Thing #11 Wikis

So, what's a wiki?

A wiki is a collaborative website and authoring tool that allows users to easily add, remove and edit content. Wikipedia, the online open-community encyclopedia, is the largest and perhaps the most well known of these knowledge sharing tools. With the benefits that wikis provide, the use and popularity of these tools is exploding.

Anyone (registered or unregistered, if unrestricted) can add, edit or delete content. Tracking tools within wikis allow you to easily keep up on what has been changed and by whom. Earlier versions of a page can be viewed and reinstated when needed. Users do not need to know HTML in order to apply styles to text or add and edit content. In most cases, simple syntax structure is used.

As the use of wikis has grown over the last few years, libraries all over the country have begun to use them to collaborate and share knowledge. Among their applications are subject guide wikis, book review wikis, ALA conference wikis, and even library best practices wikis.

Discovery Resources:

Use these resources to learn more about wikis:

• Watch the TeacherTube video from Common Craft:

• What is a Wiki? – Library Success wiki presentation
• Using Wikis to Create Online Communities – a good overview of what a wiki is and how it can be used in libraries.

Discovery Exercise:

So what is in a wiki? For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at some wikis and blog about your findings. Here are a few library-related examples to investigate, but feel free to search for others that interest you as well:

• SJCPL Subject Guides – a pathfinder wiki developed by the St. Joseph County Public Library system
• The Albany County Public Library Staff wiki – an example of a wiki created for library staff to document procedures
• Book Lovers Wiki - developed by the Princeton Public Library
• Library Bloggers Wiki
• Library Success: A best practices wiki
• Colorado Learning 2.0 – an example of a wiki created to support a specific event
• Explore the Wikipedia article: Wikipedia. Examine the history, reliability, the sections, and structure of the Wikipedia articles. Blog about your view of Wikipedia.

Homework Activity:

• Practice in the Sandbox section of the Media Clerks Manual Wiki. You can try your hand at adding different kinds of content. Don't worry, we can remove anything -- just practice and, as the name implies, play in the sandbox!
• Add to your assigned section of the Media Clerks Manual Wiki. This wiki will be used to develop a job manual of best practices for Media Clerks of the SVVSD. (This collaborative wiki will be presented as our final project for our PST credit). You will receive your invitation by email before class and we will draw for sections in class.
• Add to, or edit one of the other sections of the wiki.
• Remember, you can add links and support documents. Remember to cite your sources if you use outside information.
• Reflect about your findings about wikis in your blog. What did you find interesting about them? What applications within libraries might work well with a wiki? Is this something you may use personally?

Optional Exercise:

Now that you know what they are, create your own wiki, on any topic, using one of the following tools: (link your wiki to your blog)

• http://wikispaces.com/
• http://pbwiki.com/
• http://www.wetpaint.com/

Photo Attribution: http://flickr.com/photos/jaaronfarr/1056922912/

Thing # 10 -- Working with Photos

This week, we will learn to edit our photos to get them to a size, format, shape, or transition whereby it can be used for blogging, image generating, photosharing, or other online use. You may want or need to resize photos for use in brochures, documents, presentations, and other offline projects. These tools are perfect for editing your photos for every need. The tools we will explore are all online and either have a free version or have no limitations for use.

We have explored Flickr and have found that we can store, edit, catagorize, tag, search, and use photos from many different users. You can apply safety features or search for copyright-friendly images with a Creative Commons license. Read on to find out about more resources for editing your photos online.

Discovery Resources:

Stock.xchng and morgueFile are two sites where you can find a wide variety of stock photos where consent for public use has already been granted.

Here are some more photosharing sites if you want to keep exploring. These are broadly similar to Flickr, but each has its own individual twist and may better meet your needs:

• Eachday
• Fotki
• MyPhotoAlbum
• Photobucket
• Webshots

Discovery Activities:

For this hands-on activity, you will need to bring these items to class:

• your digital camera -- be sure to bring the appropriate USB cords, card readers, or other items needed to upload your photos (make sure they work on the Citrix environment) (or)
• a CD with your saved photos (or)
• a flashdrive with your saved photos (or)
• have your photos pre-loaded onto your Flickr account

Explore these online photo editing sites:

• Pixer
• Phixr
• Picnick
• Splashup
• fotoflexer
• PXN8
• Snipshot

Many of these sites give you the capability to morph, stretch, colorize, add text balloons, and create works of art with your photos.

Work with some of your photos and use one or two in your blog. You can save the edited image on your flashdrive, or upload it to your Flickr account -- then you can use it anytime, from any computer, and use it directly in your blog. Write a blog post for Thing #10 with your thoughts on the availability of online photo editors and how you might be able to use them in the library.

If you want more:

If you want more capabilities, try some of the open-source photo editing software now available. Full-capability photo editing software has been expensive to purchase; open-source choices now bring these capabilites to you at little or no cost -- yet give you full, robust editing capabilities once only found in retail programs. You may need to download software for these applications, but they may be a great option for your use at home. Explore some of the options:

• GIMP
• Picasa
• VicMan’s Photo Editor

Thing #9 Technology

Create a blog post about anything technology related. Yes, it can be anything that relates to technology! You just need to share a few thoughts, share some links, and post a photo for us to learn more about your topic. Talk about anything you think is relevant to this class or about using technology in the library. Here's your chance to really participate in the class and share with your colleagues.

Be sure to keep commenting on everyone's blogs. That's what online communities are all about - connecting and communication. CHEER and otherwise encourage your Library Learning 2.0 colleagues!

