Our 23 Things Wiki

Adding content to this wiki was surprisingly easy! I added a not very brilliant comment about wikis. I admire Infopeople for creating this wiki and putting what we've been learning to practical use.

Wikis

Wikis are web sites that allow users to add content. One of the most famous examples is Wikipedia, which, fortunately or unfortunately, has become a popular reference tool. One of the most exciting wikis I've viewed so far is "Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki" at www.libsuccess.org. This wiki comprehensively lists topics of interest to libraries from academic to public to special. Anyone can add to these topics but somehow the site remains clean, organized, and relevant. Coming from a public library, I found the information on patron behavior guidelines and unattended children/unattended adults in the children's room very helpful. Wikis are good tools for libraries and among the most practical of the web 2.0 technologies.

Web 2.0

I found Walt Crawford's article very interesting. Of the different levels of enthusiasm over 2.0, I fall into the category of wanting to "attract new users within the framework of retaining the users who love what libraries currently do." Change is very good and necessary but change should also be tempered with reason and caution. Many of the web 2.0 tools are fun, funky, and should be added to library services. But added and interwoven as yet another service reaching out to the more tech minded of library users. No group should be excluded or marginalized for the sake of progress. Like that person who just wants a good book to read and could care less that the library offers IM reference.

Technorati

I'm not fond of reading blogs (I don't expect anyone to read mine)! So Technorati is not a site I'll visit again. Technorati is for insomniacs and others who have more time than they know what to do with. The site is a compilation of blogs, videos, and music. There just isn't enough time in my life to read the news much less someone blogging about the coffee they enjoyed last night. So not a site I plan to remember.

Del.icio.us

I've heard a lot of buzz about Del.icio.us and now know why! First off, the name is creative--I just can't always remember where to put the periods. But after dealing with that issue, the site itself is very useful. I can create a list of favorite sites, bookmark them, and then retrieve that list from any computer with Internet access. Del.icio.us also includes top sites that people have bookmarked; it's always interesting to see what other people find interesting. A very practical site--one of the most practical I've seen so far with the 23 Things.

Rollyo

Rollyo is a perfect example of 2.0 technology because it is customizable. My only experience with something similar is using advanced preferences in Google to include only certain domains in search results. Rollyo allows the user to cover only certain websites, divided by subject, in search results. These subjects are preset or customizable. For example, I used the key word "cinnamon" and searched using three different preset subject groupings: Health, Recipes, Celebrity Gossip. As you can imagine, the results were very different! An interesting search tool.