Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Thing 13: Tagging
My own slowness actually helped me out with this "thing." When I read the Tagging post for 23 things, my initial reaction was "nay nay" I don't care for tagging, it is anarchy, I like controlled vocabularly, etc etc. But then I took a class this summer on graphic novels and experienced my own library catalog frustration. I needed to find a manga title to read for my class and I used some website resources to find suggestions on titles. I searched the catalog for a few but nowhere in the record did the word "manga" appear. I was unsure if I had the right title, so I dragged myself up to the 5th floor and discovered A LOT of manga titles that never appear in the catalog, if one searches for keyword: manga, unless it is in the title. Our library catalog has recently incorporated Encore to create a more user centered experience of a catalog interface. Tag clouds, popular choices, relevant searches, etc. Users can search the catalog and create tags to better define and refine titles. I have tagged several titles with "manga" and rated several works within the starring system. I think we should encourage user tagging of library resources as a complement to controlled vocabularly.
Thing 12: Twitter
Once again, my best laid plans collided with grad school, full time job, and sanity. So I am woefully behind on 23 things, but I'm determined to finish, even if it's in December and I've lost my chance for a completion certificate.
Oh Twitter, you are a fascinating demon. The last time I heard about you, well, when don't I hear about you(?!) it was last night on the drive home listening to NPR reporting that Paula Abdul announced on her Twitter account that she is leaving American Idol.
I'm not sure how I feel about Twitter, most of the people I "follow" on Twitter are addicts and tell me every single banal activity they are in the midst of: "getting gas" "on the way to lunch" but as I, once again extol the glories of Mr. Stephen Fry, his tweets are fantastic, witty and engaging. Of course my tweets tended to fall on the annoying and banal ("finished my class project" "watching Frasier--again") but as much as I am annoyed by the world's obsession with Twitter I am heartened by the recent use of protesters in Iran who used Twitter to expose the situation to the rest of the world when websites and news organizations are blocked and restricted. The tweets also protested media coverage of the situation, especially CNN. My favorite analysis of the situation: "As much talk as there is about Twitter and other social media supplanting the likes of CNN in covering breaking news, they're really another source rather than a replacement—and Twitter users know that as well as anyone else. Thus, they want—and demand—big news organizations to step up, nimbly and responsively, to cover fast-changing events like this."
Iran's protests
Oh Twitter, you are a fascinating demon. The last time I heard about you, well, when don't I hear about you(?!) it was last night on the drive home listening to NPR reporting that Paula Abdul announced on her Twitter account that she is leaving American Idol.
I'm not sure how I feel about Twitter, most of the people I "follow" on Twitter are addicts and tell me every single banal activity they are in the midst of: "getting gas" "on the way to lunch" but as I, once again extol the glories of Mr. Stephen Fry, his tweets are fantastic, witty and engaging. Of course my tweets tended to fall on the annoying and banal ("finished my class project" "watching Frasier--again") but as much as I am annoyed by the world's obsession with Twitter I am heartened by the recent use of protesters in Iran who used Twitter to expose the situation to the rest of the world when websites and news organizations are blocked and restricted. The tweets also protested media coverage of the situation, especially CNN. My favorite analysis of the situation: "As much talk as there is about Twitter and other social media supplanting the likes of CNN in covering breaking news, they're really another source rather than a replacement—and Twitter users know that as well as anyone else. Thus, they want—and demand—big news organizations to step up, nimbly and responsively, to cover fast-changing events like this."
Iran's protests
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