Ning

I think that Ning has a lot of potential for creating a social network on the job. Unlike FaceBook or MySpace, Ning allows one to customize all of the aspects of a social network to meet the needs of any organization or workgroup. The look, access permissions, control of the code used to create the Ning are all under your control. No matter what the needs or interests of your group, you can create & customize your own social network, do it for free, and retain control.

Collaboration

I've used Google docs when working on a group project at school. Rather than emailing a doc back and forth for revisions among the group, it was much easier to have everyone access it online.

When I worked in the Virtual Branch Workgroup in technology, the group also used it to prepare several docs for the very same reason. Members of the group were spread throughout all the branches, and it was an easy way for members to work collectively on our documents without repeated emails or in-person meetings.

Library Success

Other than being a very plain looking website, I like Library Success. I see that it is moderated by Meredith Farkas, the author of "Social Software in Libraries" so it's got to be good.

A link there to online training resources took me to Web Junction. What I found interesting was their online course offerings. Some were free and for most the charge was nominal. Coming from an online learning environment (Rutgers Online MLIS program), I found it refreshing that there were alternatives to online learning other than college programs.

About the only thing that makes me cautious about wikis is the very thing that makes them appealing: anyone can add to them. This is not so much a concern when they're password/key protected, but wiki purists will say that this defeats the entire purpose of a wiki. Some claim that they are self-moderated & policed by their members and that vandalism is quickly corrected. But I'm still a little sceptical.

I still think that they're a great tool for online collaboration, and have emailing a Word doc or PPT presentation back-and-forth beat. They put the richness of web design within the typical users' reach, and are inherently simple to use.

Wiki as Collaboration Tool

I had to do a presentation recently with a colleague in my Rutgers class on library management. We could have done a PowerPoint presentation, but since all of our classes are online, this would have necessitated emailing the PPT file back-and-forth as each of us made our contributions to it.

Instead we chose to do a wiki. Each "slide" was done as another page in the wiki. My partner was able to go in anytime and make additions or deletions, and so was I. No need to email a file every time changes were made.

For the actual class presentation, the URL for the wiki & the key were emailed to the rest of the class and instructor. The wiki made for both easy collaboration during its creation, and easy viewing for the rest of the class. Mo messy downloads of files!

On Demand Training

In the Anderson article "Away from the Icebergs", the author talks about the patron-to-librarian ratio and how our library applications need to be simpler to use without training. But there's another way of educating users, on-demand training.

I am currently using two Web 2.0 tools, Jing and Camtasia, in one of my MLIS courses. Both tools allow for screen capture along with narration. It is possible to record how-to videos on a number of popular library technology subjects such as using email, or PC Plus scanners. The screencasts can be saved to network drives or even CDs and DVDs for later playback on demand. The possibility of subjects that can be recorded is unlimited.

Library 2.0 is a way to use existing tools in new ways to provide customers with content that they can access in popular and familiar ways. According to a recent PEW report, one third of all of the age groups surveyed that viewed online videos, viewed educational videos. Why shouldn't libraries take advantage of this, and become the producers of educational videos.

Here's a link to one that I did for demo purposes about resizing digital photos:

Click to Play

Technorati

I've skimmed Technorati before, and I'm always amazed at what people are talking about on Blogger Central. There seems to be a disconnect between what the media would call news, and what bloggers consider important. I looked at the top 100 blogs and it appeared that most of them were technology related.

I next tried searching for Learning 2.0 blogs. I found quite a few. But to tell the truth, none of them piqued my interest. Then I noticed the photos tab. The pictures were a different story. I was immediately drawn to a blogger called "The Shifted Librarian." Their photos made me want to go and read their blog.

It's true when they say that a pictures is worth a thousand words.

Del.icio.us

I like the sharing aspect of using del.icio.us. Not only are you able to see what links others are using, but see what they're about. I think that the ability to tag makes some of the links more understandable. You can also see the frequency of tag usage through the tag cloud for the link, users' comments about the URL, and when the last additions were made to del.icio.us.

But what I really like is that you can set up a del.icio.us account and be able to import & access your favorites from any PC. This can be a real help when you're doing reference and can't get to the PC where you originally stored your Favorites.

