LIS 9763

Hard to believe this is my last class blog entry; has it really been a semester already? When I first started this course I was a casual user of the web 2.0, using some of the tools we’ve discussed on a personal and professional level. Some tools I liked, some I didn’t, and a few I even looked down upon. Since the course’s introduction however, I have gained much more insight into the possibilities social software can present, and a significant amount of respect for tools I didn’t use or care for, such as MySpace and Flickr.

As I look to the tools we’ve discussed this term and try to find a favorite, it’s honestly a hard pick. Throughout the course of this semester I’ve been introduced and re-introduced to a number of increasingly popular Web 2.0 tools, and seen quite a number of benefits for libraries. I think Media Sharing and Blogging remain my choice tools, in part because of how they can inspire library creativity and allow both librarians and the user community to have fun in their implementations. It’s enjoyable to watch cleaver videos such as those YouTube films added to Week 11‘s case studies, and informative to pick up blog posts on topics of interest. For the “low-hanging fruit” however, I would defiantly pick RSS and Microblogging: both of these tools are simple to use, yet have marketing potential to quickly reach a vast audience. On the flip side of the coin, I find that I still can’t see libraries and virtual worlds working together well just yet: I like gaming, but the concept requires a lot of investment for uncertain results. Likewise, while introducing a video game day to the library could be a fun promotional event, I’d be hesitant to make it a regular program unless it was clear librarians wouldn’t need to spend the days as a referee.

Taking this course has opened me to try a lot of new tools I hadn’t bothered with or simply dabbled in before. Some of the results have been impressive: I’m officially a convert to RSS, and often when searching for general information on certain subjects, I start off by looking to find if there’s a wiki (page or program) on the topic. I use Twitter to keep track of LIS News and Booklists, although my life needs to get more interesting (and I need to get more open) so I can Tweet more. Other tools, like Flickr and YouTube, I still have yet to fully try- I’ll need to create some accounts, and get the equipment together to generate content. Although I see the possibilities with folksonomies and social tagging, I admit that Delicious has yet to fully grow on me- for most of my bookmarks, I continue to save them in my browser and retrieve them from the Bookmarks option. Although saving things on Delicious is easy enough, I find I’m less likely to go to my user account for retrieval: thus its value is less on keeping tabs on sites I’m genuinely interested in, and more useful for momentary interesting sites I might want to get back to someday.

This course marks the first time I’ve taken a distance education course, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well it all worked out. Using blogs and a chat room were a unique way of holding class discussions, and it was interesting to read all of the different thoughts and attitudes on different social tools. What I like about the blog format is that it presents more time to think about the topics and formulate opinions. There has also been a value from being able to go back and re-reading classmate reflections.  The weekly blogs are a good thing, although I also appreciate the pair of blog holidays- work catches up, and it was nice to have the option of saying “not this week” when the to-do list was simply to large to control. Case studies were also a useful feature: allowing us to see not only the tools in use, but also how the tools are being used by libraries in particular.

This is my final course with Western (yes, another graduate) so I doubt I’ll see many of you again in the halls of FIMS. Hopefully though, some of us might run into each other down the road: professional conventions, work contacts, or through social networking sites, blogs &  online RP!