Yum – Delicious Thing 14

Delicious is really straight forward once one gets in to the web site. I didn’t realize how much junk was in my favorites. I inherited my work computer and it is used by others in the department, I guess nothing more needs said...

I am looking forward to taking the time to really clean this up and when I work from another computer it will be great to use my bookmarks without looking up everything all over again!

Tagging talk - Thing 13

Tagging in all its glory is a form of indexing. Like most all other concepts on the Internet it is wide open for anyone to create. Folksonomy is so prevalent on the Internet that I think people have become conditioned to using tagging or keyword searches that they don’t know how to use authority indexes. In fact, I have seen middle-schoolers try to find things in a book and not have a clue how to use the index. I don’t think libraries have a choice – they will be forced to accept tagging at some level. As more databases and reading materials are available electronically, it is convenient to do tagging in order to find information. I really think tags should be used to supplement subject headings. Regardless of how careful and detailed catalogers are, databases contain errors. Tags may find a link that was not listed as a subject heading therefore not found by the user.

Personally I like tag clouds; clouds point to new ideas. When I am doing research for a specific topic it is sometimes necessary to approach the data at an angle to gather all relevant data. The main time this is true is in the fall when science fair projects are beginning. Students are required to have two Internet sources and two print sources. In our case we have to get creative in finding enough sources for several grades all doing the same project. I feel like I’m in the clouds sometimes anyway!

rockin' twitter - thing 12

I like twitter- it's short and sweet. I was able to find tla and ala using hash marks. Searching for people that have twitter accounts is really straight forward and I was able to find my friend Cary at The Colony Library. She has a following :-)

My only problem was finding a username that has not been used. I ended up with 23laurie. Using the RSS feed I added twitter to my Google reader. This may help me to keep up with all the feeds at once.

IMming - thing 11

I started 5 different times to do Thing 11 - IM. I have installed the yahoo IM and so far have not figured out how to connect to my contacts. Part of is a mental block the other part is interruptions. I just set up a google talk account and my user name is lelibrarian. Now we'll see what happens.

Okay, now for the aggravaters oops, I'm sorry the aggregators. I installed Digsby and really like the weather bug. But have yet to figure out Digsby. Next I went to Meebo, it to is not behaving for me. This lesson is just not for me. I will not be conquered! I will not be defeated! I'm going to take a break and work on it later!

Ning - thing 10

Ning seems pretty straight forward. I opted to not open a NING account. Later maybe, I just have too many id's and sites to keep up with!

All searches I requested returned an answer unless I used a personal name. One of the searches was for mystery books and "The Sherlock Holmes Social Network" group was found. This was really a fun site for Sherlockians. I did get a kick out of a search for North Texas. One of the results was the Texas International Hair Show billed as
"The Largest Hair Show In Texas." This just goes to prove that Texas does have big hair!

two-faced, thing 9

I was doing more facebook under Thing 8 without realizing it. I joined groups, became a fan and was contacted by someone I didn't realize had an account. The groups I joined were: ALA, TLA, and Toastmasters. I became a fan of Toastmasters International and will help set up our local clubs facebook. The first name I contacted was my college age nephew - I thought if anyone in my family had an account the college student would! Most of the other friends and family either don't have an account or they have common names and I was not sure with name really was the one I wanted. It looks like more practice is needed...

Let's face it book - Thing 8

Well, I done it - my facebook account is set up! Setting up the account is not to bad, one just has to determine how much personal information to post. My first friend is my nephew, who just happened to be online. He thinks its cool to be my first friend. I am still learning about walls and messages. I know Kyle will be patient with me :-)

This will be great to keep up with not only family and friends, but with other organizations. The trick is to practice.....