Thing 15 Libraries and Games

I've heard Michael Stephens' presentation on Library 2.0, including his extensive and enthusiastic comments about Second Life, so I was eager to explore that virtual world.

My work computer will not support a membership, so I confined myself to exploring numerous links on the site. I remember hearing that there was a flourishing economy of SL and found a whole raft of postings for Second Life jobs with detailed job descriptions and application requirements. None listed salary ranges. After finding a reference to Linden dollars on another SL link, I wonder if that's how staff are paid. I also discovered a column with the startling (to me) news that the Electric Sheep Company and Edelman PR, among others, were making a real (as well as a virtual) living on SL. The economic statistics page listed virtual land sales, resident transactions in Linden dollars, and also population statistics.

By contrast, I was surprised to note that a Victorian neighborhood in SL had a 19th century library and that the Land of Lincoln, a SL teen grid, is set in the 1850s and 1860s. Quite a mix of period nostalgia and current technology. I noticed that the Alliance Library System has done extensive work on SL, and found a long list of libraries that have some kind of a presence on SL. Because I could not join, I was unable to visit Info Island and learn about library services there.

What does it all mean? What is the organizing principle? Perhaps it is simply life with all its complexity adapting to a new dimension.

My experience with Puzzle Pirates was puzzling. I made an avatar, started an adventure, and found that I simply do not know how to fight with swords. Nor do I want to learn, so I will leave that to others.

The recent debate about reading, and especially whether the type of reading needed for gaming is different from that needed to read books is of great interest. I'll continue to follow that carefully.

Thing 14 Library Thing

I first heard about Library Thing from a colleague at Hennepin County Library in 2004. She used it as a reader's advisory tool at work and demonstrated it at a Readers' Advisory Roundtable meeting. When I checked today, I discovered that she has almost 900 books in her library, an impressive total. And she has published three reviews as an Early Reviewer.

I set up a very small (ten titles) library as a starting point, explored the various groups, read reviews, and checked out the FAQ for Library Thing Early Reviewers. The concept of bidding to review a book intrigued me although I noticed that the number of people who want to review titles vastly outnumbers the number of titles available.

Library Thing is an ideal tool for libraries to use in sharing book news with customers. Categorizing titles by format, audience, appeal factors, classics, accelerated readers, the list is endless. On a personal level, I will use Library Thing as the 'next gen' version of my trusty reading journal which superseded boxes of scrap catalog cards I used to use as my reading record.

Thing 13 Productivity Tools

Exploring this wide range of tools was instructive and fun. With its endless options (weather, YouTube, music, art...), setting up a homepage on Google was the most enjoyable. The first pass took just a couple minutes, and I already had more information on the page than I'd be likely to use regularly. After some deletions, I saved the page and will try using it for a while to see whether it is useful. Will it be a permanent homepage? Time will tell.

When I got to the calendars, I wanted to try Kiko because the evaluation in Wired was so favorable, but it would not load. I noticed comments from others who had the same experience.

The project management tools (Basecamp, Zoho Projects) looked appealing. I wish I had known about them a couple months ago when I was searching for a simple, clear project management template to track outreach efforts at the library. Though I did not sign up for an account, I'll keep these tools in mind for future projects. I also liked Backpack which would be used to keep standard answers to common questions and talking points about library projects in a single spot, accessible to everyone on staff.

Thing 12 Social Media Sites

I've noticed icons for social media sites on various websites, idly wondered what they meant, and moved on. Now I know what they are and how the sites work. I explored each one, noting that the story about Morgan Freeman's accident appeared among the most popular on all four, Digg, Newsvine, Reddit, and Mixx. Stephanie Meyer's Breaking Dawn is big news at my library this week, so I expected to find lots of articles. Turns out Mixx had a bunch, Reddit and Digg had none, and Newsvine was still searching when I gave up.

Always drawn to the odd story and quirky news items, I was interested to read about the Ohio inmate suing the state on the grounds that he is too fat for execution. He contends that the lethal injection drugs would not work properly because of his weight. Now there's a story I'd like to follow. Today the Ohio Attorney General's Office had no comment as they had not yet seen the suit.

I finished my tour by sharing a New York Times article via delicious. I doubt that I will spend much time on these sites. RSS feeds from sites I know will be of interest have a bigger claim on my time.

Thing 11 Tagging and Delicious

News flash! Forget about the odd punctuation you learned to find del.icio.us on the web. Just yesterday, 7/31/08, the new address is simply delicious.com. According to the What's New page, the plethora of variations on the earlier version finally persuaded the designers to remove punctuation from the name entirely, a good move, I think.

Being able to bookmark sites and access them from any computer is a fine feature, one that is attractive enough to persuade me to try it. With one exception, the library applications I looked seemed OK but not great. The exception: San Mateo Public Library which bundles tags within Dewey ranges, allowing the user to search for tags or by Dewey.

On my own delicious account, I bookmarked travel sites for Hangzhou, China. One of them was bookmarked by 35 other people, some of whom had added notes. Seems like clutter to me though I can imagine using delicious as a tool for environmental scanning. Just knowing which sites have been bookmarked by the most people could indicate issues and topics of timely and broad interest.

Thing 10 Wikis

Reading the various library wikis was instructive. Creating subject guides and using a wiki as a web presence both struck me as useful ways for libraries to use this format. Less useful was a library wiki for a policy/procedure manual where all staff were allowed to edit. While this approach is democratic and probably a good vehicle to gather staff comments about policies and procedures, I wondered how a new staff member could use the wiki to learn the library's policy on any particular topic. Who has the final word?

For years, teachers have told students not to use encyclopedias for their reports, or at least not to use them as the sole source for information. The contemporary version of this advice is to avoid wikipedia. Just as print encylopedias provide a useful starting point for beginning researchers, wikipedia serves the same function in the online world. Wikipedia often does a better job of covering technology topics and celebrities of current importance in popular culture. Example: when I was looking for information on nings, wikipedia was my first source, and a very useful one.

Teaching K-12 students, and their teachers, to use and evaluate multiple sources of information, including wikipedia, is a role, and important one, for school library media specialists. Public librarians can help by reinforcing information literacy skills and helping students find multiple resources on their topic.

Thing 9 Collaboration

Google Docs looks easy to use and useful. I have been working on a draft RFP, planning to send it as an e-mail attachment to a colleague for comment. Instead, I uploaded the documet to Google Docs and invited her to collaborate with me in editing the RFP. If this works, I'll be a convert.

As others mentioned, I, too, am unable to edit the historical document in Google Docs or Zoho Writer. I'll take it on faith that editing is possible and move on.