Thing #16-So what's in a wiki?

I learned so much by doing this "thing." So many people, like myself, associate wiki with Wikipedia. I never knew the advantages of belonging to a wiki. I can see many uses for creating a wiki among library people. A wiki could be created within school district media personnel to make a quick stop for all library needs, such as: series websites, best books for children, lesson plans, designing a new media center etc. As more resources are found members could add them to the wiki.

This would be also be great for classwork. Instead of e-mailing work to their teachers students could post to a wiki. The teacher could make it private so only he/she could view it or the whole class could have access. Also, the teacher could post assignments, resources to use, and guidelines. This could be a real time saver.

I think the more specific topics a wiki covers the less chance of people posting negative/damaging feedback. For example, the ALA conference wiki covers all necessary topics for the conference. It listed places to go and instructions to the conference. Only people who are interested in this area were posting. All the postings appeared very helpful and positive.

I am looking forward to exploring the wide realm of wiki.

Thing #15-On Library 2.0 & Web 2.0

I read the article Away from the "icebergs" by Rick Anderson. I agree with his comments about the direction libraries are going. They are understaffed and some are poorly equipped. This is especially true in the school setting. Media specialists are asked to teach 21st century learning skills yet they are not given the necessary tools needed. Many schools are going the way of replacing certified personnel if favor of classified. Many of the classified people are very capable of teaching these skills but are not given the proper training or assistance. Some schools are even eliminating the library program. I feel in order for a program to succeed appropriate resources and help must be given. It is imperative that administration understand the importance of the media center to education.

Thing #14-Getting not-so-technical with Technorati

I did some searching on Technorati for Hawaiian travel. They were pages of hits. I can find this helpful and seeing other people's blogs on a topic I am interested in. I am leary of putting my blog out there for everyone to see. I think I will hold out on this aspect.

Thing #12-Make your own personalized search engine

I was able to get into Rollyo. I found it cumbersome and hard to navigate. I was able to create my own search engine.....library sites....without registering, which was nice. I went back into the website and it was hard to locate what I had just created. I'm not sure if I would find this an asset to my needs. I like the idea of having everything in one place but will use Delicious more as it seems more user friendly.

Thing !3-Tagging, folksomonies, & social bookmarking in Del.icio.us

I signed on for a Delicious account. I use Firefox and added the add-0n buttons for Firefox. Everything looked fine. I then did the next step of importing my bookmarks into Delicious. It doubled everything on my toolbar. I ended up having to unstall all the add-ons. I need to find out to just install the add-0n buttons. I liked being able to tag different areas so if I just want to go to my copyright websites I just search for copyright. I believe this will come in very handy when I need to do research. Being able to communicate with others who have similiar topics can be a great resource.