Thing 5: Another go at Delicious

Now I am treading on thin ice. The portfolio that I presented to graduate from my MLIS program in June called upon the glories of Delicious and its wonderful tagging system to defend my position that library's children's catalogs should allow children to tag books in the catalogs in order to facilitate easier search and retrieval. My dirty little secret, however, is that I never cared much for the way Delicious employs tagging. This might be partly because I personally have a hard time summing up content in one word (I love language, and when I can I even use words from other languages to describe thoughts or objects because I feel they express the idea more accurately). Conversely, using one-word tags to sum up concepts seems primitive and way too inaccurate. I get that Delicious provides access to saved links from any browser with an internet connection, but I haven't really needed that capability as of yet. Plus (and here's a real dirty little secret that I alluded to in my last post), it's really not a pretty website. Okay, I admit it, I'm internet-shallow. If it's not eye catching I probably won't be interested! I can't help it, I'm a visual person! But god help me the Delicious blue, black and stark white offend me to my core! Talk about a major design faux pas! Okay, okay, I'll try to look past it...

That said, one Delicious feature I like is being able to call up all bookmarked sites by clicking on a tag (the one major function or purpose of tagging). While the visually unappealing bookmarks page you're subjected to seems both ugly and chaotic, clicking a tag will immediately arrange those tagged bookmarks in a tidy little group, which obviously appeals to the organizing side of my chosen profession.

Another feature that shows promise is locating other users' bookmarks via your own. For example, I found a fabulous book via a blog I now follow from clicking on "recipes" in my own tags, and then "See all recipes bookmarks in Recent." Fabulous. My only concern with this type of flagrant acceptance of other users' recommendations is that I don't know those other users from Adam. When I try something new I like it to be highly recommended by a trusted source. For example, a recommendation from FoodTruckJunkie on Yelp for Pie N' Burger in Pasadena doesn't mean I will enjoy dining at Pie N' Burger, since FoodTruckJunkie also loves Burger Continental which I find is a sorry excuse for a dining establishment. I haven't yet found a way to determine whether bookmarks from other Delicious users can be trusted. I guess I'll have to tool around some more.

One question on the 21 Things blog I found intriguing was how this 2.o technology can be used to help students who use the library. OMG are you kidding, it's like spark notes but credible (because you put the list of resources together yourself) and kids will love you for it! Imagine a kid and his parent coming in for resources for a report on Canada. You will of course lead said patrons to your shelves, select a couple age-appropriate titles, and then print a few lines from the WorldBook Kids encyclopedia to supplement the textual information. However, in the world of Library 2.0 imagine that in your more quiet reference desk moments you'd gathered a Delicious list of online resources on Canada and tagged them as such. Now all you have to do is set said student at a computer and invite her or him to click away and presto! they can do their own research! How fun to be able to point a kid to such a website!

Too bad it's not a pretty website...

Thing 4: So many great blogs, so little time!

The Thing 4 task is to sign up for and start using google reader, which I did about 6 months ago. It was not my first reader experience. A few years ago a dear friend of mine recommended FeedDemon as a first-time reader, and I really loved it. I used it pretty regularly to keep current on my favorite blogs (at that time mostly craft blogs like WiseCraft) until grad school began at which point I had no time to read anything other than assigned articles and textbooks. But this assignment has gotten me all jazzed about blogs again, mostly by making me think about what reader I prefer and why, and by suggesting some pretty awesome blogs to follow.

So I started by tooling around with google reader again. It came pretty highly recommended by 21 Things, so I figured it was worth a shot, but, try as I may I just didn't cotton to it. So instead I decided to start over with FeedDemon. I began by re-installing just to make a fresh start of it. The install was super easy and asked me whether I wanted to sync to Google Reader. I did, and it handily imported all my feeds with the click of the mouse (and the provision of my google account information). And so far me likey. It defaults to a view of all unread blog entries in newest date order, but you can also view by blog. You can also manipulate how many entries show on your screen, and how much of each entry you would like to see. It just feels more organized (and more organizable) to me. I especially like that FeedDemon is its own program that I open from my desktop, and that it isn't another tab I have to have open in my web browser. Plus, it's prettier.

Next I started checking out the blogs 21 Things suggested. Some of them I'd seen, some I had not. I am now following Bees Knees Reads, which led me to the delightful Mouses Houses, which has nothing to do with libraries but is so freaking cute! I also started following my local library's news feed. They don't provide a FeedDemon follow option so I followed them with my google account then resynced and presto chango there it was. Yes, me likey FeedDemon. We shall be friends once again.

Thing 3: Technology and the Ancients (i.e., My Aged Relatives)

I recently had the pleasure of hosting my parents and two of my dad's sisters here in LA and had the opportunity to witness the crimes they commit against technology. Yes, crimes I say, in my very own home. Now, I am not the techie guru that some of my contemporaries are, but I do have a trusty laptop, know my way around Adobe Photoshop Elements, regularly post photos to facebook from my smartphone, have several tabs open on Firefox at any given time, and etc. So watching my aunties typing at criminally slow speeds, usually into a text box that was never selected, really shocked my sensibilities. (I won't even mention how all my lovingly saved tabs had mysteriously disappeared one morning when I logged on with not even a trace in the recently closed tabs history). And these people aren't exactly as aged as this blog entry's title implies (they're between 50 and 60 years old. If these people commit crimes then my 84 year old grandfather commits attrocities).

As a recent graduate of the MLIS Children's Services track it has been drilled into my head that children and teens not only need access to, but instruction in technology. But since I'd paid little attention to adult services I'd never given much thought to how necessary technology instruction is for adults. Perhaps at the dawn of retirement and the golden years technology literacy isn't as vital for my older relatives as it is for our children, but why should they miss out on what technology has to offer?

These musings led me to wonder whether teaching technology literacy differs between children and adults. And, gasp, could children be used to teach adults in a library setting? It's not unusual to have one group of children teach another group, mixed classrooms employ this tactic all the time. Would it work with adults? Has it been tried? I suspect the children in question would have to be screened for patience, amongst other qualifications...

Late To My Own Education

I recently had the honor of graduating with some of the most interesting, forward thinking, and engaging librarians 2010 had to offer and thanks to my association with them I am now part of ALSC's 21 Things program for children's librarians. Yay! Unfortunately the program started on Monday and I am just now getting started. So let me get my excuses out of the way: my husband and I are trying to buy a house (REO, don't ask!) and I'm currently in the 6th month of incubating our first child. Nevertheless, I am excited to be part of this project and to see where it will take me! One thing down, twenty to go!