Thing 11: Tagging and Del.icio.us

Sometimes I feel like a slow learner. I set up a Del.icio.us account a while ago and saw it useful for preserving and getting access to bookmarks regardless of which computer I was using. Now I'm starting to appreciate the value of tagging as a way to make those sites useful and easier to find as I add ever more sites to my Del.icio.us account. Since I have many different interests, I can use the tags to find what I'm seeking much more quickly. Being a reference person rather than a cataloger I feel empowered to add labels of interest to me and perhaps others without having to consult the Library of Congress Subject Headings.

First I tagged a few of my more recent blog entries to see how that worked. Very simple and easy to do in blogger.com. I then explored Del.icio.us to see how others used tagging and social bookmarking. I have seen tag clouds in blog entries and now I know how easy it is to create one. My own Del.icio.us account does not have enough sites and tags to make a dramatic cloud. Most of the tags look about the same size. Now that I know how to use Del.icio.us I will add more bookmarked sites and tag more assertively.

I can see how this process could be very useful for my own personal research projects and also for collaborative work projects. I was impressed by the Minn23 Del.icio.us site. A very fun and useful thing. On to number 12!

Thing 10: Bunny explores wikis

I am really drawn to the idea of using a wiki for subject guides, like the St. Joseph County Public Library. Our library has lots of subject guides. I could see that this would be useful to our researchers. The book lovers wiki is very attractive. I found much useful information on the Library Success wiki, structured in such a way that I could find topics of interest. I didn't find the Library Bloggers Wiki either terribly useful or interesting.

There was quite a range in the Minnesota wikis. The Educational Heritage Project seems to be very well developed, one of the advantages of having a limited but committed group working on the project. MPR's Minnewiki has some good information, but many of the articles are stubs. That's a good way to start a wiki and try to attract others to add and enhance the information. There was almost nothing to the Beekeeping in Minnesota wiki -- just a page linking to a national wiki. The MN 150 wiki obviously had a lot of web development, which shows in the more sophisticated presentation and layout as well as the completeness and organization of entries.

I left a comment on the 23 things on a stick wiki but found it like a messy scrapbook.

I did some editing and added an entry on placeography, a house and building wiki .http://www.placeography.org/ I added an entry about the John F. Eisenmenger house: http://www.placeography.org/index.php?title=John_F._Eisenmenger_house%2C_1015_Mound_Street%2C_Saint_Paul%2C_Minnesota_%28Razed%29

I can see the potential for collaboration using wikis to share knowledge with others. Libraries can use them both internally for planning and publicly to provide information to their clientele and engage library users in sharing their knowledge, ideas, and opinions.

Thing 9: Collaboration Tools

I've been a regular user of Google docs for a couple of years. I find it a great place to keep works in progress such as memos, creative writing, blog posts, reference letters, and other musings. It's convenient to be able to access it while I'm at the reference desk, at home, or at the public library. Otherwise, I have a tendency to not do any work-related writing unless I'm sitting in my office. One test for me is if a tool adds to my productivity and sense of organization and accomplishment versus being another source of distraction. Google docs definitely falls into the first category. I was impressed with the larger number of features offered by Zoho writer (judging by all the icons at the top). However, to be realistic, I'm more likely to use Google docs because my personal e-mail is gmail and when I chat it's with Google chat. I will share both tools with my writing group.

I have done collaboration on a proposal with a colleague in a distant state. Google docs worked well for that. I found the editing exercise both frustrating and annoying. Not so much fun for Bunny.

Thing 8: Sharing my creations

I created a slideshow on thumbstacks, which seemed clunky and primitive. I had to consult the helps just to add a slide. My colleagues have created very attractive and informative slideshows on slideshare which were easy to access. That could be a nice way to share presentations with students in our class or others wanting to learn how to use certain resources in our library.

For picture sharing I loved Big Huge Labs and played around with Picture Trail. My slide show is below. In my personal life I use Kodak Gallery to share photos with friends and family and to order prints. The Warholizer feature on Big Huge Labs is awesome and would make a great library poster or flyer. I could also use it to highlight favorite pictures of favorite loved ones. For documents I'm a big fan of Google docs, using it to work on conference proposals, blog drafts, and even the beginnings of a novel.

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