Thing #9 Del.icio.us

I can see a lot of potential for use of Del.icio.us in classroom or library settings. It makes it easy to share many websites with a larger group of people all at once without setting up a mailing list or something. This is something I could easily incorporate into bibliographic instruction sessions I conduct. And the tags/comments features are useful, too, letting you see what other users think and how they might organize their information.

Thing #8- Second Life

I actually watched two videos. I watched the SJSU one because I was curious to see how my grad. school integrated Second Life into its curriculum. I can see the advantage for distance learners who may not have access to a traditional campus setting, or at least a large one like SJSU. The Info Island they showed was very pretty, and I can see how testing out some professional activities in a simulation setting might help graduate students make a smoother transition into the professional world.

I also watched the ACRL video because I wanted to see how a professional library organization interpreted the program. I wasn't as impressed. It was a pretty video that showed a traditionally boring set of professionals partying and displaying their more youthful side. I could see how something like this would help attract younger groups to the library profession. But the video seemed too superficial to me, and I couldn't help wondering how much actual work the presenters could have done with the time they spent creating the video.

I read the first article by Bell, Peters and Pope. It essentially suggested that in the modern world, libraries must offer services that their users will want in order to compete with other activities, and since many users now spend most of their time online, that's where libraries must go. I can see the logic in this idea, and it makes sense to offer a library component in a program that attracts a high number of participants. I can also see the value of Second Life as a sort of simulation program, to see if the library profession might be something you'd like to do, to test out the initial reception of a presentation or a paper.

However, I don't think I'll really be able to view Second Life as a serious tool for professional activity, at least not right now. It may be a generational difference or something, but to me, there is soooooo much to do right now in the first life that I cannot justify spending time in a virtual world. I'd be more inclined to go out into my immediate commnity and volunteer as a docent, offer reference services, work at an understaffed branch library, conduct instructional programs, and share research at conferences, since those actions would impact my immediate reality and therefore seem more productive.

Second Life seems like an interesting program, and it probably has many uses in educational and library settings that I haven't seen yet. It's not for me, but if modern librarians can promote their profession and develop their careers through it, excellent!

Thing #7: MySpace Page

Okay, set up a MySpace page under the display name Mitternacht39. As I was looking at the profile edit options, I noticed that all the choices under "networking" were pop culture and social activity types of things. No entries for things like education, libraries, literature...

Okay, off to lunch now.

LC chic...

A colleague sent me an interesting news article this morning. According to the New York Times, our profession is now trendy and cool!

A Hipper Crowd of Shushers

Thing #6: Social Networking

I browsed through the social networking sites this morning. MySpace seems very similar to Friendster and seems to be the most useful, since it contains blogs, photos, personal info, and links to other friends. Facebook seemed okay, but pretty much the same concept. Ning was... unique- random bunches of people grouped together by inconsistently structured interests. They were all colorful and pretty easy to read and navigate.

I can see the general appeal of social networking- people who feel comfortable online may have more sucess finding friends, people to chat with, dating partners, etc. through a social network than in person. It was fun to see the different users and what they're into- some of them had really pretty layouts, others just had basic information.

I don't think online social networking is something that I'd do, though. I have *way* too much to do offline (work, calligraphy class, exercise, research, etc.) to spend my limited free time browsing through thousands of users that I don't know at all and will probably never have a substantial connection to. I tend to do my social networking with people I actually interact with- it's more useful for my life's activities and goals. And I'd rather meet new people through something more active, like travelling or attending a concert or watching a hockey game. For professional communication, I socialize with colleagues through listserves and forums that are specific to library work- I'm not really going to find serious opinions on the future of letterpress printing, best practices for building a digital archive, or new workshops on implementing DACS on MySpace! >_<