Monday, October 13, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Week 14 - delicious
I have set up a delicious account and downloaded the bookmarlet thingy. I subscribed to a feed on toilet training. I had a good time investigating tags and seeing all the content that comes up under other people's tags. This was a lot of fun and I can see good reasons to get info this way.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Week 14 - Tagging, Social Bookmarking & Del.icio.us
Yes I have to say I find the idea of tagging unsettling. Having learned my library science at a time when computers (just the boxes, not all the stuff that goes with them) were brand new, I got steeped in abstracting and indexing traditions. In my job I have done a lot with indexing of news and magazine articles, and working from a controlled vocabulary list. It was (and is) my belief the mix of free text search and also a searchable field of "correct" terms can enhance retrievability.
But there is practically no way to have librarians set up all your retrieval terms, we're not living in that world. So tagging comes in handy. I can see for the first time the wisdom of the "herd" being a good pointer to content.
Will tags replace subject headings? I think not. It's still great to have Sears and LC to help us classify and arrange hundreds of thousands of items in a collection. That ain't broke and it doesn't need fixing. But tagging may well prove superior in getting people in to a catalog from outside, where they can then find good things, and link on the associated subject headings (or other internal tags), and maybe leave a tag of their own.
By the way I tried to get a Meebo account the other day and it got hung up on step 2. I will keep trying on that.
Now I will venture forth in search of tags....
But there is practically no way to have librarians set up all your retrieval terms, we're not living in that world. So tagging comes in handy. I can see for the first time the wisdom of the "herd" being a good pointer to content.
Will tags replace subject headings? I think not. It's still great to have Sears and LC to help us classify and arrange hundreds of thousands of items in a collection. That ain't broke and it doesn't need fixing. But tagging may well prove superior in getting people in to a catalog from outside, where they can then find good things, and link on the associated subject headings (or other internal tags), and maybe leave a tag of their own.
By the way I tried to get a Meebo account the other day and it got hung up on step 2. I will keep trying on that.
Now I will venture forth in search of tags....
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Week 13 - IM stuff
Of course I have been using Google Talk for almost a year, and it works well for work. Although I sent several messages for the purpose of this assignment and no one answered!
That points out that communication is a 2-way street!
I was and have been excited about the possibilities for reference and catalog help that were shown in some of the links.
In our catalog, we could put a persistent meebo widget (even on every page of our web site too) letting people know they could 1-chat and ask a question, 2-leave a message for reply to their email, or 3-get our phone number if they wish that.
What a way to say in every place "We're here - no we're really here - to help you!"
That points out that communication is a 2-way street!
I was and have been excited about the possibilities for reference and catalog help that were shown in some of the links.
In our catalog, we could put a persistent meebo widget (even on every page of our web site too) letting people know they could 1-chat and ask a question, 2-leave a message for reply to their email, or 3-get our phone number if they wish that.
What a way to say in every place "We're here - no we're really here - to help you!"
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