Final Thoughts

YAY I made it!!! Not being a technically inclined person I was a little weary of having to explore so many different web technologies. But now that I’m done I have come to realize that most of the new technologies out there are super easy to use and have some really useful benefits like Zotero, (which I am still using and plan to keep using for school and honestly I did not really see happening.) I think that having to create blogs about our experiences helped us to better understand what we had just learned about. Learning 2.0 has been a great way to learn about all that the web has out there for librarians to use to connect with their communities. I can definitely see libraries using many of these tools in the modern libraries of today.

Cheers!

GOOGLE

I, like many people, LOVE Google and all that it has to offer whether it is Google Docs, Google Scholar, Google Books, Google Calendar or Google Earth. Google makes all of its tools so easy to use and share with others, I am constantly convincing people to use all of it’s tools.

I started using Google Docs only a few months ago and fell in love with all that it has to offer and its ease of use. My sister had always told me to keep using Docs to share information, like recipes, but we never really to the plunge. Now that I am back in school I started using it for my assignments, either for group collaboration or to check with TAs to make sure my I am headed in the right direction for my assignment. Google Docs is really a great way to collaborate with fellow workers and create forms for collaboration, especially within a library setting.

Google Book Search is another very helpful tool that I have been using for a while. It allows you to search full texts for content, and allowing you to read samples of books. I used it a lot in undergrad if I did not have the book with me to quote or get the information that I needed to do assignments or readings for classes. I have also used it to get samples of books to ensure that I liked them before I purchased or borrowed from the library. This would be such a valuable tool for reference librarians, they would be able to search for books and give information on a title that is more user friendly then the abstracts or catalog information.

I am constantly on Google Earth, using it to get directions see where different places are and to see what they look like, especially if I am driving to them and have never seen them. I love being able to see where I am going before I go there or see places that I that I have never like my sister’s neighborhood and house in Salt Lake City. This is another tool that is very useful for reference librarians as a way to show people information on places in a much more visually understandable way than a regular map. 

Like I said I love Google and hope to learn more about all the tools that it has along with new tools that it develops down the road.

Cheers

Learning 2.0

 Library 2.0 is a new way for libraries to connect with communities and beyond. By using different internet tools like blogging, web videos, podcasts and bookmarking libraries are able to connect in a new way with people that they might have never connected with before. I think that Library 2.0 offers some really great features for Libraries to keep current with changing and advancing technologies. The role of libraries has changed in recent years to being more of a community center. With this new role libraries are able to use the library 2.0 tools to stay in touch with the community and get new patrons involved in the many activities and features that they have to offer. 

Library 2.0 offers some really great tools for keeping people up to date and makes the jobs of librarians easier in many ways. It has some really great tools like blogging and Zotero, but I also think that it is important for libraries to remember that it is not the end all be all in the future of libraries. Personal attention to users to ensure that the libraries remain user center is important. The posted resource, Into a New World of Librarianship shows a great view on the use of 2.0, “Without a firm foundation in the mission and goals of the institution, new technologies are not implemented for the sake of coolness and status.”  People do not always want to talk through email and blog comments, while it is very convenient it is also not as good as greeting a patron and talking to them in person. Library 2.0 may get people in the door but personal attention and user centered libraries are what will keep them coming back to use all that the library has to offer.

Zotero Zotero Zotero

I had always seen the Zotero logo at the bottom of web browsers on different public computers, but never really knew what it was. After exploring all the features that it has to offer I found that it is a very very useful tool, especially for school. I see this being more helpful in an academic setting more than in other settings, if you want to take advantage of all of the features it has to offer. Being able to bookmark various articles, webpages, books and much more is just the beginning of what enables you to do. I could definitely see myself using this in the future for citing my sources and keeping track of research for my assignments. I already have used it to for a reference assignment where I had to find different biographical sources, after just setting it up today. I can see how this would be useful for libraries, because they would be able to bookmark and cite different web tools and reference for patrons and for themselves to have them at their fingertips later on. Being able to access the Zotero account anywhere makes working at home, work or school super convenient. Lots of the Web 2.0 tools do not appear to really be that helpful for me in my personal and school life but this tool seems to be something that will be really helpful. I have only started my Zotero Library so there is not much in there but I hope to expand upon constantly now that I know all of its benefits. Here’s a link https://www.zotero.org/hrnorthrup/items

Cheers

delicious

Delicious seems to have a lot of benefits not only for personal use but also for professional use. I think that it is a really useful way to bookmark pages and images and then tagging them for others to see and use. I could see it being useful for lots of people who are on the go constantly for personal use. I do not know how much I will use it for personal use because I am a creature of habit that just saves the information on my home computer or uses Google if I am away from my computer, however silly and time consuming that may be.

            I can definitely see it being very useful professionally. Most people do not work jobs that are only 9-5 and done, most jobs require work to be done at home too. Delicious makes it possible to keep track of links and tag items that we can then access at work and at home much more easily and more efficient;y. It seems like it would be a very convenient and useful tool for many people. This is also true for libraries where tagging and bookmarking would be useful for work at the library and at home. While I do not think I will use it in my personal web browsing I could definitely see myself using it professionally and for school because it keeps the useful information just a click away.

Cheers

RSS Feeds

            I have heard of RSS feeds but never really considered using them for myself, like with many of the other tools we have learned about in our Learning 2.0 exercises. And like with the other exercises once I actually began using it I was able to see its benefits. Recently I have begun to play around with all of the features that Google has to offer like Google Docs, Google Calendar and now Google Reader. All of these tools are really helpful in keeping track of events, documents and now with Google Reader news and blogs. I have always been bad about remembering to check a blog and keep up on internet happenings but with Google Reader and RSS feeds I am able to keep track of these posts and updates all in one place, and can easily scan to see what will be of interest and what will not. I particularly like how easy Google Reader makes it to search topics to find blogs and sites that would be of interest to me, along with using some of the other searches that appeared in the exercise portion of the RSS page. This was especially true Real Time Search where it was easy to search a subject in the search box and then browse the results to see what suited you the best.

            Using RSS feeds can translate into almost any career, because it gives people the opportunity to stay up to date with all the information about their field. This is of course true in the Library Science field, where people are able to stay current with new library technologies and regulations like by connecting with the Library of Congress page for example. They can also connect with other libraries blogs to see what they are doing. The benefits for using RSS feeds seem to be endless in any field not just within Library Science.

Cheers

Wikis

Wiki’s seem like a really useful way to stay connected and gain input from a lot of different sources. The fact that anyone can edit the page creates a unique way to share information, unlike through email where people cannot really have a central location for ideas and information. So, clearly this is a great way for libraries to communicate within the staff and with the community on library information.

            I looked at a bunch of different wikis and the one that one that I liked the most was the Book Lovers Wiki on the Learning 2.0 page. Before this assignment I had not really considered that libraries could use wikis for user book reviews. In one of the discovery resources it used Amazon.com as an example of a site that allows book and quality reviews, so why couldn’t libraries do the same. It really gives people the opportunity to see book reviews before they even step foot in the library. Instead of going and seeing a display of recommendations from the staff, patrons are able to get more feedback on titles they are interested in and even titles they never would have giving a second glance to. I was even able to use the Book Lovers Wiki to get some great reviews and recommendations for books I have had on my reading list for years. 

Cheers