Metadata

It's been interesting doing the past couple assignments and working on cataloguing in some ways and metadata. It is nice that even if there are parts I do not know what to put in, recognizing all of the different organizational values that we can attribute to books. On top of all this is all the social media and different linguistic metadata we can subscribe to a book. It seems to me that there are probably endless ways people can categorize books, according to preference. I feel libraries do an acceptable job at the moment, but do know that certain parts of libraries (kids sections) will now categorize in an easier to find way, mostly by subject matter. That is definitely a good way to do it as well and shows that people are thinking about this and how to make books and other materials easier to find.

Tumblr

I have to use Tumblr for another class and I find it obnoxious. I tried finding value in the site for a library but can find no purpose. It's worse than twitter except you can possibly reach out to kids in some potential way. It feels like a hip site that will be outdated fairly soon and will not have the hold of Facebook or even blitzing. I could be wrong and will keep my mind open but as of now find no use for libraries.

The Internet and Battles

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-12479660

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9386720.stm

While these articles are much different in both subjects and reason, they both hint at the fact that the internet is revered as a great invention, yet brings about problems. Some huge problems and some small problems. As in the first article we see research presented on how Facebook causes stress in people, rather than being a celebratory website of sharing information with friends and letting people into your virtual life, we see kids getting stressed out by Facebook. Of course those that get stressed the most are those that use it the most and keep up with it the most, feeling the need to update their own. Yet, everyone who uses Facebook finds themselves in some situation of feeling guilt, or angry or sad over updates of people they may or may not know. Instead of dealing with these feelings with others, or with those that actually are sharing the information, we are becoming isolated.

The second article deals more with attacks on internet freedom and the idea of living in a world that is trying to silence or take away the freedoms that the internet holds.

It is important as librarians to follow these patterns, stick up for what we believe in and explain our reasoning to patrons.

eBooks and Libraries

It will be an interesting time for sure to see when eBooks take a stronghold over libraries I am not going to predict when but feel that it will be a reality at some point. I wonder if cataloging will change at all or search features to make way for a new style of categorizing materials. It also will be a problem with lending books and how to go about doing this, can you give materials to people without an actual way of reading them.

The Church and The Iphone Apps

It is accepted by the Catholic Church, of course we are not talking about any actual progressive measures that the Church should take and be outspoken about, we are talking about the iPhone application entitled Confession. What a day that the church will still not accept gay marriage but embrace a piece of technology that in reality is just plain stupid. Hoping to increase catholics to confess as well as see an actual priest, the church thinks this is a good step to take. It seems as if the pope is an Apple fan, I wonder how many times he has used this. Oh and by the way, this is not a free application for all of those wishing to get dirt off their shoulders for free, it is $2.

Social Tagging and Social Media

I have been using a program called Glogster for another class where we make a Glog to present an author to our class, that kids should read. Glogging is actually an easy (though limited) way for kids or librarians to make posters or presentations that will appeal to kids for programming.

In terms of Social Tagging and media, I feel that libraries need to embrace these modalities in some way. Whether or not libraries want to be a space for learning or a cultural emporium, we still want and need people to come. I feel that libraries are changing (at least some) to be a more representative space of the people. Social tagging can still go hand in hand with having a respected method of searching and organizing, but can be an add-on. Or you can have a search by the usual method, social tagging. If libraries are going to be vehemently against this idea then there needs to be more programming for all ages talking about why and how to best use search and cataloging functions. While I have certain attitudes about people in general and a libraries need to change as well, I definitely am more for having a library be a representation of the community it is in.

Libraries and Technology

I find that Jing/some sort of web broadcast might be a fun way to make commercials for programming for libraries. Then you can embed it in a website or blog that is used, or even put it up on facebook. In addition to a poster this could be an exciting way to get people to come to an event. I also think that jing could be fun to use in programming for kids and using it to make book reviews, digital stories, an endless amount of visual elements that can be really fun and help in the learning process.

Zotero Presentation

This is Ian Baran's Zotero introduction video. I have told you how to download and install zotero and then completed it by registering. Thanks!



The link is at:
http://www.screencast.com/t/CefDbs66A3G