Ketchup.

Thing #13:
I created a Del.icio.us account after I went to the NCLA conference last fall, but it has been sorely neglected ever since then, so of course I totally forgot my username and password. It took many frustrated tries before I gave up and requested to have my information emailed to me … after I spent five minutes trying to figure out which email I used! Whatever. The moral of that story is that basically Del.icio.us isn’t all that useful to me personally. Once again, I prefer my bookmarks, although I can see the value in taking your bookmarks with you if need be, which isn’t so much of an issue for me. When I’m at home, I much prefer bookmarking through the Google Toolbar, which you can access from any computer once you log into Google … any computer with the toolbar downloaded, of course. Therein lies the rub.

As far as Del.icio.us goes, I could see a benefit to linking with other FRL employees, or even within Macon’s Reference staff. It seems a good way to share bookmarks we’ve found that wouldn’t just be Ref Desk computer-centric. The more I think about this, the more valuable I think that would be…
(a completely unrelated sidepoint: I have a hard time separating the word 'Del.icio.us' the way they separate it. I keep wanting to type 'Deli.ci.ous' instead.)

Thing #14:
Google Books interested me. I’ve stumbled across it inadvertently in the past by googling book titles but have never really explored it. I found a sweet little gem called ‘Jane Austen: Her Homes & Her Friends’, written in 1905. I enjoyed browsing through it. I like that Google Books gives you the option to search within the book, as well as skip to ‘Popular passages’, and of course gives links to purchase sites.
I can certainly see how it may be useful to libraries. For example, if a patron was looking for a specific poem or play that we don’t have a copy of, we could search for it here and print it for them. It could also be handy if someone knew of a specific page they needed from a book that was not in our library. I have actually had that happen.

Thing #15:
I’ll be honest. My first thoughts about Web 2.0/Library 2.0 are thoughts of sadness. I love my techie stuff, but I also feel strongly about getting offline and living and not being connected to the Web all the time. One article said: You and your mobile and nonmobile devices — PDA, MP3, laptop, cell phone, camera, PC, TV, etc.— are always online, connected to one another and to the Web. I don’t like the thoughts of this, even though they may be reality. I just feel like somewhere along the way we’re losing the art of human interaction in all of that cyber connectivity.
As far as libraries, I’m very torn. I realize that regardless of how I feel about Web 2.0, etc., the reality is that the role of libraries has changed and I think it’s very important that we keep up with technology-based services and patron demand. And seriously? I can get on board with that … I just hope we don’t lose ourselves in the process.
In my heart of hearts, I’m one of those people who just wants to be surrounded by books all day. Libraries are still very nostalgic* for me, even after having worked in one for three years. I get that our role is changing, but I too miss what libraries used to be. I love technology, but I wish we had as many people come in to find good books as we do people wanting to access MySpace.

*which is seriously amazing, considering the craziness of working in a public library!

Thing #16:
Wikis. Well, I’ve definitely fallen into the Wikipedia nets many times in the past, although I have questioned its reliability. Anyway, I confess to being pretty wiki-ignorant for the most part (wignorant?), but heard wikis mentioned numerous times at the NCLA conference.
In looking at the links on our 23 Things page, I really liked St. Joseph County Public Library’s wiki page. I think it’s a great idea to have a collaborative effort between library employees, like with our Staff Picks books and general information about the library’s policies and upcoming programming that we could add in ourselves. I love that they have the feature to Talk to the Library, either by way of leaving comments or by instant message. Great idea! Also, I think I remember a mention at the conference about using a wiki to communicate between various employees of a specific department in the library, and I also think this would be helpful. For example, if I needed to leave information for Kristina, Erin, Carol or Tracy (or all of them) I could add it to our mutual wiki and they could have access to it or add to it themselves.

As far as faults I find with wikis, I have to say reliability would be tops on my list. Hand in hand with that, though, is editing, like grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. I have to admit that I cringed a couple of times looking at the BookLovers Wiki by the Princeton Public Library. I just can’t help zeroing in on misspellings and suchlike things. Maybe this isn’t so much a fault with wiki as it is me being overly picky? :)

Thing #17:
I added ‘Jane Eyre’ to the list of favorite books and added my blog to the list of favorite blogs. I found it easy and had no troublesome times.