Personal experience

Blogging for these past twelve weeks has been an interesting experience. I like how hyperlinks in a blog allow me to write for an informed audience, while providing links to background material for those new to a topic. Libraries can use blogs to inform patrons about upcoming events, services, highlight collections and answer user questions. Because blogs are a bilateral communications tool they encourage patron participation, accountability, and transparency more than one-way news releases. RSS and Atom are greatly underutilized tools for creating timely personalized news feeds on LIS and other topics of interest. Libraries can use these technologies to encourage users to remain connected with the library. Users are more likely to read library blogs and other updates if they are delivered rather than having to visit the library’s web page every week to see if the site has been updated.

Wikis are a great tool for creating a low-cost shared knowledge base among users regardless of where team members are. However, I have seen that to create a long-lasting wiki, a library or a consortium of libraries will need a large user base and will need to take steps to manage it on a daily basis. Library staff can also use a wiki to work collectively on a project, especially if they are spread across multiple locations.

Tagging and Folksonomies seem to have become a central part of the Internet with many sites allowing users to tag media with words of their choice, thus creating a folksonomy. The readings and examples showed how folksonomies can be used to supplement taxonomies. Libraries can use tags as part of Library thing to bring the power of searching with a folksonomy to the library to complement the library of Congress Subject Headings. I will continue to use del.ic.ious to tag articles of interest for my various courses.

Online social networks are one of the areas I knew the least about at the start of this course. I now know why many people find them interesting as they provide a great way for people to stay connected. I look forward to using them to stay connected with other LIS professionals. A library can use online social networks to spread awareness of the library as a central part of the community.

As a long-time gamer, I look forward to educating users about gaming and using the medium to educate and inspire students to learn about the issues in various media.

Flicker is an interesting website with millions of great photos. The Library of Congress and other case studies at Flicker and YouTube showcased how libraries can use media sharing to showcase special collections that are normally not seen by patrons or to provide online demonstrations of library tools.

Commentary on Course

This was a great course and I learned a lot about the various media covered. I look forward to using all of the tools we explored in the future. I appreciated how our readings drew out related issues. The course chats were fun and informative. I also appreciated the planning and clear direction that Amanda provided. Amanda your preparation really shows. Thanks for a great course.