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.

Del.icio.us

First off, you know it is a bad day when you can't remember your login for your blog. Now after getting that off my chest, I went to Del.icio.us and searched for different bookmarks. I found some wonderful sites that I had not found before. I can see just from the little time that I spent perusing Del.icio.us, that it is a wonderful site. I set up my own account and started adding bookmarks and also tagging them. I have to admit that there are some bookmarks that I haven't tagged yet, but I will get around to it.

I am looking at ways that I can share this with the students so that they have access to these sites that could be helpful to them. I am really wondering if it is any different from posting the links on our library homepage. But after thinking about it, I realize that students are probably more likely to access the links from Del.icio.us, than going to the library website and trying to navigate around locating the page that has the nursing links on it. From the main page you have to click 6 times before getting to the links, and that is if you know where to look. I feel that this is always the question, how do you get the information to the students?

Playing Catch-Up

Well I already feel that I am way behind and we are only on the second week. Things at work are crazy and hectic, and while I was doing really good keeping on top of things, I am now to the point where I am just trying to put out fires. At home my two little ones have been sick which means that I have not had much sleep this week at all. I feel like a zombie at work and my productivity is suffering.

I had started a blog for my job almost two years ago and I was going to be good and keep it up to date, but that has fallen by the wayside once again. I think that I am going to have to take out the "Do Not Disturb" sign and dust it off and put it on my office door. I am hoping that some of the technologies that I learn in this class will actually help me with the work that I am doing and will allow me more time to do other things. What I am specifically thinking is that if I can create podcasts to help students learn how to do basic searching in the library then they can use those instead of me. I can help with the more in depth research needs. At least this is what I am hoping.

Thoughts about Lifelong Learning

This is not my first time blogging. I started a blog a couple of years ago to try and keep students informed of what was going on in our library. It wasn't that successful due to my inability to keep up with it. Which brings me to the 7 1/2 habits of lifelong learners. I think that the easiest habit for me is #7 - Teach/Mentor Others. I have experienced in my own life that when I teach something to others, my own skills and knowledge improve. I also seem to learn something new every time I am teaching someone else. It just makes me realize that there is always something to learn.

The hardest habit for me would have to be #4 - Have Confidence in Yourself as a Competent, Effective Learner. I have to say that in the past I have been really hard on myself. I also question my ability to accomplish tasks. I am always second guessing myself and it seems that other people have more confidence in me than I do. I am working on this and learning how to be confident. I have found out that you can't get very far in life without confidence.

My big obstacle for this course and for anything that I do job related is going to be time. However I have already made myself a promise to carve out some time during the day. I may just have to shut my office door - like I have done now. Ah, the quiet.