Week 9: Instant Messaging

I use instant messaging for a variety of reasons and through several accounts. I use Meebo to help manage them and we use Meebo in Reference for our virtual reference desk with the widget on several of the library's web pages. I also use instant messaging that is built into Blackboard to talk with students and colleagues and have been recently using the IM in Facebook to reconnect with old friends. It is nice to be able to talk to people without the expense of calling. Also, you can talk with multiple people at one time.

Week 8: Cloud Computing

We started working in the Cloud at our library a couple of years ago, but I didn't know that Cloud Computing was the name for it. As a member of the Kansas Notable Books Committee, we share our spreadsheet through Google Docs so that everyone has access to it and can edit it. My department at the library has moved out staff schedule (especially with student hours) to Google Calendar so that it is accessible all of the time anywhere. Cloud computing has made collaboration a whole lot easier.

Week 7: Microblogging

I have had a Twitter account for some time but have not really taken the time to spend much time with it. It is pretty easy to find people to follow. I mostly follow colleagues and find some of their posts interesting. Often it leads me to other information to expand my knowledge. One person is Aaron Barnhart in KC with the KC Star. He provides links to lots of current information. Sharing information with others and gaining information are some of the major uses that I see. I may have to find time to use it more and the advice to get what I can and let the rest go is really good.

Week 6 Tagging and Social Bookmarking

I have been using Delicious for a while, but this lesson gave me some more new skills. When I signed up for Delicious, I learned quickly how to input my bookmarks to it from my computer. No longer am I tied to my computer for my favorite web sites. I am also sharing sites with colleagues through Delicious. I had not shared sites before when bookmarking and so I learned how to do that. In the library we can have a library account that we can save sites that are good for reference and not just save them on the reference computer. They are available for all of us to use.

Week 5 RSS Feeds

I chose to look at Google Reader because I am doing more stuff on Google and I thought it would be good to keep things in one place. I had heard a lot about RSS feeds but really not done much with them. To get started I subscribed to 23 Things Kansas, Huskers.com (everything Nebraska), a couple of Girl Scout sites, and the Emporia Gazette. I will have to watch for places where I can subscribe to more in the future.

Catching Up

So I am going to use today and this weekend to catch up.

Photos to Share

I have uploaded photos to Flickr on our library remodel and the storytime mural.

Storytime mural: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23510099@N06/sets/72157623436494745/

Remodeling pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23510099@N06/sets/72157623561092578/