Social networking and libraries

Facebook and my space are the sites that the younger adults often use. Its rare or even impossible to find some teenager who have not had an account in facebook or myspace. The normal questions one would ask an adult in earlier times this generation uses answerboards and their network friends. I also discovered that there is a profile that people create for their pets in my dog space. I've created one for my dog here and it was fun to see the other dog owners response to your doubts and questions. Its amazing to share views and no wonder the younger generation is hooked on to technology. I was thinking this is a wonderful way to network with support groups - with people with similar interest without having to travel. Good way to plan a seniors group meeting. Having said that, I think these sites prove as important advertisement tools to target this audience. I am sure if we as librarians join this group we could market our programs and also raise our profiles. We could increase our usage by regularly posting new books etc. and also put out lists which are timely like during the HSC times publicize our HSC talks that we plan advertise our collection. Why we an even form groups of networking librarians and discuss concerns and ask for ideas in resolving issues. Such simple things like when we find out a cheapest way of getting a book processed, or find out how a book supplier has hidden cost in his stock.

I signed up for the 2nd life library project. Its like playing a simulated computer game.These can you used in training as well as planning virtual meetings of various librarian groups. Instead of having to travel to a place to get trained. We could all log in and get trained at our own desks.

Google doc vs. Zoho

Google doc seems easier and simpler. Zoho seems complicated but seem to have certain advanced features like versions of document, reverting the document to whatever edition also group editing of same documents. Though I have not tried all of them it looks like it can be very useful.

Zoho account

I've put our collection development policy in the zoho accountand am planning to share it with staff who are currently editing this. This is a very cool way to edit documents without worrying about the versions and the space it takes up . Also I often work from home, which means I could log in from one computer which has been set up for this. If my husband or daughter is on it, no chance of working. This way I just need internet access and can even work from a laptop or any where. This will be my first real attempt to use what I've learnt here in Web 2 in real work environment.

Social networking sites

Social networking is increasingly becoming popular. The teenagers of today trust their peers for information and rely greatly upon their feedback. By b
eing part of the social in-thing is one way to advertise and attract the younger generation to programs designed for them at our libraries. I can also think of various support groups that can be facilitated. People who have similar problems can discuss about the various concerns that they have. This can be facilitated by the public libraries. Libraries always had womens group and seniors groups etc and have programs for them. This is another virtual world to be explored. Meeting people is one thing and chatting to many is another. These social networking sites could be used as a tool to link people with similar interests. These may be used by local history librarians to record oral histories.

I am trying to create a document on a shared site. A policy that we are currently updating atwork. I'll talk about my experience with it in my blog tomorow.

Voice thread on Databases

I found an interesting voicethread video on databases. But am unable to add this to my blog. Will try again tomorrow

mashup exercise

This is a cool exercise. I really enjoyed doing this. Good advertisement tool to showcase our library programs.

Podcasting

Some libraries are already using podcasting in interesting ways. I liked the idea of using podcasts for storytime sessions. Also, advertising of events planned for the library may be Libray & information Week events or book week events etc. May be recent additions to your library could be a podcast or even book talk where the librarians choice is discussed.