Web 2.0, Libraries, Library Staff, and Patrons

Web 2.0 is a nice revolution of the Internet landscape. Any tool or set of tools and technology that is easy to use, understand, and master that allows people to search, discover, find, use, and create, propagate, and collaborate on a local and global scale is awesome. And Libraries and their Staff should embrace these tools, but not to the extend that they disregard or ignore services to their patrons in the name of Progress, Technology, Coolness, or being Current.

I agree that Libraries need to understand these new tools, and to incorporate them to provide meaningful and timely services to their patrons, but Libraries should also keep in mind not all their patrons will like the changes, or can understand the new services. The Digital Divide is still present in our society, and in some cases, the gap is widening. Even thought prices of hardware such as computers, laptops and cell phones are going down, it seems prices for services keeps going up, and those pesky surcharges, fees, and what-not can be prohibitive to some people. So, it would good if Libraries embrace Web 2.0 but not to the extend they stop providing non-Web 2.0, in person service to patrons who are not up on technology and the hype.

Search Engines - My Way, My Searches

New tools for information specialists - creating your own custom search engines! I think it is a great tool. With the explosion of information out there, it is so cool that people can easily create custom search engines to access their favorite websites, blogs, homepages, etc in a search engine format. This is handy. And being able to access this from any computer, from any place in the world that has Internet access is building upon available resources and extending their uses in new ways. We are truly in a mobile world.

I created two search engines for two of my hobbies, interests. Stargate-1 and Web page designs.

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=002660428997621145179%3Av3iqjrn5puk

This one should take you to my SG-1 Search engine, and the other one goes to my search engine for web design information.

http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=002660428997621145179%3Asqfbvej-38u

I used the Google tool to create them, since I did not like the Rollyo tool. I do not like the use of ads on my search engine, and the preferences given to commercial sites in the results page. I also thought the Rollyo tool was harder to use, not as intuitive as the Google tool, and besides, I already have a Google account. I did not have to create another account, and have to remember my id and password.

Be in a Cartoon or your favorite TV Show!

Well, I must say this is great. Kudos to the creator of this neat tool. Check out her site to create your very own South Park Character! http://www.sp-studio.de/.

This reminds me of the fanzines created by Star Trek fans. But with Web 2.0 technologies, this is much more fun, and most of the work has been done already. You just pick and choose the elements in your character. Now, if I can find one for STG-1 and for STG-Atlantis.

Wikis, Easy as PBJ's

So that's what wikis are! Well, wikis are great tools. They remind me of a couple of my college courses in the philosophy and religion sections. I went to a liberal arts university. The Jesuits were big on a well-rounded education. Besides the sciences, students at my school had to take some Humanities courses. Two of my courses were World Religion and Philosophy. I can not remember which one covered the idea of a collective knowledge and collective consciousness. The idea is all humans can tap into this giant well of knowledge and consciousness, but because humans forgot or learn to block out the link to this wealth of knowledge, we prevent ourselves from taking a drink from this pool of information.
I think the Web and Web 2.0 technologies is making that happen again. Through the wonderful use of Wikis and the Internet, people again are gaining access to tremendous amounts of information, and they can also take an active part in the creation and dissemination of Information to the Collective Knowledge of humans. Now, if only, we have enough space to back everything up :)

Blogs, Tagging, and Folksonomies

Been on vacation, so I have a lot of catching up. Tags and bookmarks. Found out about the useful site called Del.icio.us - a FREE membership website, where you can save your bookmarks, or cool URLs, or websites - so you can access them anywhere in the world on any computer. I think its pretty cool. This helps a lot when you have access to more than one computer, and you do research or just plain old web-surfing.
The use of tags comes in handy, and it's interesting to find out how many other people on line share your interests, your curiosities, your tastes. And if you are feeling adventurous, and not afraid to reach out -- you can make lots of contacts and friends, on the web, and have discussions and sharing of ideas, thoughts, books, and movies. One of the more powerful tools of the Web is its ability to create on-line communities that span the globe, and allow anybody access to people, cultures, and ideas that can change you, the world, and your life..or just share really cool pictures, books, and movies.

Technorati -- a way to search through the massive amounts of blogs out there. It is a cool tool. Since the volume of blogs, blog posts, and bloggers increase every six months, the sheer amount can be overwhelming. Anybody can be a blogger, and so this tool is nice if you want to search for topics, tags, or posts.