Thing 23 The final chapter

What do you think about social media in libraries?

I think they are the way of the future. We need to use them, but I think too much info thrown out into the world of ideas is a little overkill and wasteful. We need to be sure to make it relevant and important to our patrons.

What do you wish FPL was (or wasn’t) doing? 

I know we do use a lot of media--Facebook, blogs, tweets, etc. I think we need to get a following and see what needs or community has for these applications.

Have you learned anything from the program? 

Yes, I have learned a lot. How to find a lot of information, keep up with online information, or just plain waste time. I use Facebook. I use Googlemaps. I can't get into Twitter and do not consider Wikipedia a credible source for much.  I find a lot of social media is politically based far left agenda--which I now see the right attempting to catch up with. It bothers me that there is so much propaganda that the Youth take as fact.  Okay, off of my soapbox. At least now I can keep up with things better.

If not, what could we do better?

I like human interaction, so I guess I am not the best person to ask about social media or online training.

Thing 22 User Choice

I played around with a few things here. I looked at some job searching sites for my friend, but that's boring.

I also played around with Urban Spoon. I also have this app on my IPhone, but I never use it. I managed to find out that one of my favorite restaurants in Georgia has a location in Ft. Worth--not super close, but worth a drive sometime. (It's the Mellow Mushroom by the way.)  Yeah! I would have never known. Plus, they now have gluten free pizza--DOUBLE YEAH!

So I got to thinking...what if we had a cool way of putting up reviews about media that people might not usually find interesting. We should recommend books for people more too--in the catalogue when they search.  But someday it would be cool to have an app for all these high-tech phones and devices that is like Urban Spoon for books. What if it showed books in the area you were standing in that had good reviews?! Or what if you could a random review by shaking the device--cause that's fun too. It might help circulation too. We could have a very interactive and tech savvy system someday--but of course you know patrons would still not be able to find anything or misplace it for us anyway.

Thing 21-wikis

Since yesterday was a day that will always be remembered in US history, I looked up Osama Bin Laden on Wikipedia. The editing discussion was quite entertaining and followed the crazy headlines on television. Debates about the actual date to put for his death seem to not fully be resolved still. Wikipedia is interesting, and I look at it for some information. However, too many people find out everything from this resource. I have looked up information about my church, and I find I do not agree with how some of our beliefs are presented. (I suppose I should request and edit, but I kind of feel like its pointless.)

So, I added one of my favorites to our restaurant wiki--Jason's Deli. I am hungry just thinking about it.

I know that wikis are very useful, and in the library it seems a great source for information about procedures, passwords, and helps for staff.