Oh boy. I'm so used to using phrases for tags (rather than a single word) and wound up with three instead of one (2. 0 23 things becomes 2.0 and 23 and things). Had to clean this up.
But I understand the value of the tags, and the organization. Have used folders and quicklinks to organize bookmarks for a long time now, so rather than just learning about something new, using Delicious means changing an old habit - harder to do without a lot of motivation!
Ok - here is my delicious page link:
http://delicious.com/denahanson
I'm repeatedly finding that I don't always want to know what everyone else is thinking/feeling/tagging. Some trusted people would be good to share with, but I don't want to spend my time surfing around to see what just anyone has bookmarked / tagged.
Best advantage I see right now is the ability to see bookmarks from any computer... Like using Refworks to manage citations, because then I can find things at any computer in my organization - for example, when I'm teaching someone searching skills in their office instead of at my desk.
I'm looking forward to seeing if I can see these Delicious bookmarks at the office.
And I know a medical librarian I have a lot of respect for who has use Delicious to tag some useful websites; it will be useful to see what she has and how hers are organized. I'll have to find out her user name to see her stuff I think.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Thing 13 - Tagging
I know; I should have done this before Library Thing! The concept of 'non-hierarchical' organization is a bit foreign after years of MESH searching and of serving on the vocabulary task force for GeoRef - both of which are strongly based on hierarchy.
From an earlier post: Tags: these are so useful, so important. This has made me think a lot more deeply about classification, organization - back to my first cataloging job when I realized how important the perspective of the "findee" is.
Am becoming very enamored with the tag cloud concept. Visually appealing; a way to clarify relevance; and there is a hint of hierarchy(!).
Wonder if our OPAC allows user tagging? Will find out. It could certainly be used in addition to the subject headings (which I'm loathe to do away with, no harm in keeping) at least to see how the patrons are thinking about finding things. But our library collection is so small (few thousand books) that finding things isn't really a problem. Might be very useful in finding what medical libraries often call "consumer health" books for our families, because they rarely think in terms of MESH headings. Physicians, nurses, other care givers are usually at least exposed to it because of Medline searches.
I like the tagging concept, and I like the potential for patron involvement, for input from someone beside a cataloger that might make it easier for everyone to find things. But - since we all think so differently, it can't be the only answer. Even when my own Library Thing collection was only about 14 books, I already forgot how I tagged some things, and applied a different tag to things that I would later expect to find under the earlier tag... Consistency. Reproducible results. Guess that's why I'm so fond of controlled vocabulary after all these years. And why I teach it to our patrons - along with keywords, not instead of!
From an earlier post: Tags: these are so useful, so important. This has made me think a lot more deeply about classification, organization - back to my first cataloging job when I realized how important the perspective of the "findee" is.
Am becoming very enamored with the tag cloud concept. Visually appealing; a way to clarify relevance; and there is a hint of hierarchy(!).
Wonder if our OPAC allows user tagging? Will find out. It could certainly be used in addition to the subject headings (which I'm loathe to do away with, no harm in keeping) at least to see how the patrons are thinking about finding things. But our library collection is so small (few thousand books) that finding things isn't really a problem. Might be very useful in finding what medical libraries often call "consumer health" books for our families, because they rarely think in terms of MESH headings. Physicians, nurses, other care givers are usually at least exposed to it because of Medline searches.
I like the tagging concept, and I like the potential for patron involvement, for input from someone beside a cataloger that might make it easier for everyone to find things. But - since we all think so differently, it can't be the only answer. Even when my own Library Thing collection was only about 14 books, I already forgot how I tagged some things, and applied a different tag to things that I would later expect to find under the earlier tag... Consistency. Reproducible results. Guess that's why I'm so fond of controlled vocabulary after all these years. And why I teach it to our patrons - along with keywords, not instead of!
Thing 16 - Library Thing
This came up today because a knitting site I belong to lets us create a library of our knitting books, selecting from books already on file there. Well, there is supposedly an option to upload titles from LibraryThing if it a title isn't already in Ravelry, so I thought good time to do thing 16. Turns out that Ravelry's application is still in progress and I can't yet upload books -- but I'm into Library Thing! I like being able to not only list books I already have, but to keep track of those books I want to read & keep forgetting about (all those sticky notes? won't need them!).
Tags: these are so useful, so important , but I had to read about using them to be able to make them work effectively. This has made me think a lot more deeply about classification, organization - back to my first cataloging job when I realized how important the perspective of the "findee" is.
Realize that this is being used as an OPAC for some libraries - probably not suitable for ours, though. We're hoping to add actual PDFs as well as URLs and our catalog; strictly MESH for now, but likely to change; also to include kids' books. And again, most of our staff can't get out to sites like this. Still, interesting thought.
Mostly, though, I find myself really like this site for personal reasons, and know I could spend way more time here that is good for me! I instantly want to add/organize all the books in my house. And then move on to music; can't find any music on LibraryThing, but music is in libraries, and is available on Amazon & in LC, so perhaps it will come? Do you know of any sites that allow one to add/organize music like this does books?
