Twitter: It's Still A Great Resource

Well, I now that the furry over Twitter has died down I've finally gotten around to joining it. It wasn’t as easy as people kept telling me, but it wasn’t that bad either. There are some fantastic people and conversations to follow. These conversations can also offer a lot of good information that goes beyond what somebody had for lunch and what brand of plastic fork they used to eat it. For instance, there are great conversations on e-books, how to use apps in the classroom and on the book industry. Honestly though, the best information I read was not in the tweets themselves but on the websites that many of the tweets directed me to.

I see a great opportunity to use Twitter to promote library resources and services. When something new comes up or even if there is some resource or service that is already existing but is not being used then Twitter can be a good way to get the word out. It can also be used to get people involved in discussions about whatever may be relevant. It can also be a good way to get people looking at the library web sit or other places to read more about certain things.

Two Fantastic School Library Blogs

There are hundreds of good school library blogs on the internet. There are two that I’ve found particularly helpful

The first is The True Adventures of a High School Librarian at http://www.nikkidrobertson.com/

This blog has earned several awards and for good reasons. It is comprehensive and takes a creative look at school librarianship in real world situations. It also highlights books and the authors. By highlighting authors the books come more alive.

A Media Specialist’s Guide to the Internet at http://mediaspecialistsguide.blogspot.com/p/web-20-tools-h.html

If it’s possible for a blog run by one person to blow you mind then this one will. The number of relevan internet tools featured on this site is astronomical. There are so many that they are alphabetized by subject category and then these categories are separated into three groups ranging from Backchanneling to Quizzes.

Digg Reader

Digg Reader news reader

Library 2.0 for School Libraries

This post is a response to an article in School Library Journal, written by Christopher Harris, called, SCHOOL LIBRARY 2.0: Say good-bye to your mother's school library. The Web is all about new possibilities.

Harris says that, “Blogs and the whole gamut of interactive, Web-based tools are redefining how we connect with people and content on the Internet.” These tools are known as Web 2.0 and can be used by multitudes of uses to interact in different ways.

Our mother’s library had books. Then came microfiche. Then computers came along. All of these items were marvelous, information packed and when they first came along they were exciting and innovative. They were also all in the library. Harris points out that today’s school libraries can’t be limited to within the physical space found in brick and mortar schools. Students should not have to come to the library. The library should be wherever the students are. This is possible through technology. Technology is what will keep schools up-to-date and relevant. Without it we will lose many of today’s tech-savy students who are already using these tools on their own to create their own information communities with such tools as Facebook, Myspace, LiveJournal and Gaia Online an online gaming community with 23 million registered users who are mostly teens.

Things have changed. As Harris says, “These tools will necessarily redefine the learning landscape as we know it. And school libraries--if they are to remain relevant--must undergo transformation as well.” Students want to communicate and they want to create their own content. To remain relevant, school libraries must tap into this natural interest.

A few tools that can be used by libraries include blogs where students weigh in on topics that are often chosen or directed by the teacher-librarian. If these topics are presented in a way that students perceive as relevant students will be engaged and excited to put in their two-cents worth. LibraryThing.com can be used as a place for students to catalog and discuss books they like. This gives them an opportunity to communicate concerning literature and encourages reading, both by them and by those who they interact with.

Using Library 2.0 tools is good for students and for teachers. These tools, especially if they include video, can be used to continue to instruct students when the teacher-librarian is not available.

One thing that I believe Harris does not intend is for teachers to think that technology can take the place of a teacher-librarians, or minimize the effectiveness of a teacher-librarian’s presence. It could be tempting to rely on technology to the point where a teacher-librarian takes his own personality out of the mix. Or to believe that face to face contact is no longer relevant. Or that technology can give the same personal touch as a physical being. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used a microphone to deliver his, I Have a Dream speech. His speech was also broadcast to millions and recorded so that millions more cold see it for generations to come. And now you can see his speech on the internet. These are all good and appropriate uses of technology. But technology should not be relied upon for technologies sake. Martin Luther King’s speech would not have been improved if he had given it using PowerPoint.

It’s important for teacher-librarians to learn what internet 2.0 tools are available and to learn how to use them appropriately. It’s also important that they pay attention to their best potential for use as relates to their own specific patrons’ needs. Without a knowledge of these tools then then might just as well not exist.

Technorati

Technorati is an extensive blog directory that includes several categories. Some of the best represented blog categories include Living with over 58,000 blogs; Technology with over 48,000 blogs; Entertainment with over 46,000 blogs; and Business with over 40,000 blogs. Sports, Science, Politics, and Green are also all well represented, each with over 13,000 blogs. There are over 1,300,000 blogs in all.

Also pretty cool: Technorati keeps track of the top 100 most influential blogs on the web and calculates an authority number based on the number of people linking to a particular blog. A blog with a high authority number is considered more trustworthy than the average blog.

Blogs that are not well represented include non-English language blogs, which are not included at all. Education blogs are represented but not in the tens of thousands like several other categories. Also, several of the education links I tried didn’t work correctly. There was only one functioning link to a blog on howler monkeys.

There are two different search options; Blogs and Posts. A Blog search brings up blogs about your indicated search topic. A Post search brings up posts within blogs on your indicated search topic. I found that often the Post search is more helpful because you can get more specific information. If you want general information then a Blog search is good. Specific information can also be found doing a Blog search but it requires more reading within a blog as well as visiting more blogs to find what you’re looking for.

In 2008 Tchnorati acquired an online advertising agency, which makes me wonder if its choice of top 100 most influential blogs is influenced by its advertising interests. I hope this isn’t true. Either way, this site is a great resource; unless you’re interested in howler monkeys.

Tagging With Diigo

Diigo is more than a simple bookmarking tool. With it you can build your own library with links, pages, notes and more. You can organize this information as little or as much as you want. It has digital highlighting tools that help you see what is most important. It has tools that can help you bring information together, which can be accesses by different members of your team for online collaboration.

These social bookmarking tools can be a great help in doing research and in libraries.  These tools can be used as an easy way to provide lists of informative links to patrons. Patrons can access these links to discover what research opportunities have already been found. This can be particularly helpful in an education setting where knowledge sharing solutions allow for interactions and discussions among teachers and other teachers, teachers and students or students and students. These tools enable users to collaboratively underline, highlight, and annotate electronic text. It also provides a way to write additional comments in the margins of the electronic document.

LibraryThing

Catalog Your Own Books Online: The LibraryThing Experience

LibraryThing is a cataloging and social networking site for book lovers. You can contribute tags, ratings and reviews for a book. When you normally review a book you can rate the book one to five stars and a make comments. You can also participate in member forums where LibraryThing connects people based on the books they like.

Your profile is pretty easy to set up and it connects you to people who share your interest in the books you love. There are over 1,700,000 users and 82 million books in the system. Connecting with other book lovers is easy on the forum system is called Talk. You can read what others have to say and post messages.

You can also choose to become an early reviewer. This is where you can get pre-publication copies of books in exchange for your reviews.