Twitter

If Suzanne Reymer can cave in and sign on to Twitter, I can do the same. I've been resisting - even after seeing it in action at CIL a few weeks ago I wasn't sure it was really worthwhile. But maybe if enough of us in libraries start using it, we might come up with something? It is an easy way to keep up with people I wouldn't ordinarily follow, like Michael Sauers (who was in Bozeman a few years ago and astutely pointed out that the ultimate goal of the Reference Desk is to get people to leave). I admit I still haven't watched the video Steve McCann sent out (but did forward it to 2 coworkers who were also trying out Twitter) but plan to, and maybe that will be convincing?

At least this gets Steve some followers (a few years ago at Offline he showed his MySpace page, and sadly had no friends at the time).

I'm not sure I'm going to go for Twitter on my cell phone - there is a limit to how much information, and how often, I want.

Home Again

We made it home late yesterday and I haven't had a chance to even look at my notes from all the CIL conference sessions. Lots of staff from BPL are in Great Falls now for MLA - I can't find a blog or wiki for this year's conference so I don't know what's going on!

(Here are the InfoTubey Awards mentioned in the earlier post - very clever!).

CIL cont'd

This was a great conference again, and we still have one more day. Greg Notess was part of a great panel this afternoon promoting lots of web 2.0 technologies (wikis, videocasting, etc) although he played the part of the skeptic: why do we need these (similar to some of my earlier comments on some of these, too!). But after dinner we went to the InfoTubey Awards, where we saw 5 Youtube videos related to libraries - very entertaining! I can see some good uses for videos on library sites, and lots of other good ideas, too.

Time to return to Bozeman and think of ways to implement all the fun stuff we saw here.

Computers in Libraries

It's that time again - Lois and I are off to Washington DC for the Computers in Libraries conference this week. It's not like this is a regular event for us - we went once 6 years ago - but we had such a great time we've been trying to get back ever since. Thanks to MLA and our Library Foundation we've been able to make it happen this year. There are so many good ideas out there - we know we'll come back really enthused about new ways to use technology in the library.

The down side to this trip is we won't be at the MLA conference this year, so to everyone who is going: have a great time!

Second Life

I didn't have a chance to get to Second Life before tonight, but had hoped to join the party! I'm patiently waiting for my confirmation email, but don't think it will get here in time. It would be fun to have a few more 2nd Life meetings in the coming months - that's another 2.0 thing I've been curious about but haven't had a chance (or reason) to do anything with. Penelope Perl (that's me!) is looking forward to exploring that new world.

Sorry I couldn't join you tonight (still no email!), and now it's time for the Celebrity Apprentice finale - have to see if Trace Adkins beats the annoying Brit! Hope a fun group showed up and you all had a great time.

Concluding Thoughts

The funny thing is I thought I'd already posted a concluding thoughts entry but obviously it ended up somewhere in Cyberspace (or I was just dreaming, which may be even more likely).

I thought this was a great way to try out new technologies that I wouldn't have otherwise taken the time to learn, and get more familiar with those I knew a little bit about. I knew there would be someone to help if I got really stuck or confused, which made it easier to jump in.

I liked the format of posted lessons so I knew what was coming and I could get to them on my own time. The fun thing was I discovered I already knew a little about a lot of these topics - I had no idea I was so up-to-date!

Count me in if more courses like this are offered - this is a great opportunity and I'd recommend it to everyone.

WikiWiki!

Last year I watched a College of DuPage "webinar" (at least I think that's what it was) that introduced PBWiki. We started a staff wiki at our library to help keep everyone informed without having to post notices, send emails, etc. Each department has their own page, and we've linked lots of useful information (staff phones, committees, equipment troubleshooting tips to name a few). It's handy to be able to check on news when I'm on vacation or at home, too.

I really like the Wyoming Authors wiki and the Best Practices wiki - I see there is lots of useful information there (like gaming in the library!). There is always the risk of someone editing incorrectly or posting false information, but overall I think wikis are really handy.