What were your favorite experiences?
Like those who have answered before me one of my favorite experiences was the weekly chat. The weekly chat, for me personally, added the element of being able to get to know those in your group. I have taken online course before and one of major grips about these courses was that I never had the opportunity to get to know those who were learning alongside of me. I also enjoyed the OPAL-Online lectures, the webcasts, participants’ blogs, and the readings.

What technology did you find the most interesting for your personal use? What technology did you think would be most useful professionally?
The one technology that I find myself using the most is social bookmarking (Del.icio.us); I found that once I transferred my favorites to my Del.icio.us account I use it all time, including at work. Professionally, I think a blog would be the most useful because it would allow museum visitors and library patrons to be able to more actively participate in our public programs and various events.

Implementing a Blog to Promote Society Wide Events

-Pilot Proposal-

Introduction
In order to serve the growing need to market the Montana Historical Society (MHS) and its services, I would like to purpose the implementation of a blog that promotes the Society’s news and events. This proposal will outline how a blog will improve upon models already existing throughout any number of areas at MHS.

I’ve been listening and taking in this week all the excitement regarding the social network software MySpace and Facebook. In her blog, Information Wants To Be Free, Meredith states, “A profile that offers nothing but a picture of the library, a blog post or two cutesy thing about how we shush you just looks cheesy. I think there is a big difference between ‘being where our patrons are’ and ‘being useful to our patrons where they are.’ I think some libraries in MySpace and Facebook have put a profile up, but they have not tried to make it useful to their patrons at all. Just putting up a profile does not make the library seem cool, nor does it make the library more visible.” (blog was posted on May 10, 2006)

Last month a colleague and I were talking about how to handle the growing number of commonly asked reference questions that range from “when did Montana become a State?” (November 8, 1889) to “who the first women was to run a state agency?” (Mrs. M. L. Cunningham was appointed Matron-in-charge of the Montana Deaf and Dumb Asylum in 1893) Our conclusion, naturally, was to create a wiki that would allow us to not only answer commonly asked reference questions, with citations, but would also be a resource guide for our collections. After approval from the head of the department and a few conversations with the IT guy my colleague, through PB Wiki, created the Montana History Wiki.

Do social softwares such as Flikr and MySpace contribute to the glorification of self? NBC news covered this very topic last week in a story title “College students think they're so special: Study finds alarming rise in narcissism, self-centeredness in ‘Generation Me’” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17349066/) I realize that this has little to do with social software use in libraries but it does make you think about the social impact that technology and the internet can have on society.

Several months ago a colleague introduced me to Bloglines, and I have been hooked ever since. Prior to this introduction I was not an avid blog reader nor had I ever considered writing a blog (I’m still sitting on the fence regarding starting my own blog—mainly it’s an issue of confidence). Like so many others, I am now mildly addicted to reading and participating in the blogosphere. Bloglines for me is like my own mini-conference tailored for me by me. Just by logging in I am presented with an opportunity to stay abreast with the newest information on technologies and ideas in the library and archives world but I also get the opportunity to hear about the happenings of my fellow classmates from library science school at University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee (UWM). Really, could a girl living in Montana who is unable attend many of the conference offered due to finical constraints ask for anything more? I think not.

After listening to Ann Welsh’s presentation this morning I started to think about how my institution could use a blog as a way to promote our library and archives collections.

I like the idea of using a blog as a way of keeping patrons informed about newly cataloged or processed material but what if you had very few patrons that use your services on a regular basis? Because we don’t, many of our patrons come from outside the Helena area and even outside of Montana. Consequently, the following questions are currently swimming around my brain:

I thought it was my turn to take a stab at this. First I guess I should introduce myself; my name is Karen Bjork I’m a Government Records Archivist at the Montana Historical Society. One of my core functions as an archivist is to not only organize and preserve archival collections but also to provide reference services to anyone who wishes to access our collections. Reference services are not limited to archival collections I also assist patrons with accessing our library and photo archives collections. In many ways I am “archibrarian.” I literally just made this up, what I mean is that I wear two hats; 90 percent of my daily function is as an archivist but there is that small 10 percent where I function as a librarian.