity for just about everything I should be doing including lunch!
Bloggy thoughts about blogs
Have been having some thoughts about blogs. The exercises have been fun but I think I need to reflect just how blogs can be useful; how they might be used as an information resource and their validity in the wider information environment, and the ethical issues of blogosphere (see I'm developing a whole new vocabulary!)
How do I think the blog could be useful in my library?
I was impressed to see how other libraries had used their blogs to display current information about hours and services particularly during our current snowdays! Yet they also provide a space for more static information about hours, admissions and collections. All this with a functionality that makes the blog quick and easy to update. I like the way it allows the display of more information then can be put on a poster such as upcoming WISER sessions and their content. The opportunities to subscribe to pages encourages feedback. This can only help us improve our services by creating a co-operative community of readers and researchers.
The blog is a great way of getting the library out of the library. It can extend access to resources and services when hours and space are limited. More importantly it promotes the brand that is your library. It's a highly visible way of validating your value as "information provider" and information professional providing, of course, that you avoid comedic flippancy, incorporate good design and keep it current. I feel virtual space can enhance and increase the use of physical space and the role of the librarian.
How might blogs be useful as an information resource?
I think it is useful in the immediacy of opinion expressed and the currency of events. described. It can react far more quickly then printed sources. I think qualitative judgments about the speed and value of the immediacy of the blogsphere are still up for debate. It is for our readers and researchers to decide about the quantity, quality and bias, and the consensus of opinions expressed. They must be able to identify highly personal accounts and propaganda. How, though, do these things differ from the pamphleteering of the 17th and 18th centuries, the opinionated accounts of the nineteenth century reviewer and the letters of "disgusted of Tunbridge Wells"? As information resources I am sure they will reflect new trends of thought, currents of opinion and commercial fads.
I like the way that the blogosphere democratises and globalises information. This can only be positive in a world of intolerence and ignorance. I am an optimist I know! I'm sure someone will comment on the negative impact of the dissemination of unsavoury information. I like the sense of community; however esoteric your interest you are not alone - someone else surely shares your passion. Of course, all this raises fundamental questions about TRUST (very topical!)
How do I think the blog could be useful in my library?
I was impressed to see how other libraries had used their blogs to display current information about hours and services particularly during our current snowdays! Yet they also provide a space for more static information about hours, admissions and collections. All this with a functionality that makes the blog quick and easy to update. I like the way it allows the display of more information then can be put on a poster such as upcoming WISER sessions and their content. The opportunities to subscribe to pages encourages feedback. This can only help us improve our services by creating a co-operative community of readers and researchers.
The blog is a great way of getting the library out of the library. It can extend access to resources and services when hours and space are limited. More importantly it promotes the brand that is your library. It's a highly visible way of validating your value as "information provider" and information professional providing, of course, that you avoid comedic flippancy, incorporate good design and keep it current. I feel virtual space can enhance and increase the use of physical space and the role of the librarian.
How might blogs be useful as an information resource?
I think it is useful in the immediacy of opinion expressed and the currency of events. described. It can react far more quickly then printed sources. I think qualitative judgments about the speed and value of the immediacy of the blogsphere are still up for debate. It is for our readers and researchers to decide about the quantity, quality and bias, and the consensus of opinions expressed. They must be able to identify highly personal accounts and propaganda. How, though, do these things differ from the pamphleteering of the 17th and 18th centuries, the opinionated accounts of the nineteenth century reviewer and the letters of "disgusted of Tunbridge Wells"? As information resources I am sure they will reflect new trends of thought, currents of opinion and commercial fads.
I like the way that the blogosphere democratises and globalises information. This can only be positive in a world of intolerence and ignorance. I am an optimist I know! I'm sure someone will comment on the negative impact of the dissemination of unsavoury information. I like the sense of community; however esoteric your interest you are not alone - someone else surely shares your passion. Of course, all this raises fundamental questions about TRUST (very topical!)
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
My first post to my first blog!
Hello
Here's my first post to my first ever blog. It's far from perfect I know. I am going to waste lots of time personalising it I can see - but what the heck cataloguing can wait! My readers will be shocked as librarians are always good girls aren't they!
As to creating the blog it should have been easy but I managed to create two because my spelling is not very good. So I learnt where the delete function was fairly early on. I also discovered to how to change time fairly early on too. It annoyed me being incorrect. It took a bit of time to find London as the option though I grasped GMT bit immediately. How I wish I was in sunny California. There's lots of potentially here which I'm only just begining to grasp. Wish I'd chosen a more sexy and inventive name for this blog perhaps catalogue girl! Sure I have failed miserably somewhere in this exercise. Comment and let me know. I will endeavour to try and read it - I guess that's the next part of the exercise!
Martha Braithwaite
PS Just discovered I can edit and change the font and stuff ....
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