Thing #14

Life has been very busy at the CSM Library with the end of the semester encroaching, and I'm still learning all about the resources and services here. But luckily, I have a bit of time to get through these exercises and am now on thing 14. Hello Technorati and all things tagging! I admit that the Technorati site is a bit confusing at first, and I am more on the tech savvy side, but if you do enough poking around it starts to make a little more sense. The main reason for the confusion is that their information isn't organized in an understandable way, and there seems to be redundancy in their presentation. However, I did find a few good uses for technorati, namely in the watchlist feature which collects blogs for me to read based on tags that I submit. I also like the ability to optimize my blog's findability using their tags. I don't know if the tagging works yet, but I will be checking in on that in a few days. I just checked my ranking at Technorati and I come in at 2,575,047. I better work on that. ;)

As for tags, I like 'em because it allows users to think in their own vocabulary. Being a librarian, I understand the value of using subject headings to find information. You will see a little later how LibraryThing allows a marriage of both worlds in the case of the SFSU library catalog.

Oh, now on to the lovely world of social bookmarking. This is something that works well for me since I work from several different computers. Also, besides helping me to organize all the information that I find out on the web, it's a good way for me to take a look at what my friends or other people with my same interests (and same tags) have found. You can find my bookmarks at: http://delicious.com/csm_web_librarian. Again, you see the themes of things that I am into....crafting, knitting, web design, art, books, and Technology. Oh, how I adore technology.

I think this is a great tool for research, particularly on the reference desk, and a great way to organize topics. I was pleased to see that when I started at the CSM Library, the librarians here had already compiled a great collection of links. This exercise gave me the opportunity to take a deeper look at the library's bookmarks. Thing #13.....check.

I have now arrived at Thing #12 which means that I am more than half-way there. This item brings up the possibilities of creating your own search tool, and this topic interests me greatly as a web designer and as a librarian. In the past I have used the Google Custom Search engine application to create a customized search for various websites that I have developed. This application allows you to set it to search many sites, or just one site. Google also makes it really simple to generate gadget code to insert a search bar right into your site. So, when I saw that the CSM Learning 2.0 project discusses Rollyo, I decided to compare it to Google's search app. I am interested in DIY and crafting, so I created a mini search engine on that topic using both of these applications. You can search via gadgets below.

Select...DIYSearch The Web

I tried them both but liked the fact that the ads (ironically) are less obtrusive in the Google search option. Also, in case you didn't know, if you use the Google gadget on a non-profit or educational site, you can have an ad-free version. Rollyo does score some points for having a "Rollbar" which can be popped right into your bookmark bar, but I'd say that Google wins just for sheer ease of use, and for keeping the ads separate from the results.

Either way, these tools are great for educators to create web subject guides for their students. It's also a great way to organize information. These applications allow users to move beyond bookmarking, and search quickly across a number of similar sites. This is a great area to explore for use in and outside the classroom.

Thing #12.....check.