"I'll See You on Facebook"

There is still so much to write about Facebook and it is increasingly becoming popular the discussion on the many uses for Facebook and how it impacts businesses, communication, social interactions, libraries and even teaching. But at reading this article, it seemed to me that there is so much enthusiasm involved at the idea of professors meeting with students through Facebook. It seems to be fun, but to what extent do you want to use Facebook as a way to professionally impact your students without mixing personal, impersonal with professional behavior. How much can the student professor relationship can handle before it becomes to personal. Any way the same can be said about libraries and librarians. I believe that as long as the Facebook page is used for professional use as in this case it can be handled ok. I would be a little concerned about other people ability to see what is going on and how much of school involvement can their be in the page. How much is it allowed? there are so many questions and many are answered in the article but I think it is still to early to say how this will all pan out . It is still a good article but nevertheless I would wait to see how many professors out there are using Facebook to reach out to their students. At least I have not met a single professor that is using facebook to conduct business with students.

Quora and Library Things

This week we learned about Quora and Library Things. Quora, from what I have learned anyone can search through Quora's questions, topics, and people, but it requires that one navigates through individual pages one by one, and sometimes you may miss searching answers that contained relevant knowledge. So, the best recommendation is that if you have something in your mind that you want to search for then read through all of  Quora's content including answers and posts. One thing that I was clarified through my confusion is that it seemed that it looked more like one of the many apps belonging to Google, but was happily clarified. As for Library Things. I have used in the past it seems to me that it has similarities to Goodreads. all though I believe that librarians may consider using Library Things more than Goodreads. However, my understanding is that Goodreads is more popular than Library Things in fact my library system uses Goodreads for reviews on books etc. So, it has been an interested week with some new information and some not so new. 

How much involvement should government archives have on social media post?

In the article "Should Government Archives Social Media Posts?".  The jury seems to be still out, this has become one of the latest concerns of government departments who fear the use of social media as a way to attract attention, they fear that any comment made can and will be held against them. For this reason, the biggest fear seems to be "compromise". Compromise on the part of those government entities who are using social media to reach out to their public. Fears of spelling out the wrong message to people and knowing that anything posted on the web may never be able to retrieve and delete and can be used against them. There is reason to believe that it will take a while for government archives to get involve with social media and I think personally this will be the case. In the meantime, those few brave government entities out there that are exposing themselves through  social media are doing so in a cautious way. 

Enough has been said about E-books

Enough has been said about E-books, I have been listening to how e-books are going to change the way we read and the way libraries conduct their day to day business. There has been changes, and E-books has brought it challenges among librarians and patrons. Librarians are still learning how e-books impact their library services and patrons are learning about e-books and many are using e-books but moreover there are still patrons that will continue to request books, audiobooks aside to e-books. So, what can we expect, we can expect an increase in patron request of e-book materials, we can expect libraries expanding their e-book collection and we can also expect new services becoming more attractive as we continue to move forward from just paper items to digital items. So, I would say mot much has change in the past few years except that we will be seeing an increase in library digital materials.

From my Traveling Desk: Foursquare and LinkedID

This week’s tutorials were Foursquare and LinkedId both social media platform are used for finding places, information, and also networking with others. In Foursquare I found that like Yelp! It provides directions to places, gives information about the place, it allows for people to provide feedback about their experience and even share pictures with others. When I think about LinkedId one site comes to mind and that is Monster.com. I believe that Monster.com has been in the business of helping others in finding jobs longer. However, it does not provide members with networking opportunities with other applicants in the same way as LinkedId. I am amaze on how many different social media platforms exist. Some of the ones that have been discussed in class I would have never have classified them as being social media sites and most likely If I have a need for their use, in my mind the idea of using them for other  reasons aside to gathering information  will probably never happen. However, there are quite a few sites that I will definitely come back and visit including becoming a member (hopefully a regular user) and who knows may be discover other ways that these sites can be useful to me and my job as a librarian. 

Social media is not the enemy of journalism, Pew report indicates

Definitely I have to agree that Social Media is not the enemy of journalism, what has happened is that it has taken much by surprise the journalism world. As we move towards a more virtual world where everything can be instantly found at a click of a mouse or finger tip tapping on your Android. Many people are opting going the fastest route of getting in touch with others, communicating and also getting instant information through a Virtual world of information. Not having to go somewhere to read a newspaper, not having to wait for the news to come up on tv. Not having to wait in line or wait for the mail to arrive. It is all now done instantly and rapidly. Just recently I went to the bank to retrieve a payment that I had made through bill pay. The problem that I was trying to get at was getting a copy of the bill pay which is an electronic check as proof to the vendor that I had pay for the item. It only took my bank officer 1 click a phone call and in less than 15 minutes the information was made available through fax. I did not have to wait by the mail box to get a copy or have to go directly to the company to get a copy it was all handle quickly and that is what we expect today with all of our transactions. Journalism is now the same way, we expect to learn about the news inmediately there are now apps that can be downloaded to your android or iPhone that allows for you to receive instant messaging regarding weather, last minute news, current events etc. and all of this technology has put a gap on traditional journalism. But this should not become a problem, if we look outside the box, this can become an added asset to journalism. trying to put together a formula that includes the traditional form of journalism of tranmitting on radio and tv and a new added service of news tracking through your computer, android, iPhone or any other format that allows for easy electronic access to information. It is important to meet the needs of all your audiences and it should not limit to one way of bringing the news to the public but providing many useful options.

