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LinkedIn and Social Networking March 28, 2008

Posted by Vicki in continuing education.
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After Facebook, we were to join LinkedIn, the professional social networking site. We also were to make some connections. The first thing I discovered is that other employees that I know in my own company are already members. So I tried to connect with them. So far, I haven’t received a response. Since I’m not sure how they’re notified of the contact invitation, I don’t know how long it takes.

I can see the professional potential for LinkedIn in both the job market and the sales contacts market. I also see its potential for networking within your own field. But again, because of the type of library I have, I don’t think it’s going to benefit the work done in my department.

From what I see, the social networking sites expand the community groups such as the Rotary Club, church youth group, or Jaycees to a wider range. The face to face contact is lost, which is important. Yet the larger audience can be beneficial.

Yesterday The Krafty Librarian had a blog about the Digital Skills Divide that is important here. These types of online tools help widen the divide. People who don’t get linked in can easily fall behind even if they are now digitally savvy and can use the computer and Internet. While this probably won’t affect the professionals who use my library, it a factor to consider when I have the occasional opportunity to work with people in different arenas. Introducing them to tools like Facebook may seem like fun to them, but can also help them improve skills they can use in life.

Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional March 27, 2008

Posted by Vicki in continuing education.
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One of the professional blogs I follow is The Resource Shelf maintained by Gary Price. He has a good eye on what’s new of librarian interest in the library and government world.

Yesterday he added this link from eLearn Magazine.

Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional

There are some good ideas here for keeping up in the field. Now, if I could only keep it to 10 minutes.

Facebook March 27, 2008

Posted by Vicki in continuing education.
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The MLA Social Networking class this week has us joining Facebook. I’ve done that, and can see how it can be fun. My daughter has a Facebook account, so I’ve made her my friend and left her a birthday message. I also added the PubMed Search and WorldCat applications. I was supposed to add the UAB library catalog application, but was still learning. I made myself a fan, but didn’t add the application to my profile. Since I won’t use that catalog again, I decided not to add the application.

Like with the wiki class last week, I don’t see a good application of the Facebook or social networking capability at my work. Perhaps I have tunnel vision, but I don’t think so.

I realized this week one reason is because our writers have a writing program that covers some of what we need in a shared setting. More than one person can write a section, but only one at a time (similar to a wiki). It’s not done on a web page like a wiki, but has to be checked out and checked in. They can also use this software to communicate like in Facebook.

It’s interesting to have the Facebook account for now, but I don’t know if I’ll maintain it after our class is finished or not. In the meantime, I’ll learn a little more about it and keep it in mind when different needs come up at work. Perhaps it will have a future function.

Wikis and Work March 20, 2008

Posted by Vicki in continuing education.
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In the MLA social networking course we’re working on Wikis this week. I’m still not sure if I have an immediate application at work for this technology.

My library is very non-traditional. My customers/users/patrons (have we found a good word yet?) are a small, finite group. The writers all use a specific publishing program that acts like social software wherein they check out whatever they’re working on, then check it back in for someone else to work on, if needed. They library only gets involved on the research side and supplying the resources they need. But something may present itself to me.

I have found a good personal application for a wiki, though. I have belonged to the book club at my library for the past 3 years. More than once I’ve considered creating a web page for the group. Yesterday I set up a wiki page instead – The SDCL Poway Library Book Club. I sent an announcement to all the members who have email (one doesn’t own a computer). I’ve already had two members sign up. It will be interesting to see if anyone else actually tries to change the pages or if it is left up to me. Some never may because they don’t use their computer as much.

I was impressed how easy it was to set up the pages. One of the people who signed up last night signed into the site as I was working on it. She was able to see the work in process as it changed – how cool!

Poor Start March 17, 2008

Posted by Vicki in continuing education.
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This morning on my way to work I realized I hadn’t submitted the homework for this continuing education class for MLA – Yikes!

The first week’s class was covering areas where I’d had some experience already, so it was fairly easy. I discovered I like the WordPress Blog maker. I have a personal blog through Bloglines. I’ll have to work with WordPress more to see the differences and ease of use.

I already have a direct RSS feed to my computer at work with some medical librarian blogs coming daily (like the two over on my menu bar to the right). But it was interesting to create a new reader through Google Reader and add some others. I don’t know if I’ll use the RSS feed for journal tables of content. We already have an effective email distribution system for those in place.

I liked learning about using the RSS feed feature for PubMed searches. It was easier than I expected. I only need to use the “Send To” drop down box. It’s interesting that I use that “Send To” feature all the time, but am so focused on my work that I never noticed when the RSS feed was added. I only use “Clipboard”, “Text”, or “Order” and don’t glance at the rest of the list. Now I need to see if that feature will be beneficial here in my work.

Web 2.0 101 March 12, 2008

Posted by Vicki in introduction.
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The Medical Library Association (MLA) is sponsoring a continuing education online class on using second generation web tools. Our first assignment is to create a blog. Since I graduated from San Jose State University’s MLIS program, I have worked as a medical librarian with a guidelines publication. Originally I was involved in document retrieval and delivery.

Now my main focus is in assisting our writers in the research and maintaining an information resource library for them. I’ve learned a lot in the last couple years and will learn a lot more. This blog is a place I can share what I’ve learned or discovered.