Tags: these are so useful, so important , but I had to read about using them to be able to make them work effectively. This has made me think a lot more deeply about classification, organization - back to my first cataloging job when I realized how important the perspective of the "findee" is.
Realize that this is being used as an OPAC for some libraries - probably not suitable for ours, though. We're hoping to add actual PDFs as well as URLs and our catalog; strictly MESH for now, but likely to change; also to include kids' books. And again, most of our staff can't get out to sites like this. Still, interesting thought.
Mostly, though, I find myself really like this site for personal reasons, and know I could spend way more time here that is good for me! I instantly want to add/organize all the books in my house. And then move on to music; can't find any music on LibraryThing, but music is in libraries, and is available on Amazon & in LC, so perhaps it will come? Do you know of any sites that allow one to add/organize music like this does books?
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thing 12 - Twitter
I'm using my name (denahanson) as my twitter screen name. I like the fact that I can deactivate this account if I choose; thanks for tipping us not to just add our email/password automatically.
This is another one of the applications that I'm glad to know about, will try using, but don't expect to use much. I don't have much inclination to be constantly letting many people what I'm thinking or doing at any one particular time - and maybe don't really want to know what many others are doing continuously either. And twitter isn't something we have access to from the hospital. It was fun to see the way that the Medical Library at the Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children (Nemours Foundation) uses their twitter account (Mr. Tweet)! It's up to date, and gives one ideas (motitvation!) for professional uses. Not many followers, but I'm going to track it for a while. Fun.
Did check for knitting things to follow, and found a favorite catalog that is tweeting. The knitting-related tweets I found (topical search) were so numerous that one would rarely find something useful without following a person/org specifically.
Guess it could be useful if for responding to radio shows (if you do that) - surely that is where I've heard about it the most, outside of the NT 23 things. In fact, the last place I heard about Twitter before doing this Thing was on NPR's Diane Rhehm Show this morning and on KERA's "anything you want to know" program at noon today.
This is another one of the applications that I'm glad to know about, will try using, but don't expect to use much. I don't have much inclination to be constantly letting many people what I'm thinking or doing at any one particular time - and maybe don't really want to know what many others are doing continuously either. And twitter isn't something we have access to from the hospital. It was fun to see the way that the Medical Library at the Alfred I duPont Hospital for Children (Nemours Foundation) uses their twitter account (Mr. Tweet)! It's up to date, and gives one ideas (motitvation!) for professional uses. Not many followers, but I'm going to track it for a while. Fun.
Did check for knitting things to follow, and found a favorite catalog that is tweeting. The knitting-related tweets I found (topical search) were so numerous that one would rarely find something useful without following a person/org specifically.
Guess it could be useful if for responding to radio shows (if you do that) - surely that is where I've heard about it the most, outside of the NT 23 things. In fact, the last place I heard about Twitter before doing this Thing was on NPR's Diane Rhehm Show this morning and on KERA's "anything you want to know" program at noon today.
Thing 19 - Google Docs
Google Docs has so many possibilities! A colleague from CT and I have already used it to share information about a group we're working with to knit afghans to give to children at the next Medical Library Association Meeting. But I didn't really look at all the options. Love the forms / survey possibilities.
This will be a great way to share committee work; when preparing agendas, revising procedure manuals or bylaws or presentations - how easy to share and make changes. And the Pediatric Libraries group compiles & updates a list of core pediatric titles (books & journals) every year - how much easier to place this into a spreadsheet on Google Docs and let us each make our section's changes, & keep up with what others are doing too. Wow! Then just turn it into a PDF and Voila!
Not as much use within my own organization because we already use sharepoint and some other tools to share, and because so much of what we do much be kept inside the firewall... But inter-organization sharing, nice..
And of course, nice for personal stuff, too, because it is so platform-independent. Doesn't matter if the rest of my family is in California and doesn't use a Mac, or if my dad has much older WORD software than I do... We can still collaborate easily (who wants to come to the football party, and what are you bringing, and what time should we eat and how many tickets do you need?). Could even share address labels (some neat templates available).
Wow again. I'm looking forward to making use of this!
This will be a great way to share committee work; when preparing agendas, revising procedure manuals or bylaws or presentations - how easy to share and make changes. And the Pediatric Libraries group compiles & updates a list of core pediatric titles (books & journals) every year - how much easier to place this into a spreadsheet on Google Docs and let us each make our section's changes, & keep up with what others are doing too. Wow! Then just turn it into a PDF and Voila!
Not as much use within my own organization because we already use sharepoint and some other tools to share, and because so much of what we do much be kept inside the firewall... But inter-organization sharing, nice..
And of course, nice for personal stuff, too, because it is so platform-independent. Doesn't matter if the rest of my family is in California and doesn't use a Mac, or if my dad has much older WORD software than I do... We can still collaborate easily (who wants to come to the football party, and what are you bringing, and what time should we eat and how many tickets do you need?). Could even share address labels (some neat templates available).
