Social networking

Social networking to me is the ability for multiple users to participate in the online world by the creation, and/or alternation, of content utilising web 2.0 tools. It means users no longer just look at information on a screen but instead they interact with it to increase value and to claim a stake in it.

Social networking technologies or sites I have utilised include:

Facebook
Twitter
Second life
Blogger
wikis
Youtube
Delicious
Skype
Windows MSN
RSS
podcasts

In completing INF 206 Social networking for professionals I expect to gain a greater understanding of the social networking tools available and their applicability. In particular, through learning about social networking it will help me to develop an understanding of how these participatory tools and sites can be utilised specifically within the library and information management world to provide new and/or improved services to users in a manner which is relevant, fun and inclusive.

Active again...

Well haven't been near the blog in a long long time and thought that would be the way it stayed as I've never been the diary keeping sort...but here I am again. Uni went back as of yesterday and I'm now doing my final semester (woohoo). This time round I'm only got to do an elective - Social networking & information professionals and 2 professional activities. Uni is to blame for the reactivation of the blog as I need to keep an online journal for my elective subject so for all those not following me here I am again lol. Anyway just to update things a little more. I am no longer with the law firm having been made redundant in May of 2009 after 13 years with them. Luckily for me I found a new job after only 4 months of looking which considering we were in the midst of the GEC was pretty good going I reckon. So where am I now you might ask...well only the biggest library in the country - the National Library of Australia. I am in technical services (my first love) and work in the Australian Serials unit. The pace of working life is very different from the law firm as is the work I'm doing but I can see a long and productive life at the NLA for all is good. So now all I have to do is get into uni mode and consider what I am going to be posting on here for that...

YouTube

YouTube is a site I particularly like for a variety of reasons. It has lots of library related videos on it, many of which are particularly interesting and/or useful. There is also lots of fun stuff to look at! YouTube allows tagging so searches can then be done on existing tags, it also allows viewer comments and ratings which can be very helpful. Another feature of YouTube is that it provides links to other videos from the author(?) of the video, as well as topic related video links. One video which I have seen and particularly like was Building Academic Library 2.0 by Meredith Farkas, the Distance Learning Librarian at Norwich University. This video is of a keynote address she gave at the Academic Library 2.0 conference in November 2007. Meredith is an engaging speaking and whilst this video is a bit long at approx 70 minutes, it is well worth the time. Vidoes have application for libraries as a training and information tool. Training tutorials can be created and posted to the library's webpage for users to look at. This means users in do not need to be available when the library wants to present training but can view the video when and where they want. Videos can also be used as a way of promoting the library, it's staff and services.

Library 2.0: it's many things to many people. What does it mean to me?

Taks 11 - Web 2.0, Library 2.0 and the future of libraries Library 2.0 is a concept. It means libraries embracing user collaboration by providing ways for users users to participate in library services. This participation can include feedback/suggestions about existing services or the creating or new services. It can also mean allowing users to actually be part of a service ie tagging of catalogue records, contributing to library blogs or wikis. By becoming Library 2.0, libraries aim to not only keep existing users but to entice new users into the library whether it be physically or virtually. Library 2.0 should not be confused with Web 2.0. Web 2.0 generally refers to web tools which involve user collaboration. Libraries who wish to be considered 2.0 will most likely utilise some of the many Web 2.0 tools available, however being Library 2.0 isn't just about using Web 2.0. Its about doing what we have always done but in a better, more user friendly way. It's about taking the library to users instead of expecting the users to come to us.

Technorati

Technorati is a search tool for blogs. A search for the term "library 2.0" done today returned the following results: Blogs tagged as - 186 posts Blogs about - 487 All blogs - 487 Technorati has updated it's website since 23 Things was originally created (in fact the site has been changed since the start of the week as it had a tab titled 'popular' which isn't there today). When I looked at the popular blogs/posts tab a few days ago it contained, unsurprisingly, in the top 10 blogs: various celebrities, the environment and current news stories. You could also access the Top 100 blogs as voted by fans and what the top searches in the last 48 hours were for news, the internet movie database (Amazon), music, Youtube videos, DVDs (Amazon), and books (Amazon). Now that the popular tab is no longer available there is instead tabs titled: business, entertainment, lifestyle, politics, sports and technology. These tabs then contain sub categories, such as under entertainment,: celebrity, film, gaming, indie film, music and tv. Each subject tab then has 2 viewing options of either headlines, or rising posts/stories. Rising posts and stories show the blog posts and mainstream media stories getting the greatest attention from other bloggers in a topical area at that time. There is an option on this tab to view blogs and news together to to separate them out. You can also opt to view them as ordered by freshness or attention (this is calculated as a weighted rank based on time, number of links, rate of new links, Technorati Authority, and the Technorati Authority of linking blogs. It can change over time). Headlines are also given an authority rating. Authority refers to the number of blogs linking to a website in the last six months. The higher the number, the more Technorati Authority the blog has. I signed up to Technorati and this blog has now been claimed so that Technorati will definitely spider it. I didn't attempt to insert the html code necessary for tagging as when I tried to insert coding to add a technorati widget to this blog's sidebar it wouldn't work so I didn't want to go thru that fuss again. Technorati is certainly a tool worthwhile using for anyone interested in finding blogs or posts on topics of interest to themselves.