SOCIAL NETWORKING

Impressions and Experiences with Social Networking:
I was impressed with the Library links. The Libraries that were chosen
as good examples of those who have utilized social networking in their
websites. The sites are very appealing, user friendly, and offer the tech savvy lots of opportunities. These sites would also meet the expectations
of the typical Library user who is under the age of 30.
I would like to see my institution have a page on Facebook or MySpace.
However, this probably would be difficult to do because as soon as I tried
to get on to these two websites a popup message came up saying that this
would be reported to Administration—i.e., Facebook and MySpace are
banned and blocked at South Bend Medical Foundation. I would say that
dealing with the IT department here is a challenge and don’t think they
would change their policy anytime soon.
SBMF Administration would also be very focused on the privacy concerns for individuals and would not want to get involved in the legal questions that
could arise from the usage of Facebook and MySpace.
As for personally using Facebook and MySpace-- I don’t think that privacy
concerns are a problem unless you are dealing with individuals under the age of 18. As in most cases, proceed with caution, would be my advice.
Social networking for MLA members to connect could be a nice advantage to using the social networking tools. This could be helpful after attending
May 2008 MLA in Chicago and wanting to further communicate with a member that you have met there. Also, I think you make yourself look more professional if you try to increase your visibility through social networking tools.
I will definitely be spending more time on utilizing the social networking tools highlighted in this class—this definitely could be helpful in exploring more career opportunities!

Wiki vs. Blog

The open style of a wiki can be useful for group projects, while a blog may aid in
brainstorming or generating discussion. The main difference between a wiki and
a blog becomes the layout and organization of information. A wiki becomes a continually modifiable easy-access web page, while a blog’s journalistic style
catalog and dates content so readers can see the interchange of ideas related to
the blog topic in question. A blog is personal, less collaborative, a posting is
owned by the poster and text is considered to be static. A wiki is open to
collaboration and is considered public space. The aim of a wiki is to create documents
(individual pages as well as the entire wiki/web) and tends towards expressing
ideas as relationships between pages.
In my institution, a wiki could be used for internal communication between the
Library and the different departments that it serves. The wiki could also function
as a repository of the different documents that are used to educate the staff on how to best utilize the many resources available to them in the Library.
I am most interested in the use of the blog as a means of obtaining information,comments, and communication on the topic of gardening native plants in the Midwest

MLA CE WEEK 1

This is a terrific class! I can go at my own speed, and get up to date on Web 2.0 technology.
So far, the most useful tool has been to learn about RSS feeds for PubMed searches--the
doctors at my facility will really like this! And what is best is that I can really apply this information for my own interests and personal projects.
Also, we have students who do rotations at my facility--they will love these tools too!

LIBRARY USE OF RSS FEEDS

In order to keep current, like many librarians I had all of the web sites that I visited daily bookmarked (about 50) in my browser at work and I would painstakingly visit each site throughout the day. Of course there were days that visiting each site was not possible (on very busy days I was lucky to get to one). And if three days went by without reading these favorites, I would get too bogged down trying to catch up. This was all before I was introduced to the wonderful world of RSS feeds. Now, I get almost all of the content I want from all of these sites delivered to one place as soon as the site is updated, saving precious time. The most amazing part is that I am notified when any of the sites I subscribe to are updated within minutes.
Patrons could use RSS feeds to keep up-to-date on their research results from PubMed.
They could also subscibe to RSS feeds on the journals that are of most interest to them.
Or, they could select a topic and get the most current information available through RSS feeds.

This blog will be specializing in information about native garden perennials.

I like to focus on such plants as black eyed susans, milk weed, and joe pye weed.

Plants that will make the gardener happy!!