Thing 15 - Online Social Networks

I am not the person to talk to about these web sites. I don't think any parent of teenage girls is. Do I think VBPL should use a social networking site to communicate with teens? Maybe. Will there be someone dedicated to monitoring the site? I know safeguards can be put into place. I am just afraid, very afraid.

Thing 10 - Rss Feeds Search

Forgot this thing and have gone back so I can catch up! Found out with these tools it is very easy to locate feeds. Found an interesting story about the law and jello, if you can believe that. Seems a drunk college boy was pushed while playing in a pool of Jello, broke his hip, and sued NYU for damages. Poor boy. Makes me want to continue finding and reading feeds.

Thing 14 - Staff pick

My first wiki post! Very easy and quick. I chose the book Our Dumb World by The Onion. Maybe someone else will get the humor. I am still not won-over by Wikis but will give most of them the benefit of the doubt.

Thing 13 - Wikis

I like the idea of Wikis, I just don't know how much to trust them. A pure public wiki would be a problem. Especially sites for children. I do, however, see the advantage of a conference wiki - what a great idea! Also - this would be a great way for families to research genealogy. A free version of ancestry.com!

Thing 12 - VBPL and IM

I have watched a fellow employee work the IM time slot on several occasions. Even though our program is still in infancy I have my doubts. There is going to have to be a major shift in patron access of the library website in order for this to work. I don't believe our patrons are quite to the point where they go to us first for needed information. We remain a big card catalog. That is not to say things won't change - but it will take time and lots of it.

Teens and IMs

Teens and Instant Messaging now go hand in hand. My thirteen year old spends at least an hour IMing her friends after school. There is always more to talk about and at least she's not on the phone! It is completely natural for her to do research, type a paper, do math homework and carry on an IM - all at the same time. Can a library fit into this equation? I really don't know. With so many information sources on the Web and even the libraries own online sources I don't imagine she or her friends asking questions of a librarian. They would rather go straight to the source themselves.

Thing 9

Learning about RSS feeds.
This afternoon I learned about RSS feeds. This is not really something I am interested in now, although I did subscribe to a few feeds. The most interesting in called "Cooking for Engineers." The process was very simple, everything is streamlined and mistake proof.

I don't know if I will check my feeds ever, but we'll see. Never say never!