Gaming in Libraries

Better late than never! After reviewing the literature/articles on video gaming in libraries, I realize that this is a resource I've left completely untapped. Yes, I've had my fair share of playing video games growing up (and, okay, I admit, I do have a Wii I like to play on from time to time!). The possibilities for video gaming in libraries seem endless. A Harvard professor using Second Life to organize many of his most often used websites is interesting and innovative. I never considered gaming to be a legitimate enterprise, especially in a library setting. I see now that I was dead wrong--the possibilities (on Second Life alone) are literally endless!

How Could I Forget About Shelfari?!

I love Shelfari. I would recommend it to anyone and everyone, if I could. I think it's going to prove to be a vital and useful tool in a lot of public library settings, not only for the ways that librarians could use it to organize their collections (mentally) and to suggest books to patrons, but the immense usefulness patrons will find in using the website. I try to pass the word on as much as I can! (And, for the record, I much prefer it over Goodreads.com--Shelfari is much more streamlined and aesthetically pleasing, at least in my opinion.)

Social Media Sites for the Library

The fantastic options that today's social media sites allow libraries to explore is overwhelming (in a good way)! To give a quick and dirty summary of how I would employ YouTube, Flickr and Pinterest in a public library setting, I'm just going to make a few lists:

YouTube:
-Tutorial videos of how to use different library resources (catalog, downloading e-books, how to print in color or b&w)
-Videos of the inside of the library to show patrons where to find certain collections or to introduce possible patrons to what the library looks like
-Posting YouTube videos of [books made into] movie(s) trailers and book trailers to the library's website or Facebook page. Any YouTube video that is relevant to the library in some way could be posted!
-Videos of librarians & staff who work at the library--introducing themselves, explaining what they do at the library, hopefully creating a friendlier web environment for patrons


Flickr:
-Sharing photos of the library's new collections (all different fiction genres, non-fiction, YA, children's, DVD's, etc.)
-Photos of the library and its signage to familiarize patrons with how to navigate the stacks
-Good for non-fiction collections to showcase photography materials located in their collections

Pinterest:
-Similar to Flickr photosharing, but a more interactive interface, which will encourage more comments and "likes" from patrons
-Because photos pinned to Pinterest are directly connected to their original source pages, patrons can see a picture of a book that they want to borrow, and can click on the picture and be immediately brought to the catalog listing for that item
-Librarians can use Pinterest for their own personal use--perhaps creating pinboards of books they would like to buy replacement copies of, or a pinboard of ideas for programs or displays they can bring to the library

Does anyone else have any ideas of other ways these sites could benefit a library?

Defining Web 2.0

I finally fully understand what web 2.0 means! It's not as if I didn't somewhat understand before, but after reading "The Terrible Twos," I finally feel as though I can give a concrete definition next time someone asks me what library or web 2.0 means. Before reading this articles, I would've likely defined web 2.0 as "the latest in web technology" or something else that is similarly vague. It makes so much sense--of course web 2.0 includes websites that are more interactive and easily edited--and now I can finally admit that I didn't always fully understand what a web 2.0 site was! In the end, though, I'm left wondering what specifically defines a web 2.0 site nowadays, considering this article was published mid 2006. I definitely think interactivity is still a huge factor, but perhaps there are new factors that wouldn't have been around in 2006?

Next Generation Catalogs

I chose to focus my posting this week on the power point presentation on next generation catalogs--I find power points remind me a lot of being in class so I automatically feel like I absorb more information, and the format feels a lot friendlier when I try to break it down!

What struck me most throughout the power point was the obvious simplicity and obviousness of the major issues with most OPACs. I can't even count how many times patrons have complained to me about the lack of ease of use of our public catalog. There is no forgiveness on spelling errors (and I mean none), there is a lack of a simple search interface, the catalog pre-filters rather than post-filters (this gets very frustrating very quickly) and searching for an author by his or her first and then last name produces nothing even closely related to the author or their works. Rhode Island's OPAC seems so inherent to me because I work with it every day, I don't even think of the complications.

Browsing Villanova's VuFind catalog reminded me of browsing Google's shopping results (trust me, that's a good thing!). Anything that even slightly reminds me of such an awesome search engine as Google is a huge positive for me. Every element of the catalog seemed to remedy and improve many of most of the common OPAC issues, apart from one big thing--I tried spelling "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" incorrectly, in a number of different ways, and found that the catalog couldn't handle it (there were at least suggestions of what I might have been looking for).

Overall, I can't wait to see friendlier catalogs make their way to more libraries! Speaking critically and honestly, almost any element of the next generation catalogs added to most OPACs would be a fantastic improvement.

How Tweet Is It?

After reading this week's article about the Library of Congress digitally archiving every single tweet published on Twitter since its inception, I wasn't surprised to read all of the ramblings of the enraged commenters. I understand where people are coming from when they say that archiving tweets is "bollocks" because the government has no right or reason to do so or that the endeavor is a "huge waste of money," but I also don't think many people realize how much of an impact social media sites like Twitter are making in today's world. As a tip of the iceberg example of how much of an impact Twitter has made, the article cites the photojournalist  who was arrested in Egypt and freed as an eventual outcome of his Twitter posts. How can tweets like those not be justifiably archived? Yes, there are many, many archived tweets that will end up being pointless, redundant and private, but in the end it would cost more time and money to sort through billions of tweets to only archive the ones that are relevant to our country's history of social media!

Don't Judge Me by Shelfari

So, as of Monday, March 5th, I will be starting a new position at North Kingstown Free Library as Fiction Coordinator/Readers' Advisor! While I'm definitely psyched about this new job, one of the requirements of the job is knowing all the fiction genres like the back of my hand. The woman who I am taking over for suggested that I start to get to know the genres I don't typically read by reading a variety of at least 5 different types of book from that genre. And, as you can tell, I've decided to tackle Romance first! Wish me luck!

PS: if anyone has any good suggestions for good Romances, Westerns or Horror books please pass them on... these are the genres I'm weakest in! :)