Week 12 Reading Notes

1) Reichardt, R., & Harder, G. (2005). Weblogs: their use and application in science and technology libraries.

Science & Technology Libraries, 25(3), 105-116.- Could not access the remote server.

2) Charles Allan, "Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program: Sharing knowledge to better serve patrons"

C&RL News, April 2007 Vol. 68, No. 4 http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2007/apr/usingawiki.cfm

The multi-author, collaborative software known as a wiki, can be used by librarians to manage their work in library instruction programs. A library instruction wiki can create better information sharing, facilitate collaboration in the creation of resources, and efficiently divide work loads among librarians.

Library instruction wikis have two chief uses: the sharing of knowledge and the ability to cooperate in creating resources, such as informational handouts and guides.

This is an interesting description of the instruction opportunities made available through the use of wikis. I would have really appreciated interacting with library instruction sections exercised through the use of a wiki. Unfortunately, I was stuck with the drone of a power point presentation.

3) Xan Arch, "Creating the academic library folksonomy: Put social tagging to work at your institution" C&RL News,

February 2007 Vol. 68, No. 2 http://www.ftrf.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2007/feb/libraryfolksonomy.cfm

Cataloging discovery. Drupal/Citeulike.

What if you could store these bookmarks somewhere online? Then you could access them anywhere and not have to search through an endless drop-down menu on your browser. What if you could see what other people are reading on your topic? You could find new and unexpected directions for your research. Welcome to social tagging.

The resulting collaboration is called a folksonomy—a taxonomy created by ordinary folks. In a way, this technology is making users create their own controlled vocabulary and assign subject headings to each Web site they visit. If we are already making classifiers out of ordinary people, why not bring social tagging into the library?

You may want to start with the subject specialists at your library who can identify the best Web resources in their subject areas and tag them. There are a few ways to build content collaboratively, none of which is completely streamlined.

4) Jimmy Wales: “How a ragtag band created Wikipedia”

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia.html

Wikipedia- all people with access to sum of human knowledge

All managed by volunteer staff

Core Aim- free encyclopedia to everyone- empower people who fall into the digital divide.

600,000 articles in English- only 1/3 of all traffic- top 50 website

90 servers, 3 location-

The truth of neutrality- controversial issues are all reported..no stance is taken, empowers diverse community discussion

Not a bloggers v. Newspapers system. New projects to create textbooks in multi languages.