For this thing, I watched this video, and then was asked to address the question: How has the Internet, and the vast resource it can be, affected your use of time at work and/or at home? Why are you participating in 23 Things program? What do you hope to learn?
Most of my time at work and at home is spent using the Internet. There are few other forms of media that have pervaded our society so quickly, but this one has taken over my life. I work three different jobs on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus, and regularly use the Internet and Web 2.0 tools to complete my job. I use Wikipedia and other online sources (such as Google Scholar) to clarify reference questions or citations that students or faculty ask me to find at my jobs at the Wisconsin Historical Society archives and at the Memorial Library information desk. I am currently engaged in a project trying to archive county government websites in Wisconsin using the Internet Archive's Archive-It tool--you can track our progress here. Its a difficult thing trying to catalog websites in a digital world--its important that we capture what was there for future generations, which is what our project is all about.
At home, a lot of my time is spent doing things online for my classes (half of which are held completely online this semester), and engaging in social networking on Facebook, Twitter, and reading what others have to say online through Google Reader. I also communicate with my family using instant messaging (through Google Chat, Skype, and Facebook Chat) and am able to keep in touch with my friends who don't live near me. All in all, I love all of the connectedness and possibilities available through Web 2.0 and am glad to be exploring all of these 23 Things with my classmates in my Reference class at UW-Madison. I also want to know what this wall of books is that Mr. Abram mentions in the video above.
What innovative things have you noticed libraries doing in the Web 2.0 environment? What more do you think libraries can do online to interact with patrons and make things easier for them? I'm always rambling on, I want to know what YOU think!
No comments:
Post a Comment