Wow again. I'm looking forward to making use of this!
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Thing 11 - Instant Messaging
I loved this tool so much when I first heard Jeff Bond talk about it at the Library Tech meeting in Fort Worth. And today I had two email interactions with other librarians that would have worked as IM interactions very well - we were both at the computer and responding back and forth via email bam bam bam... But, they don't IM, and I'm not sure yet how to get them started - or even sure I can do it at work.
But - I have now signed up for a web-based account on Yahoo (since that is where my email is) and also for Meebo as an agregator (just confirmed with them that I am not a robot).
I love all the text messaging abbreviations! thanks for the link.
I rather like the idea of using IM as a reference tool - but given the vargaries of our library, we don't really have a "reference desk" so there isn't really a time when any one of the 2.5 of us are dedicated to time/place where IM reference could really work. I am going to ask if I can become part of the Outlook IM-type application that our Information Serivices people use between themselves to help answer problems/questions. An educator colleague also uses it, and between watching her use it, and listening to Jeff, I think I have a better feeling for how it works than I got from the Meebo video clip. The Outlook option might at least give me a chance to use the feature in my professional environment & see if I can answer someone's question, get their input on a searchk, or walk them through finding an article online, for example...
Now, the hardest part seems to be just finding someone to converse with at a time when we are both available to do so, so I can try this for the 23 things! And then there is all this stuff about having an avitar (couldn't figure that one out this morning, but maybe if I try again another time?) and other customizations... Jeepers. More on this.
But - I have now signed up for a web-based account on Yahoo (since that is where my email is) and also for Meebo as an agregator (just confirmed with them that I am not a robot).
I love all the text messaging abbreviations! thanks for the link.
I rather like the idea of using IM as a reference tool - but given the vargaries of our library, we don't really have a "reference desk" so there isn't really a time when any one of the 2.5 of us are dedicated to time/place where IM reference could really work. I am going to ask if I can become part of the Outlook IM-type application that our Information Serivices people use between themselves to help answer problems/questions. An educator colleague also uses it, and between watching her use it, and listening to Jeff, I think I have a better feeling for how it works than I got from the Meebo video clip. The Outlook option might at least give me a chance to use the feature in my professional environment & see if I can answer someone's question, get their input on a searchk, or walk them through finding an article online, for example...
Now, the hardest part seems to be just finding someone to converse with at a time when we are both available to do so, so I can try this for the 23 things! And then there is all this stuff about having an avitar (couldn't figure that one out this morning, but maybe if I try again another time?) and other customizations... Jeepers. More on this.
Monday, July 20, 2009
Thing 10 - NING
My thoughts after reading the ChartingStocks blog: Thanks for not making us create an account on NING. This brought home how much we trust our colleagues for recommendations and leads on websites and applications like this - and how vulnerable our privacy or that of our associates is. At NING I found a knitting community that I recognized - KnitPicks - from a catalog that I receive; a good one. Many of the others looked like 2-3 people conversing with each other. And there are communities from all over the world (knitting in Swedish, communities in Setswana from Botswana).
ALA's community is pretty good sized... But there are a lot of small ones too. I don't think I'm going to establish an account, but the tutorial video really gives a good sense of the variety of options and opportunitites (read: complexity) NING offers. Lots of choices, lots of "faces" to show the different sides of you that you choose to share. My sense is (from such a short exposure!) that unlike Facebook for example, this isn't something most everyone takes part in... But there are lots of interesting options. Appreciate the comment by one 23 things blogger about using it for their community and not getting any resulting spam - a real + today!
In the back of my mind I can't help recognizing that by now I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, and like most things in life, I will have to ration myself. I simply don't have time (or desire) to spend all my time online participating in these networks and communication options, so will have to choose... and knowing myself, I might use something more if there is a professional reason to. NING doesn't look like it will be a part of our library / hospital world anytime soon (searching hospitals returned many hospitality connections!), and I already have ways of keeping in touch with both colleagues individually and with the professional societies I usually track...
So, nice to know about this one, but probably won't keep up with it for now.
ALA's community is pretty good sized... But there are a lot of small ones too. I don't think I'm going to establish an account, but the tutorial video really gives a good sense of the variety of options and opportunitites (read: complexity) NING offers. Lots of choices, lots of "faces" to show the different sides of you that you choose to share. My sense is (from such a short exposure!) that unlike Facebook for example, this isn't something most everyone takes part in... But there are lots of interesting options. Appreciate the comment by one 23 things blogger about using it for their community and not getting any resulting spam - a real + today!
In the back of my mind I can't help recognizing that by now I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, and like most things in life, I will have to ration myself. I simply don't have time (or desire) to spend all my time online participating in these networks and communication options, so will have to choose... and knowing myself, I might use something more if there is a professional reason to. NING doesn't look like it will be a part of our library / hospital world anytime soon (searching hospitals returned many hospitality connections!), and I already have ways of keeping in touch with both colleagues individually and with the professional societies I usually track...
So, nice to know about this one, but probably won't keep up with it for now.
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