WorldCat

I must confess, this is a tool that I have been using almost daily during my trainee rotation in ACT. I searched for a book (Into the Wild), and OCL came up as the closest library holding the title. About the only difference regarding location results is that when you are logged in as part of ILL, OCL is displayed in green text to make sure you realize that we hold the book, and not to search elsewhere for it.

WorldCat will definitely help you and your customer complete a Request for Materials form. About the only information that I found missing was the publication month and the price. Following the link to Amazon can get you the month of publication, but Amazon did not have a "realistic" price for the edition that I was looking at; only prices which varied by quite a bit from resellers.

WorldCat will work for filling out the form. Whatever info is missing from WorldCat, can probably be supplemented from Amazon.

NetLibrary

NetLibrary is just about as easy to use as our OPAC. It allows for searching by the typical fields or author, title, subject, and keyword. As an added bonus it does full text searching, too. Something that's usually reserved for something like Google.

Once you decide on a book, it's relatively easy to navigate. The side bar will get you to the different areas of the book such as the contents, index, or a particular chapter.

Some of the quirks of NetLibrary that I've found is that it only allows for one copy of the eBook to be open at a time. I tried to show a coworker a particular book once, and NetLibrary would not allow two concurrent copies to be opened. Besides not being able to download, it also limits the amount of text that you can copy & paste at one time. I've also noticed that it displays book contents as a PDF but you must use the NetLibrary buttons at the top of the window to navigate, and not the typical Adobe Acrobat buttons in the bottom of the window.

But a NetLibrary copy of a book still beats no copies at all. And, I think that it's easy enough to navigate for anyone, and has a short learning curve.

It's My Thing...Do What I Wanna Do!

Sorry for the reference to an old song, but I just couldn't resist.

I have another account in Library Thing but it has not been updated for some time, so I thought that I'd create a new account for this exercise. Since I've last used Library Thing, it's been improved. Last time I used it, it did not give LOC or Dewey numbers, or LOC subject headings, but it does now. (Maybe I will go back to my regular account and add more books.)

Of all my books added for this exercise, the two that were made into movies were the most popular, with well over a thousand people listing them, and one had 700+ readers. Not surprisingly, these were the ones with the most discussions going.

My favorite aspect of Library Thing is its social nature. It allows for tagging, sharing with others, and comments. Sort of a built in readers' advisory function. Not many other library catalogs do that; at least not ones I use regularly.

Here's the link to My Thing: http://www.librarything.com/catalog/traineemark

Watch This!

The next big thing in "library 2.0", or so I've been told, is going to be vodcasts and screencasts. A vodcast is video content plus an RSS feed that allows one to subscribe to episodes of a show, sort of like a video podcast. Screencasting allows one to capture all that you do on your computer while navigating through a task, and saving it as a movie that can be played back later on-demand.

In the past, equipment, file size and bandwidth issues have discouraged all but the serious geek from pursuing this avenue of expression. But as drives get bigger and Internet connections get faster, you'll be seeing more and more video content make its way into library environments. Computer classes and how-to videos could be made available for instructional purposes, with the added bonus of being able to be re-wound and repeated by the viewer as necessary.

Here's one that I made using a digital camera for still shots, and Windows Movie Maker to pull the whole thing together. It's a real simple tutorial on saving files to a Flash drive, but illustrates the potential of these technologies. Heck, if I can do it, anyone can!

Click to Play
The original video can be found here, on Blip.tv: http://mzscils598s08.blip.tv/file/808818

Good Eats?

When it comes to finding feeds, I prefer to do it the old fashioned way. When I find a site that I like, and if it has a feed, I'll subscribe. It all depends on what I'm looking for at the moment.

Technorati has interesting content, but if it doesn't match what I'm in the mood for, I would just ignore it. It reminds me of dining out. If I'm in the mood for Italian food, that's what I'll look for, even if everyone says there's a great Chinese restaurant that just opened.

But I won't totally ignore their advice. I'll just try to remember what was said, and investigate it further when I'm in the mood. Sounds like something that might be del.icio.us to remember later.