Thing #13 - Social Bookmarking

I am seeing a trend in some of these Things. I tend to sign up for things and then completely forget about them. I did this with GoodReads and this exercise reminded me that I have a Delicious account. So today, I logged on and looked around. It has been about a year since I added any bookmarks to my account. I am glad they changed the web address for the site. I could never remember how to type it in, d.eli.ci.ous or del.ic.ious or de.licio.us, it was too confusing. I like that my bookmarks are accessible from any computer, but I can tell from my past lack of use that I will probably not use it much in the future. I tend to access only a limited number of sites on a daily basis. I can see the potential as a reference tool, it is similar to Rollyo, having a list of trusted sites would help patrons retrieve better information.

Disney Vacations Search Roll

Select...Disney VacationsSearch The Web

Thing #12 - Rollyo

Rollyo was really easy to use. The hardest part was deciding what type of search roll I wanted to create. In the end, I went with my tried and true - Disney Vacations. I picked some of my favorite vacation planning sites. It took about two minutes to sign up and create my first search roll. It would be fairly easy to create customized search rolls for library patrons. Genre fiction search rolls, family history, school projects. It would be especially helpful for the homework crowd, instead of using Google and getting all sorts of weird information, you could guide students to your specialized search that is focused on reliable websites.

Thing #11 Goodreads

I signed up with Goodreads a few months ago. At the time I signed up, I didn't explore the site too fully. I added a few books, I poked around a little bit, then I forgot about it. So, it was good to do this Thing, so I could refresh my memory and maybe become more active on the site. I think it would be interesting to set up an account for the branch and then tell patrons about your account. Staff could share recommended books, read-alikes, etc. It would be a neat virtual "staff picks" spot.

Thing #9 - Exploring RSS Feeds

So far, I am finding the keyword search on Google Reader the easiest way to add feeds. Feedster appears to have died, I cannot get it to come up. Currently I probably subscribe to too many feeds. If I go a few days without checking it, I'll have 1000+ posts. Some of the blogs I follow are very prolific. When I have too many posts to read, I usually resort to the "Mark all items as read" button for some of my categories. One thing I enjoy about Google Reader is something that a co-worker pointed out to me. You can click "show details" for any feed you subscribe to and Google will show you how many people are subscribed to that feed and gives you the average posts per week. So, if you subscribe to your own blog, you can see how many other people are following your blog. I think that is spiffy.

Thing #7 - Technology

Last week at COLS, we had the opportunity to play with a tablet PC and an iPod touch. These devices are currently being tested to see if they can enhance Reference service by allowing staff to be out in the stacks instead of sitting behind a desk all day. After I played with the iPod for about 37 seconds I decided that I needed one. I am not new to MP3 players or iPods. I have one classic iPod that died (but will still occasionly work if you bang it on something long enough), a new classic to replace the old one and a pink Nano. I probably didn't need a new iPod, but on Sunday I bought one anyway. So far, I love it! When watching TV shows (I am waaaay behind on Lost), the screen is nice and large and easy to see. I am also enjoying trying out all the various applications that are available. I am sticking to the free ones for the time being. I have only had one opportunity to try it for catalog lookup, but I am hoping to test it out in the stacks next week. I think that I would prefer it over the notebook because it is lighter and fits in your pocket when you are not using it. I think my next tech purchase will be an Amazon Kindle, but I will have to wait for a price drop. $359.00 is a bit much for me.