Project Play - Week 5

Social Networking Sites & Libraries
Looked at a few of the library sites listed and I was less than impressed. I guess when I think of Facebook and Myspace, I think of people interacting - not institutions. Isn't getting personal the fun part of these sites? I like most of my patrons and I want to be friendly, but I do not want to get that personal with them. IMHO it looked like a lot of work just to come off - do I dare say it - lame.

Facebook is huge among the teens in our small town. (Mostly because Myspace was banned by the High School - but that's another story...) I asked my 17-year-old if the library should have a Facebook profile. He said, and I quote, "Please, Mom, DON'T do that. PLEASE." As he was leaving, he mumbled something like "why do adults have to try to ruin everything."
OK, so that's a no then?

Project Play - Week 3

Remember the Milk and Jott
I can see how Remember the Milk could be a great tool for listmakers, very handy. Unfortunately I am more a fly by the seat of my pants sort of person. The only lists I make with any regularity are of the grocery kind. And when I do remember to MAKE the list, I seldom remember to TAKE the list. So, I think I'll take a pass on Remember the Milk.
Now Jott I think I can use. I don't think I'm ever going to be comfortable text messaging so Jott could be a nice and easy way for me to get around that. A cheat for the texting impaired.

Project Play - Week 2

Google Docs
Aren't the people at Google great? Once in a while I poke around in their labs just to see what they have to offer. Interesting, fun, useful stuff. So, I've seen Google docs before but haven't really used them. I can see that they would be a great way to collaborate on a project and a nice safe place to store it all. LOVE that they automatically save every few seconds and can be rolled back.

Project Play - Semester 2! - Week 1

MeeboMe
Well, I'm off to a late start as usual - but here goes.
I've used Yahoo messenger in the past and I've got to say I'd forgotten how fun it can be. We used to use it to keep in touch with my brother-in-law when he was stationed in Germany. We sure saved a lot on phone calls.
For this assignment, I tried out Beth's Meebo widget on her page at OWLS. Right off the bat I didn't think about the fact that Meebo didn't identify me to her the way Messenger would. I was about 3 lines in before the thought crossed my mind and I said "oh, BTW, this is Lyn." Duh moment.
I also figured out how get the MeeboMe widget on my blog so I guess I'll forgive myself for the duh moment - this time.

Project Play - Week 10 - Reflect

Well, I'm tossing around ideas about how I'll use what I've learned from Project Play at our own library. I have to say that Project Play has made me much more aware of what's going on in the world of web 2.0. And that's a start, right? I can't use stuff I'm not even aware of.
Lots of possibilities - fresh content for our website and a whole new way to communicate with patrons for starters.
The only thing I didn't like was that I did have to break my own rule and do a lot of the work at home to keep up. I justify it by telling myself that I AM enjoying the project. I am such a geek...

Project Play - Week 9 - Wickis

Wiki What?
I had fun playing around in the sandbox but I've got to say, I had a hard time thinking of a way our library might use a wiki. The only thing I can come up with for now is a staff page. It would be nice to have a wiki that we could all add our favorite resource links to - a handy starting off page with no web editing skills required.

Initially I liked the community wiki for Davis, California but then I stumbled on to a page about some of the problems they've had with abusive edits and it was kind of a downer.

Maybe I was less than thrilled because I already have some web editing experience? Maybe I have control issues? I don't know, maybe I just missed something.

I checked wikipedia and found our community and our library represented. Good to know.

Project Play - Week 8 - del.icio.us

del.icio.us tames the library site monster
A few weeks ago I was talking to Beth about our new website and the direction we want to go with it. I told her that while we like to add links introduce new/cool/informative sites to our patrons, we don't necessarily want those links to linger forever. Link, link, link and soon you have a monster of a directory where you can't find anything in a reasonable amount of time. I mentioned that we'd rather have a "link of the week" segment on the site.(of course with a much cooler name that we have yet to think up - maybe YOU have a suggestion? Seriously, help us out!)Beth suggested a del.icio.us account for the library. Genius! I set up accounts on the staff computers and now we can tag away to our hearts content. We'll be able to set up a feed from the del.icio.us accout that will update every time we place a new tag. Fresh content for very little work. Thanks Beth!

I also set up a personal account. Let's see if del.icio.us can tackle my genealogy bookmarking snarl. I have a history of finding great info on obscure sites, bookmarking it and entirely forgetting what I thought was great about it when I revisit months later. ARGH! The del.icio.us notes feature should jog my memory.

Care to see what's going in my del.icio.us account and my brain so far? Go ahead, lots of boring genealogy - no XXX sites.