If nothing else (and there's a lot else) I'm going away from this course with ideas of how to sell social software.  A lot of my colleagues are bought in already but those who aren't will be when they see how useful it.  I think that will overcome the "oh no, more technology to keep up with" reaction.  I now have 3 wikis going in our library and a myspace page!  Thanks.

The part of the course I have been least enthusiastic about has probably been RSS.  I've been playing with them some and I think I see their value but they don't seem to do much for me.  I guess I like going to the sites I want/need to read and don't need a feed reader site to check.  Or maybe I'm just afraid that if I read all the sites that might be of interest, I'd never get anything done?  I can see the value of a library provided a feed from its site though.  I guess it would be another way of "meeting users where they are".

Ok, I'm playing catch up a bit now that I know our contract is settled and there will be no strike.  Yea!

When we started the course I thought I knew about blogs but I didn't realize everything that could be done with a blog.  I think I've seen the light.

Since then we have started a blog for our research guides at the library.  It's allowed us to be able to add things and change things without waiting for the one person who maintains our website to have time to make the changes.  I've also been introduced to the many different blogs in library world.  I guess I no longer think blogs are just for people with too much time on their hands.  :)

I am posting my reflections on the course early because it is entirely possible that I, along with the rest of the faculty at my college, will be on strike starting tomorrow.  That may mean that I will not be able to access the course.

The presentations and the opportunity to try out new tools were my favorite experiences in the course.  I was especially taken with some of the social networking tools like myspace and Second Life.  I think I will play in Second Life.  For professional purposes, I believe wikis can do a lot for us.  We have been using a blog for our research guides but I think a wiki may be a better vehicle for them.  The flatter architecture and ability to search by subject should be a benefit. 

I've thought a lot about a useful project for my library. My first thought was a myspace page. I have actually already put up a rudimentary page. I find it not as easy to do what I'd like with it as I would like. Since then I've developed a lot of enthusiasm about the usefulness of wikis. Wikis are an application which allow any user to add content. I think that something I would like to do is develop a library instruction wiki. Our library is a very small one and most of the librarians are part-time. There is no opportunity for us to all sit together in one place and discuss ideas. We do a lot of informal idea sharing about library instruction classes. However, that's all oral and dependent upon whether the librarian with an upcoming class happens to cross paths with the librarian who last did a particular class. A wiki would provide a place to share this sort of information.

We have recently started a wiki at the library. It is for staff only and we use it to post general information of use to all. From looking at some of the examples of library wikis, I think I would like to try a library instruction wiki. Currently we have paper file folders for each class we teach and keep information in each one. However, a lot of information is shared verbally, e.g. "Did you teach so and so's ENG 102 last semester? What did you do?" and since many of the librarians are part time we don't all see each other. A wiki could be a solution. Anyone else used a wiki for this purpose?

I think this has been touched on in several comments to the blog entries of others but (not having read them all) I'm not sure if anyone has exactly responded to this ques. How do you use myspace, facebook, whatever in your library? What do you do with it that helps your students/patrons?

My name is Ellie Swanson and I am the Cataloging/Reference Librarian at a community college in Illinois. Our library is quite small and lightly staffed. We each have a variety of duties. Even though I am only part-time, I am the only cataloger. I am one of several part-time reference librarians who also teach many information literacy classes.

We are always looking for ways to keep our students' interest and communicate in new ways. I hope that we will be able to start a library blog. I also hope to learn if wikis or other social networking tools would be useful in our classes.