Thing 7 - Web 2.0 Communication Tools

Pretty familiar stuff here. I personally spend much time on email (most of it productively, I'd say, although I'm always looking for productivity tips such as the link provided in this Thing). My library uses IM for reference purposes, but it's not very busy. I've both attended and facilitated web conferencing as well as an Online Chat session - a very useful tool if the technology works for everyone and the content is compelling enough to keep me from "multi-tasking" such as checking my email. Not too different from an in-person session!

Things 5 and 6 - More Flickr

I tried the image generator from Big Huge Labs, which was fun. For me, these tools will likely have more application personally rather than professionally, though.

Here's the framed photo I just uploaded to Flickr - it's one of my favorite images of my beautiful Keeshond, Shadow. She's 8 years old, and lives up to her name!

Thing 4 - Flickr

I have been playing around with Flickr a bit, but have been keeping my photos private (for family and friends) so far. And in truth, I'm not sure my family members are really "into" this technology yet, particularly as they have to set up accounts on Flickr. So, I've had minimal chance to share photos. I did post a few library-related photos to share, but I'm posting one here on this blog since I haven't figured out yet how to find a 23 Things on a Stick group to share with. Gave me practice with uploading an image to the blog. Here it is!

What is it, you ask? Empty shelves. At my library, we've relocated foreign language journals to remote storage, and are in the process of consolidating journal volumes on the shelves, eliminating growth space because most of our journal subscriptions are now online, not in print. We're making way for student study space and new office and collaboratory space for health informatics researchers. By the end of the summer, I should have photos of the new space to share.

Thing 3 - Keeping Up

I've been using Bloglines for about a year now to aggregate some of the blogs I follow for my work, so I'm familiar with the concept. One problem, though, is remembering to check it regularly, so by the time I get there, there are hundreds of posts. In my world, colleagues are always sharing information with each other, so I often rely on plain old email from listservs and colleagues to monitor what's happening in the communities to which I belong. I need to find the balance in my own preference for "push" vs "pull". And perhaps to find the discipline to 1) refuse to let myself be distracted by incoming mail that might be interesting (or irrelevant) 2) use Bloglines more effectively. We'll see.... One occupational hazard that I have as a librarian is curiosity - a wide range of interests that may or may not be relevant to my work. So, how to determine "need to know" from "want to know" from "fun to know"?

Thing 2

I actually completed this assignment last week, before this blog was registered, so I'm testing my memory here. Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 concepts are very common in academic health sciences libraries, which is where I live. In fact, at the annual meeting of the Medical Library Association meeting in mid-May, Web 2.0 was a feature. Using new technologies and social networking to "Just Connect" was a priority of our President, Mark Funk, and this meeting reflected it in both content and content delivery. The final day's program was all about Web 2.0 tools and it was streamed live nationally. We learned about many health-related Web 2.0 tools and services. The challenge for us will be to find the balance between "cool" and "useful" in an environment where our users are inundated with information.

Getting Started

My blog is now registered, so the challenge will be to find the time and discipline to post here regularly. I'm looking forward to practicing 23 things over the summer. In truth, I am aware of most of these 23 things because I have a very talented staff who use these tools regularly. And I have used many myself. This is is my first blog, though, and my first avatar. Who knows what will happen from here!