Week 7: The del.icio.us lesson

I read this article and I have to say that it was one of the first ones I read for this course that really made me more aware of how I was using a particular technology: in this case del.icio.us. I used this site for quite a while and even implemented it where I work. My main reason for using it, is the fact that I can access it from anywhere (as opposed to favourites saved onto a computer) and that several users can be logged in at one time under one account. Of course, I wasn't looking only at a way of saving the sites but also, of organizing them. However, I am not obsessed with tagging, I only use it because that is the way of organizing sites in del.icio.us.
This article talks exactly about this concept of the fact that most people use del.icio.us to save their sites not to tag (and so to aggregate tags). It makes perfect sense, I just always had the feeling that other people were more interested in the feature that del.icio.us has of aggregating tags. It's interesting to know that people actually use it for the basics: to save their favourite sites.

Week 6 : On uses for wikis and gardening

I have to say I was intrigued by the title of the article On uses for wikis and gardening. Having read articles by Meredith Farkas before, I immediately chose it from the list of readings for this week. I contemplated the idea of trying a wiki at work since we started talking about it in this course and I have to say that I really liked her point about creating a wiki because there is a need and not because one want to try creating a wiki. Also, I liked how she talked about the wiki administrator as a gardener. This makes very much sense to me and of course, it explains the title! As anything else, someone has to set up a structure and keep things maintained and organized.
The last point that really made sense to me addressed my concern about vandalism in a wiki. She made it clear that the purpose of a wiki is to allow collaboration and that in all her experience she never had anyone vandalize her wiki. I was surprised, but at the same time, I guess it gave me more confidence to try it at work (I haven't given up on the idea, I know there are enough needs out there for one, I just have to find the right one).

Week 6: What can libraries do with Wikis?

I really enjoyed the article Using Wikis to create online communities by Meredith Farkas. I heard that she is an expert on the topic before, since I listened to a session she has done with the SirsiDynix institute. This particular article however really pinpointed what are some of the things that a library /librarian can do with a wiki. I liked that her examples included creating web subject guides and maintaining them. For any one who ever worked in a library at the reference desk, he/she would know what happens with those subject guides expecially in a large organization. In addition to that, Meredith Farkas talks about the intranet and the fact that many times only one staff is responsible for updating information and most staff don't have much input.
The community wiki is another great idea for people to share information, but I have to say that personally, I don't support it that much since there is the risk of being used in innapropriate ways (advertising, innapropriate language, etc), but then that's always the case with a wiki that's open to everyone.
The idea of using a wiki to annotate the catalogue is quite neat and I'd like to see what OCLC will do with that. Although what the author is saying about basic content in a record is true in most cases, vendors offer added content for an extra fee including summaries, tables of contents, reviews and links to Amazon (Sirsi Dynix).
The wikis for librarians is the best. How many emails does one get and how many people does one have to cc? Trust me, I know only too well. Using a wiki to work on a project with a group is great. For our presentation next week, our group is using a wiki to create the content....

Week 5 - What can we do with RSS feeds?

I was just reading the first article assigned for this week and I found it interesting that although it has been written in 2004, it discusses the different applications of RSS feeds for the information professionals. In addition to the uses mentioned in the article (news from major news sources, libraries, new additions to the collection of a library, new journal articles) there was another thing that came to my mind. I am sure someone else would have thought about it by now, but I think that in the interest of professional development, libraries could use RSS feeds for their staff. For example, if a library (like the one I work in) has an intranet, RSS feeds could be published on the intranet from a variety of library related sources. So, maybe there could be RSS feeds from a few professional library blogs, library associations, the vendor of the ILS, etc.

Does anyone use something like this anywhere at work in a library setting for staff only? If so, who is responsible for deciding which feeds should be added and who is responsible for the maintanance of the intranet?