Update: I received an e-mail from one of the creators of Ask Dr. Wiki stating that they are now requiring folks to prove that they have medical credentials before they are allowed to contribute to the wiki. I hate barriers as much as the next person, but in the case of a medical wiki, there …
As you all know, I’m a big fan of wikis, such a big fan that I often cannot gauge how other people will respond when they are introduced to wikis. Well, imagine my surprise to discover how incredibly enthusiastic our participants were this week about implementing wikis in their library; probably more so than any …
Could you ever have imagined a couple of years ago that a candidate for ALA President would have a campaign video on YouTube??? 🙂 This isn’t why I personally endorsed Jim Rettig for ALA President. Nor is it his very cool blog. I think Jim is a librarian who has not lost touch with the …
Social Software in Libraries cover Originally uploaded by librarianmer. I just heard from the folks at Information Today that my book is heading off to the printer tomorrow! I think it’s going to spend some time there, because I was told that it will be available at the end of March or the very beginning …
Week two of Five Weeks to a Social Library is now over. RSS and del.icio.us really generated a lot of excitement for our participants and many could see the personal and professional benefits of using these tools. We have people spending 16 hours per week on the class because they want to play with these …
I never thought I’d say this… but I want to go work for the Pentagon! Lewis Shepherd sent me this Computer World article about some of the cool things they are doing in the intelligence community with wikis, RSS, AJAX and Mashups. In particular, they mention the Intellipedia which was launched in 2004 and seeks …
I mentioned PBWiki’s new editing interface a few weeks ago, but this week was the official launch of this tool. I truly think that having a WYSIWYG editor like PBWiki has now is going to break down the biggest barrier to adding content to a wiki. Wiki markup may be easier than HTML for some …
The weeks and months before the start of Five Weeks to a Social Library required a significant amount of work, but I don’t think I was prepared for how much time I would need to devote once the course started. However, it has been totally worth it so far. I am literally blown away by …
I just wanted to give people a head’s up that the wiki for this year’s Computers in Libraries conference is up and people are already starting to add content. I’ve already got my schedule online and I’m really excited about speaking at the conference and seeing some of the terrific talks on the roster. I’m …
One thing I was really excited about with Five Weeks to a Social Library was playing around with Odeo. I’d seen a lot of people using it and it looked like a really great service. I love their cute embedded players. Unfortunately, I seem to have come to it at the point where things are …
On a happy note, a friend of mine has recently started a blog in an area of librarianship that doesn’t get enough discussion in the blogosphere: access services. Mary Chimato is the head of access and delivery services at NCSU, and started Circ and Serve because she saw a gaping hole in its representation on …
In light of what I was writing about wikis and participation, I would like to ask for your help. I have been wanting to have some guidelines on the Library Success Wiki, similar to those that govern the Wikipedia. However, I never wanted to do it on my own for fear that it would be …
David King is in the middle of a terrific series on his blog about inviting participation in Web 2.0/social software tools. Here are the ones he’s come out with so far: Inviting Participation in Web 2.0 Part 2: Passive Invitations Part 3: Active Invitations Check out the comments too where people are making some great …
My post earlier in the week may just have gotten more comments than anything I’ve ever written. I believe Steve Lawson called it “a great trainwreck of a comments thread.” In addition, I have received a dozen e-mails and IMs from readers of my blog extending their support. One of those e-mails was from my …
I remember a few months ago, my friend Rochelle wrote a terrific post about the Second Life Library 2.0. She basically wrote about her first-time experiences in the Second Life realm and how confusing and off-putting it was for her. She voiced some criticisms of the Second Life Library project, which she made clear were …
I think I will second Jill Stover’s nomination of Ken Varnum for the title of “great guy”. In response to some comments on his blog regarding library marketing, Ken created WOMBLINK, a way for libraries to easily spread the word about their services (and for bloggers to easily spread the word for them). From Ken’s …
Last summer, I was talking with someone from the planning committee of the Dartmouth Biomedical Libraries’ Fall Conference. Their theme was “Cool Tools and New Technologies” and I asked her if they were going to have someone speak about screencasting. Her response was “but everyone knows about screencasting already.” Really? Maybe I travel in the …
I just wanted to remind folks that December 1 is the deadline for applications to participate in the Five Weeks to a Social Library course. You can find the application instructions here. We have gotten an incredible number of applications for the course from people all over the world — from all different types of …
A few months ago, David Rothman asked me if there was any tool for searching the biblioblogosphere. At the time, there really wasn’t much. I told him about LISFeeds, but explained that its search functionality was very limited. And that was the last I heard on the subject from him until a few days ago …
I’m out here in Lansing Michigan at The Library Rebooted conference, offered by the Michigan Library Consortium. I just talked about wikis and Jessamyn West is now talking about blogs. You can find my presentation here on my Website (PPT). For those of you who were here at the conference, here are some more wiki-related …