Library Serendipities

LibraryThing does look quite useful and I am aware of a few libraries (public and academic) that are using it to either maintain and organize their collection or as a tool to expand various aspects of their collection. Can't beat the price :).

Now this is where it gets real interesting for me. I really like playing with a variety of toys, oh I mean tools.

I have used a few of these, but especially like the widgets that can be used in iGoogle...they are fun and easy to delete if need be.

BaseCamp...its awesome, but wish you could get a bit more for free...it is an excellent resource for projects....I'm going to check out Zoho and see what it has to offer.

I can Digg and I can Mixx, but I prefer to StumbleUpon and like the nuances of the Newsvine. All do about the same thing...they are just organized differently. That said I like to move everything to iGoogle and keep it all in one neat package.

As a visual person, I am surprised that I just don't see the appeal of this tool. That said I do like certain parts of it (the sidebar), but I find that there is just too much going on for me. Related, but then not related.

On the other hand I have liked Furl...but I don't use it consistently. Lately I am into using Foxmarks because I can sync and pickup both work and personal bookmarks.

Pagekeeper is a bit more to my likes...perhaps I'll give it a try...

Just me thinging out loud!

For whatever reasons I always feel that Wikis look unfinished...like they are always under development and for some reason that really bothers me. That said I have created and used a number of them for different reasons, but don't really have an affinity for them. I would suspect that given time and modifications, I may eventually like them..

I have to say that I have used a number of tools to collaborate. They have primarily been subscription software. More recently I have used Google Docs and been quite please with it. Though the actuals editors lack some of the features you might want, it is very easy to downlaod and uploads documents, hence there is a lot of flexibility.

I have tried several of the items mentioned in Thing #8 with mixed success. It's not that I can't get them to work, but rather that I have definite likes and dislikes, which in turn colors my thoughts on their usefulness.

For instance, I have had a del.icio.us account for some time and I just don't get the attraction for the usefulness...just one of those things! Whereas I find others utterly fascinating and look for ways to incorporate them into my work. I like Stumbleupon and anticipate that it will lead me to a wide variety of resources on my topics of interest!

My conclusion is that its important for librarians to have a handle on the various tools of 2.0, but one should not feel that you have to use all of them! I am currently working on a eFolio...it will be interesting to see what I can do with it over time.

My eFolio: a work in progress