I created an account with Zoho and explored the site. I found it very simple to transfer my Microsoft Word word processing skills to Zoho . I felt confident as I created my document. The toolbar was similar to Microsoft and for some reason Zoho seems more user friendly than Word. What really impressed me was the number ( 58) of templates Zoho offers . Tickets, Invitations, Receipts, Flowsheets, Bills of Sale, Applications, and even a Student ID Card are available to the user. The "wiki" part of this site is that you can add a template to share with other Zoho users. Another advantage is that Zoho users can work on the same document from different locations. Zoho is a very useful resource; however, I would be reluctant to use it for any documents that contain sensitive information. Any document created on Zoho is out there in cyberspace and is vulnerable to hackers and spies. I will try now to post a Zoho document on my blog.
I entered and linked my blog to the Learning 2.0 SandBox wiki. I was struggling and needed help with this task. Fortunately a colleague at work showed me how to make an entry to the wiki. The linking was the most difficult part of this exercise. The instructions on the wiki page are not specific enough for me.
WIKIS
Well, now I know the origin of the term "wiki" : Hawaiian for "quick". And saying "wiki" just one time is not enough. It is one of those cute little words that you want to say over and over : "wiki wiki". And quickly, quickly is how wiki wikis are built. I think wikis are wonderful. They are the perfect answer to keep creative collaboration strong and vital within an organization. I am so pleased that SJPL Youth Services has established a wiki for staff use. Now we can enter our storytime plans, songs, crafts, booktalks, book reviews, and special programming ideas. This is what we have needed for a long, long time. YS librarians need a central location where they can pool and share ideas and our new wiki is the place to do this. Mid Hudson Library System in New York State has a great wiki site for programming ideas. I spent many years working in a library supported by the Mid Hudson Library System long before the time of wikis. Instead of a wiki we had a central location for programming materials that we could all share. Approximately 70 small public libraries in the Mid-Hudson System depended on these materials for programming. But a printed catalog of all the materials had to be constantly updated, and paper copies of programming ideas were exchanged and often lost over time. It was a cumbersome way of sharing ideas. Now, with the wiki, ideas can be added quickly to a central location . Mid-Hudson Library System's programming wiki is well worth looking at :
http://support.midhudson.org/ezprogram/ezprogram.htm
Hopefully SJPL will be able to create an equally valuable programming wiki for staff to use and contribute to.
"Away from the Icebergs"
Public libraries certainly don't want to go down like the Titanic. Rick Anderson has highlighted 3 issues ( or icebergs ) that could pose potential disasters for public libraries if they do not chart their future direction correctly. I recall vividly the very first course I took when I began my MLS. It was an introductory course to "Information Science" and our class viewed the video "Goodbye Gutenberg". It was our professor's goal to alert us to the fact that because of technology "the times, they are a changin" . This was way back in the early 1980's when technology was just beginning to impact the way libraries operated. OCLC and Marc Records were the latest and greatest back then ,and everyone on the cutting edge wanted to learn database searching and become high paid information brokers. Then the Internet hit, and all of a sudden the information domain was no longer exclusive to libraries. Today anyone with a computer and a good dsl line can access more information than any one library can have in a collection. The Internet, not the library, is now the first choice for most people to go to search for their information needs. So, Rick Anderson makes a very valid point when he states that the "come to us" model of library service is one of those icebergs that could impede progress. The "come to us" model of library service is no longer relevant. We need to bring library services to our users wherever they are and whenever they need us. The only way to do this is through technology. I think SJPL has done an excellent job of bringing library service to our users 24 hours a day through our website. Every time I assist a customer I take the opportunity to point out access not only to our catalog but also to the web links to information and the databases that customers can use at home. I like to do this because I always receive a "WOW" reaction from customers. They are so pleased that they can do their library research from home or from a remote location via a laptop computer. Access to SJPL's eBook and digital audiobook collections via the website is a real convenience and another example of bringing our services to the customer rather than making them come to us. This is the way we want to navigate public library service, so that public libraries do not face the same demise that many of the earth's icebergs face today : complete meltdown .
Web 2.0
"Into a New World of Librarianship"
In 8 brief paragraphs Michael Stephens does an outstanding job of summarizing some aspects of the new world of librarianship. Librarians are still bringing information and people together, but in a whole new way. Libraries and librarians are no longer the "keepers" of knowledge. We are now the navigators of knowledge and architects of information constructions built with technology tools. We gather our knowledge using technology. We organize knowledge through technology. And we make all of this accessible to users through technology. Tools needed to achieve this work are found in Web 2.0. Libraries need to plan their services and futures based on this new world premise. Still, I maintain, that there are important aspects of librarianship and libraries that are not part of this new technological world. I hope in their zeal to embrace technology, that librarians and libraries will not lose sight of their very special cachet that much of the human world still longs for. Libraries cannot forget those users who still long for the quiet sanctuary of peace and contemplation that a quiet study room or reading room offers. Libraries cannot forget that they are still seen as the promoters of literacy among all age groups. And libraries should always have books.
Technorati is the center of blogdom. Any kind of registered blog you want to read is residing in Technorati. If you are a lonely person, you can sit and commune with other people's blogs. Listen to their rants, their humor, their passions, make cyber friends, etc. etc. Then there are blogs that are serious. You can find those too. The nice thing about Technorati is that you can broaden or narrow your search. When I searched under the term "librarian" in blog posts with "any authority" in "all languages"I got 122,809 hits. As I refined and narrowed my search to "librarian" with " a lot of authority" in "all languages" I got 2,329 hits. Then when I narrowed the search to "librarian" with "a lot of authority" in "English", then I got 2,177 hits. So, you can filter out the junk and pick up some quality reading / information. Tags and Directory searches seem to be more specific. Tags are not as reliable as directory searches.
