Credible Search Engines & Readers

Yesterday I enjoyed a look at the Sony Reader. I'm actually quite favourably impressed with the readability on screen, although I confess that I feel as if it needs a bit of the iPhone - the ability to just run one's finger across the screen to turn the page rather than to press a button. I suppose that's something for future generations of the reader to have.

I was thinking about this in terms of storage, and thought that someday perhaps I will get to the point where a reader such as the Sony Reader or Amazon's Kindle will do for my book collection what MP3's have done for my music collection. I think I will always want some books - particularly those with heavy photographic content, children's picture books, coffee table books, and even some of the classics - but for those books I just want to pick up and read but not necessarily read again? I could see the Kindle or the Sony Reader being quite useful in that regard.

I also find the idea behind this credible search engine to be fascinating and potentially very helpful. I think it'll be good to keep an eye on this project and see how it works out.

The Reality of Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is not about widgets, mash-ups, or media. It's not Meebo chat widgets, flickr photos on maps, or youtube videos embedded within a static web page. It's about people creating content to share with other people. It's about taking the power of creating content in the hands of users. It streamlines information sharing.

I hadn't actually considered this to be a radical concept until recently. From the time I joined LiveJournal in 2001 I have played with aspects of Web 2.0. To date, I've posted youtube videos, use delicious links regularly, play with lists in worldcat.org, catalog my books in library thing, and keep in touch with my high school friends and my family through facebook. I never ask a computer administrator for assistance in sharing my information. I learned HTML and CSS and can create my own website from scratch if necessary, but these days although I find the skill useful it's not so necessary.

So what does that mean for my students? Freedom. I'm no longer tied to system approved software and web pages. I ask what the task I want to do is, and then I find the tool to do this on the web. And where it might take days to go through IT, it will take me anywhere from moments to hours for me to do it myself. And that's the true beauty of Web 2.0.

New Resources!

Things that tend to get me very excited about being a librarian: shiny new resources. Or just things I didn't know existed prior to browsing through some catalog or review in literature.

For instance I'm finally taking the time this morning to go through the Library Journal supplement Reference 2009, and stumbled across Social & Cultural History: Letters and Diaries online. Of course cost is always a factor with many shiny new resources, but I think about all of the students that need primary resources at the reference desk, and I am now aware of one more tool that could be potentially purchased to help them.

And that's always a fun feeling.