Item #15 - Library 2.0, Web 2.0

It was 1997 and I went for my first Train the Trainer course to introduce Internet classes into our library service. I did not know the difference between the 'Internet browser' and the "World Wide Web". 10 years later and after teaching numerous classes I found myself at the next level of ignorance. I practically had no knowledge about the new open-platform, social, interactive, mobile network named Web 2.0. Is it my personal disaster or I am one of many in my profession who discovered that what was straightforward and structured became fluid and multifaceted? Do you know that "... blogging burnout can be a more serious problem than having blogger' s block" or soon "...you can carry a library in your pocket". How tech-savvy do I need to be to cope with all of it? What could I learn from my son and what I can teach him myself, where is my limit or does it all depend on my intellectual curiosity? There is such a variety in the integration of Library 2.0 services into different libraries. Some libraries already offer RSS as the real-time, cheaper way to communicate, many others have a number of blogs on their web site, where customers can comment, participate, write reviews about books they borrowed. There are bloggers' book clubs, pod casts on libraries websites, some libraries incorporate instant messaging to communicate with the customers. And what's about these on-line discussions about the future of the industry on the amazing library-related blogs like Shifted librarian or Librarian.net? It is all very interesting, exciting and confusing. We are definitely in a time of transition and we are all together shaping and changing and moving into the future. What is important for me personally is not to be intimidated, to find what will work for me and what not and to be ready to learn more.

Item # 14 - Technorati

As far as I understand the Technorati is a search service. It searches for blogs, posts and tags. Honestly I did not get a clear picture of how to use it. I found my blog on Technorati because it was created on Blogger and because I know my blog's name. I did not tag any posts on my blog that's why I could not search for my posts by tags. Finally, I checked the Advance search. It was easy to search under the Blog directory - less results and they are more straight forward, while general search gives thousands of hits. I used Feedster for blog searches before and like it better. I am sure that I'll come back and experiment more but at the moment I aready have my favourite services such as Bloglines, Delicious, Librarything and not enough time to check on them as often as I wish. The virtual social network grows and eats up the time. There are more things under the sky to learn.

Item #13 - del.icio.us

Delicious is as good as it sounds. Simple, inviting, addictive, asking me to come back. To join was easy, to add my bookmarks was no problem, to check other people's bookmarks was really delicious. If I thought myself original in my choices of interest, I found that at least 15 people added the same favourites to their accounts at the same time as me. I checked on their selection and found a lot of good places to visit later. To tag a bookmark is fun and made you think why you're interested in this specific web site. Ofcourse, I search for "books" tag and already have a list of some new titles to read or to suggest for the collection. The more I learn the more things I want to explore. I don't know how to incorporate all these new activities into my everyday life, but I am very grateful for the opportunity to learn all of it.