Librarian's web 2.0 manifesto

I went trawling You Tube for database tutorial inspiration and came across the following video Called the librarian's 2.0 manifesto. It raised some interesting points about the implications of web 2.0 for librarians and libraries and how we deliver our services.

Flickr

This is fun finding such interesting images! The real fun is arranging them on the page!

Week 13 Finale

web20, socialmedia, usergeneratedmedia, consumergeneratedmedia

The thing I have learned is that Web2.0 is huge. The phenomenon has taken off world wide. It is not just a Western movement but has trancended culture and language. Web use has gone from the static information delivery of the Information Society to the information collaboration of Social Networking Technologies and this trend is gaining momentum. People like to share ideas, and businesses that understand that 'users add value', are changing their websites from sites that deliver information to sites that invite comment, feedback, and interaction.

Obviously, while there are many benefits to both people and business through Web 2.0, there are risks as well. People are always willing to exploit others or engage in socially unacceptable behaviour. However, I do not think this should be enough to deter the Library from engaging in Web2.0 technologies, just as the fact that some people are computer hackers does not deter most of us from using computers.

As for the type of social networking technologies we should be involved in, I think we should begin by making our catalogue as interactive as is practically possible. Blogs for various subject aeas and RSS feeds are obvious technologies for the library to adopt. I am sure if we put our collective minds together, we will come up with other ideas.

For me, this exercise has been a valuable learning experience. I will have to be careful that I don't become addicted to YouTube.

Week 12 Podcasts and YouTube

YouTube has been a great resource for alomost anything I wanted to find from Rondo Alla Turka played by two Polish super musicians on one guitar to Arsenic and Old lace in 12 parts and everything in between, including the two library videos I selected: Library Fines and Library Rap. Searching YouTube is easy and viewing the results is fun, there were a few pitfalls to be negotiated. Not all the library video results were good clean fun and I had to negotiate my way past some very questionable content.
Unfortunately, copying or embedding the videos into my blog has also been a cause of frustration. Following the simple instructions included for our enlightenment gave no joy. I tried placing the video inside my blog using the copy and paste code for the for "Embeddable Player.” I even noted that I'd need to use Blogger's Edit HTML tab when pasting this code. I even conferred with a colleague who was having similar problems, all to no avail. Then, finally, without rhyme or reason, success! That's technology for you, I guess.
Library Fines


Library Rap

Social Tagging 2

I struggled a bit with the concept of social tagging so typed 'social tagging' into the Technorati search box and found a wealth of links to blogs, sites and videos all eager to expound on the nature and use of social tagging.

What was even more surprising was the fact of how easy it was to find material on my topic of choice. To someonw who has staunchly championed the importance of controlled lists such as theLibrary of Congress Subject Headings as a means of ensuring targeted searches, I am surprised at how effective social tagging is. It is a far more targeted system than I gave it credit for. I have searched through Flickr, YouTube and and Technorati, using 'natural language', and I have been amazed at the relevance of the material that turned up. I can only conclude that my prejudice against 'unofficial lists' of terms is not altogether warranted. People seem to be instinctively tagging their work with keywords that other people use to search with. When I searched for 'word cloud' in Flickr, hoping to find a picture of one, I had several to choose from. The one I chose was a library word cloud containing Web 2.0 words.