This was very interesting - How has the web affected reference service? What is the future of librarians? I went to a session at MLA last fall on reference service in the age of google. Sort of the same idea. You do kind of wonder why on earth anyone would call the library when they can get an answer online without leaving home. But, when I checked some of the online answer sites just now, I see there are some that had zero answers. What do people do if no one replies to their question? I can see people, especially ones who already use the library, might think they could get a quicker response if they just called the ref desk. On the other hand, people might feel their question is "too dumb" to ask. And there is just the fact that people are becoming "internet junkies". If it's on the web, they will find it. What you read is that libraries are becoming more than a place to go to for information - they are gathering places.
As for the future of the reference desk - one funny quote said "his fear is people telling him what to do "when they pry my cold dead fingers off of it" - the ref desk.
Web 2.0 - 3 common characteristics - 1. Personalization 2.Interactivity 3. Social networking - all 3 are relevant in libraries.
"Web 2.0 is good , not because it makes the library more like the web, but because it is making the web more like libraries".
"Reference librarians are the library's human face and a gateway to an entire social network of library users".
One person said good libraries have web accessible collections and people who know how to index and search them.
Slam boards - librarians who invade the various web answer sites monthly to answer as many questions they can using authoritative sources - good pr for libraries.
What is the appeal of an online answer site - don't have to leave home; you trust people doing the same kind of stuff you are - ie. gardeners, travelers, antique hunters, fellow parents, etc.
I looked at some with career questions and decorating .
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Thing 35 Books 2.0
I browsed around these sites mostly. Didn't join. I saw various sites for help starting a book group or having an online book group. Even Target has a site for helping create a book group. I thought it looked kind of weak. I guess the main emphasis for this section was to say that although people say the book is dead, it really is not by looking at all of this interactive activity on the web.
There are all kinds of "book" sites - book swap sites, book rentals, free audiobooks on Librivox, reading group guides, organizing your own personal library on Librarything.
There are all kinds of "book" sites - book swap sites, book rentals, free audiobooks on Librivox, reading group guides, organizing your own personal library on Librarything.
Thing 33 - Travel 2.0
I'm jumping to something that REALLY interests me - TRAVEL!!!
Since I've been using tripadvisor for years this seems at home to me... until I read some of the articles and found that there are a lot of other good sites to check out. For now, I'll just review what travel 2.0 is - sites that are all about sharing - it is the interactive nature of these that is appealing. Sort of like a wiki - you can comment and have input. Tripadvisor has 3.5 million users - they say it is "real stories from real travelers". I would agree. The forums are active so people can get quick answers. The site is owned by expedia which I did not know. According to tripadvisor they have a way of detecting fraudulent reviews and even if a few get through there are enough "real" ones that travelers can tell by reading a bunch of reviews on a place. My only problem is when there aren't many reviews on the smaller, out of the way places. But all in all, people think TA is pretty accurate.
Another site coming in June is farecast.com - this will help travelers decide when to buy an airline ticket by predicting the cost of future airline travel. That could be very helpful.
One of the articles listed a bunch of Travel 2.0 sites - including You tube travel - I didn't look at this.
Most travel guidebook publishers have online forums - I have used fodors.com and found this to be useful. They say one of the first and best is from Lonely Planet - Thorn Tree.
An interesting blog I found was My Kugelhopf - a food and travel writing blog from an American living in Switzerland. Now, this looked interesting - tons of good food pictures. My question is , does she get paid by anyone to do this?
Another site is gusto.com - an interactive site recommending all kinds of travel info. One of the first things I noticed was an article on a guy who completes a world trip relying on Twitter friends. This looked like a good site -lots of reviews for hotels, restaurants, etc.
If you were planning a trip - you could spend DAYS researching - the days of using one or two guidebooks is OVER. That's for sure.
Since I've been using tripadvisor for years this seems at home to me... until I read some of the articles and found that there are a lot of other good sites to check out. For now, I'll just review what travel 2.0 is - sites that are all about sharing - it is the interactive nature of these that is appealing. Sort of like a wiki - you can comment and have input. Tripadvisor has 3.5 million users - they say it is "real stories from real travelers". I would agree. The forums are active so people can get quick answers. The site is owned by expedia which I did not know. According to tripadvisor they have a way of detecting fraudulent reviews and even if a few get through there are enough "real" ones that travelers can tell by reading a bunch of reviews on a place. My only problem is when there aren't many reviews on the smaller, out of the way places. But all in all, people think TA is pretty accurate.
Another site coming in June is farecast.com - this will help travelers decide when to buy an airline ticket by predicting the cost of future airline travel. That could be very helpful.
One of the articles listed a bunch of Travel 2.0 sites - including You tube travel - I didn't look at this.
Most travel guidebook publishers have online forums - I have used fodors.com and found this to be useful. They say one of the first and best is from Lonely Planet - Thorn Tree.
An interesting blog I found was My Kugelhopf - a food and travel writing blog from an American living in Switzerland. Now, this looked interesting - tons of good food pictures. My question is , does she get paid by anyone to do this?
Another site is gusto.com - an interactive site recommending all kinds of travel info. One of the first things I noticed was an article on a guy who completes a world trip relying on Twitter friends. This looked like a good site -lots of reviews for hotels, restaurants, etc.
If you were planning a trip - you could spend DAYS researching - the days of using one or two guidebooks is OVER. That's for sure.
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