Week 8: Mashups

Exercise 1: Here's a treasure Mashup called Spatialepidemiology and here's the link to it: http://programmableweb.com/mashup/spatialepidemiology.

Description: Provides mapping tools for the global epidemiology of infectious disease. Datasets are available to interrogate geographically allowing researchers to investigate the epidemiology, evolution and population biology of human and animal pathogens.

APIs: Google Maps

Exercise 2:

When I used Rollyo and searched for LibrarianBlogs on the "Explore Searchrolls' page, I received several familiar blogs. Then I found many interesting postings on several of these blogs on the topic of 'privacy". For example, the Shifted Librarian blog had a posting: "How Public Is your Privacy?" on May 30, 2007 http://www.theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2007/05/30/how_public_is_your_privacy.html

Here's another posting about "privacy": "google Ranked worst on Privacy Policy", which appeared June 15, 2007 on the LibrarianinBlack blog http://librarianinblack.typepad.com/librarianinblack/2007/06/google_ranked_w.html

Advanced (Optional):

I registered for an account in Rollyo and created a custom Searchroll called " ScienceBlogs" and here's the link: http://rollyo.com/janetspiller/scienceblogs/.

Thanks very much for teaching this web 2.0 course. I learned a wealth of information that I hope to use forever in my profession--if ever I land as a librarian somewhere on this planet.

Week 7: Podcasting and Online Hosted Video

MLA Web 2.0 class participants became familiar with podcasting directory sites such as podcast.net and Podcast Alley. Then we viewed some podcasts on health science library web sites, and created an Odea account, searching for results on healthcare and other topics of interest.

Finally we searched YouTube for examples of how libraries use YouTube as a web 2.0 tool.

Weill Cornell Medical Library, for example, created several videos on YouTube for different purposes. I thought this was very interesting and creative.

For instance, their "New Hold Service 2" video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUmfI4cqtPs introduces students and faculty to a new service of the library.

A second video " Party Invite" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEEbdPGsjrE, created by Weill Cornell Medical Library, is a very funny party invitation for library staff and the medical college community.

The third video " Stat! Ref " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8Omc2yMIbw posted on YouTube by this library is used to promote the database to its library users.

Another clever video is called "multitasker" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbdGGtRez44 , which is directed toward medical students, who may need assistance finding resources, creating citations, etc, and reminding them to ask library staff.

Here's the "Faculty of 1000 Promotion" video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hst7n6p9iKA and the National Medical Librarian Month video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wib7bes4fSs.

To summarize: Podcasting can be used as a tool by libraries to publicize events, to send invitations to others in the organization; to disseminate news about the library and parent organization ; to advertise new library services and acquisitions such as new databases and other reources; to remind library users how and who to ask for assistance; to teach library users new information by creating podcasts of tutorials, lectures, presentations, technical surgical techniques and much more.

Week 6: Online Photo Sharing

This week MLA Web 2.0 class participants created an account on Flickr and shared a few of their favorite photos with their librarian colleagues on Facebook. Here are a few of my favorite photos of wild animals. Please see link: http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=16678672068&view=user . I especially like the photo of the chimpanzee with the "Jimmy Carter" smile.Photo sharing can have many applications in a library setting. For example, if a public library were to have a photography contest as an activity for Adult Services and/or for children, online photo sharing is a useful tool for creating a gallery of the contestants' photographs.Academic and special libraries can find some creative applications for using online photo sharing tools. For example in academic libraries, students using their college libraries would probably enjoy sharing project-related photos with classmates, their professors and perhaps even their librarians via flickr and facebook. Academic libraries have already been facilitating these initiatives via the library home page.

Week 5: Web Office Tools

Web Office Tools Software products such as Google DOCS and others offer librarians and other very busy professionals a one-stop shopping experience at the workplace. Web Office Tools seemingly can do it all: create, edit, share, publish documents and presentations and more. Just like the Internet, ipods, iphones, blogs, wikis and social networking tools, we can't live without web office tools. The more we have to make our social and professional lives more manageable, the more useful tools we discover in the future. With web office tools, collaboration with colleagues is a snap.I tried the optional assignment: created this blog posting as a GOOGLE DOCS document; then I published this posting and posted it to this blog from the GOOGLE DOCS site. This is cool.
Labels: Google Docs, web office tools
draft
4/7/08
by unconventional librarian

Week 4: Social Bookmarking

During this week of MLA web 2.0, class participants explored a few social reference management tools such as CiteUlike and Connotea, currently being used by librarians. We also looked at the del.icio.us pages of SJLibraryLearning2, created for the San Jose Public Library's Learning Web 2.0 program, as a model of the full potential and versatility of del.icio.us as a social bookmarking tool.

