Librarian by Day

Check this out – I would seriously love to see someone with more talent than me make a just for libraryland version!  See the lists of blogs & people that are included.  

Here are what some of the appreviations stand for you, you can see the rest at on Eye Cube

Social Media Practices: (Do these to maximize your Social Media experience)

• Fl = Follow
• Ht = Hashtag
• Po = Post
• St = Status Update
• Sp = Spread
• Se = Search
• Hp = Hat tip
• Fd = Feed
• Rt = Retweet
• Ud = Update
• Cm = Comment
• Jn = Join
• Up = Upload
• Tg = Tag
• Tc = Tag clouds
• Dm = Direct Message
• Rx = Remix
• Ln = Link
• Mu = Mashup
• Sb = Subscribe
• Rf = Refer
• Sr = Stream
• Re = Reply
• Rc = Recommend
• Sn = Syndicate
• Pk = Poke
• Pm = Promote
• Ib = Imbed

Blog People: (Consistently intellingent, thought-provoking & educational)

• Sy = Shoe Money
• Ar = Ad Rants
• Mp = Micro Persuasion
• Aw = Ads of the World
• Sj = Search Engine Journal
• Cf = Common Craft
• Cp = CopyBlogger
• Ba = Brand Autopsy
• Sd = Search Engine Land
• Dd = Dosh Dosh
• Gv = Gaping Void
• Ma = Mashable

In many of the articles I read about the Social Web, especially Twitter, the author laments that they don’t care that I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich for lunch, or what I thought of the latest American Idol. I’ve long felt that these writers are missing the point and this week I came across two sources that articulate this better than I could have.

The first is Clay Shirky’s book Here Comes Everybody, he makes the point that with new advances in technology people mistake broadcasting media (1 to many) for communications media (1to 1).  New tools allow people to use broadcasting media for communication.  He gives this example – if you read a blog of someone you don’t know and see that they got wasted last night and today when shopping for clothes you think what’s the point? Who cares? Yet if you went to a food court in a mall and eavesdropped on the same conversation it would be clear that you are the weird one. We’re so used to the old web that we think if we can read it, it’s targeted towards us and with the new Social Web this just don’t hold true anymore.

The second is this article from The New York Time Magazine.

“It’s an aggregate phenomenon,” Marc Davis, a chief scientist at Yahoo and former professor of information science at the University of California at Berkeley, told me. “No message is the single-most-important message. It’s sort of like when you’re sitting with someone and you look over and they smile at you. You’re sitting here reading the paper, and you’re doing your side-by-side thing, and you just sort of let people know you’re aware of them.” Yet it is also why it can be extremely hard to understand the phenomenon until you’ve experienced it. Merely looking at a stranger’s Twitter or Facebook feed isn’t interesting, because it seems like blather. Follow it for a day, though, and it begins to feel like a short story; follow it for a month, and it’s a novel.

Both of these illustrated the point that just because you can read it, doesn’t mean it’s intended for you.  If you precieve something as blather, you’re probably not the target audience. This is a new occurrence that has developed with social web tools. The line between what’s public and private becomes blurred.  If you come across the blog of someone you don’t know and start reading it are you violating their privacy?  It’s out there for anyone to read.  What if they only started writing it to keep their family updated, and you’re not the intended audience?

I saw and participated in a discussion on this on one of my email lists last week. I thought I’d take more time to write out my thoughts and responses on my blog.  Sarah posted this over in MaintainIT but it looks like she didn’t open it up for comments so I’m going to.

Here is part of the email I sent the list

One of the problems I’ve seen with 2.0 is the library runs out and gets a blog or facebook page or whatever and declares themselves 2.0. They don’t consider who they are trying to reach, what they are trying to accomplish, how they will accomplish it or measure success. We need to take the same approach to 2.0 that we’ve taken to library services for years. Not every tool will work for every library and community. Some libraries have wildly successful film programs or extensive tools for small businesses, but not every library does. We look at what our community needs and what works best for them. The same approach should be taken with your web tools.

