Continuing on ...
Thing 4 - Sign up for Google Reader and learn about RSS feeds This wasn't new to me, but making folders for my many feeds was something I had never done.
Thing 5 - Sign up for a Delicious account I signed up for a Delicious account (haven't looked at Delicious since it was del.icio.us), but was disappointed to see that I had to create a Yahoo email account in order to use Delicious. The last thing I need is another email address! I probably won't use Delicious as an individual, but I can see its appeal for library system, branch, or department use. Our library system gave it a test run during a system-wide "23 things" challenge, but I don't think it's being used currently.
Thing 6 - Tracking Your Library using Google Alerts, Social Mention and Addictomatic. I think these applications have great potential, but the results are a mixed bag. Tracking my library system brings up more misses than hits. In fact, a search in Social Mention for my large library system does not bring up any relevant items at all! http://socialmention.com/search?t=all&q=ocean+county+library%2C+nj Addictomatic is only slightly better. http://addictomatic.com/topic/ocean+county+library%2C+nj Perhaps no news is better than bad news, though, and I imagine that the lack of mention is due to my system's general absence from the social media scene. On the plus side, when I need to cover the adult reference desk, I can definitely use these sites when one of our regular customers calls seeking celebrity gossip!
So how did making the folders go? I just needed to make a new one today myself and had to re-discover how to do it. Google doesn't make it entirely intuitive. Although, now that I know the 'new folder' option is there at the bottom, it's pretty intuitive - just have to remember it's there!
ReplyDeleteAnd wow - I didn't realize you had to create a yahoo account to use Delicious! I've been using it for a few years so there must be some changes. Not the most conducive, like you said, most of us don't need yet another email account! I use it personally myself (great to access all my favorites anywhere I am - even on my phone!) but I think it's really interesting to see what libraries are doing with it, as you said. It could be great for common reference questions etc. for one!
And yes, I hear you on the library tracking. We track our library system and I get a lot of irrelevant alerts but the ones that are hits, are really good to know and keep. Like you said, it could be that your library isn't out there doing social media just yet (all the more reason to do it, perhaps?)