Open Url

I guess I had some issues with my open url assignment as it worked, even with the alterations. I suppose having many different sources to get to information is always a good thing.

I found a fascinating article on comic-con and super heroes.

http://xerxes.calstate.edu.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/fullerton/?base=metasearch&action=record&group=004060&resultSet=018272&startRecord=6

Wiki; Not Wicket the Ewok

Seeing as I am currently a student, I must say that wikis are fantastic. Anytime I happen across a peripheral subject in one of my classes, I sit in class and pull up the wiki article on it to read in greater detail. I really enjoy the fact that it is a supremely collaborative project. If I could befriend wikis, I would.

The library success article was a fantastic model for how useful they could be for work place applications. The fact that people could post their experiences and expertise on a certain topic in an online format that is easily accessible to your colleagues is immeasurably helpful. It could cut down training time, help streamline policies, increase cross training in different departments and give everyone greater insight into the general work flow.

Wikis are pretty fantastic, but the fact that anybody can alter and add new information is intriguing and also a little bit disconcerting. It was incredible how much information somebody had about our band and was able to post it on Wikipedia without our knowledge:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intro5pect

Wikis are really awesome, but there is also a scary line of personal boundaries that can easily be crossed with them. However the good thing is that the wikis aren't necessarily permanent and can easily be altered.

Eh, What's Up Googledocs?

Googledocs and cloud computing is a very interesting and useful concept. I think it could be really beneficial. For example, in the band we use a cloud computing site called box.net in order to send song files and subsequent revisions back and forth. It is pretty nice and allows us to track who updated what, who commented etc. As far as making group work easier, I think cloud computing has very flexible and easy solutions to make the already arduous and painful task of group work faster and easier. But personally, I don't really see the benefit for individual work as much.


http://docs.google.com/ViewDoc?docid=dd7dpj3s_0c5jnbbdf

Deliciously Descriptive

I have never really used delicious before and as of yet I don't really have a huge need for it. However, I can easily see why it would be very helpful to a community such as CSUF and the library in particular.

I thought the library's delicious page was very helpful. Especially since the tags that are most sought after are made bold or larger so that they are easier to pick out. I am so grateful that we have a plethora of resources available on the internet to help out with pesky and tiresome things such as APA and MLA citations. In general I think it can make searching for and adding new search topics much faster and more efficient for both the students and the staff/faculty. I am a huge fan of the whole tagging thing though. I really like this new addition to the internet as it had made searching and saving things a gazillion times more easy and organized.

http://delicious.com/surlysara

I wonder what it says about me that I decided to bookmark sites about kittens and failure... hmm...

Fire-Foxier-Browser-Than-IE

I will say this now and get it off my chest: I hate hate hate IE. It has always been an unstable, clunky and frustrating browser for me to use. Never ever enjoyed using it and the minute I discovered an IE alternative, I jumped off the IE ship. I have been a firefox user for YEARS! I even use firefox instead of safari on my Mac at home. That's right, I prefer firefox over the almighty safari :)

We all know the internet is not static. In fact, the internet has been able to facilitate the inborn fickle nature of computer users today. The firefox plugins have always been very helpful and have allowed firefox to grow along with the internet and the short attention span of it's users. The google toolbar for example, shaves precious seconds off of your searches. Why navigate to google THEN type in your search when you can jump immediately into your search? Say, for example, you have a horribly misinformed friend that thinks Kirk is a better captain that Picard. This type of dilemma needs lightning fast internet-nerd-backed-proof that Janeway is better than both Kirk and Picard.

If plugins are this effective for semi-important usages, imagine the uses it could have for library related things! Thanks to the delicious bookmarks you can instantly bookmark relevant websites as you are researching articles or to help supplement your general interest in a topic. E-mail this will let you instantly share relevant article information with classmates, coworkers etc. This type of quick access to tools for the internet makes firefox a versatile and helpful browser.

Thanks to the awesome web-surfing powers of firefox you discovered a series of videos featuring a lovable cat playing the keyboard anytime someone has an embarrassing faux pas:



Thanks firefox, for satisfying my short attention span with all kinds of internet awesome :)

Jing Yeah!

I have never before used or heard of Jing, but I am pretty stoked that we got to do a "thing" on it. It is a very fascinating and super versatile tool. In libraries it could make the use of our new technologies much easier! Imagine how much simpler it would be to load a video teaching students how to search for articles online instead of having a Reference Librarian sit for an extended amount of time trying to explain the same concepts. Incredible! This kind of technology could be applied to many educational tools.

Plus, Jing is also very useful for those of us who would like to demonstrate important life lessons such as "Red shirts are expendable". Why just SAY it, when you can show it?



The moral of the story? I <3 Jing. Also, don't wear a red shirt if you ever find yourself in a star trek type situation. ESPECIALLY if Kirk is your captain.

