23 Things #19 2.0 Sites

Well I checked out three websites for this activity. I looked at "Lulu" under books, "Cocktail Builder" from Fun, and Digg.
I thought Lulu was interesting as it is or seems to be a great self-publishing site for small authors. I liked the ability to get an estimate and chose what you wanted done to build a book. I also found the "Sell" area cool, because while you can find some small authors this seems like a great place to find new titles and authors.
I looked at "Cocktail Builder" actually becuase a friend of mine asked me a while back if I had a bartending/mixing guide. I did not but when I saw this site listed on the 2.0 Award winners I thought I would try it. I think it is not as nice as I would have hoped for. I would like a better searcher for drinks with titles but overall a very good site that simply needs more input to build an even larger library of drinks.
And I looked at Digg simply because I know of it. I think it may never get the popularity of Slash-Dot, but it is coming along. And it was created by Kevin Rose who is a most interesting person. I do find the idea of user chosen content interesting but I am always a bit leary of those sorts of sites.
Of these sites only Lulu has a direct application in the library simply because it is about finding small press books by new authors and that is very cool. Cocktail builder of course has no place in the branch unless as a helper to find out about a drink for information purposes, in much the same way as Digg would show you the hot sites/stories of the day.

23 Things - #18 - Online Productivity

So I looked at Google Docs as I already have two e-mail accounts there and had used them to play with some files before. I do find these new web based applications are cool and viable for easy and quick modification but honestly I feel that Works and Word will still have either place. With the current level of options avalible on these web apps there are too many limitations on what is possible to create.
I also find when I import an existing text document which I build on Correl at home, it will add small bits of text at the titles of the page, often a small 1. And I have no idea why this is. Outside of that I do like the ease of use and the fact that I don't need to have access on the computer for Works or Word, but instead of that software you need to have internet access which can be slightly harder to come by. So while I think this will have a place, I think at this stage it will not replace any existing Word Processing applications, if simply due to the issue of access and that these apps. are still in the infancy stage of both use and function.

23 Things - #17 Sandbox

http://marylandlibrariessandbox.pbwiki.com/FO+-+Favorite+Books
A nice little site. Above links to my entry on the Sandbox site just in case the page has issues on the Sandbox site.
I like the ability to create a page and I like the options on the appearance of that page but I dislike the complexity with which it takes to link site. I know it is streamlined and easy to use overall but I still think it could use some work. It is a bit more complex than I had expected but overall it was a fine site which was easy to deal with.

23 Things - #16 Wikis

Ahh the topics on things I already have a background with. Wiki's are an interesting subject for me as I almost consider them more of an online bulletin board with better control of subjects. I say this because Wikis only exist if a user builds a page, they just don't magically appear with information. I like Wikis they do allow for a communal sharing of information in many ways. I have been a part of the Diacon 4 Wiki which was set up to go psudeo-frame by frame (as in someone excised out frames which were of no significance) of a animated music video that has many many references to other items from books to movies. And in the sense of creating a collabrative effort I like Wikies and I like Wikipedia for interesting snippets of information I don't know but I still take everything stated with a grain of salt.
I find it interesting that people are setting up Wikis to go through and explain their best ways of dealing with library customers and the like. The thing is if no one or only one person is building the entry is it truely worthwhile or helpful? Sharing information is great but I don't think this is the proper medium. Reading a paragraph about how someone handles a situation under different circumstances that your own can lead to problems. As a form that Reader's Advisory could move into I think it is a wonderful thing, but you have to get people to produce meaningful entries and that is always the problem.

23 Things - #15 Web 2.0

The video about the ever changing web was very interesting and well done. It provided some thought as to where are we as a technologically linked society should be going as technology and its functions change over the coming years. Most of the tools we have looked at during this program seem to relate to various searchs, either of blogs or sites. While trying to sift through the vast melange of webpages out there which these tools are good but at somepoint when are people going to simply say "Enough is enough" and move on and put down the keyboard and simply walk away. I personally always try to spend at least one 24 hour period a week away from my personal computer, and instead read a (or more) book(s).
Library 2.0 is a interesting look on how the rest of the world is changing and while I agree that the library is now not the only bastion of information which people have avalible to them, I am not sure that radical changes are what is called for. People will still read physical books, not simply a screen, and there will always be a place for a library. If it means lessening the non-fiction collection and simply moving to a more comprehensive fiction collection I know not.
With regards to Library 2.0 I think we as a system may want to heed some the suggestions. For example, while I like our new RFID security system, I seriously think that going systemwide checkout/returns with RFID is wasteful. From Michael Stephens' "Into a world of New Librarianship" we need to control technology to truely useful not just cool. RFID is very flashy as technology goes and it will interest patrons but I am not sure the cost justifies the end results. If a RFID tag runs something like $0.35 and every item has to be tagged, I think I would never want to delete items from the catalouge as new ones come in. The system buys something like 150,000 new items each year and much correspondingly delete roughly the same number of items. That is a lot of wasted money annually, in addition to the initial setup costs for the system in both material cost and man hours to tag and deal with the computers. Just my two cents.

23 Things - #14 Technorati

An interesting site and an interesting way to show a search. Once more I am less than trilled with the site. Keyword searches seem to bring up multiple problems, at least with something like "Learning 2.0" because you will get a lot of "Learning" and "2.0" mentions individually, not together. Which is a standard search engine issue of course. The odd question I had was how "Authority" is determined as that seems to affect how a search result is displayed. I did find it interesting that the more popular blogs seem in part to revolve around technology. This really does make me wonder how much free time people must spend on the internet to need something like this on a regular basis.
The site is interesting and I am sure people find it helpful but I found it cluttered and not easily navigated, without much more experience. Once more not my favorite site in the world.

23 Things - #13 Del.icio.us

Well, this is an interesting idea in collecting together various items under one account. I am just not sure I fully understand its usefulness. The tagging system is interesting and reminds me of a short story about how different people connect/label different objects but I still think it is a rather cumbersome way to work anything. And I could see it being used in the manner which a library is using it to supply information to multiple people, much like a message board, but I doubt that this is a tool I would use on a regular basis. Of course I am also not a fan of either LiveJournal or MySpace and so I am less interested in the social networking aspect of the site, which could be helpful for some. In the sense that you could find information on a topic due to one of the tags linking you to something you had not thought about. It just reminds me of people whom just somehow start on Wikipedia at Bridges and end up finally reading an article on Nicola Tessla.
As a side note, I just want to bid a fond farewell to "Robert Jordan" who passed away this weekend.