23.

Well, this is the final thing.

I am certainly more familiar with web 2.0 than I was before I started the things. In particular, I know more about RSS, social media, productivity, and alternative social networking. I think I appreciate some of the more practical applications of these tools than I did before I saw them in use in the library setting. I tended to think of most of these tools as rather frivolous before.

One of my favorite things is probably RSS, because I can get a feed of information on a range of topics. It could lead to a lot of interesting information.

I am also very excited about my flickr project. Flickr is great because it has so many amazing images, and you can find things through tagging that you would not normally think of. The application of flickr for archival photo collections is exciting because it allows the community to fill in knowledge gaps for archivists.

My biggest issue with the 23 things is that there is so much out there. I think the 23 things could make some people feel like their insitution needs to adopt all or most of these technologies in order to maintain relevance. While this may be true for some of the larger things blogs, social networking, and other useful user-contributed services, it is certainly not true for all. In particular, things like online gaming are largely frivolous pursuits. They are too labor intensive to benefit the vast majority of institutions. Technology is a great thing to augment traditional library and archival services, but it should not be the entire focus of institutions' efforts.

22.

I think I may continue to keep this blog, but I am considering converting it to a cooking blog. I could also use it as a blog for work related issues. I already use igoogle, google docs, google calendar, and gmail. I really enjoy RSS and may continue to use the google reader. Hopefully my project with flickr will lead to a broader project for OHS on the flickr commons. I also am very intrigued by delicious, so I may start to use that. I am not such a big fan of social networking for personal use, but I am beginning to see that it has a professional application, so I may eventually reactivate my facebook.

This site has a ton of links to blogs related to libraries, but none related to my primary interest - archives. I may follow some of these library blogs anyway, since web 2.0 applications for libraries and archives are often very similar. I have gotten a better "feel" for web 2.0, and shouldn't have any trouble locating archives blogs. I have already found several on RSS, which will be a nice and easy way for me to keep up.

21.

I am not a member of any online communities, but I found several of these very interesting. I am very into food, so "Open Source Food" was pretty nice. I don't know that I would actually join, as I am more of a "creeper" in terms of social networking than a contributor. This is why I don't have a facebook or myspace.

As far as applying these to the library setting, I think they would do well. There are obviously many people out there who are very willing to contribute. It is very similar to the broad social networks, but appeals to a smaller group of users. An institution's facebook page could be a gateway for users to discover its presence on a social network like shelfari.

20.

I have used both facebook and myspace in the past. I do not maintain an active profile on either at the moment. I have considered reactivating my facebook profile for networking reasons, but I don't know if I will. As for myspace, I won't be going back. I prefer facebook to myspace because the interface is much better and it is a lot faster. Myspace allows users to add tons of pictures and colors and themes (oh my!) to their pages, and it bogs things down quite a bit.

Rather than reactivating my own facebook, I used my girlfriend's as a guinea pig. The group I foud was called Fighting for History: An Archivist Group. This seemed to be a decent archives-related group, with links to a few archival professional societies.

I found it interesting that the Denver Public library myspace was geared mainly toward teens. I understand that social networking has an image of being big among the younger demographic, but it has become very common among adults. I found it quite humorous that the profile picture was the myspace stereotype "emo kid," with the trademark swoopy bangs. As far as usefulness goes though, using social networking for publicity and for allowing patron input is a great idea and should be taken advantage of.

19.

I find podcasts very useful. I especially like being able to listen to npr stories on my ipod when I don't have access to a radio. I have subscribed to podcasts before through itunes. One very useful podcast I have found has been news in French, to help me improve my language skills.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to find any archives-related podcasts on podcast.com. This may have to do with the fact that "archive" is a commonly used term to describe back issues of podcasts. With RSS, I was able to get creative with my search terms and find several good ones, but I haven't had such luck yet.

This tool is a great way to talk about projects and new events at institutions. Obviously they can be listened to on any computer, but ipods are nearly as ubiquitous as computers. So, they have a broad appeal.

18.

17.

This thing has been particularly frustrating. I am not a Minnesotan, so I can't use the ELM. I have been able to do everything with EBSCOhost. It seems pretty useful, but also seems to fall under many of the same uses as tools such as iGoogle. I guess it might be easier from the standpoint of frequently using a database, but even then it depends on what you and your colleagues prefer. I would think that a service like igoogle would be more popular based on ease of use and hassle. After all, we all prefer the law of least effort. Perhaps this would all make more sense if I could access this ELM business.