Week 4 assignment: RSS

I used Google Reader to subscribe to two RSS feeds: NEJM and  JAMIA.  

I understand that some librarians find it helpful to use readers to scan their environment and stay on top of trends.  I wish I felt like this would be a worthwhile investment of my time most days.  As my job gets busier, I have had to give up reading my favorite listserv summaries daily, which I miss.  Something has to go when one is prioritizing one’s tasks, and reading mass distributed RSS feeds and listserv summaries is a reasonable time-sucking daily task to cut, in my opinion.

On the other hand, one hates to become a laggard on the new adopter front in the technology arena.  I guess taking the occassional class on new technologies is the best compromise I can reach.

thoughts about the utility of delicious

I like the diversity of the KU Med Dykes delicious page.  I can definitely see the potential for “knowledge aggegration and collective sharing” (to quote the guy from the podcast) in the hospital.  This is a great opportunity for some creative thinking.  How can the librarian– as boundary spanner and connecting point between departments regarding their research interests, etc.– “leverage that power” to create value for the organization?  It is an enticing and intriguing question.

“13 Things” class assignment 2

Looking forward to the 13 things class.  Am already rusty again on the technologies sampled in the class last year.  Thanks for offering another class in the online environment, Sharon and Rebecca!

MLA CE Week 3

 My impression after today’s experience with social networking:  I can see why it is popular with young people, or people with a lot of time on their hands.     In response to the question, how could it be used by MLA members, I guess for committee and section work, it might be better than sending mass emails to committee members to get committee work done.  Should my library have a Facebook or MySpace page?  I staff a one person hospital library, and my stakeholders are not big users of these technologies.  If they become big users, then it may become a productive endeavor to which to devote my time.  Regarding privacy concerns:  sure, there are concerns anytime one is distributing personal info into a public forum.  Regarding my likes and dislikes about my experience with Facebook and MySpace:  I like knowing that I have familiarized myself with both technologies.  Realistically, it probably is not the most effective or viable way for me to build or sustain any lasting connections my professional colleagues, and it is not a communication tool used by my friends  my own age.

MLA CE Week 2

What is the difference between a blog and a wiki?

The function of a wiki is to facilitate a collaborative conversation about a given topic.  Value is added and created when multiple visitors edit and add to the wiki.  The power of the wiki lies in the collaborative nature of this social networking tool.  A blog is  less dialog-driven and collaborative than a wiki.  A blog has more of a “one-to-many” communication function. 

What sort of things might be better suited for a blog and better suited for a wiki?  

A blog is better suited for the following sort of things: posting  links to journal table of contents that may be of interest to a specific department at the hospital; posting a list of the latest books available in the library; posting updates about library services and hours. 

A wiki is better suited for the following things: communicating with other departments about a new interdisciplinary or multidisciplinary service or program at the institution;  building a core list of online resources and favorite web sites for a department, with the help of the staff of that department.  

MLA CE Week 1

I think that I could use RSS feeds in my library to reach key stakeholders.  I could help these libary patrons set up readers at their desks, and subscribe to my blog.  I could have a different blog for each stakeholder/department/area of interest.  I think that library patrons may use the RSS feeds we set up for them to keep abreast of latest developments in their areas of interest.

Welcome

Welcome to the blog I have created for the March 10–May 4, 2008  Medical Library Association’s Social Networking Software Task Force class, Web 2.0 101: Introduction to Second Generation Web Tools.

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