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