Reflection

I think the Cam23 programme has definitely taught me a great deal and enabled me to gain a vast amount of potentially useful information. I would have liked to have had the time to investigate each Thing a little further but I'm hoping that I can revisit the Things that I found most useful at a later stage and look at how they can be introduced into the Education Library.

Delicious!

I did quite like this Thing, not so much for personal use because I don't spend enough time on the Internet to make it worthwhile, but for my Library, I definitely think it has potential.

I like the idea of having a page full of useful websites and think it's something worth investigating further. We've been working on creating interactive reading lists on CamTools for a few of our courses and in amongst these are always a list of useful website - perhaps each course could have their own Delicious page....

Slideshare

I liked this and think it is the first really useful 'Thing' for libraries. It has great potential to be extremely useful to readers especially those who are distance learners. Libraries can create slides for all presentations from a brief intro to the Service and searching the OPAC to more in-depth literature searching on databases. I definitely think this is something we should look into in my Library as we have a lot of users who are based some distance away from Cambridge and may find a presentation refresher really useful.

Phil Bradley's presentation, Web 2.0 Tools, contains some really useful ideas for libraries and is definitely worth a look. I don't have any of my own work to share right now but perhaps after looking more closely into this 'Thing' I will have soon!

Click, click, Flickr

I liked Flickr, it was good fun looking at various photos. I searched for my home town, St Neots and found some really nice photos of the river (courtesy of Harriseye).

I think the photos could definitely be used in Library guides, posters and promotional documents and maybe even for a Virtual Tour of the Library.

Tags

Even further behind on Cam23 now but I'm going to try and catch up before the deadline!

Ok, tags, can see the point but I'm not too sure about everyone using their own random words to describe their content. I'm not suggesting blogging sites should have their own Subject Headings but this lack of organisation is anarchy to me!!!

I'm even less sure about tags being used in OPACs. If you are conducting a thorough literature review, you have to be sure that you are retrieving all relevant records so systematic labels/subject headings are vital.

Twitter

Mmmm, Twitter, something I have always avoided until now. Who really wants to read about what people had for breakfast, lunch and dinner....

Not yet used it, so you never know, I may change my mind.

Ok, have finally set up Twitter and am following a few people. I have to say, I can't really see myself returning to this site as there is a risk of getting absorbed in other 'tweeple.'

I can partly see why Libraries are using this but it is reliant on users opting to follow you. It definitely couldn't be used as the only way of communicating with the reader population.

Google Calendar

Have got really behind on the whole Cam23 programme after a weeks holiday so am now frantically trying to catch up!

Much like Doodle, Google Calendar was easy to set up and add to my iGoogle page. Can see the uses for this in a Library context too, especially for a central library such as the UL to clearly advertise what is going on.

We're going to try using the calendar on CamTools for Academic Staff to schedule their library induction sessions but this would be a good alternative if that's not successful.

Doodle

Well Doodle took me 2 attempts as for some reason it didn't work the first time round. Anyway, turned out that it was pretty easy scheduling a meeting/event.

I selected to send the poll out myself (which I didn't receive the first time round). I can see how this would be useful in a work context - saves sending lots and lots of e-mails!! Also added the widget to my iGoogle page in case I need it later.

Also managed to upload a snazzy picture for this blog with the help of Heather's 23 Things!!

Blogging about Blogging!

Well, I'm still not too sure about blogging and certainly don't think it comes naturally to me. It's easy to use but I do feel a bit exposed and seem to spend too much time reading other peoples blogs just to get inspiration. I'm following a few although the wordpress ones are far more difficult to set up and I have only just mastered this after help from leaps and bounds!

It's interesting to see what others think of the "things" and hopefully I'll be able to get some ideas of how they can be used in a work context.

iGoogle and RSS Feeds

Creating iGoogle was fun! It's useful to be able to add all of your frequently visited webpages onto one site. It's also useful to be able to create tabs to collate different groups of information together.

Working at the Education Faculty, the Education feed from the BBC website allows me to keep up-to-date with developments in this area and the library-related sites in my library tag help me to develop my professional knowledge.

However, despite enjoying creating my iGoogle page I can't help thinking that it's little more than a distraction - you could literally spend hours selecting new "stuff" to add or feeding your virtual monkey bananas!! I'm not sure how useful it is for Libraries either. RSS feeds and/or widgets are only useful if individuals add them to their page. Here at Education we send announcements to our staff and students using CamTools - surely it's better to go to the reader than wait for them to come to you!

But perhaps it's all just about changing habits and altering the way in which you are used to locating information. Once you've added your "stuff" iGoogle does save you having to go to a variety of different websites.

23 Things

Web 2.0 technologies are new to me and although I've heard of many, I've never actually used any. Admittedly, I am fairly sceptical about the whole thing and never really liked the idea of having information out there about me on the web so readily available for others to see!

Anyway, I was keen to give this a go and saw it as a great opportunity to learn new "things" and see how they can (or cannot) be used in an academic Library setting.