LibWorm - Thing 17

LibWorm is an interesting site. I did a phrase search for Cedar Valley College but found nothing. This did surprise me since I know we have had articles written about us. I also searched Dallas County Community College District only to find two articles. One was an outdated job announcement posted on Ohio Net. The other was an article about Texas colleges losing health insurance, also outdated. e

I enjoyed browsing the Feed Categories, particularly Academic Libraries and Book Reviews. The Review a Day book was “How the States got their Shapes” by Mark Stein. The review made me want to go try to find it at the library. The News category had current date information.

The Subjects also had quite a few categories of interest including Young Adults, Collections Development, Readers Advisory and Reference to name a few. Looks like one can spend quite a bit of time browsing. It will take me multiple visits just to find the stuff I am most interested in. I found an interesting article in Nonfiction about LibraryThing from the K State Libraries (Kansas).

Library Thing - Thing 16

I browsed through the Library Thing. Looks like a fun site for librarians and book lovers. I added several of the books I have enjoyed recently. I joined the groups Librarians who Library Thing and Read YA Lit. However, I didn’t see a group for community college or academic libraries. That would be something I would like to see for ideas and other advice.

I thought the statistics tab was interesting. I also enjoy the recommendations based on your books list. It looks like a good source for book reviews and other recommendations.

This is a site I will continue to frequent, find new features and recommend to others. It’s a keeper.

I added Library Thing to my Delicious site along with several of the other “Things” we have discussed along the way.

Digg - Thing 15

This may be an interesting site to browse on occasion. For me I really don’t find it that useful, just another website to add to computer addiction. For my news/technology/science entertainment fix I would rather listen to the national and local news programs or scan the local newspaper. I currently subscribe to several magazines which I would much rather sit down with a cup of tea or coffee or during my lunch break and browse leisurely through. Books and magazines can be thrown in a tote bag and taken anywhere without having to find a wireless connection for your laptop. I guess I am still a little “old school,” and don’t really enjoy reading from a computer screen.

One of the stories came from Time Magazine “Summer School: What? No More Vacations,” which I had already read.

Delicious - Thing 14

I set up my delicious bookmarks. I’m not sure how useful it will be, maybe when sharing with other librarians who are using this tool. I sometimes use the computer at the circulation desk, so it may be handy to find the bookmarks I have saved on my computer at my desk and accessing some the library related items I have saved on my home computer. I set up bookmarks to Texas Library Association, Teenreads.com, Dallas County Community College and Deborah’s Discussions. I will explore it further...so....more later.

My link is http://delicious.com/dbogue.

Tagging - Thing 13

Tagging is a concept that I think is worthwhile to give it a try in libraries. It already sounds like some libraries are starting to use tagging as a compliment to subject headings. As with any new process there will be a period of implementation and getting used to the new system and terms. Tagging is more a free form style, so some items may be more easily found while some items the user may have to sift through more irrelevant things not necessarily related to the search at hand. Anything that may be more user friendly is always a good thing. I tryed my hand at tagging this post with tagging, library tagging, North Texas 23 Blogs, Thing 13, Deborah's Discussions. If I have time I may go back and try tagging some of my other posts.

Twitter - Thing 12

Twitter, twitter, twitter??? To twitter or not to twitter. Yes, I have heard so much press about twitter. It is hard not to be taken in by all of the hype. I set up an account as a directive of the NT 23. So far, I have been less than impressed. I tried to find a few people with out much luck. I am following several of the NT 23 blogs and a few have gotten to this point and had listed their usernames. Of the three that I had, I only was able to locate one. So, I am following that NT 23 participant. I am also following my daughter’s school and WFAA weather and one of their reporters.

I guess that if a mobile device was used it might be useful and fun for school/library events. Then you would be able to see things in more of a real time format. However, I’m not sure that my everyday activities are all that interesting for me to share with my “friends.”

I will give twitter a few more chances to redeem itself. Maybe I will learn something that I missed on my initial impression. Oh, my user name is DeborahBogue. Twitter me and help me change my mind.

Instant Message - Thing 11

I am really not a big fan of IMing. I have Aim on our AOL software and I do IM very, very infrequently. I would rather e-mail or call if I want to talk to someone. I can see that it would be useful for real time reference questions.

My daughter seems to like using IM with her friends either on facebook or AIM. Maybe it is a generational thing.