Limits, limits, limits: have I found one?

Has anyone had trouble with a character limit in the "Notes" field of del.icio.us? For someone who loves to cut & paste large chunks of text for later, I just realized I had lost lots of chunks!

I am prepraing a conference presentation and thought, since it's on social software, I would use some of our great tools. No dice for long notes, it seems... 

Hi to all those still here!

I set up a new blog-- yes., the addiction has taken hold. I can't promise my own random readings and responses will spark as much discussion as the class readings, but please visit and comment!

In addition to being able to close my door for a few hours every week, I really enjoyed the variety of readings and presenters-- and the presenters seemed to care what we said AND responded! I've also told many people how much more meaningful and practical the readings became when I could talk to the organizers, other participants, and presenters about random thoughts I was having, questions I had, problems I saw. It was like being in grad school again, but without the books, tuition, and bureaucratic nonsense. And, I must admit, I really liked having this blog.

Personally, I can't see myself jumping into the SecondLife pool, nor can I envision setting up a Facebook or MySpace account. It may be that I can't overcome my own preconceived notions of thos programs being for the young'ens, but I also think social software tools are only useful when they are useful-- at this point they aren't. However, if I've learned anything in these five weeks, it's that I never know what I'll suddenly find indespensible.

So now that we know everything we can know, until more is said and we're lost again, how do we convince our colleagues to jump with us? Which magic words will we find that will open up the budgets, the time, and the energy reserves (anyone else tired?). As one last random stream of consciousness ramble on the readings, I’d like to talk about two of our readings, which actually seem quite different now that I write about them.

I like the measured and practical approach that Karen Coombs takes in "Helping Technology spurred change take." To steal directly from her article, she suggests that we keep these things in mind when introducing our new techy ideas:

The Archivists have been buzzing this week a bit after an article in the NY Times this weekend entitled History, Digitized (and Abridged). While the article is concerned with what is digitized, it also addresses what is not and why it is not. 

"As more museums and archives become digital domains, and as electronic resources become the main tool for gathering information, items left behind in nondigital form, scholars and archivists say, are in danger of disappearing from the collective cultural memory, potentially leaving our historical fabric riddled with holes."

In reading over some of the proposals, I’ve seen people expressing their skepticism that their libraries or users will accept any implementation of social software technology. In fact, I listed institutional culture and resistance as an obstacle to overcome in my own proposal and I have questioned the appropriateness of these tools for our community of users.

It seems that some social library tools have gotten bad press—we can all imagine a Frontline expose on how to catch a pedophile on MySpace or Flickr. How is this coloring the perception of how these tools can be used in a professional setting? How is this perception clouding people’s judgment? In the interest of full disclosure, I am one of those with a strong suspicion of social networking tools, but I have to admit I've been intrigued to see how libraries & librarians have been using these communities as stages for outreach and publicity.

Proposal for Social Software Implementation

Hiring, training, and managing university student workers can be time-consuming and the information sharing repetitive. I would like to create an online social software based management and training system for students working in the Archives; specifically, I will use blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, and Flickr.

What to use?

I would like to implement a project that uses a blogs, RSS feed, wiki, and Flickr. Initially, because of concerns of technological support and my own current comfort-level, I would use Confluence for the wiki and Wordpress for the blog. I would suggest using Flickr for the image software.

Yesterday, I wrote about authenticity, then today I came across this review by Richard Cox about handwriting in the digital age. I thought those of you interested in such things could check it out.

Cox's blog is a unique and helpful one. The posts are not always specifically about archives, but are always linked in some way. He can say it better than I can:

With this blog, I am planning to offer, as regularly as possible, critical observations on the scholarly and popular literature analyzing the nature of archives or contributing to our understanding of archives in society. I hope this blog will be of assistance to anyone, especially faculty and graduate students, interested in understanding archives and their importance to society.

In all my spare time, I like to think about food: what to put in it, how to cook it, how to burn it off.

I serendipitously, my favorite new word I've picked up since starting this course, discovered a new friend who loved to share her simple recipes. My daughter's 3rd birthday party was a soup extravaganza, brought into my house by my friend Elise, her parents, her family, and her own love of food.

Elise led me into her friend's kitchen, and I was smitten. Deb's dishes were gorgeous and her recipes scrumptious. Deb and her husband took a trip to Savannah, and shared this photo with me.

I spent most of the afternoon exploring MySpace, looking for OSU students or OSU related sites. I found lots of students and student groups, not a surprise.

Something I didn't expect was to find a profile for the state of Oregon, which is apparently a 100 year old female. Fun facts about my state:

* The state park system has 159 yurts located in 19 parks.

* Tillamook is home to Oregon's largest cheese factory.

* The small village of Bickelton is filled with bluebird houses seen on the posts of every house.