Wikis are wonderful

Before completing the Wiki assignment, the only thing I knew about Wikis was through Wikipedia. When I had to write research papers I was always warned never to use this site because of its unreliability. I had heard that a person can go in and edit an entry, either to correct or add something, but I didn't realize the benefits until I watched the Wiki video. It really is a great concept when you think about it and it is so easy to do. Even people with little computer skills can add their thoughts, suggestions, or expertise.
I clicked on "Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki" to gain some insight as to how Wikis can help the library. I was surprised at how much information was available and how organized it was. The categories are in alphabetical order which makes finding what you need so much easier. I can see how this would work with the PBCLS since we have 15 locations (including the Annex) that could add their own information. We could even extend this to the city libraries. This way we would have an up to date list of programs that patrons could use in addition to the ones offered within our library system.

Web 2.0 & me

The articles regarding web 2.0 and libraries were really interesting. I especially thought the Iceberg article provided insight on what we (as library staff) should consider when we think of the future of the library. For me personally, web 2.0 has provided additional tools that could prove useful in the future. There is no such thing as knowing too much. Do I think the future of the libraries are threatened by technology? Nahhh, I think we do our best to keep up even if our machines decide to rest now and then.

Technorati

I have to admit Technorati was more fun for me than del.icio.us. The site itself is easy to navigate and understand. I did the discovery exercise with our library's URL and it came back with 73 blog reactions. I'm not sure if that it a lot or a little by Technorati standards but it was still interesting to look at. The posts covered topics like the computer classes, downloadable audiobooks, and book clubs. When I entered "Web 2.0" in the tag search, it came back with 39,748 posts. I have to say I didn't have time to go through them all. An interesting thing that happened was when I tried to open one of those thousands of blogs, I got this message
"Doh! The Technorati Monster escaped again.
We're scouring the blogosphere attempting to find it. Back in a flash!"

del.icio.us

Ok, so I didn't do so well on this weeks projects because they all seem confusing to me. It took me a little while just to write out the word "delicious" with all those periods in it. Anyway, I think I got the gist of it thanks to the "Social Bookmarking in Plain English" video. I wish they would teach all this technology in that manner. I tried clicking on different bookmarks and noticed some tags that people used but not too many notes. I do see how del.icio.us could be helpful as a research tool in libraries as it allows you to narrow down topics quckly and undoubtedly saves time in the long run. The faster the information gets to the patron, the happier they will be. As for myself, I think I will stick to the old style bookmarking because I personally do not visit too many different sites...

LA VIRGEN DE LOS ANGELES

LA VIRGEN DE LOS ANGELES
Originally uploaded by maluz2122

This is an article I found on Webfeat. I entered a search for "Costa Rica" and scrolled through several articles until I settled on this one. I have personally visited "La Virgen De Los Angeles" several times. Natives often recommend that visitors go there as it is an impressive and beautiful church regardless of your religion. I found the picture on Flickr...

Article:

The Virgin of Los Angeles has been venerated by Costa Ricans for over three centuries as their nation's patron and female role model. The Virgin's legend began in 1635, when she appeared to a peasant woman as a small statuette. In the centuries following, her image has been manipulated for political and social ends. The Virgin remains the single native icon in a nation of diverse and often disparate people.

Source Citation:Mullenax, Nancy A. "Native of her land: Costa Rica's Virgin of Los Angeles." Journal of Latin American Lore 18.n1-2 (Summer-Winter 1992): 3(11). General OneFile. Gale. Palm Beach County Library System. 5 June 2008
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Gale Document Number:A18749840

RSS & Feeds

This had to be the most challenging of all the "things" so far. It was very frustrating and eventually I had to request help from a fellow co-worker or else I would go crazy. I did manage to add a link to my bloglines on the blog and I even added some feeds too. From now on, I think I will stick to reading news from the direct website or relying on the good old paper version that lacks the technological hurdles.

Fingerprints are unique

On a recent trip to the Statue of Liberty in New York, I was amazed by some new technology that I witnessed there. As it turns out, in order to enter the statue itself all personal items like shopping bags and purses have to be stored in a locker area. I was really surprised to learn that there were no keys to carry or combinations to remember, rather the locker was locked using a single fingerprint. It is scanned in the computer and you are assigned a locker number and scanned again in the end when you are ready to leave. It seemed strange that in order to retrieve our belongings (which only consisted of my daughter's treasured Hannah Montana purse) all we had to do was hang on to my husband's finger. That proved difficult,however, after I threatened to chew it off when he left me alone and rushed off to the top to see the view...