Oh my, I started instant messaging a long long time ago, 1998. Before we married, my husband and I conducted a very long distance relationship with the help of AOL's IM. He was in UK I was in TX. I don't IM as much as I used to, I think I burnt out. I do have IM capabilities through Yahoo and I have used the Facebook chat option.
For libraries I think IM is a great way to provide virtual reference and assistance. At my library we offer general chat reference and the subject librarians have virtual presence for subject specific reference. What I love are the questions from users inside the library, "I'm on 6th floor, where do I find X?" just as much as users who are IMing from home. It's all about getting to where our users need information and assistance--point of need! (sorry I've been reading a lot about virtual reference for my class) :) Also, it's fantastic for users who live miles away from a library, feel uncomfortable communicating orally on the phone, and who simply prefer to be more anonymous.
So my current IM service is Yahoo Messenger and my username is viaggio74.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Thing 14: Delicious and why I'm so behind
Okay, so I've skipped Things 11, 12 + 13, I will do them, honestly, I've just gotten so behind with work and school and also because I have a very negative attitude about Twitter that I haven't worked myself up into a positive happy place to do thing 12 just yet. Now Thing 14, already done it! About a year ago one of my MLS instructors mentioned Delicious and I thought it sounded really cool especially as I travel to several different computer terminals during the day. I have my computer at my desk, the Spec Coll reference computer, downstairs on the main reference desk, and of course my home computer. With Thing 14, I realized how I abandoned Delicious even though it could really help me. So I'm going to revitalize my account right now! Of course there are only 3 sad little bookmarks but I'm going to keep adding--it's my July resolution!
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Thing 10: Ning
After watching the tutorial and browsing on Ning I was really excited about the possibilities of creating your own social network and creating profiles for each network. The flexibility and customization options are so cool and I thought 'this could kick Facebook/Myspace butt', oh but then I read the blog post about Ning and the information it is using to directly market members. There's a more recent blog post "Ning to Clients" from the same site 23 Things sent us that reveals even more devious actions by Ning. I'm less impressed.
But I'm going to go back to my initial optimism and muse on the networks I discovered. On the ALA network page I found a colleague of mine and was able to find her blog as well. I shifted over the Texas SLA network, not a lot of activity and browsed through Lone Arrangers a network for solo archivists. They have a really creative page I like their group "Archivists Adoring Austen" which led me to search "jane austen" and I found this odd network: "Liberty Jane Studios" which is dedicated to people who love creating/buying trendy clothes for an American Girl Doll: Liberty Jane. Wow, that is very specific. I don't know who Liberty Jane is but there is a lot of activity on this network. Huh.
But I'm going to go back to my initial optimism and muse on the networks I discovered. On the ALA network page I found a colleague of mine and was able to find her blog as well. I shifted over the Texas SLA network, not a lot of activity and browsed through Lone Arrangers a network for solo archivists. They have a really creative page I like their group "Archivists Adoring Austen" which led me to search "jane austen" and I found this odd network: "Liberty Jane Studios" which is dedicated to people who love creating/buying trendy clothes for an American Girl Doll: Liberty Jane. Wow, that is very specific. I don't know who Liberty Jane is but there is a lot of activity on this network. Huh.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Thing 9: More Facebook
More Facebook. For this "thing" I needed to join three groups. Well I'm cheating slightly because I've already join a few groups, but they are library related! :)
1. The London Library Staff Alumni (because I used to work at this fabulous library in London and I miss it so) The London Library
2. NextGen Librarians--I actually joined this because 23 Things and a blog I read, plus I know one of the admins, she's a fantastic librarian!
3. Stephen Fry Friendship by Proxy Group--because I sincerely adore Stephen Fry and he is such an advocate for libraries and is all around Awesome! And whenever I think about Stephen I have to watch my favorite QI clip (his tv show Quite Interesting).
I also am a fan of my library: University of Houston Libraries. As I mentioned in my earlier post about Facebook I'm not one for joining alumni groups, especially High School, there's a reason you move away from high school. The friends I have from HS days are the ones I want to keep. I've also discovered the Facebook can create quite a lot of bad feeling amongst "friends." Example: A friend of mine shares other mutual friends and has been reading their posts about getting together for lunch but they never include her. Result: feelings hurt.
