Instant Messaging

I've responded to instant messages before, but never initiated them. Today I sent IMs, and in the process, learned more about Office Communicator. Instant Messaging can be seen (to paraphrase Monk) as both a gift and a curse. It is a great means of quick, efficient communication. On the other hand, it can be seen as one more interruption in our already chopped up lives. Like many things, it is a good tool, but it can be abused.
I like the idea of an IM reference service. To me, that is meeting the desires of our public. However, the name itself implies "instant" service as well as instant messaging. An IM reference service cannot be offered unless one or more librarians can be dedicated to the service for whatever hours it is in operation. And, given the economic status of most libraries, that won't happen without serious rearrangement of the budget.

DIGG

I think I'm on social media overload. I created a Digg account, looked at the website, looked at some of the articles, reviewed the tutorial (all while the Cowboys were beating the Eagles).

How are Digg and public libraries similar? Well, libraries (at least ones with a philosophy similar to ours) attempt to provide the public with the materials that are the most in demand. Maybe not the most educational, or the most edifying, or the most intellectual, but what people in our community desire to read, hear, learn. I would say that is what Digg also provides in its content.

Does Digg's approach to the news change the expectations of the public about what qualifies as "news"? I don't think it changes the expectations of the public as much as it reflects the public's expectations. Digg's approach seems to be to promote news that is interesting to the public, not necessarily news that is important for the public.

Does that mindset affect the way people might think about public libraries? If the mindset is that the public determines what is newsworthy, it could also extend to libraries: the public determines what is worth reading. Or is it mindset that emphasizes "social media"? It's possible that such a mindset could result in a greater reliance on "wiki" resources than on more credible sources. I think that librarians must recognize the social media trend and capitalize on it to attract and retain customers, but we must also provide and promote the professional credibility we offer in our services and resources that cannot be assured with social/community sources.

Twitter and Libraries

I set up a Twitter account (maryfrisco) and played around with it for a while. Reading Trending Topics and searching key words was interesting, but I don't know that it was all that fruitful for the time spent. Librarians might gain ideas from Trending Topics for programming or collection development, but it seems like a lot of searching and a lot of reading in order to do that. Libraries with Twitter accounts could regularly tweet announcements, such as the ones on our flat screens and screensavers. We could also send out info on new books, CDs, DVDs, programming, changes in hours, etc.

However, I think the jury is still out on Twitter. According to the CommonCraft video, Twitter is for filling in those blanks between blogs and e-mail. Who has time to do all that??? And how widespread are the demographics for Twitter? I couldn't understand part or all of a majority of the tweets I read. They certainly didn't sound like they were written by people of my generation (or the one after mine).

Photos

I opened a Picasa account and started uploading photos. I'm still confused about the uploading business, because not all the photos I thought I uploaded were actually uploaded. I did manage to create an album on Picasa, and made it public. So, please visit my web album and find out which state park is my favorite and why!

RSS Feeds

I admit, I have not really known what an RSS feed is . . . and now I sorta know! In fact, I added five favorite websites to my "feeds" folder on my Internet Browser. This is cool. I can see now why I have got those "Add to RSS feed?" messages on the Internet (and not knowing what they meant, just ignored them). And yes, there are many ways libraries could untilize this tool. I like the idea of having "Book Club" blogs --- one for each genre readers are interested in. Then readers who like to write (post) and read about books in a particular genre could put that blog on an RSS feed so they will always know when there is a new post.
And of course, the librarian who collects for that genre would always post when new books have been put on the shelves, as well as making comments about "noteworthy books" in the genre.

Blog Readers

I have followed the steps to set up the FPL 23 Things Folder and add a couple of subscriptions (thank you, Danny, Carlene, and Larissa). But I think I have more questions than I have answers. Adam and Elizabeth are definitely correct when they say (somewhere in the instructions) that it is important just to spend time working with the tools. TIME! that is the thing I want more of! Or, as some people would suggest, better priortization of time. Okay, I think I am moving forward to Thing 3 now.

Catching up

I'm trying to catch up with 23 Things. Surely it's easier if you just do it week-by-week. Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations are over, that will be my New Year's Resolution.