So the delicious website is pretty cool. I have been there before, but I haven't really ever explored it like I did this time. So, to make this relevant to me:), I decided to find bookmarks related to what I was doing. My husband and I are planning a trip this summer to New Zealand for a "baby-moon" before the baby comes...thus, I clicked on the subject "travel" under the popular bookmarks and from there I found a great site that is dedicated to helping you plan your vacation to New Zealand. This is the website (in case you want to plan one too!) http://www.newzealand.com/travel/USA/ It has all kind of information there including what New Zealand is all about, cool places to visit, places to stay, finding flights etc. Some peoples comments about the website was that it had good fonts and nice format. Others listed some of the information that was accessible on that site.
I think this website could come in handy for my own library. Referring to last Tuesdays lesson, I could bookmark and tag all of the websites that are directories, almanacs, yearbooks, biographies etc. I could also name this tag "ready references" since that is what I know these things are. This would make is super easy to find information once a student came in asking. I just read the chapters in Riedling and this would make it really easy to bookmark and tag and find the website ideas that they provided at the end of the chapter in their webliography.
Another use of this site could be for students in their own research. They could set up an account and tag the sites they have found helpful and relevant for their particular research topic. This would really just be for the middle school/high school age groups though.
Thing 11: Technorati
So it came as no surprise to me that the entertainment category, and more particularly the film subcategory, was well well represented. Who doesn't love a good flick?! But within that same category, the anime didn't have very many blogs about it. The health section in the living category was well represented too. Ha, but food had way more blogs about it than health....funny:) I feel like this directory just really helps people realize what it is that people are actually interested in. And it makes it super easy for someone to find a blog about what they are interested in. Sports, Finance, Food, Technology etc. Very cool.
For me, when I searched blogs vs. blog posts, I got very different results. I felt like I got more of the results I was looking for when I searched the blogs rather than the blog posts. The blog posts were found based on the words you typed...like if the post had the word "library" it would pop-up even though it wasn't relevant to what I wanted. So searching for blogs was a way better search method for me.
This was a cool website, but not one I would ever want to put my blog up on!! I don't think I could ever know so much about a certain topic to have a blog for it:)
Thing 12: Library 2.0
First of all, I was excited as I read this article because I recognized pretty much all of the new technological things they talked about (blogs, de.lic.ious, flickr, library thing etc.), largely in part to this class! But there were some things I didn't know...like I didn't know students could submit book talks from their cell phones! Crazy!
So I have mixed feelings about this article. I totally agree that we are moving into a digital age and we, as librarians, need to move along with it. I think that students now days know more and learn more through technology than we ever have. There are so many different ways that we can make learning and teaching better by using the internet and the tools that are available. But I feel so torn because I feel like the more we go towards the digital age, the more kids lose their communication and social skills...does that make sense?! If we just make everything accessible via the internet, kids won't learn important social and communication skills. I just think it is so fun to be able to sit down together in the library together and have a book talk together and get feedback and input right then. I don't like the idea of not being in there when a class is in the library for a few reasons...1) it is fun to meet with the students and get to know them better 2) I would be too paranoid that is would be a total disaster when I got back and 3) it is fun to be able to sit together and read a book and talk about it right then.
I do think though that it would be fun for students to be able to create their own bookshelf so that the reading specialists and librarian could see what students were reading and why they liked it etc.
One last thing about the article. When I read things like this I think "yeah, that is so cool, and such a good idea. We need to move on in the world." And then I start feeling overwhelmed thinking "Geez, now I have to become an expert on all of these things and I have to implement every single thing into my library." And then I get discouraged because there is SO much that we could do better but it would require SO much time. I guess the key is to prioritize and maybe just focus on implementing one big thing for the year. Make it your baby and make sure that everyone knows about it etc. I feel like that is the only way I could do it.
This was a very interesting article and definitely gives you something to think about! I'm glad I'm learning about a lot of these things in this class right now!