Now I don't want to be completely negative about Facebook because I do think there is potential to reach out to library users, provide reference though social networks and market library services and events.
1. The London Library Staff Alumni (because I used to work at this fabulous library in London and I miss it so) The London Library
2. NextGen Librarians--I actually joined this because 23 Things and a blog I read, plus I know one of the admins, she's a fantastic librarian!
3. Stephen Fry Friendship by Proxy Group--because I sincerely adore Stephen Fry and he is such an advocate for libraries and is all around Awesome! And whenever I think about Stephen I have to watch my favorite QI clip (his tv show Quite Interesting).
I also am a fan of my library: University of Houston Libraries. As I mentioned in my earlier post about Facebook I'm not one for joining alumni groups, especially High School, there's a reason you move away from high school. The friends I have from HS days are the ones I want to keep. I've also discovered the Facebook can create quite a lot of bad feeling amongst "friends." Example: A friend of mine shares other mutual friends and has been reading their posts about getting together for lunch but they never include her. Result: feelings hurt.
Now I don't want to be completely negative about Facebook because I do think there is potential to reach out to library users, provide reference though social networks and market library services and events.
Thing 8
I succumbed to Facebook about a year ago after a friend of mine in England invited me. I have kept my list of "friends" pretty small, because basically I don't need or want to be friends with everyone I went to high school (there's a reason I moved away from my hometown) or everyone I went to college. As it may be very obvious, I am a very private person and revealing everything about my life through a social network is not natural for me. But it has been a great way to keep in touch with people from England and the friends I really want to keep in touch with. My brother has a Facebook account and he has over 800 friends, how is this possible? I also know people on Facebook who want to have as many "friends" as possible regardless of the connection. I have a few work colleagues who are my friends on Facebook, but I've also tried to keep this to a minimum because I worry about revealing what I consider personal (aka not-related or work appropriate) to my boss. I'm not on Facebook posting about my late night clubbing or how wasted I am, but I don't want or need that much togetherness.
After I joined I got my mom to join because it's the only way she can keep in touch with her granddaughter and my brother's family. They live on Facebook. They are obsessed with Twitter (Thing 12--should be interesting) but do I need to know that my sister-in-law is driving through town listening to music? Really??? As Hugh Laurie says: "As I look around my friends' tweets I see banality on all sides. I don't understand the purpose of it"--thank you, Bertie.
I can get very freaked out about privacy issues online and after reading the instructions on North Texas 23 Things Blog about not using your email account to find friends on Facebook (which is what I did!) I'm now wondering what freakish big brother information Facebook is compiling about me and the fact that I used the "Which Simpson character are you" application last week???
After I joined I got my mom to join because it's the only way she can keep in touch with her granddaughter and my brother's family. They live on Facebook. They are obsessed with Twitter (Thing 12--should be interesting) but do I need to know that my sister-in-law is driving through town listening to music? Really??? As Hugh Laurie says: "As I look around my friends' tweets I see banality on all sides. I don't understand the purpose of it"--thank you, Bertie.
I can get very freaked out about privacy issues online and after reading the instructions on North Texas 23 Things Blog about not using your email account to find friends on Facebook (which is what I did!) I'm now wondering what freakish big brother information Facebook is compiling about me and the fact that I used the "Which Simpson character are you" application last week???
Things 6 & 7
Luckily for me I can quickly play catch up on these things because I already have Google Reader and a lot of RSS feeds. My main priority at the moment are job feeds. I'm graduating in December and will have to find a "real grown-up Librarian" job and I'm preparing myself for what's out there. I also receive a lot of Library feeds from LISNews, Librarian Internet Index, Tame the Web, Library Stuff, Librarian in Black, etc. And of course my celebrity gossip sites: Go Fug Yourself
Thing 5--Finally!
I finally got around to doing Image generator, I hate being behind! One of my all time fave films is This is Spinal Tap and if you know it you know this sign:
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