LibWorm

LibWorm seems to be a good place for librarians to search for profession-related information. Doing basic searches under “cataloging,” “technical services,” and “acquistions” will not only bring up articles on these subjects, but job postings for positions in these areas, as well. I was surprised to also see some hits in French, too—but it’s a big library world out there, after all. Many users may prefer using the subjects feature instead of the tags “cloud” that is shown, but that is to be expected somewhat, and it’s impressive to see so many tags that have been entered.

Entering the name of my library in the “exact phrase” search yielded 3 results; the first being a statement of praise from a keynote speaker at a recent event, the second seemingly unrelated and pertaining to a different library altogether, and the third reporting on a new young adults program we began a while back. That’s not bad, though, I suppose.

Duggout

My wife looks at Digg from time to time, but I never really have much until this "thing." Nevertheless, I understand its social usefulness, and can see how that libraries could make use of this news site. The more librarians post items related to their own libraries or to libraries in general, and the more they "digg" such posts, the more popular and relevant libraries might seem to the Digg community. For Digg is not only appealing to those lovers of "miscellaneous" news items (which items abound on the site), but there are many informative posts regarding technology and so forth. Libraries could definitely have an advertising arena on Digg to show the tech-savvy users of today that their institutions are keeping up with the times, and engaging in many or all the Web 2.0 "things" we are discussing in this program. Specifically, if one couples Digg with Facebook, a library's "face time" on the internet could be greatly increased, and hopefully made more valuable to its community of patrons. Imagine going to the library to use the internet and seeing that same library actively using Digg and Facebook...It might make an impressive impact.

Tagalicious

I am a cataloger, and I of course recognize the importance of controlled vocabulary, headings, and what not being used in a library's catalog and in between all libraries in general. However, I also understand the usefulness of more "natural language" tagging that is much used by the masses online at present. Many users appreciate this ability to tag whatever they want in a way helpful to them (often to others) that exists in manifold applications and settings. So it's not going away, and that's fine.

In a library, I think the power of patron tagging could be harnessed and enhance the access an institution provides to its information entities (a little MLS program lingo there for ya!). Given, the library's "regular" catalog would be maintained the same in this situation, but if patrons had the ability to have their own catalog as well (a "wiki" catalog, so to speak), they might find that helpful at times, as well. If patrons could group books and media together using whatever "informal" headings they choose, they may succeed in providing access in a way that the traditional "library way" is unable to.

Being able to have a "worst films ever" tag or "if you like this book/film you might also like these other titles" tag, under which headings patrons could add works of their choice, might prove to be very popular among a library's patronage. Of course, librarians could also formulate such lists themselves for local display, but allowing patrons to do so might give them more a feeling of inclusion and keep them more actively involved with their library than they otherwise might have been. But then again, with the limited resources/personnel of most library systems today, this may just belong to a potential public tag of "pipe dream ideas."

Instant Messaging

I've used instant messaging before (been a few years), and while I can definitely understand its usefulness at home when communicating with friends and whoever else, I'm not sure how "useful" it could be in a library setting. Perhaps librarians could schedule virtual book discussions, during which all participate via instant messaging. I wonder if this type of thing has been done already, or how it would go if tried...In any case, I've used Yahoo! instant messaging before, but this time, since I use gmail now, I downloaded the google talk application (jdk0030), but they all are pretty much the same, I'm sure. It does seem, however, with Facebook, Twitter, and other social phenomena (such as cell phone texting) which have arisen since instant messaging became so popular years ago, that fewer and fewer people would be as actively engaged in instant messaging as in these newer web 2.0 marvels...I haven't seen any numbers to support that theory, but who knows?

Tweeting

Twitter reminds me a lot about the "What's on your mind" feature in Facebook where people post random thoughts or short reports on their current activities--not an original observation, to be sure, but true nonetheless. For those who are keen on the musings of their favorite people, or those who are quite socially inclined (such as many a librarian, no doubt), this can be rather entertaining, and perhaps even useful and informative. Patrons might be willing to follow their local library's tweets or the tweets of a book club, etc. Again, this is clearly another web 2.0 tool librarians and libraries will be taking advantage of more and more...