Freakin' Flickr

I must confess that I am a huge fan of flickr. To me it is the visual equivalent of blogging and can encompass the good and bad of it's text-based medium cohort. Thanks to flickr unnecessary pretentious references can now be visually included!

Thanks to Countess Gina from flickr for the visual.

But seriously, I think it is an excellent tool for libraries to utilize. It can show the general population that libraries are not stagnant stacks of study materials but are in fact vibrant living and learning facilities. We could showcase the many happenings within the library such as our varied and colorful exhibits, fantastic student events and even, as we have documented, the unfortunate aftermath of earthquakes. The Library of Congress has done a fantastic job of utilizing flickr.

Thanks to flickr I have had the desire to become a much better photographer so that I can more easily share my random misadventures. My friend Alia back home was able to capture a lovely picture of my brother:



it's these kinds of connections that make the internet so awesome.

RSS = MCP

The beauty of RSS is that it allows you to spend the time you would have spent trolling the internet for content, and instead spending that time enjoying said content! It is quite nice having all of your favorite websites grouped into an easy to find and assimilate location. I do think that RSS Feeds could be very helpful in educating and informing our patrons about Library events. Students, Staff and other Patrons could be kept abreast of any and all changes within the Library almost instantaneously. The RSS system is far more reliable and more environmentally friendly than flyers, announcements and the like.

However, a major problem with this system is that it does take a lot of time and effort for a person compile, edit and upload all of the data that is to be distributed via the RSS feed. That could lead to the desire to have it done by a sort of Control Program to save time and money. The Control Program could potentially work well enough to manage all of the content to be distributed via RSS feeds. If it were to manage all of the Library content for distribution the program would then become a kind of Master Control Program which could effectively manage Library content 900 to 1200 times better than any human. However, for the Master Control Program to effectively do its job managing content for RSS feeds, it would require a substantial amount of Artificial Intelligence in order to be sentient. That could be bad. If the Master Control Program were to become self aware and gain access to our personal RSS feeds and other sensitive Web 2.0 information, it could potentially blackmail us into supplying and using Library Content to manipulate and eventually take over the Library community first, then the world. We would have to write a policing program called Tron to help regulate the Master Control Program before things get out of hand. However, the MCP would be too smart for that and would instead capture and relegate Tron to playing games that could result in Tron's deletion. A rogue staff member would have to get digitized in order to work with Tron to well.... suffice it to say, current Library Content Management should just be handled by the staff for now until A.I. is perfected.

While the notion of RSS Feeds does not compeltely assuage my fears regarding Web 2.0, I am comforted by the idea that we have excellent government programs like Skynet in place to keep things like Web 2.0 from taking over. Dodged a bullet there!

Blogging 101

My initial thoughts regarding Library 2.0 technology were fairly mixed. At first I was quite excited by the prospect, but upon further study I came to realize that in many ways Library 2.0 is more interactive than its predecessor. In fact, it (or the machine) learns about you and your preferences simply from the input it receives when you use it. At this point I was concerned. What if Library 2.0 became self-aware and decided to use its arsenal of my RSS feeds, networking buddies, tagged pictures and so on to destroy my life or worse - steal my identity? Well, it would not be hyperbole to say that I was terrified. I mean, what kinds of horrendous things could this new and nebulous technology do with my identity? Could it sign me up for awful tarot card newsletters, cancel my subscription to 'Cat Fancy' and instead subscribe to the dog magazine? Not the dog magazine! Suffice it to say that these were not very appealing prospects so I decided to banish web 2.0 and all of its various incarnations from all aspects of my life. However, I quickly had a change of heart after realizing this would entail deleting my facebook, twitter & myspace profiles and ending my favorite pasttime of updating Wikipedia with blatantly bad information. So it seems web 2.0 had already infiltrated my leisurely activities. At this point my terror was replaced by cautious optimism. I was receiving no awful tarot newsletters and my cat was still my number one. Perhaps web 2.0 was not as nefarious as I had previously thought?

I must now say that after that initial rollercoaster of emotion, I have come to love and embrace web 2.0. My only suggestion for new things you could possibly do behind the scenes would be to ensure that it does not cancel my 'Cat Fancy' subscription.

While you are fixing the whole identity theft problem, here are some of my favorite blogs to check out:

my favorite technology blog:
www.gizmodo.com

my favorite fitness blog:
www.fitsugar.com

my very funny and opinionated friend Kristen's rantings (be warned, sometimes she uses some strong language):
http://kristenferrell.wordpress.com

my favorite twitter pages (they totally count, they're just mini-blogs)

twitter.com/thecopresident
twitter.com/levarburton (yes, it's THE Levar Burton of Star Trek & Reading Rainbow fame...)
twitter.com/tinafey