Wednesday 25 November 2009

Delicious

I am not an avid Delicious user. Here at Liverpool we decided to use an alternate product called Furl. Unfortunately Furl has been bought by Diigo. My bookmarks are still available but my links to other staff are gone. We live and learn.

I have linked Delicious to Twitter and will experiment in the next week.

I can see the point of Twittering tagged sites. However, there's a certain 'conflict' there. I am using Delicious primarily to bookmark work related sites. Most of the people who are following me on Twitter are not work related. If I tweet to many library sites to run the risk of peeving them off. I guess I will have to be choosy.

Tuesday 17 November 2009

Paswords and logins

Boy am I having trouble trying keeping track of all my passwords and login names.

I try to use clad22 as my login where I can to keep my life simple.

As for passwords the ones that make you use a number or numbers give me the gyp!

Using Twitter

I've used Twitter for a little while now. Unfortunately I keep forgetting to post 'stuff'. I must remember to link my mobile with my Twitter account.

I'm Twitter-ing (is that the correct verb) as clad22.

Do I like it? I'm still not sure. I get a chuckle from my husband's Tweets and appreciate the small insights on his life away from me. He knows better than to share bon mots about our married life! However, I keep coming back to the - Do I have anything interesting to say?

As for how we might use it as a library service? All I can say is that Council would have to have a lot of trust to let us communicate in such an instantaneous way! However, we are allowed nay encouarged to talk to our customers. Would twittering to them be any different? I suppose the difference is that there is a written record kept. I wonder if there is some form of editorial control available?

I am thinking of suggesting a competition where we ask customers to write a tweet about the library - or about a particular event in the library. We could add the tweet ourselves (thus giving us editorial control) We could even give a prizes for the most original post.

Thursday 5 November 2009

Tweeting and finding friends to follow

I decided to follow Seattle Library as I am visiting Seattle in February and it will be nice to learn a little more about the place than what's on its website.

Wondering if Tweet could give a feel of the culture and people of an organisation? Could it make a big nameless - faceless organisation more approachable and friendly? Could the minute details of our day bring us closer to our customers?

I also chose to follow the National Library of New Zealand - they always seem to be doing interesting things.

Also decided to follow a number of blogs of personal interest to me.

So far lots of fun.

Is Twitter-ing & Tweet-ing Twaddle?

For starters GRRRR to Council who won't let us install anything on our machines. My husband recommended Tweetdeck for my machine. Can't install it.

GRRR also to Slideshare being blocked by Surf Patrol.

It's drives me crazy that I seem to be the only one who chafes under the restrictions we have on computer use. Why doesn't anyone else feel the need to push the envelope?

There's my rant for this post...Back to Twitter.

I never really got any fun out of Twitter. Darn that inferiority complex! Do I really have anything interesting to say? I have a friend who Tweets on her Facebook page - gosh it's tedious!

It seems to me that unless you ARE really interesting or DO something really interesting there's not much to say.

However, I was thinking that it could be interesting for staff to Tweet an entire desk shift. That is write a short Tweet for every question we get asked. It would be interesting to track some of the questions we get asked. For example are there any patterns that could lead to helpful changes to practices and procedures? Do we get asked the same question over and over - could we help each other with that?

If we kept confidentiality somehow - could we Tweet about some of the funny questions we get asked? Could it be done in the spirit of fun and not be just supercilious, petty and mean?

Starting again...

How much have you blogged since you finished the original course?

Hmmm... Not at all! It's like all those empty books with locks and keys I was given as a child. My intentions are (were) good. I'm not sure I'll ever be good at keeping a diary.

However, I have to *thank* the State Library for getting me hooked on Facebook. Unfortunately it's the games I like the most. Cafeworld is my current obsession. It is nice to have connected with a number of old friends and relatives though.

We are using Wikis more often for external groups but have not been able to drive their use in-house. I wonder if it's a result of only two staff completing Web 2.0?

It's kinda cool to use the blog again and I look forward to the upcoming weeks activities.

Wednesday 21 May 2008

On Social Networking...

I'm having such a good time with Facebook! I've caught up with friends and people I never really liked that much anyway... But how would I use it for work?
We're struggling with this now. The vital questions are: Are we providing a static link and encouraging our customers to use and participate in the community? Or, are we metaphorically hammering our stake in and sectioning off a little corner that is Liverpool City Library?
If so, who is responsible for the content, upkeep and overall look? There is a immediacy to these sites which is almost scary. I assume all libraries would want to keep a modicum of editorial control - how is this possible? How does my manager ensure that everything I say about Liverpool City Library is something he, the Council and everyone would agree with?
In a climate where staff cannot talk to local media and all information must be routed through Marketing people and Publicity teams?
It seems to me this requires more trust in individuals than we have had up to now.
Then I think about what customers might add!
I can see more applications for creating groups of people. Maybe a group of our, for example, romance readers might like to get together using a tool like Second Life or Facebook? Perhaps we could be the ones who facilitate these groups in the beginning before pulling back and letting the group exist in it's own right.
Once again having a population which has low computer ownership and usage is a bit frustrating. I suspect haing to use public computers is a hinderance to using many of these geat tools.