I created a del.icio.us account and bookmarked several of my favorite web sites.
Several people bookmarked our MLA web 2.0 class blog.


I'm a new user of del.icio.us, who is enchanted by the

broad potential utilities of this social bookmarking tool.

The possibilities are boundless.

Week 3: Social Networking Tools

This week I thoroughly enjoyed exploring several features of Facebook. I created an account, used the Friends menu to locate other librarians and wrote messages to them. Also I browsed more applications of Facebook such as Events and library catalogs such as UAB Catalog, PubMed and WorldCat. I added these applications to my Facebook profile.

Participants of the MLA Web 2.0 class also created an account in Linkedin, we joined Linkedin, set our preferences and used the Added Connections feature. Then we viewed examples of libraries that have MySpace sites.

My experience with a few of these social networking tools was enlightening and very positive. As I'm learning more about these tools, I'm discovering the versatility of applying these tools.

I can definitely see many of the benefits that MLA and other professional organizations can harness by utilizing social networking tools. For example MLA can post announcments and events; members can RSVP to events on Facebook and other members can view everyone else's response.

If someone needs reference assistance, in a few moments literature searches can be performed by using WorldCat, UAB Catalog, PubMed and other applications that may be added to one's Facebook profile.

Of course, there are some privacy issues when using social networking tools but I feel that the benefits of using these tools exceed the privacy concerns.

Bravo to all of our Web 2.0 instructors.

Week 2: Wikis

During this week, class participants had an interesting discussion about blogs vs wikis, which took place on the MLA Learning 2.0 CE Course Blog http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce/?p=15#comments.

Here's the link to the discovery exercises/assignments for Week 2: Wikis
http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce/?p=8

Class participants each created a wiki, and my wiki is called NSMC Health Sciences Library Wiki: http://nsmchealthscienceslibwiki.wetpaint.com/?t=anon&t=anon . As the weeks proceed and we build on our skills, my wiki will grow. So far I created some images of medical books that could be useful in displaying new acquisitions in a library.

This week, as one of our assignments, we were to add blog rolls to our blogs, which I did successfully. Please see the two blog rolls: MLA Web 2.0 101 Blogs and MLA Web 2.0 101 Wiki listed on my blog: http://unconventionalmlibrarian.blogspot.com/

Week 1: Blogging and RSS Feeds

During this first week long session of our Medical Library Association Web 2.0: Second Generation Web Tools course http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce/, participants learned the benefits of blogging and RSS feeds. The Discovery exercises/assignments for week one are listed on our class web page: http://sns.mlanet.org/snsce/?p=4 .
Each of us created a blog and set up subscriptions of RSS feeds from web sites of our own choice.
I created a blog called Unconventional MLibrarian and here's the link: http://unconventionalmlibrarian.blogspot.com/ . I enjoy watching my blog evolve each day, and now I realize how addictive the act of blogging can become.

I also set up some subscriptions to RSS feeds, which I thought would be interesting to health sciences librarians. Here are a few RSS Feeds I subscribe to:

• BLACKWELL SYNERGY: Obesity Reviews: Table of Contentshttp://www.blackwell-synergy.com/action/showFeed?ui=0&mi=m0vym&ai=ym&jc=obr&type=etoc&feed=rss
• CDC Emergency Preparedness & Response: News & Announcements http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/createrss.asp?c=135
• CDC En Espanol http://www2a.cdc.gov/podcasts/createrss.asp?c=151
• CDC HIV/AIDS Preventionhttp://www.cdc.gov/hiv/rss/hiv.xml
• PUBMED Search for 'autism" http://eutils.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/eutils/erss.cgi?rss_guid=0pl7xcKL0j7cYwBuwG_vNl60kE6oW00xYp63PxIfsRt

After this week of intense hands-on learning about Web 2.0 technologies, I feel very comfortable and confident that I can embrace any blogging challenge and create blogs for all types of libraries as one main responsibility of my reference librarian role.