JAM SESSION

Does a good Wiki jam or does it follow the rules, have all the proper experts and sound the same every time? Instead, does it take on a life of its own, sometimes one strain leading; sometimes another? Yes, it jams.

Remember the days (1990s) when we used on-line communication for sharing research or co-authoring and editing books, manuals, and policy and procedure. Remember the heartache of lost disks, computer down time, mismatched soft-ware, the angst of faxed and Fed Exed bundles, and midnight trips to the airport post office -- all to be erased in the next few decades by a wiki.

Note: Include Wikis when teaching research. Compare and contrast resources, slant, experts, open content, proof... Think about including them in teaching business use of the media and other communication tools. Question authority, but question open-content too.

By the way, I'm afraid my Core Competencies for 2.0 have shifted to Core Complacencies. Thoughtful examination of the "things" has become a lick and a promise lately.

News Flash

News update! (updated news) Social media is a productivity enhancing tool; essentially an updated newspaper. As a lifetime lover of newspapers, I feel right at home with social media. I don't have to play unless I want to, but I can still get current news coverage on so many issues and events.

I remember when the public and media were responsive to each other on a fairly personal basis. The social aspect of online news sites is more than expansion of a newspaper format. The online media components allow a familiar feeling of writing and interacting with a newspaper, a feeling that has been lost with exonential population growth and the diverse interests newspapers must serve.

Newsvine is my choice of the social media sites that I visited. The format is pleasing and easy on the eyes, the pages are easy to manipulate and the coverage is good. Just like a good news provider should be!

Tagging

In addition to allowing access to information, tags allow the authors who use obscure post titles (chapter titles) to determine what in the world they were trying to discuss. Like cataloging, I also love tags for written communication and added them liberally to my blog posts. Like subject headings, it remains to be seen if the descriptive words efficiently aid searching.

Tags for pictures are more problematic to me, since personally all pictures seem obscure, mysterious and inately subjective. I'll put up with the author's title, but don't want much more information. Pretty subjective opinion, and somewhat closed minded, since it precludes learning the history, period, or style of the piece.

And Delicious. It's a good filing (and retrieval) system; versatile. It may also be a pretty good way to research, or share research or reference. And portable! one of the best parts of the web. The "best tags" seems more akin to searching popular magazines than professional journals. That is, current popular trends. So, I would think would be used as an first step in researching.

Publish!

SlideShare would have saved me anxiety many times when I worried over accessing files,losing discs (when we used discs), or not being able to get an emailed presentation. Note! Just post it on SlideShare.

Haven't posted personal pics yet but did post two presentations for resume workshops.
In addition to using them at the local high school, they could have been accessed by students for review or students who did not attend the workshop. Look for them at:
http://www.slideshare.net/lucyritchie23


I always wanted to "publish" and it's a thrill to hit that (publish anything)button.

Skipping Ahead

Again, I received personal help with a "thing" and it was great! A library page came to give a workshop on augmenting MySpace pages and I learned more than the teens who attended! (I had more to learn.) Library MySpace pages are good for sharing material and programs. If they are not static, they are good for looking good. They are good for getting responses from patrons. However, having no stats,I am not convinced they are often accessed. The social networking spaces the kids shared with me and each other were mostly music, photos and friends -- just like their other spaces (bedrooms, etc.). Intimate, and covertly informative.

Good to have library MySpace pages and be a safe place on the web. But I'm not sure safe is where the crowd is heading.

The Return of the Native

Text messaging, as taught to me by our Library Intern, is simple. Learning face to face, or sound to ear (instead of screen to eye) was so much easier. Unfortunately, while I now know how to view my text messages, I find texting with such small keys and print, tedious. As the owner of a 35+ year old washer and lawn mower, I certainly will not replace my phone until it gives up completely. I do think I would prefer texting to leaving a voice message though, since writing is my preferred method of communication.

Communicating through library e-mail is a time saver. Not being tied to taking or returning phone calls allows frees the researcher to an answer or act on a request before responding. E-mail documents time and date of requests or instructions (and the instructions themselves). Also, everyone is able to receive the same message. E-mail connects and informs a whole library district at the same time. Can't find anything wrong with library e-mail. Other on-line communication also documents and allows freedom of time to research and respond.

On-line reference using e-mail or chat - as used through Ask-a-Librarian - is a convenient service: professional, fast, and inclusive. Responding in anonynimity can allow the librarian to relax. Sometimes not seeing non-verbal clues but carefully "listening" to what is written can be freeing.

And speaking of listening, webinars are cost efficient. They allow broadly scattered participants to share ideas and understanding with each other without the stress of time consuming travel. They usually document the discussion as well as the presentation. Drawbacks include equipment failure and registered participants who don't show. Also, you miss that "time consuming travel" that allows you to visit a different city or meet new folks face to face.

I enrolled in Yahoo messenger and am ready for my first IM on Friday, the day aroudn here when more than one person has time to IM.