Library Thing

Library thing is another free site that you can use from any computer provided you have the interet. Unlike delicious and cite u like its all about recreational books. There are a lot of things you can do with this site. It lets you find books and add them to your library and sort them with tags. You can write book reviews, talk to other members, add your friends, search your local library...the list goes on. I think the best thing about this site is that it will make recommendations to you based on authors and genres of books you already have in your collection.

Unlike cite u like and delicious it doesnt include detailed reference information for books but is aimed as a more social site. I havent been able to transfer data from this site to endnote but if someone else finds out how, let me know!

Cite I like

So far I think I've found my favourite social bookmarking site. Cite u Like is similar to delicious in that you can use it on any computer as long as you have internet explorer, firefox or safari and its free. It allows you to search through online databases for academic articles and post articles you've found on the web. While searching through their journals I found several regarding libraries including library career development and library hi tech (one which I've already found helpful for other assignments.)

You can also find the more popular articles by seeing how many times they've been tagged. I'm just extremely annoyed I didn't know about this when I was studying pyschology in my undergraduate degree, it is so easy to find irrelevant information on the web but social bookmarking sites really help you find the useful articles. It also helps you find users who have the same interests as you and allows you to share information with them.

I was also very impressed by how easy it was to export reference information to endnote. Just one click and it automatically takes me to my endnote library. It also allows me to pick which style of referencing I want.

However I feel I've only just scratched the surface, once I get into the habbit of using them I'm sure I'll discover many more advantages. As someone hoping to be a librarian I'm ashamed to say that so far Im not finding the need to visit the university library because I keep finding so many great articles and sources online through the use of these sites.

Delicious

In regards to the questions set out on the Web 2.0 Adventure page, I thought I better mention that yes, Delicious is Free to join, doesn't require extra software and will help you search the web for whatever your after. It is similar to My Favourites except its better because your bookmarks will appear on any computer.

Delicioius

I've had a look at Delicious this afternoon and have found it to be a very useful way to keep all my reference resources in the one place. I've been using it on the University computers and am now making use of it at home. I'm starting to recognise the potential benefits in keeping all my resources on this site. Firstly my files on my home computer and my usb stick are no longer going to be clogged up with articles Ive been saving to them. Its also another way of ensuring I'll still be able to access them if I ever have problems with my own computer or lose my Usb stick.

So far Delicious seems to be fulfilling the creators claims, its also a great way of finding people with similar interests and allows you to add friends to your network which then gives you access to their tags. I managed to find Joel on delicious but haven't found Mei yet. Mei, Is your user name the same as your blog username?

By the way, I've been experimenting with End note and haven't found a way to transfer records from my delicious account to my Endnote library. Can either of you shed some light on the situation?

Week 4 Tasks

Hi guys, I've just been reading through the tasks for week 4 on Social bookmarking. We have to investigate Delicious but also 2 other sites. I'm suggesting Library thing and cite u like. What do you think?

Libraries on Facebook

I've been looking for library accounts on Facebook with the use of friend finder and am finding it difficult. I think its neccessary to know the specific name the library had used to set up the account or their email address. Libraries would need to do a lot of promotion if a facebook page were to be useful for them.

However I have found some useful library applications through the use of Search. For example Libraries Australia has an application you can add to your page which allows you to do a search for books in all Australian Libraries. (Quite useful, I think.) You can also become a member of other library related groups.

Personally I prefer the idea of having library applications available for use on my own page rather than to be "friends" with a library. If I wanted to get regular updates on what was happening at my local library I would look up their website. Speaking of receiving regular updates, Twitter might be a more useful tool for libraries. 140 characters is more than enough for a library to publicise an authors visit or a childrens reading. So many possibilities to consider!

Facebook Hurrah!

I'm getting an early start on week 3 of the Web 2.0 adventure because I was extremely excited that my addiction to facebook is no longer a waste of time but actually homework! Although I'm very familiar with this social networking tool I would like to add that under the guise of study and reseach I have discovered that I can arrange my friends into groups. This in turn allows me to stop some friends from seeing messages or photos that I dont want them to see. A very useful piece of information when considering that photos of last saturday night that my friends thought were funny might not neccessarily amuse my brothers and sister.

I've also added my buddies Mei and Joel.

Anyway I've got a bit more research to do on how facebook could be used effectively by libraries...I've seen a few examples so far and am not entirely convinced that this is the right Web 2.0 tool for libraries to be using. Further research is needed.

RSS, podcasts and Wikis

Week 2 has been a busy week. I've signed myself up for google reader which has enabled me to better keep a track of my buddies blogs as well as several of the library sites I've found interesting including LisNews and Library stuff. Ive also added tripple j podcasts. Although sadly I've discovered that the speakers on my computer are not working and that I must cull some of the music on my ipod to make room for podcasts...This could take a while.

I also had my first experience editing a wikipedia site this morning and have realised that the information on these sites is a lot more reliable than what I thought. I think the use of soft security (sort of like a neighbourhood watch on sites) is a great way to ensure that information on sites remains correct. I've also decided that having my own account is a much better option than open editing because it allows me to keep my privacy.

I chose to do a little editing on a wikipedia site about Manangatang, my home town. The information was accurate but I felt that it could be expanded upon. By the way, while I was searching wikipedia sites I found a great travel site http://wikitravel.org/en. So much more up to date than any travel book.

Library Technology Blog

Ok, so I chose to have a look at the Library blog, Tame the Web: Libraries, Technology and people. First of all I have to say that it has given me a lot of ideas for my other assignment on how social networking sites can be used in libraries. I think this blog is an excellent way for librarians to communicate with each other and raise issues or concerns. For example there was one post from a librarian in a rural community who was having trouble getting technological advice on Web 2.0 technology. Putting this concern over the internet would give her a much quicker response than any other type of method. However I also found from reading through several blogs that there are many ideas on which web 2.0 technologies to use and how to use them. But as yet there is no real agreement. The fact that some people were using twitter to discuss issues while others were blogging has created confusion. Clearly things would be made easier if all libraries could reach a consensus.

Editing

Ok, I've added a bit of stuff to my profile to make it a little bit more interesting. I've got to say that Facebook is a lot easier to move around on and find everything.

Introduction

Hi, first of all I want to apologise for my boring title. It was the first thing that popped into my head.

I think the assigment is definitely different to what I'm used to, but that is not neccessarily a bad thing. I can see a lot more relevance in learning about Web 2.0 technology by actually using them rather than writing an essay about them. Especially since I'm relatively ignorant about a lot of Web 2.0.