Exploring technorati

I found some of the advice and notes quite useful but following tags to find useful stuff for me was tedious. The layout is typical of most US sites - very cluttered, loads of pop ups and adverts - still, if I was starting from scratch and needing to find blogs I suppose it would be a start.....

For example; this had worried me - how to keep some blog entries in case the blogger doesn't put them in an archive.

What is a permalink?

The homepages of most weblogs have several entries, or posts, listed on them. Because blogs tend to be frequently updated, articles you find on a weblog's homepage one day may not be there the next. A permalink is the permanent identifier to a specific weblog post or article. Bloggers love permalinks — they provide an easy way to capture specific references to posts or articles about which bloggers are writing.

Not even halfway through the exercises and I am search weary/wary - oh not another way to troll/trawl!

Having searched by the different methods suggested ; tags, directory and blogs , I found blogs gave more results but were of varying levels of expertise or nerdiness - the others didn't seem satisfactory at all. Technorati may be useful in the US and certainly a trawling feature for blogs is needed but it wasn't particularly useful for me.

Thoughts on web 2.0 possibilities

It's amazing how some of the readings already look a little dated - we are already accepting that we are in the Web2.0 environment and thinking about moving on.
It may become a battle between innovators about which application serves us best, which can be readily adapted for library use, which can be combined to provide 'one site that can fit all needs.' Some heartening aspects are :
that most of the current facilities are being supplied free,
that people are looking to collaborate rather than compete.
that people are looking to provide a service rather than just a personal plaything.
I look forward to the day when there is one site to go to which comprehensively covers all possibilities for reference queries and deeper academic research.

I find it hard to comment further till I've finished the whole 23 things; there are already sections I've covered and posted and forgotten what I'd written!
I appreciate some of the following viewpoints:
that Web 2.0 is a marvellous opportunity to reach library customers and provide them with the kind of links and information that they need which are both interesting and reliable/well researched.
that libraries are all about community and this is a great way to enhance that.
But for many users the internet is still not a possibility or too hard.

This book has captured me:
Quiet Please: dispatches from a public librarian, Scott Douglas, Da Capo Press 2008
a lovely mix of humour and seriousness about his coming of age as a librarian and what his role is.


These readings I found intriguing:
Nicholas Carr: google making us glib and stupid, not deep thinking or contemplating, skimming for info , not knowledge.

Concentration low, looking for easy answer.
1st book discusses wider IT implications
The Big Switch
http://www.elgar.govt.nz/search/a?searchtype=t&searcharg=big+switch&SORT=D&searchscope=6&submit.x=12&submit.y=7&submit=Submit


Linked with libraries providing the link to everything - librarians making it easy for people to search for info they want
depends on
a] everyone having searchtime on the internet
b] librarians continually being able to enable their customers, over and over till everyone has a base level of skills on the web
c] customers having the willingness to take it on board
d] making relevant content available - we don't just need what technorati, google and EBSCO and Gale can provide. We need to be sure our local content is just as good.

del.icio.us

Although I am using this to store bookmarks with my own tags I find it a little tedious as it's another thing I have to sign in and out of.

I think I would rather attach links to my blog or facebook or Library thing or whatever site I was using the most. Certainly discovering what others with similar interests are accessing is good but Library thing and the Netvibe aggregator are probably enough.

If I was doing large amounts of research I think I would use it.

Using Aggregators/Feedreaders

I already had an aggregator called Netvibes which has a clear display with the latest feeds from each blog set out in its own box. I find this much easier visually than the bland listings which seem to appear on other feedreaders.
The benefit to me is naturally that I do not have to clog up my email inbox with these items and can read the ones that interest me when I have time - and store them for referral. I have not yet discovered if you can remove some of the archive but I guess it hardly matters as it is not being stored on my computer - another huge advantage. Because of this exercise I have transferred 1 feed from a daily email to an RSS, added 2 more new ones and will go back to see if I can transfer any more. It's a pity the list serves I use do not have this facility as it would cut down on all the unnecessary messages we get to say someone in unsubscribing or out of the office which inadvertently occur.
For libraries I can see RSS messages could be used to alert library users to a new service, new book list, event etc.
The blog search sites were very disappointing a] American b] didn't find anything interesting on my chosen search terms of 'children reading' - c] Technorati was 'away for repairs' d] the one which had some NZ content was mostly referring to old or not so important news.

It seems the way I will find more feeds is through my usual method of personal recommendations or lists from other blogs I am already familiar with. Presumably I will eventually find another blog troller/trawler.

a new new new solution to too many social network sites

Check out
face in a million.com
Set up by a guy who came to NZ looking for a new direction to his life, still not able to afford a house and thought of this.
Instead of signing up to Bebo, my space, facebook etc and sending out messages to find your friends and like minded people - you sign up to this site and it links you. Only costs a dollar! I don't know how it works yet but it seems so much better if you are using it for networking rather than just storing your 'stuff.'

Technology note[d]

For me the most useful asset will be when I have learned to download photos onto free hosting sites, especially while and after travelling.
I had given up taking photos in the last few years because of the considerable size of the albums taking up almost a whole cupboard - and leaving it to other family members to create computer files - the easy way out.
Now I feel that I can join people up to my facebook site and they can view the photos when they want to - or mostly if they want to.........

The other great plus to life and work in general from all this web knowledge is the possibility for the general public to create their own tags to store and search for information. I am hoping this becomes part of library practice so that they can contribute to sites/catalogues etc and more easily find what they are looking for - subject headings as proscribed by librarians' systems are not always user friendly - even for librarians. My vision seems to involve a section of a library site or opac they can go to and suggest the tags they would use , which librarians then select and paste in. Let the customer take some control! I haven't got to the other ways of trolling the internet yet but it will be the most intriguing for me I think.

Aaaaah, so that's where people learned all that amazing stuff

I had been aware of people being able to make calendars, name tags, CD covers but didn't know where they found it all. I particularly liked the bighugestuff site where I could make a name badge [in my other job I have student librarians who desperately need badges...] so I will go back to that.I didn't like the idea of the librarian trading cards - well it seems it's just another facebook/myspace etc but I got the impression from the ones I looked at that people who had pretty public jobs were giving out too much unprofessional personal info and it had the potential to give others too much info as well - like where they took the photos, their children's photos etc.

completely gaga

Just spent half an hour figuring out why I can't post to my blog - didn't remember the necessity to simply sign in and was looking for other wondrous features like "Next blog post" or similar.

OK; to Flickr - and can I even spell it?

I really enjoyed the Birkenhead Library's space and could see the potential for collegiality/colleague- e- alness amongst the wider group if each library had one of these. It would also suit people who work at different sites of the same organisation.
Also appreciated Rodney's as the photos were largely of features, visits and events that other NZ librarians may find very useful.
I especially love this seating area. So far this is my favourite library of all at Christchurch South and I have visited it 3 times even though I live on the Shore! One day maybe one of our libraries will look like this.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rodneylibraries/2564053922/