If you had asked me 2 weeks ago if I would ever write my own blog the answer would have been a resounding no! Although I started contributing to the Readers in the Mist blog recently the idea of starting my own was quite another matter. But here I am. It really couldn’t have been easier to set up the blog. And web 2.0 obviously deserves an XMLed, fully interactive, socially networked, collaboratively thinking wiki-working end user. So here I am. Human 2.0. Hopefully by the end of the course I will in fact be Human 2.1. But for now…
I think blogs have a lot of potential for libraries, but perhaps getting people involved (other than staff) will be a challenge. For some people surfing the ‘net and blogging is second nature, but for others I think it is going to be too much effort to contribute. They may read it, but thinking of things to say takes time and thought. Then there is the hurdle of actually posting it. In a small community, foe example Blue Mountains library patrons, perhaps it will be difficult to get active participation. I guess these things just need to be nurtured until people find out about them and feel confident and interested enough to get involved. Otherwise the blog is really little more than a bulletin board. But maybe that that is ok too?
However, I have been impressed with things like user generated tags on library catalogues. These are so quick and easy to create. I would love to see them on our BMCL catalogue. It is a great way to involve patrons, and they are fun and useful. User generated data will always be a little suspect, and will need to be monitored for naughtiness, but I don’t think that is really a problem when there is clear distinction between the tags and the catalogue entry. Alternatively it would be great to be able to link catalogue entries to book reviews…. The more information about a book the better I say!
As far as this course goes, I guess I expect to learn a bit of new stuff and reinforce some other stuff that I know about but don’t use much. I am familiar with a lot of the things we are going to be covering, but I don’t have much use for a lot of them, so the course will be a useful practical exercise.
Anna
3 comments:
Hello! I enjoyed reading your very first blog very much! I am actually Human 2.07, from the fairly near future. Not too much has changed, but I can access my email through my brain chip, and can blog simply by thinking. Oh, and we can time travel (which is how I can respond to this blog in your timeframe), although only "virtually" through our brain chips. I work in a library (we're up to 3.1 now) as an archivist, researching the origins of classic blogs. Which is how I found this one! Human 2.0 is huge in the future.
I just wanted to let you know that your suggestions for blogging in libraries is a very good one. We've had that for a while now, and I can't bring myself to "borrow" a book (nowadays we download them into our brain chips) without reading some reader reviews first.
Anyway, better get back to the future before my Manager catches me time travelling again. It's not illegal or anything, but I'm not supposed to do it at work.
Gday sunshine, looking good! Maybe flesh out the profile a bit? You know - the law enforcement and security side of it...like you're a prison librarian in the maximun security wing and what's your uniform like? What sort of guns do you prefer? Any handcuffs? How does readers advice work in the jug? Whats' the script: Jailhouse Rock or Prisoner? Cheers, Jack
I love the layout - you have done a fantastic job setting the blog up - and you are attracting comments so you must be doing something right!
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