Assignment #7, Part 2

"Away from the Icebergs" by Rick Anderson is I think basically asking us to step out of the "librarian box" and into the "Patron Box." As he says the time is coming where we will not necessarily need to build on our collection of print materials, I think, especially the non-fiction print materials, but we need to find ways that our patrons can access the information easily from the web at home. As Anderson says, patrons will expect to have access to everything -"digital collections of journals, books, blogs, podcasts etc." He also feels that staff need to "eliminate barriers that exist between patrons and the information they need."
I agree in part with what Anderson says but there will be some challenges ahead. The library is a recreational service that we provide our patrons. There are still many patrons who like to read from hard copy and enjoy coming into the library to pick the books they want to read. As well, the library provides an opportunity for patrons in our small communities to have social interaction.
By providing easier access to patrons for material they need, I think the focus will be more for the younger generation who have grown up in the computer age. Our challenge will be to reach these people and introduce them to the new services that the libraries offer, that are geared to their needs.
We, as librarians, will need to find ways to make the assess of information as user friendly as possible and only a click away.

Power from the People: Assessing the New Online Participatory Tools for Your Organization by Colin Delany

In this article Delaney goes through many tools that are available for organizations. One critical thing that he does say when discussing the pros and cons of the tools such as blogs, online video, rss feeds, social networking, social media, viral marketing, is that one has to have the time to update, the skills to implement, and in some cases the money to develop. For each tool, he discusses what each tool is capable of and then gives one guidelines to determine if the tool is worthwhile and feasible for your organization.
This was a good article for me to read as it gave me a little better understanding of the tools that we have already been introduced to. I still have the nagging question though as to how the library can implement some of these tools with the limited resources we have(time and staff) to make them useful for the patrons that we serve. One tool that I thought may have some merit was the use of Social Media. This could help to bring the comunities we serve and the libraries on the same page. The community could submit video clips of community events or on the community and we could post them. In this manner as Delaney says,"Participating ties them to you and your issues at an emotional level." By contributing to our website, they are showing their confidence in us as an organization.
Other tools such as Viral marketing would be too risky for our organization. Too many things could go wrong and would or could devalue our organization.

To More Powerful Ways to Co-operate by Chip Nilges
Basically I think the message that Nilges is trying to say in his article is that libraries need to band together to provide one database for everyone. By using the web as the platform, patrons and all libraries would have access to the same information. "Open Worldcat" is being used by the OCLC to help them integrate collections and services into one Web space. It is hoped that they will be able to expand the database in ways that will keep pace with the constant evolving of collections.
I think that this could be a very valuable tool for the libraries. The co-operation with reciprocal agreements and ILL has been a great value to our libraries. We need to look at ways to expand this service and to make it easier for patrons to access the same information.


In conclusion, these articles were very informative and gave me much food for thought. I do feel that the structure and the availability of library materials will always be a need for our patrons as they perceive libraries as a form of recreation and as a social venue. But, libraries need to expand their services into the information network of the web. How to do that to make it worthwhile and effective is the challenge that we as service providers are faced. For myself, I hope that the social interaction of the patron and the library continues and that our organization does not get swallowed up into cyberspace.

Assignment # 7

Just finished up the first part of the assignment and will have to do the rest at another time.
Meredith Fargas's article reaffirms my thinking about the various tools of Web 2.0 that we have looked at so far. As I was going through the assignments I kept asking myself, would the patrons use this. In most cases I felt the answer was no. Our clients for the most part use our services for entertainment -reading, listening or watching movies. Most of the clients who come to the library to use our computers use them for social purposes - to check their emails, chat with their friends on msn or facebook. Some do use the computers for research and writing their assignments but more and more patrons have their own computers at home. Like the cellphone, the computer is becoming a household necessity.
When I look at the patrons who come into the library, these patrons come to the library to get books for reading. Some use our non-fiction as reference. Patrons are pleased with the idea they can order books from home, renew their books and then come to the library to pick them up.
So for me, unless we can change our patrons thinking that the library is more then a book lending facility, our patrons will continue to think of the library as just that.
Like Fargas points out, we need to continue to assess what the patron needs and wants and not assume that if we offer them a service, they will use it. In my opinion, it would be more beneficial to see what our patrons are using the computers for and to be knowledgeable of the tools they are using so that we can assist them if they run into problems. An example of this is we had a patron who went onto ebay and was checking out prices and wanting to make bids. None of us at the library had any exposure to ebay and so we were not able to help the patron.
Another example would be facebook. Recently they have changed the interface of facebook and there are so many different applications that it gets quite confusing. Would it not be better for librarians to learn all of the facets of facebook so that if a patron ran into problems we could help them?
I guess basically what I am saying is that Librarians should be aware of the newest tools but should learn only those that the patrons use and want.

Assignment # 6

Well, del.icio.us and technorati were interesting to look at. I don't think at this point I would have much use for technorati. For the time that I spent on it, I did not really find anything that was really of interest to me. Possibly if I spent a little more time with it, I may find some value for it. That said, I don't think that it would be of much benefit for our organization. As well, with using the search engine and the web 2.0 link under technology, I did get different results. When looking for things through the search engine parts of the blogs were displayed given an idea of what the subject of the blog was. On the other hand, when using the other method to do a search, it gave the title and the url address only.
As for del.icio.us, I found it much more user friendly and easier to navigate around. When we were first given this assignment, I wondered why anyone would want to use this as it is very similar to the favourites on windows explorer. One thing that I did like about this was that the titles were larger and the tags made it a little easier to get to the topic you were looking for. Although you can make folders for different subjects on your favourites, it is one extra step to find what you are looking for. I think that if someone spent any amount of time on del.icio.us, they could set up some pretty interesting bookmarks.

Oops.

Sorry for some of the grammer errors and typos.

Assignment # 5

Must admit this assignment was much easier then the last two. Still need to spend a little more time with rss. Anyway, quite impressed with the library thing. Very easy to navigate and very user friendly. Only disadvantage is that once you have 200 books on your list you have to start paying for the service.
Now onto Facebook. Have been a member for about a year now and still trying to get used to the new look of facebook.
Anyway I went directly to the green page and found it interesting but not too sure if this would benefit our organization. As well, I am not sure that Facebook was designed for advertising, rather more a way for friends to find friends. Facebook is a worldwide bog and I don't think our region would benefit from having a page on facebook that can be seen by someone who lives in Africa for instance. As well, I would be a little concerned of the chance that a patron who did not get possibly good service could post a message telling of their experience. Do we want to take the chance.
Just a note, though, facebook does have an application called visual bookshelf and an application called books where you can post the bookds you are reading and the books you want to read.