Remember to post your reflections on each new Thing each week so your classmates can comment, share, and learn.

Thing 8 -- Library Thing

Okay, librarians and book lovers, here's your new favorite tool! Do you like cataloging, organizing, exploring, and discussing books? Or do you enjoy finding lost and forgotten gems on the shelf to read? Then LibraryThing may be just the tool for you.

Developed for booklovers, this online tool not only allows you to easily create an online catalog of your own books, but it also connects you to other people who have similar libraries and reading tastes. Add a book to your catalog by just entering the title (or use the ISBN, LLC, or Author).

There are lots of ways to use LibraryThing. You can view your books on a virtual shelf, add a widget (see sidebar for sample) to display titles that are in your catalog, or install a LT Search box on your blog. So why not join the ranks and create your own library online. With over 353,743* registered members (BTW: LibraryThing also has group forum for librarians), over 23,548,895 cataloged books*, over 30,548,961 tags*, and 3,612,180 ratings*, you're bound to discover something new. A bibliophile's dream!
* As of the date of this post.

When you sign up for the free account, you can catalog up to 200 of your books, find other people who share your bookshelf, get suggested reads based on your bookshelf, and even go to the Unsuggester. This will give you books that you probably won't like based on your bookshelf.

Discovery Resources:

• About LibraryThing


• Library Thing tour


• LibraryThing blog (updates & news)

Discovery Activities:

• Explore LibraryThing and create a personal account.


• Add several of your books to your library.


• Blog about your findings; how can you use Library thing personally? ...in the library?


• Be sure to to link to your LibraryThing catalog!


• If you are up for the challenge, add a Library Thing chiclet (see the icon at the beginning of this post) or add the widget to your sidebar.

If you want more (very cool book-related tools):

• Shelfari - Shelfari is a social networking site for book lovers. Using Shelfari, you can create a personal shelf of your books, see what your friends are reading, get and give recommendations for what to read next, create book lists, and even share your opinion on a book with friends or the Shelfari community.


• Anobii - is a social networking site targeted to worldwide booklovers. The idea behind aNobii is simple: create an online platform for avid-readers to share reviews, recommendations, and most important of all, find other similar-taste booklovers.


• Gurulib - GuruLib is a free web service to organize your home library. Catalog your books, DVDs, music CDs, games and software online using a book shelf metaphor.


• Bookswellread - is designed for all readers in mind -- readers of all types of books, of all ages, interests and backgrounds. It's a place for you to keep an online book journal, learn about books and connect with a community of readers.

If you explored any of these social-networking book sites, tell us about it in your blog.

Thing 7 -- Tagging & Social Bookmarking

Tagging is an open and informal method of categorizing that allows users to associate keywords with online content (webpages, pictures & posts). Unlike library subject cataloging, which follows a strict set of guidelines (i.e.Library of Congress subject headings), tagging is completely unstructured and freeform, allowing users to create connections between data anyway they want.

In the past few weeks, we’ve already explored a few sites – Flicker and Technorati to name two --that allow users to take advantage of tagging. This week, as we explore tagging, we will also take a look at a popular social bookmarking site called Del.icio.us (typed in as http://del.icio.us/).

Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking manager which allows you to bookmark a web page and add tags to categorize your bookmarks. Many users find that the real power of Del.icio.us is in the social networking aspect, which allows you to see how other users have tagged similar links and also discover other websites that may be of interest to you. You can think of it as sharing another users filing cabinet, but with this powerful bookmarking tool each user's filing cabinet helps to build an expansive knowledge network. For this discovery exercise, you are asked to take a look at Del.icio.us and learn about this popular bookmarking tool.

Discovery Resources:

Watch this video Information R/evolution from Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at the Kansas State University and the students participating in his Digital Ethnography group. "This video explores the changes in the way we find, store, create, critique, and share information. This video was created as a conversation starter, and works especially well when brainstorming with people about the near future and the skills needed in order to harness, evaluate, and create information effectively."

Watch the Common Craft Video Social Bookmarking in Plain English:

Take a look around Del.icio.us using the MediaClerks account that was created for the Media Clerks Forum and this class.

Note: In this account you will find lots of resources that have been highlighted or used throughout the course of the Learning 2.0 program.

Explore the site options and try clicking on a bookmark that has also been bookmarked by a lot of other users. Can you see the comments they added about this bookmark or the tags that they used to categorize this reference?

Discovery Activities:

• Create a Del.icio.us account for yourself and discover how this useful bookmarking tool can replace your traditional browser bookmark list. Add some booksmarks and try tagging them for easy indexing -- add an explanation to your entry so you will know what the site is about. Explore some of the tools available for Del.icio.us -- try adding a network badge to your blog.

• Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about this tool. What kind of potential do you think this tool has? How could you use this in your own personal productivity? Could this be used in the library?

• Remember to keep commenting on your classmates blogs, pick up ideas, and share ideas.

If you want more:

Check out thise other social bookmarking sites:

• StumbleUpon.com - Lets you “channel surf” the Internet and review sites; it learns what you like and recommends more of the same.
• Ma.gnolia.com - Discuss all the saved bookmarks in groups, see what the Featured Linker is all about, join discussions in the Hot Group.
• Furl.net - Not only can you do the standard bookmarking and sharing, you can save archived versions of a webpage and even export all your saved pages to a ZIP file.
• Digg.com - Synonymous with social bookmarking: you Digg a story, others Digg it, the more popular it gets the better chance it has of hitting the first page.