LIBR 246-13 Building the Social Library Online

I have always been fascinated by social software tools, but I had used them mostly for my personal use. This class helped me to start thinking about ways these tools can be used at my library. I learned that though I can be adverse to learning new technology sometimes, most of these tools were very easy to use and implement. I am excited about finding creative ways to implement some of them in my library.

I completely agree with Liz in her post when she says that the greatest barrier to implementing social software is the fear of the unknown amongst administrators, the IT department, and even with our colleagues. I have heard so many stories from librarians about trying to work with their IT departments, unsuccessfully, due to a lack of knowledge about what the library is trying to accomplish. It is important to build bridges with people inside the IT department and include them in planning.

Wow.  It took me a long time to make my screencast.  I tried to watch it a few times, and my screencast tends to get stuck in the middle...

Early on in this class, we talked about how to make blogs more interesting, and one of the ways to do that was by using narrative.  I used my podcast to tell a story...and I thought it was an interesting one at least!  I was thinking that I could use podcasts to do a short series on some of the interesting things that we do have in our special collections, and get creative by maybe including some short interviews with the professors who have used the collections.  I'm sort of just thinking through writing here...

I decided to test out Axl Wise rather than Second Life because at this point in time, Second Life does not really appeal to me.  I think it is because it seems to have no purpose for me right now.  If I had something to do or accomplish, then I might be more willing to explore.  But I know myself, and I think that this is one of those applications I know I probably would not come back to for awhile.  Some of the reasons for this include the fact that it would take me a longer amount of time to figure out how second life works than I'm willing to spend figuring it out.&nb

Oh man, I'm so bummed I missed this presentation.  Meredith, I have really enjoyed all the speakers that you found for our class.  I am really interested in possibly working in a special or corporate library because I know I would love the challenge of providing reference and research in a specialized setting.

I was most interested in the idea of texting the library for information.  I volunteer at a high school once a week, and at least one of the girls had texted over 2,000 messages last month.  That's a lot of texting.  She is very fast at it.  All this to say that I think texting (or some variant thereof) is going to be the preferred method of communication for people.  What is also interesting is that cell phone technology is constantly being improved.  More and more people are using their phones to conduct all kinds of business transactions, interact through in

AskNow Transcript:

I already have both a MySpace and Facebook account (you can add me if you want).  Originally, I set up the MySpace because I had a friend in a band that was using MySpace as a way to market and network his band.  I'm also a musician, and have found that MySpace is a great way to find other musicians in the area.  I set up the Facebook account because I was curious, and then realized that many of my colleagues were members.&nbs

Well, I was editing the page on H. Orton Wiley on my reference shift today. Wiley wrote the theology for the Church of the Nazarene, and also was one of the founders of the University where I work.  We have most of his manuscripts, correspondence, and a lot of miscellaneous other documents that he produced in our archive.