Week 13

Wow !

What a fast semester ! Time seemed to fly by... well most of the time it did anyways, not so much the times where I had a million assignments to do, or the days when it was 50 degrees out with the humidity, or even the days it was really rainy... those days were kind of slow. The other days though, they went quite quickly.

When I look back on my classes this semester and really evaluate what I'm taking out of them, I have to admit I probably learned more in this class than I did in any other. I'm not just saying that either. This was quite surprising for me because I've taken distance ed courses in this program before, and to be entirely honest they were absolutely brutal. This class on the other hand had a good flow and provided all kinds of useful information.

I can honestly say I now recognize the value of social software for libraries, this is something I could not have said prior to this class. Well I could have said it, but it would have been a lie told during an interview to try and weasel my way into a job. Now I can say it in all sincerity.

I think my favorite social software tool coming out of this class that I had never used before is the RSS feed. What a useful way to stay current while managing my time effectively. I also learned a lot about how tools I had only used for amusement could be used as valuable tools in a library. In particular facebook and flickr.

I learned that just about any social software tool can be useful in a library setting, provided it is implemented with care, for the right reasons. In terms of my personal usage, I will likely not continue blogging, mostly because I would never keep up with it often enough to remain relevant. In terms of the other tools, I would be quite pleased to keep up with them professionally and I would be thrilled to get the chance to do so in a professional setting. As to personal use, I think for me social software will continue to be just that. Something social that I may use for amusement and information needs, something I access but not something I necessarily contribute to.

More next week.

Grant