Privacy in the librarianblogs Searchroll in Rollyo

Since privacy covers so many areas, I limited mine to privacy policies and statements on health information web sites. I need to investigate this Rollyo site more because I find it confusing. My first thought was why not just search google for this information. But then I realized that a this searchroll was looking for privacy sites that were of interest to librarians specifically. A large field of internet sites had been narrowed down by this group making the search process much faster.

Then I opened a Rollyo account which is at http://rollyo.com/pamrees/ and called it
Consumer Health sites. I have not completely figured out how use this one either or how to save searchrolls.

Bed and Breakfast mashup from the U.K.

I enjoy traveling and so I chose a bed and breakfast mashup at http://www.bedandbreakfasts.co.uk/ This site uses Google Maps of the United Kingdom
to locate reasonable bed and breakfast and similar accomadations all over Great Britain. If I were to plan a trip on my own there, this would be very convenient for locating accomodations ahead of time. It occurred to me when I was looking at this that I have already looked at internet sites in the past that were mashups. I just did not recognize them for what they are. I can't see myself putting together a mashup at this point. This is probably the most complicated social networking feature of this class. I appreciate knowing what a mashup is.

MLA 2.0 Class - podcasting and videos

Our library has always used an ICN network to broadcast classes to a wide audience, but podcasting could be used instead. The problem with that in my circumstance is that many librarians in Iowa do not know how to use this technology or their
computer systems will not support it because of firewalls or lack of computer power.
I feel fortunate that I work at the State Library of Iowa where I can use this type of technology. It has been a real eye opener for me and I have a better grasp of what this newer technology is all about and how to use it. Being able to search for videos and then being able to move them to a blog or other site is really neat!

Another cat flushing the toilet

Cat flushing toilet

I enjoy funny cat videos and I always get a kick out of cats flushing toilets. I found this on UTube.

Online Photo Sharing

I have uploaded some pictures that I took at the MLA Midwest Chapter Board Meeting on March 7, 2008 in Minneapolis below. I also posted these to Flickr and FaceBook. It took me awhile to figure this out, but I have wanted to learn how to do this for a long time. I just received my first digital camera at Christmas and this has been a great opportunity to learn how to load these pictures onto different sites. I have not yet figured out how to load the pictures from Flickr to other sites, but I can do it from my computer. I am looking forward to taking pictures in the library and loading them onto our various library web sites.

I am going to write this week's blog comments here and then publish them to my blog for the MLA 2.0 class to see how it works. Google Doc type sites are great for working on documents where input from others is needed. For example, I am working on MLA Chapter Planning Guidelines as one of my responsibilities on Chapter Council. Instead of posting the draft document on the Chapter Council web site for people to look at and then have them send comments to me, I could have put this document on Google Doc or a wiki. It would have been easier for them to comment directly on the draft rather than sending me the comments to add in. There are so many of these online web office programs out there to consider. When I have more time, I will look at them.

Del.icio.us Impressions

I can see using Del.icio.us at the Reference Desk to bookmark internet sites that are frequently used. It is easier to read and more pleasant to look at than just bookmarking a list of sites under "favorites". The sharing feature is very attractive though I have not had much time to try that out yet. I am looking forward to experimenting more with it. It certainly has been convenient to
include my blog and wiki sites on Del.icio.us so that I can go right to them.

Social Networking Impressions and Experiences

Social networking sites can be used by MLA to connect members who have common interests who have not known each other before. They can be used by MLA to recruit new members, especially of the younger generation who are accustomed to using sites like this. I don't know if our State Library would find Facebook or similar sites practical at this time because we serve
an adult population that may not be into this type of thing. Privacy would also be a concern to many of our users until they felt comfortable with this technology. A blog would definitely be useful and a wiki is also something to explore for our users. I am very impressed with the types of sharing that can be done through Linkedin, Facebook and MySpace. It would not have occurred to me to that you can do a PubMed search for example in Linkedin and share it with someone. That was an eye opener. All of these social networking sites can open a whole new world. How does one have time to use all of them? Perhaps as I get more accustomed to them, I will find ways to change how I communicate with my colleagues.

Differences between blogs and wikis

The most recent information appears first on blogs followed by earlier postings in chronological order. Blogs are good for discussions on particular topics or reporting on events as in a newsletter. Wiki information is not in a particular order and the information there can be created and edited by many people. Wiki information choices are posted on one side so that you can decide what you want to look at. It reminds me of a library web page where you can click on
tabs on the sides, top, or bottom of the page and be taken to specific information pages.

Pamela: Setting up a wiki experience

Pamela: "Setting up a wiki" experience

Setting up a wiki experience

Setting up a wiki during the second week of the MLA course has been educational, challenging
and fun when I get the hang of it. My biggest challenge right now is trying to figure out how to
upload pictures to it. I took family pictures at Easter and I know the family will enjoy seeing them when I get them posted. My wiki address is http://reesfamilynews.wetpaint.com/

Use of RSS/blogs in my work

I am going to start using RSS feeds for all the library groups I belong to that send me email. That will be much easier than looking for them individually through email. I will also use RSS feeds to send me other links to library-related sites that I just use occasionally when I go to their web sites. That would save time.

I will explore using blogs at our reference desk since we do not have one there. We could use it for commonly asked questions and to push out information about our services to the state government agencies, libraries, health professionals, and the general public that we serve.