Everybody's doing it, doing it, doing it....

Once you get something on your radar screen, you begin to see it everywhere. Last night reading the April Quill & Quire I saw an ad for their blog: www.quillblog.com. They promise "now with RSS" but it doesn't seem to be working yet. I added the blog to my Favouites and will add the RSS (when it's up and running) to my feeds. Have a look. It's neat. They use Flickre for photos too.

Wikis

I have a reference librarian's natural suspicion of information that is not "authoritative" - written by someone with a degree after their name, an "expert" on the subject, in a respectd and reviewed reference book from a reputable publihser. Wikipedia and the like have challenged me to rethink this. There has been various studies, some showing that the information in wikis is more accurate, others that it is less accurate, others that it is about the same. In the March 15 Library Journal, Eli Guinnee (Editor in Chief Library Student Journal) is quoted as saying, "An inaccuracy in Britannica is (mis) taken as fact, an inaccuracy in Wikipedia is taken with a grain of salt, easily confirmed or proved wrong. In the end, the question is not whether wisdon from the masses contains more factual errors, the questions is whether that wisdom is more useful, more effiecient. And, I think, the answer is 'yes'."

Coming Soon to a Woods near You

I downloaded a photo from our collection. I'll see if Flickr has as good an image as this.

Watching the Web Article

One of the most interesting things to me in the Economist article on Tim Berners-Lee and the development of the Web was the reminder - and this is something I've been reminding myself and others about too - that the original version of the Web was that it was a two way medium, a way for scientists at universities around the world to exchange information. Then business discovered the Web and, as the article points, Web publishing tools failed to keep up with Web browsers in ease of use. So this "new" Web 2.0 is not so new after all. Web publisihing tools have evolved in amazing directions - some of which we're exploring in our 23 Things.

My First Blog

I'm blogging from Fiveoaks (the unofficial name of our log house in the woods) on a Sunday morning in early spring - so early in fact that the woods are still deep in snow. But at least the sun is out, water drips from the roof and there is a promise of warmer days and wildflowers in bloom.

Blogging is something I didn't think I particularly wanted to do but who knows, I'm a writer, so once I get started I may become a committed blogger.

I'm going to work through the 23 things, keeping in mind how our branch staff would be able to manage if we decide to make this a staff learning experience. Creating a blog was a little trickier than I thought it would be, but here I am. I think many of our staff would have some trouble.

I'll add posts as I continue on this Web2 learning adventure.