The end of the stick

I have now come to the final Thing on the Stick. What a relief! I am actually surprised at how many of the Things I was already familiar with. I did not really think of myself as being very immersed in the 2.0 world. However, as I further think about my friends who are not very computer savvy, I realize that I am definitely leading the pack in terms of involvement online (which is ironic because I'm such an introvert compared to them). Yet, I also have friends and relatives who are even more immersed in the online social networking world.

My favorite discovery along the way was making my iGoogle page even more customized so that I can keep up with more RSS feeds in one location. I also enjoyed playing with the photo editing programs because I could see how these would be useful in promotional materials. The youtube "Plain English" was a great find as well.

My least favorite activity was definitely blogging. I have little use for sharing my personal discoveries in an environment that is already overflowing with the voices of the multitudes. I could see using a blog in a library setting for sharing news and tips, but I don't like putting my personal ramblings out in the public eye.

An improvement for this class could be re-creating the 23 Things experience for either an Oklahoma-based audience or for a less geographically restricted audience. Also, the Things may need to be updated a bit as even 2 years in the online environment involves lots of changes, new products, and disappearing products/links.

Keeping up and Keeping on

Library 2.0 has been a passion of mine since the first day of library school when my group got the piece of paper that said "library 2.0" and we were supposed to tell the class what it meant. Whoa! What an introduction! Especially considering I'd never heard of it before...

So, now for school projects I've written about about Library 2.0 in academic libraries, the role of tagging in the organization of information, and viewed it in terms of required job skills. It continues to play a role in how I keep up to date with library information and news. I have an entire tab of my iGoogle homepage that is dedicated to library RSS feeds. I also check in to my LibraryThing account every now and then to update what I've been reading outside of class - yes, in all that spare time that a mother of two and full time student has I do manage to find time to visit other worlds in fiction.

Will I keep up with the blog? Probably not. At least not in its current form. I've always wanted to blog about the challenges and thrills of raising a child with autism, but maybe down the line. As I've mentioned before, I think it takes an extrovert to really love blogging. And extrovert, I am most definitely not...

Too many networks

This Thing was supposed to be about joining yet another online community. As an introvert, I really can't see joining more than the communities I'm already a part of. Really, do I need to share every part of my life through verbal vomit? Perhaps I don't want the world to know what I'm doing at every moment, every book I've ever read, the hobbies that I'm currently working on, or the flaws in my life. The great thing about online communities is that you get to be as anonymous, real, or fake as you wish. I can also choose how many to be a part of. Just like in my physical world, I choose to be highly involved in 2 or 3 communities or social circles online. For one, I just can't squeeze in much more than that and feel true to the community. Second, I have no desire to be part of a group just because I can be.

Social networks are great, but I will continue to be selective in how I utilize them and how much I'm willing to share on them. I value my privacy in the virtual world as much as in the real world.

Face to Facebook

I do happen to love Facebook. I keep up with friends from all over the place there. I am also a part of the ACRL group and the Library 2.0 group.

There are privacy issues when it comes to using social networking tools. If I were to use FB as a librarian, I would definitely start using the filtering tools to keep work and private sharing separate. Right now, it is not an issue for me but many libraries are starting to use FB as a communication tool between branches and departments as well as with the community.

Libraries at the very least need to examine the impact filtering social networking sites has on facility usage and/or public satisfaction. It would be an interesting piece of research to examine this effect. There are some days that I spend WAY too much time there, but I see some of my friends spending even more time there with all the crazy games and apps. Allowing access to social networking sites may change the demand for computer access. If there are not time limits on computer usage, there may need to be to allow greater numbers of users access.