Online Productivity Tools

I have to admit that I am pretty impressed by the online productivity tools that are available. At work we are currently using Google Docs for scheduling classrooms as well as setting up meeting times, etc. I signed up for a Zoho account and I am looking forward to playing around with all the services and features that are available. I love the fact that my documents can be accessed from any computer, and I don't have to buy updates to software. My husband and I are currently looking into purchasing a new computer and I did not want to have to purchase the Office Suite since it can be expensive. Well with these tools I don't have to.

I compared Google Docs and Zoho with each other and I love the functionality of Zoho. Both of these are user friendly, but I felt like Zoho had more features available.

I also signed up for 30 Boxes and put in some of my families birthdays. I am not sure if I would actually use this application, but it is a nice thought to have a calendar that you can share with others.

There is some concern about privacy, but it seems like that is the case with anything on the internet these days. I don't really know if it is cause for major concern, or if I am just naive, but for some reason it doesn't bother me. You don't have to make your files public, and you can share them only with those you want. I feel that there is the same risk with these types of tools as with anything else that is available via the net.

I am really looking forward to using these tools more in the future for not only personal use, but also for work.

Flikr

C Major
Originally uploaded by Christopher Nichols

I have had a Flikr account for a couple of years now and my first intent was to have it to share photos with my family that lives far away. The photo that I am blogging about is actually one of my friend's photos who is a budding photographer. I think that he has a real talent when it comes to photography and I was lucky enough to have him be the photographer at my wedding.

This assignment was the first time that I had actually explored photos using tags and groups. To me it is all a little overwhelming considering how many photographs there are on this site. There are some amazing photos however which makes my photos look so bad. It is interesting though to see what others are doing.

Wetpaint Wiki

I just created my first wiki and it was really easy. I loved the way it was so easy to set-up. I just started off with the very basics, but I want to go back and play with it. Of course there is very little content right now, but I am hoping that there will be more soon. I have invited the librarians that I work with plus some IT people to join in and help me create the content.

I think that this will work great in my case because I am a librarian that is at a satellite campus that is 80 miles away from the main campus. I do meet with the other librarians once a month and we do email, but this wiki will give us a chance to collaborate on a daily basis without having to email documents, phone long distance, meet via ITV, etc. I am hoping that I will actually feel more connected to everyone.

Now the biggest problem will be to get my co-workers to actually use this site. It is not necessarily that they are against new technology, it is just that everyone is spread a little thin these days. This is one of the technologies that I never thought I would actually use, that I am now excited to begin using.

Wikis

I think that wikis are a great idea for collaboration when it comes to learning and sharing new ideas. I have used wikipedia before to gain information. However I do this knowing that not all the information that I get is guaranteed to be 100% accurate. This is the downfall of wikis. You have to trust that the person who is contributing the information knows what they are talking about. Some do not check their facts.

I was really impressed with the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki. What a great place for librarians to share ideas, knowledge, etc. This is one that I will be using in the future. I have been thinking of a way to incorporate a wiki at work. One way we could do this is for our reference librarians to contribute to a reference wiki. Any questions that students continually ask along with where to find the answers can be shared among the librarians. Since each librarian may get different questions, the wiki would allow individual librarians to post their own experiences at while working at the reference desk. This would in turn help the next librarian.

In the near future I would like to create a wiki with my fellow workers. I would also like to try and get the students involved some way. How I am going to do that, I haven't worked that out yet. I am still thinking on a couple of ideas. However I don't intend to create a wiki just to be creating a wiki.

RSS Feeds

The assignment this week was not a new one to me. I have been subscribing to RSS feeds for over a year now. What was different was using Google. In the past I have always used Yahoo for my RSS feeds and I hate to say this to all the Google lovers out there, but I actually prefer the look of Yahoo. I am a visual person and I just don't like the way Google looks. Now I will say that I haven't had the chance to go through and play a lot with the settings to see if I could get another look. But what I have found I just don't like.

As for the concept of RSS feeds, I think they are great. Instead of me having to go to different websites each day to find out what's new, it all comes to me. We have been playing with this idea for our library homepage, but it is still in the discussion stage. To me it is a no brainer, to other librarians, it means change which we all know can be a dirty word. I think it would be a great way to keep students updated on what is going on in the library. I also think that students would be more apt to subscribed to an RSS feed and read about the library. Right now the only reason that students go to our homepage is to access our catalog and databases.

I plan on continuing to use RSS feeds and also continue to try and incorporate them into our library.