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.

Visit My Photos - 5 Pics
My Album

Two entries in one day: Bunny's conference day is a blogging opportunity

It's time to try some new things. Sometimes I get busy and get in a rut. Today a new thing is text color for this posting and adding a photo of my spring flower pots from my Kodak Gallery account. I have a Flickr account but thus far use Kodak Gallery for sharing photos with friends and family and ordering prints. I'm working now on Thing #8, creating a slide show. I'm committed to finishing the 23 things and claiming my prize.

Bunny attends a conference

I'm back at my alma mater, Macalester, to attend the Midwest Library Technology Conference 2008. The Web 2.0 session is focusing on several of the 23 things. Fortunately I am familiar with some of them. However, there is so much to learn. Oops, I'd better turn my attention back to the presenter.

Communication: Thing #7

Our library has been using e-mail quite intensely for over 10 years. We answer a lot of reference questions that way, help researchers use our website more effectively, and communicate with each other about news and ongoing issues. I get so many e-mails from colleagues, researchers, and external sources that managing e-mail and finding relevant communications is sometimes challenging.

I haven't done a lot of chat, instant messaging, or text messaging. I've done Google chat via my gmail account at my home. I have received a few text messages on my cell phone, some in error. Without frequently doing it I'm slow to comprehend the shorthand and to enter information. Much of what I do at work is often very involved. I certainly wouldn't want to have complicated interactions about copyright, permissions, or large manuscript collections via text or IM. We've had a few security issues where IM might have been a good way to alert other staff rather than pushing the panic button or making a call that the irate patron may overhear.

I've participated in several Minitex webinars, including the Library 2.0 one and the Best of Online Reference. I find them to be well done professionally, but they don't feel very interactive to me. I'm not one for saying much beyond my name in such a set-up. Web conferencing seems to have good potential for outreach with remote researchers who are unable to attend our classes in the library.