Week 2

I am a little bit behind, so this week 2 post is coming on the first day of week 3. I have had previous experience with google reader, delicious, and google alerts before. However, my use of these tools had fallen to the wayside because I didn't have enough knowledge about them to make them easier to use. For example, I had a couple feeds in my Google Reader. However, I never used it because I was too lazy to go through all of the posts. Organizing the feeds into folders has greatly helped me, and I think (and hope) that I will use Google Reader a lot more now that it is more organized. Earlier in the year I had started Delicious and found that it was extremely helpful with managing all of my bookmarks on job postings and advice. However, recently I have been using the browser Google Chrome more than Firefox. The add on for Google Chrome is not as easy to use as the Firefox one. It is very easy to Tag websites, but I haven't been able to figure out how to view my tags and bookmarks without logging into Delicious. I am still working on figuring this out.

Since I am familiar with Google Alerts I decided to try out Social Mention. It was interesting viewing the results from this kind of search. Especially interesting are the one line statuses or comments from Facebook. To obtain accurate results I had to put quotes around the library where I work at (the Aurora Public Library). I also realized that I needed to add Illinois to the search because there is more than one Aurora Public Library. I guess this post will now show up in Social Mention!

My Relationship with Technology

Usually, I am a lover of technology. I enjoy having information at my tips and it helps me a lot in my daily life and as a librarian. However, when technology fails me my love can turn to hate. Take this week, for example, my 3 month new laptop unexplicably broke. My proficiency with technology is not at a level where I can fix this problem, which can be very frustrating. However, I still love technology and realize that I rely on it soooo much. I rely on the internet for directions, weather, entertainment, email, and other things. The breaking of my laptop has been inconvenient, but I am lucky because I can use my roommates' computers. If I wasn't able to use my roommates computers' I would be relying on the Chicago Public Library for Internet. Thank goodness we have libraries that provide patrons with the opportunity to access technology! Today, so much essential information is available online and having a computer with Internet access is essential. I don't know what we would do if libraries were not there to help provide access to the computers and help with using that technology.

Hello

Hello, I created this blog for the ALSC program 21 things, which discusses Web 2.0 and how children's librarians (or any librarians) can use Web 2.0 in libraries.

Here is a little info about me:

I am a new librarian who just graduated at the end of April from the University of Michigan. I am currently living in Chicago and will be (soon, just found a job today!) working part time in a library in the Chicago area . As a note, everything in this blog reflects my own thoughts and experiences and not that of the libraries I work and intern at.

My experience with Web 2.0:

I am comfortable and familiar with Web 2.0, but I want to know more beyond the basics and especially how to link these technologies to libraries. I know how to use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, LibraryThing, Second Life (just the basics) and Flikr. So, I am very excited about this project and this blog will discuss my progress, thoughts, and adventures using Web 2.0!