My answer is yes.  I think there are many aspects of Library 2.0 (and web 2.0) that are providing better service to our patrons.  Right now I’m using a blog to create a new Readers Advisory service for our patrons.  Learning 2.0 & Learning 2.1 teach our staff about technology and terms our patrons are using that they might now have known about before.

I can go on and on with examples and arguments, but what I really want to know is What do you think?  Do you have some great examples of Library 2.0 or Web 2.0 is helping (or not helping)?  Is the objection to 2.0 that we’re placing a value judgment on it that we don’t apply to traditional services ( and by that I mean when we order the latest romance or horror novel)? Are we doing a disservice to our patrons by having a blog?  Are gaming events a waste of our valuable time?  What should we be doing with our time?

wow, blogging before I’ve finished my second cup of coffee.  It takes something pretty exciting to make that happen.  Well this IS exciting!  Josh has had us on pins and needles for the last couple of weeks, waiting for his big announcement.  He finally made it this morning!  Library Society of the World has a new website,  head over to Josh’s site to learn more and join up!  Not a member of LSW?  You should join, it’s a free, it’s causal, and you’ll meet some great people.  Josh kicked off the group with the goal of being an equal place for all people interested in libraries and doing some good in libraryland.  In his own words.

By joining the Society, you are joining a world-spanning group of library professionals and library advocates, dedicated to furthering the role of librarians, archivists, information professionals, and information educators through communication and collaboration. The LSW is about people, not buildings (although some of us think architecture is sexy). It’s about friendship, not organization. It’s about creating and fostering opportunities, not building barriers and divisions.

Go join!  Yes, even you people outside of the US, it’s Library Society of the World!

It’s 7 am and I haven’t even finished my first cup of coffee but I’m already excited!  LibraryThing has added a Find Friends feature! Sweet!   One of my favorite tools, as a librarian, a book lover, goes even more social!

It has the usual option to find people using your email contacts, but also a way to search for friends using your “also on” connections.  Which is awesome because there are some people I’ve never emailed who are in my Twitter account (Facebook isn’t supported yet).  I have to say as someone who has, more than once, accidentally spammed all of my contacts with an invitation to some new site, I’m thrilled to see the precautions they’ve taken against that sort of thing.  LibraryThing, I gotta say it, you guys rock!

Be my friend

Read the post on the LibraryThing blog

Or maybe it’s just me. :-) Like most of us I spent a lot of time checking out new sites and online tools.  Some of them like, twine, zigtag, and brightkite, I play with for a while then drop for one reason or another.  Others stick with me, likeFriendFeed.  I know it’s been around awhile, but I just started playing with it.  There is a lot I like about it, but sometimes it makes me uneasy.  I feel like I’m spying on all these people, I mean I can see their blogposts, del.icio.us bookmarks, Flickr favorites, books they plan to read from Goodreads or Librarything.  Granted I’m probably their friend in all those places anyway and already have access to that information, but now I don’t even have to look for it, FriendFeed brings it right to me (even emails it to me if I want)  Of course there is also the obvious fact that they created the FriendFeed account for just this reason.  But still I feel a bit like a stalker.  Does anyone else feel this way or is it just me?

In my search for a way to catalog my music CDs, DVDs and Games similar to LibraryThing or Goodreads I came across lib.rario.us. I’ve been trying it out and it seems pretty neat. I’ve added a few things to try it out. So far so good, I don’t think it’s as pretty or as functional as the books only sites, but it’s new so it could be.

What I like:

• The “add to lib.rario.us” bookmarklet
• It does more than books! Hurray! Finally a way to add my music CDs, DVDs and video Games.

What I wish were different:

• I’d like to be able see my collection in different modes – just images, sort of like a tag cloud or just a text list.
• I don’t see a way to search for people I know, am I missing something?

Is anyone else using this? How do you like it? Is there something you’re using that you like better?