Twitter

I have been twittering for quite a while now and I find it fascinating.  People are just getting into it and so there is the potential to connect with people that you wouldn't normally.  I follow local politicians and it's interesting to see what they tweet (and what they do with the feedback they receive on twitter).  One thing that is key from a business (or library) perspective is twittering relevant information, making it interesting, and always responding to comments you receive from people.  I like twitter, and I'm pretty hooked on reading tweets, but I'm not too convinced about how it works for libraries yet.  I kind of feel like sometimes we are simply talking to ourselves as opposed (ie. other libraries and librarians) as opposed to the general public, which is who we want to reach.  Librarians are all technology obsessed sometimes, and not always in a good way! 

Still always fun though, and next we should be learning about Foursquare and Gowalla! 

:) 

LibraryThing

I have played around with LibraryThing a bit - and I think it's a great tool.  It is super easy to use and to navigate.  However, I don't have an account myself because I don't ever find myself looking for good books to read (my holds list is always insane and provides me with more than enough books to read!) Also, I record the books that I've read, reviews, etc. in a reading journal.  I have reading journals going back to 2004 and I love flipping through them to see all the books I've read.  I can't see transferring all that stuff to Library thing - so I don't use it.

Also, I do record the books the I'm reading on Facebook, using a Books app - and so that is my online social networking thing.  I do think there is a Facebook app for LibraryThing - but I don't use it. 

I can see applications for work - particularly putting our booklists up on Library thing for others to find, and to then connect and place holds to our catalog.  Although hopefully our catalogue will do that soon! 

All in all - a super fun social media product! 

Online Productivity Tools

As I've mentioned before in my "Google" post, I use a shared Google calendar daily that my fiancee and I use to make sure we both know everything that is going on (particularly important when wedding planning!!). 

However, I'm a bit less certain about Google documents.  I can see the desire to replace things like Microsoft Office products (because they are so expensive).  However, they allow companies in particular to have a great deal of control over their own documents.  Google docs opens that up a bit and allows people to share documents, open them up to others, etc. which I can see some companies being uncomfortable with.  This is the reason that I think Microsoft Office is still the number one in document management programs.

We did experiment with Userful (an open source documents software package) on the 4th Floor for customers.  Problems really came about because of formatting.  People would open their resume up from a disc/usb key, etc, and the formatting that was in Word was lost.  This meant that they had to reformat it - and then they couldn't open that version up on anything that didn't have userful as a platform. 

Google docs is different in that it's all available online. However, until companies decide to get on the bandwagon - I think we'll be stuck with Microsoft Office.  Guess we will see. 

Until then, I have been using Dropbox (at Dropbox.com) that allows me to share files among multiple computers.  Things like our wedding RSVP and to-do list.  My fiancee can access it from work, and his home PC and I can access it from whatever computer I am on.  It all just stays on the Dropbox server.   Kind of cool.  I also use Box.net which is a place to store files for our Condo board.  Lots of options out there. 

Flickr and YouTube

I haven't used Flickr in ages because it seems to have been left behind in some ways with people sharing photos on Facebook instead.  I know that's the way that I share photos, and that many of my friends do too.  A few people still have their Flickr accounts which they they connect to Facebook.  What I really like is the creative commons licensing on Flickr that allows you to use photos (as long as you give credit).  This makes a world of difference, especially when searching for photos for a peresentation or for a blog. (some work purpose there too!)

As for youtube - I find it is mostly useful for entertainment purposes.  Check out the "Iggy and the iPad" video (this is especially for you Katie as a cat lover). It's super cute and I think has definitely gone viral.  It's also good for finding obscure things (the logdriver's waltz, an NFB commercial production that was shown on CBC tv for a period of time and that many people from my age-group remember).  Some of the videos are of better quality than others (and better content as well) but I do think it's pretty cool (as are some of the commercials that CPL has up on youtube!) 

I think we should put some videos of programs, etc. up on youtube - of course that means that we need to server space to store all the videos (which is no mean feat) but I think it's a great way of promoting what we do (and our customers use youtube tons in the library!) 

Some fun and potentially useful tools.