Week 6: Thing FIFTEEN

I really enjoyed Rick Anderson's article, "Away from the 'icebergs'" because, while it warned of the impending possibility of libraries fading into obsolescence, it also identified some necessary changes/adaptations that libraries can make in order to maintain their very functional role in society. I think that all too many people are unable to fully appreciate the value of a library because they do not fully understand the vast number of resources it really offers. I'd say most people envision libraries as "big buildings full of books". With this mindset, the demise of libraries is inevitable as information of all kinds goes digital and becomes easily and instantly accessible from the World Wide Web. Likewise, as the demand for books in print rapidly diminishes, so does the need for libraries.

What people fail to understand is that a library isn't so much a "big building full of books" as it is a "big building full of information". And it is not the primary role of the librarian to supervise the books, so much as it is for them to be able to efficiently access this information. After all, no one goes to the library and asks the librarian to teach them to read -- people go to the library and ask the librarian to find a book or resource for them. It follows then, that as books in print fall by the wayside, the role of the librarian does not necessarily go with it.

For librarians to maintain their usefulness, they simply need to adapt with the changing times. For much the same reason that the Raven About Web 2.0 course was designed, librarians need to continue to possess the skill-set of being able to effectively access information. This no longer necessarily means having an intimate familiarity with the Dewey Decimal System, but instead it now means becoming fluent in useful, contemporary technological applications in an increasingly digital world.

I think the Raven About Web 2.0 course is providing an invaluable, and extremely necessary, resource for librarians and teachers alike. Our society is, and will continue to become more and more technologically dependent. The Digital Train is leaving the station, and it is time for educators of all disciplines to either get on board, or get left behind.

Week 6: Thing FOURTEEN

At first, I had a very difficult time executing the initial task, which was to do a "keyword search for 'School Library Learning 2.0' in Blog posts, in tags and in the Blog Directory". For me, this proved exceedingly difficult because it required a bit more intuition than merely typing "School Library Learning 2.0" in the search bar. Turns out, to access the variety of search possibilities, one has to click on the "advanced" link to the immediate right of the search bar.

When searching for School Library Learning 2.0 using the "keyword" search, Technorati yields 226 results, the first ten of which were nothing that I recognized. It seems that the keyword search breaks down and searches for each individual keyword, such as "School" and "Library" and "Learning" and "2.0".

When searching using "tags", on the other hand, "School Library Learning 2.0" turned up a variety of sites, the majority of which were blogs based around a course like Raven About Web 2.0.

I also "claimed" my blog with Technorati, so I'll now be monitoring it carefully to see how many visitors it attracts as it competes for attention against 63 million (and counting...) other blogs. Interestingly enough, it doesn't appear that my blog will have much success, as I was completely unable to locate it using Technorati's general search bar. I'm thinking my blog page is going to require some "authority" before any is able to access via the search bar.

Speaking of authority, I decided to check out the absolute most popular site listed on Technorati, a blog called Boing Boing. To be honest, I wasn't altogether impressed by the blog. As far as I could tell, it didn't have anything that really set it apart from any other individual or group blog. The one really cool thing about the blog, though, was that its primary contributing writer is the same guy who has become the wildly popular YouTube meme, the Tokyo Stormtrooper.

Even though I am fairly new to them, I can certainly see the immediate convenience of "tags". However, due to my relative unfamiliarity with tags, I also find them somewhat limiting. For example, when I claimed my blog with Technorati, I was given the option of listing tags related to my blog. I was able to think of only six words, two of which are my blog's title. So unless someone is searching specifically for "vacuous" or "digressions", odds are, my blog won't be showing up much in anyone's search results.

Week 6: Thing THIRTEEN

As far as bookmarks go, I am manically organized. Each bookmark is meticulously labeled and placed into an appropriate folder, wherein they are listed based on usage frequency. While del.icio.us offers this same sort of organization, the real draw for me was the fact that the site allows you to access your bookmarks from any internet-capable device. Since my daughter was born two summers ago, I have made a very pointed effort to practice a "separation of work and state". As such, in spite of the fact that I have a laptop computer, I keep it at school so I can limit the temptation/possibility of doing schoolwork while I am at home with the family.

Exploring the SJLibraryLearning2 led me to a pretty neat site called krunchd, which, similar to del.icio.us, allows you to share a list of your favorite webpages by consolidating them into a single URL. The only difference that I can see on the outset is that unlike del.icio.us, you do not need to sign up for a krunchd account in order to share your links.

One of the most interesting sites I came across using the "Popular Tags" feature on del.icio.us was called Academic Earth, under the "education" tag. This site features video lectures by top scholars from across the globe. Lectures are categorized by subject, university, and instructor, which makes it very easy to find a lecture on any sort of topic. The instructors and universities are somewhat limited (but by no means of poor quality) to Berkeley, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, and Princeton, and there are 17 subjects from which to choose, ranging from astronomy to religion. I watched the first half of a 50-minute entry-level chemistry lecture from Professor Kristie Boering at Cal Berkeley and am considering showing portions to my chemistry classes -- in part because the material covered in the lecture is pertinent to our current unit, but I also hope to give them both an appreciation and a basis for comparison for my class versus a college-level course.