#18: Web-based Applications

Was very easy to set-up a Zoho account. Seems to work just like MS Word -- very easy to use. I like the special characters table and the fact that when you save the document it automatically gives you a word and character count. Had a little bit of a problem trying to rename my file -- it really doesn't like it if you accidently delete the whole name -- had to force a logoff and login again. Wow -- just emailed myself one of the documents I wrote using Zoho Writer -- now that was pretty cool! Could not figure out how to post to my blog ...

#16: Wikis

The "Library Success: A Best Practice Wiki" was the most interesting site. I looked under the category "Cataloging" and there were some nice links to interesting projects, articles, websites, and blogs. I did not know that there was a Catalogablog or a FRBR blog, for example. It was really nice to have links to items of interest to catalogers on one convenient site. I found the article "Cataloging the blogosphere" particularly intriguing!

We tried to use a Wiki last January as part of the Unicorn GL3.1 Java Client upgrade as a way for catalogers system-wide to share functionality they discovered or questions they had within a collaborative web environment space. There was some traffic on the wiki but really not as much as we had anticipated. The PCC also tried to introduce Wikis this year as a means for groups to utilize this online tool for sharing information -- replacing the more traditional email listservs and websites. There was quite a bit of resistance and practically no buy-in because people saw this as just "another place to have to check for information."

I can see how useful this tool could be for conference/meeting planning, the collaborative editing of documents, links to other informational sites, etc. Particularly nice for those of us who never mastered HTML.

#15: Library 2.0

The various perspectives on Library 2.0 were very interesting. As I was reading about this topic, I couldn't help but try to put this within the context of what these changes mean for those of us who work in technical services operations. Questions I wrote down to ponder at a later date included the following:

• How will the changes on the public side continue to directly impact the way technical services operations perform their work in the future?
• How can we reinvent the services we provide to meet our stakeholders/partners in their space as opposed to ours?
• How can we make our services more user-centric and inviting?
• How can we evoke Web 2.0 principles to develop newer services that are more simplistic, customer-friendly, and more self-service?
• How can we improve the way we work with our stakeholders so that they are truly participants, co-creators, builders, and consultants?

I particularly enjoyed reading Michael Stephens' thoughts on how to be a "Librarian 2.0." How do we not only embrace constant change, but also make " ... good, yet fast decisions"? How do we find the time in the workday to watch trends, play and learn about new technologies, etc.?

Two interesting quotes from the Wikipedia entry on Library 2.0 were particularly interesting

"Beta is forever."

"Rigidity breeds
failure."

I see that more pondering is in order ...

#14: Technorati

A search of the term "learning 2.0" netted 14,477 results -- not terribly useful. Investigated the top searches (Georgina Bloomberg and Anna Anisimova top two at present), top blogs, and top videos. So now I know who Anna Anisimova is (the "Russian Paris Hilton)" I know that at one point Barbara Walters only had two friends in MySpace, and that Google has a new "My Location" beta mobile service that does not require GPS. Okay, I'll admit, I did get a kick out of viewing the "Is Europe a country?" top video and found the tags to be quite interesting ("are, you, smarter, than").

Still did not find Technorati that great despite the fact that it is considered the best blog search tool currently available. I think the problem is that there just aren't any things in the "blogosphere" that are of interest to me.