Thing #14 -- LibraryThing

My husband told me about LibraryThing several years ago in relation to all the books we have at home. I think I even created an account and library at that time, but didn't do much with it. When I tried to use my old account for this Thing I couldn't find it.

I'm interested in using LibraryThing for new book or other kinds of lists, playing around with various ways to import books so the work is easier. And I did create my own account and add some books.

Thing #13 -- Online Productivity Tools

Once again, on first reading through the Thing I think to myself: I'm already doing a lot of this with my Mac...

• My husband and I share an iCal calendar, and use our iDisk to keep it in sync.
• Mac's OS comes with a built-in PDF converter. Just choose File>>Print>>Save as PDF. I use this all the time, both for converting word processing files and for saving web pages.
• OSX also comes with both a Stickies application and a Stickies widget for the Dashboard.

The other thing I'm noticing (no pun intended) as I work through the Things, is the process makes me take closer looks at things I've been aware of, to a greater or lesser extent, and examine whether there's a place for them in my life or my library. In some cases the answer is yes, in others it's no.

One yes goes to iGoogle. I chose iGoogle over Pageflakes because I already have a Google account (still trying to keep the creeping account-itis down...), although they seemed equally appealing. I had tried My Yahoo! a bit ago, but found it frustrating to customize the way I wanted. One feature I like is creating multiple tabs. I can put work related items on the main tab and things more for personal use on a different tab--still easily accessible, but not right in front of me. I did add both the New York Times and Village Voice gadgets, so in spite of what I wrote for Thing #12 I may stop receiving their content via email.

I had tried Google Calendar previously, and while the web accessibility from anywhere is nice, I was a little uncomfortable with the safety consequences of having my schedule "out there" and stopped using it. I didn't want some hacker knowing that I would be leaving work at night after an evening shift, or that my house would be empty if I was out of town.

It's not exactly a calendar, but one useful tool I've discovered for scheduling meetings is Doodle. It works via a "poll" of available times that participants vote on, and automatically calculates the best time for the most people. Especially if you're scheduling people from multiple institutions and calendar systems it saves a lot of time. There's no need for multiple emailing back and forth.

It's interesting how some of these Things play off and refer to each other. For an earlier Thing I was trying to remember where I had seen something I wanted to mention. I tried searching for it, and while I couldn't find it I did discover Lifehacker, which looked really interesting. I added it to my list of feeds, and now here it is mentioned as a resource for Thing #13.

Thing #12 -- Social Media Sites

So much information, so little time! Sometimes I just want to get away from the computer, and reading the print Star Tribune in the mornings is one of those times. I try to keep up with what's happening locally and nationally. Other media sources I use are online--I receive a daily email from the New York Times, which I can tailor to specific types of content that interest me. I also subscribe to the Village Voice by email.

It was interesting to look at the 4 social media sites, but I can't see myself going back to any of them. There's just too much stuff, and too much work to separate the fluff or the junk from what's worthwhile. I found Digg and Reddit especially hard with their undifferentiated lists of stories. Mixx at least breaks the lists up visually with headings or horizontal rules. Newsvine offers the ability to customize the view by rearranging chunks of content on the page, but that's still not enough for me to make it a habit.

I think regarding this Thing I'll stick with my more Luddite ways.

Thing #11 -- Tagging and del.icio.us

One fun and useful aspect of tagging is the ESP Game. I first saw this in a presentation at ACRL last spring. The librarian said he showed it in his library instruction classes as an example of the benefits of using controlled vocabulary. The team behind the ESP Game is attempting to label all the images on the web by making it fun for people to provide tags for them. Once you start playing it can be addictive.

I'm a little of two minds about the usefulness of tags in libraries. Allowing users to add tags to the catalog makes more sense to me in public libraries than academic ones, but maybe that's because I haven't seen a good application of them in an academic setting. I know there is this strong movement towards involving the user,and for the most part I'm okay with that, but it also seems like we could be dumbing things down. As an academic librarian, where learning is supposed to be part of the point, I have a hard time with that.

I've known about del.icio.us for a couple of years now, but haven't used it. Whenever I'd explore the site, all the bookmarks and tags seemed overwhelming without a purpose for my exploration. And whenever I was searching for web sites on a subject, it never occurred to me to check out del.icio.us. So this was kind of a "lightbulb" moment for me--next time I'm looking for subject resources, or researching something for myself, I'll go to del.icio.us.

I also never thought to create a del.icio.us account for my bookmarks--although I could have used one recently when my work computer was replaced. While most of my personal files were transferred just fine, my browser profile, including my bookmarks, was wiped out.

Thing #10 -- Wikis

At my library we created a wiki, using PBWiki, that is primarily built and used by our reference assistants. It's a place for information about various aspects of working here and staffing the reference desk. It gives our assistants a way to share what they've learned with those who will follow them--since they're likely to be more aware of passing on information that we may take for granted. Library reference staff can edit it as well, and occasionally do.

The wiki also has a section for "sticky questions," primarily those pesky citation questions that none of us want to have to research twice. (As an academic library, we get lots of requests for citation help.)

I'm involved on a planning group for a regional conference, and we also use PBWiki. It's an easy way for different team members to float ideas, ask for input, and update the rest of us about what they've done or are working on. It's nicer than emails, but email notification of edits ensures we all stay informed of changes.

I wasn't previously aware of the Library Success wiki--it looks like a useful way to share information. I did go in and edit a couple of pages related to online reference.

I was intrigued with the wiki of subject guides that St. Joseph County Public Library created. These look like only librarians edit them. For the subject guides at my library, each one has one person responsible for them, so the collaborative aspect doesn't seem to make that much sense, unless unless we were to open editing up to students, which I don't think we would. However, there is a series of research guides on our web site that aren't assigned to one particular librarian. We use them in our instruction classes, and because they are the responsibility of everyone (or no one) they don't all get edited regularly. Putting them in a wiki and allowing students and faculty to leave comments to let us know when content is out of date or links are broken would be helpful. I think students might also appreciate the search capabilities that a wiki offers. It would allow them to find the guide most useful to them without having to review the entire list.

Thing #7 revisited

I've recently joined a Google Group, since a group I belong to has begun using it as a communication method instead of the previously used group listserv. I haven't explored its functionality much, but it seems to offer more possibilities than a plain listserv. Being able to post files to one place, rather than having attachments scattered throughout messages in the archives, is a useful feature, as is the ability to create group web pages.

Thing #9 -- Web 2.0 Collaboration Tools

I've used both Google Docs and Zoho Writer previously and they are a useful way to collaborate, especially for projects involving librarians at multiple institutions. The ability to chat with collaborators from within Zoho is a nice feature, although at one point we ended up switching to the phone to work out a problem because it was easier! In theory, I also like Zoho Notebook, which allows you to build a project that includes multiple types of files--documents, spreadsheets, web sites, etc. However, in practice, we've had problems with it, as the contents of many documents in the notebook aren't appearing. I'll admit, this could be more a problem with us not understanding how to share documents properly rather than with the application itself.

As far as straight word processing goes, Google Docs and Zoho Writer seem equally capable--I didn't have a problem creating and editing a document in either one. Google Docs' autosave feature is a little annoying at times, but its interface is a little clearer. One feature that would be helpful is automatic notification if others have edited the document. I didn't see that this was possible in either application, but perhaps I just missed it.