RSS in action:

The State Library of NSW has a page of RSS feeds to subscribe to. The feeds are concerned with communicating that new titles have been added to the collection, and are sorted by categories such as language, subject and format. Some of the languages mentioned would probably not be in circulation in local libraries (e.g. Tamil), so it would be beneficial to a local library service such as Newcastle Region library to subscribe to that RSS feed if their users were requesting Tamil language books for interlibrary loans. The Library also maintains an "About RSS feeds" which describes in simple terms how RSS works; this would be helpful for new users of RSS.


The University of Cambridge includes RSS in its Library toolbox; users can subscribe to feeds like "Any downtime we are planning", and a Library Widget which shows due dates for library loans in various calendars or in their RSS feed; it also includes instructions for each type of compatible calendar. 


From these two examples, there are many ways an RSS feed can help to meet the information needs of library users. The due dates RSS feed would be useful for traditional loans, by providing convenience to users by not needing to log on to the library's catalogue separately.


In searching for two examples, I went to the New York public library page, and while it maintains a presence on all the major social networking platforms, I could not find an RSS feed for them. I then went to the National Library of Australia's page (NLA) and also could not find an RSS feed. The NLA does have a published social media policy online though, which will be a useful resource later in this subject.

Delicious as a social bookmarking tool

 

I had a few problems with Delicious; it didn't send an email to verify my email address, so I was unable to "follow" the SISsocialmedia user page. I found the search functionality to be poorly structured, as the search returned bookmarks rather than user pages. Overall I would say it is not particularly user friendly for new users.


I then created a Diigo account instead. It installs a little button on your bookmark toolbar which is helpful, and then you select how you want to record web pages. I  can see how this would be a great resource to a large public library, where several librarians could share an account and record useful pages as they come across them. From a business perspective, it would depend on the organisation as to whether they would have a use for it. Larger companies tend to have intranets where the content is managed by a select group of people; smaller or more creative and less traditional organisations would have more potential use for bookmarking collaboration.

THINK:

What value does a user-generated folksonomy offer in comparison with a taxonomy designed by information professionals?

 

I would determine the biggest advantage of folksonomy to be its flexibility; as users are not confined to an established set of tags, they are able to quickly add any tags which they believe are relevant. This articlefrom D-Lib magazine provides a handy summary of the issues surrounding user-determined tags.

THINK:

...about how social media creates a new life for information

I can think of a few examples of this. Firstly, a mother's complaint to Target on Facebook was shared by an amazing amount of people (including someone I know) and made news headlines; a complaint which prior to social media, would probably have been ignored by Target or treated only superficially. I came across a website which lists a few more social media debacles. On the other hand, social media is doing amazing things like helping volunteer organisations to seek help fast - they can post a message and receive replies from multiple volunteers in a much shorter timeframe than ringing a list of people.   

 

                                        by Vincenzo Cosenza www.vincos.it

OLJ Post 1 

What is social networking?

 

I define social networking as people using a particular website/s to communicate and share online. It allows people to connect across great distances and the platform has the capacity to drive huge changes in society. The social networking phenomena has made it in to the Oxford dictionary, and as you would expect, Wikipedia provides a handy list of social networking sites and data on their usage. It's funny to think that I remember a time when we didn't have social networking, or the Internet as it is now - but my daughter will be raised in a different world.

                                               by Dave Fayram

Social networking sites I currently use

 

I use Facebook regularly, for personal use and for a small hobby business. Interestingly, it is entirely banned at my place of employment (non library related), though the Facebook page of my employer contains quite a lot of unanswered criticism! I do connect with work colleagues on Facebook though, and also with fellow CSU students that I met at residential school. 


I use Pinterest which is a great source of inspiration for crafty people (in the law abiding sense). I've never been a fan of Twitter, I find the concept a bit pointless. I was surprised at how few of the social networking sites listed on Wikipedia that I actually knew, and how few I use regularly.

Expected INF206 learning outcomes 

I am looking forward to discovering how library and information services worldwide are implementing a social networking presence, and how they prioritise which service to utilise. I will be specialising in the Information and Knowledge Management stream of this degree, so I anticipate I will need to address social networking in a professional capacity at some point in my career.