Sunday, June 28, 2009

Library 2.0 and Twitter - Lesson 8

Wow! Reading articles about the future of libraries is pretty scary. How are librarians going to keep up? I guess because I'm "older" than the young people who have totally grown up on computers, it comes more naturally to them than to me.
I do see the need for libraries to keep up or they will die like the dinosaurs. When I read that Rick Anderson's college library has had a 55% drop in circulation from 12 years ago, it is obvious that the library needs to function as an assistant to web users, not just book depositories. But, as he said, there are few librarians for the number of patrons, so librarians are needed to be contacted in other ways, other than face-to-face. When people have a question today, they want the answer NOW. And, if they can access the web on a phone, they won't think to ask a librarian for help, or even to look in a book, unless they can email or talk to a librarian over the internet.
I'm lucky that I work at a school library, where children are still taking out books like crazy. I still have lots of contact with children and books, and a good tech lab nearby.
Twitter is easier to do than I thought. I became a fan of Barack Obama! I knew Dr. Phil was on Twitter, so I went to see his posts. I will see if any of my relatives are on Twitter. It would be fun to Twitter with my granddaughter when she gets a little older. And my cell phone is so old, I can't text with it. To me, that would be the most fun. Next time I take a trip, I will Twitter with my daughter also. As far as using them in libraries, I can't really see using it at this time.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

del.icio.us Lesson 8

I love the idea of being able to access your bookmarks from any computer! I will use this site, also, to pursue a few hobbies.
I would love to show this to teachers at school. The video on delicious showed that you could network with others at work, but I have no idea how they did it. There must me some way to set up a group, but I'll have to try it later. I really want to get through the 23 things, since I'm getting closer to the end. How would I use it in my library? I would love to tag sites for teachers, instead of sending an email.
Could our Vermont Educational Media Association set up a group?