Thing #16 LibraryThing

I subscribed to LibraryThing over a year ago and love it! Currently I have 150 books catalogued on the site. "Recent recommendations" are nice to peruse and are geared toward member's likes refecting his/her catalogued books. I tag and rate every book I catalog. There are so many options for following blogs, groups and social networking sites that I do not follow chats on LibraryThing, but use it as a personal cataloging tool. However, I do like to read reviews on the books I am cataloging. Often I cannot find a book using the LOC search and have to revert to Amazon.com; I would like to see this changed and reading on Thingology it looks as though getting a better handle on matching up ISBNs is in future works for LibraryThing.

Thing #15 Digg

Interesting and informative site! I like the fact that the news feeds are categorized: technology, science, gaming, entertainment, sports, etc. The fact that posts can be customized gives insight to a members personality. I did not create an account on Digg, but did play around with the site quite a bit and feeling news deprived most of the time will most likely do so in the near future. A site that is policed by the members is unique unless I am mistaken and refreshing. A site named Digg where the members can "bury" miscreants is a hoot.

Thing #14 Delicious

I can be found at http://delicious.com/bkshankle on Delicious. This social networking tool is effective for research when away from the office. It is nice to have all bookmarks accessible on one site; releives the aggravation of trying to remember them. I could not master the art of adding buttons; however added bookmarks and imported bookmarks. I had actually set up an account a few months ago and this exercise reminded me how useful the site can be.

Thing #13 Tagging

I have used tagging with Library Thing; it is an interesting technique that I am still trying to decide whether or not is practical. Being an archivist first and librarian second I do like organization: the everything in its place and a place for everything mentality. Tagging may complement an individual's idiosyncrasies; however the masses as a whole will most likely be confused trying to make sense of tags used by others. I do not beleive tagging belongs in the library or the archives world. We need set standards such as subject headings and should discourage the use of tags. My two cents!

Thing #12 Twitter

Twitter is a bit clunky with less glamour than some other social networking sites. The last time I heard Twitter mentioned before creating an account was from reading about it on TMZ.com. Using Twitter I baceame a "follower" of several people/organizations including Fort Worth Library and the Society of American Archivists. I watched the "help" video and posted Twits/Tweets. I did not use my email information to request followers because I wanted to protect my privacy. I used the search function to locate Tweet pages that are interesting to me.

Thing #11 Instant Messaging

Well, wasn't Iming fun! I entered a music chat room and watched some of the conversation for a while before starting a chat with a 23 year-old male in Sydney. That was an experience; the first thing asked for was my a/s/l. After determining what that meant I assured the young man I was old enough to be his mother and that I was doing this as a learning experience for work. He wished me the best of luck and promptly said good-bye. Fascinating! I had another request to chat with a young female wanting me to go to a web site that had a photo of her naked! My reply was that I was not going there on the grounds of morals. Good experience; however now I know how teenagers get into trouble so easily. My initial goal was to converse with individuals about country music, but instead I got a lesson in just how user "friendly" the Internet can be.

My username for other NT23 members is fwarchivist using Yahoo Messenger.

Thing #10 Ning

My impression of Ning.com is that it is a good blog tracking network. It is nice to see photos and profiles of individuals who are members of various blogs. I like the look of the site and the way the pages are laid out; very user friendly. I find it interesting that some sites have added user guide videos. I looked at several blogs including ALA; TWU; and Lone Arrangers, which is an archive group. To view the "Fort Worth Public Library Staff" blog you need to be a member; darn I wanted to see who I knew on the site without becoming a member. I was surprised, but probably should not be at the number of religious affiliated groups using ning.com. I did not create a Ning account because of the cautionary note in the NT23 instructions stating, "there has been some controversy surrounding the way Ning.com uses the data submitted by members its hosted networks."