Talking about Etsy... and what is Kickstarter!

This weeks tutorials have been quite interesting. One of my favorites was Etsy. I was introduced to Etsy about 2 years ago. I have since become active in purchasing items for my personal use...until recently that I purchased an item ( Children's Constructions signs) for this 2013 Summer Reading "Dig It". Etsy is wonderful in many ways you can purchase items, get ideas, share with others and even pin it to Pinterest. It is easy to use, easy to follow and easy to fall in love with it!

I enjoy its many uses and I believe that my relationship will be a lasting one. I do not compare it Ebay but Etsy to me is like a hybrid between Ebay and Amazon. It has the purchasing power of Ebay but the sense of community like as Amazon. I think it has a potential to grow and expand it services. And yes it is a great platform for purchasing items that you can use in library programs.   Kickstarter, for me is a different story it is difficult to decifer what their platform is all about. I tried joining Kickstarter but for no reason I got the feeling that It would not be such as great idea after all. I cannot say much of Kickstarters, I guess we will have to wait to see how it may evolve.

The art of Pinterest & Reddit

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I want to share with everyone my experience with Pinterest. When I first was introduced to Pinterest I never looked at it as a Social Media platform. I recognized is creative, crafty and artistic concept. I have enjoyed Pinterest for its ideas, for its colorful displays and beautiful pictures and I pinned for the fun of it and then I took this class and learned through the tutorial on Pinterest all of the wonderful uses for Pinterest. I learned I could share library ideas and even what is going on at my library with others! Another social media platform that I learned was Reddit. Reddit has a lot of potential, I think it will become a great tool for librarians especially if you are working in the reference field. It is a great tool for collaboration and getting people to join and make comments. That is why it could makes a great reference platform. Both of these platforms have a unique use and with great expectations, imagination and willingness anyone is able to transform this platforms in a great tool for librarians to use in conducting day to day library business.

Reflection on Week 8 article: The Future of Social Media in Journalism

Yes, it is not news unless you are part of it! WOW that seems to be how NEWS in today's virtual world will be expected. It is not surprising to hear about how journalism is changing with blogs, twits and many other social media platform. The face of a Journalist has changed from a person that has study the field of Journalism or communication and works for a newspaper or TV channel and provides news to the public to that of many people sharing what is going on through their blogs, twits or Facebook and now their share comments are considered news. Sharing the news making history, these people are the new freelance journalist, without knowing it they are bringing the news through the high speed internet, without knowing it they contributing to the history, they are not necessarily making a living out of blogging or twitting but just communicating with people. It is through these communication efforts is that news is being disseminated to the public, free  and most likely without any sensationalism  something that we grew accustomed to listening day by day up to the point that we stop listening. Lets talk about true journalism. True journalism has been about making news, telling the stories that the public want to hear, selling news whether it was good or bad. Most of the time what we learn through news broadcast is not exactly the good news, because it does not sell. It is the bad the news that sells. 

This and many more anecdotes are what Journalism has been about for a while. However, this news generation of news broadcasters indirectly are providing the public the truth, and at least it is no longer about selling news but about informing the truth and fortunately sometimes the truth is coming thru with positive news to share with others. Bloggers as well as Journalist are also making money selling their stories online or even better selling a spot on their blog to make some money.  However, this is just a fraction of most bloggers. There are many bloggers that are actually blogging as a form of hobby, entertainment or simply to share information to their following.

So, I guess I can say from this week’s reading is that it is to be expected that with social media and people’s ability to freely communicate and express themselves that there would be a following, sometimes larger than that in the newsroom and that these changes would bring changes to the way news would be provided from now on and how journalist will be delivering news confiding on the contribution from people like myself.  I have to agree that journalism will never be the same, and in the same way that librarians will need to evolve in order to continue being relevant. For the journalist it will require that they too adopt this new form of media and also be part of the community by providing news coming from different venues.  

Week 8: Two Different Social Bookmarking Services with Two Similar Ideas: Diigo and Delicious

Today, I want to talk about my experience using the social bookmarking service Diigo and Delicious.  I had once used it during another course. But did not get into its use, in other words I did not see its value. I understand now the concept of bookmarking and it makes lots of sense and it can really make a student’s life easier. Easier because as a student you have lots of assignments that require doing research and both of this sites Diigo and Delicious are great tools for researchers. Bookmarking articles, books, periodicals easy to organize, file, and retrieve when you are ready to use them. Bookmarking is also a great tool for the reference librarian. Reference Librarian are constantly asked the same reference questions and this tool would be great for tagging and bookmarking reference responses for future use.

 But it can also a great tool for personal use.  Let’s just say you are putting together a list of books that you want to line up for reading. You can bookmark the title of the book and also a brief the description about what the book is about. This is important for the user as they can go back and read and decide if they want to read this book next.  I honestly think that Diigo and Delicious are great tools to use. However, I found that Diigo offers better features than Delicious.  When I started using Diigo for this course at first I needed to go back and try to retrace my steps to get an idea on how to use it. But then it became so simple to add bookmarks and even edit my bookmarks with Delicious it became a little trickier it was not that simple to add bookmarks, I could not figure out how to add an icon for bookmarking, and then it was not easy to find the “library” that had all of my selected articles. So it was a challenger at first and then it went smooth. But I also found that Diigo was visually more organized, it looked better. So, If I would have to choose between both social bookmarking services. Diigo would be the winner! Until something else new and better comes along.