Tagging

Tagging can be helpful on sites. I thought it was a little confusing at first, but I think I'm getting the hang of it now. I would definitely use them for pictures or even books I was reading. I'm definitely going to have to play around with tagging more, but I can see a use for it with libraries and the catalogue.

IMS

I've used communicator to im other staff members. I also like to put my schedule on the communicator, since it varies frequently. I don't use the service a lot since most people still use email more or even the phone. I do like it, because I can see it pop up without it stopping what I was working on at that moment. I can either join in the conversation or I can see that it might not apply to me and ignore the message. I can definitely see using the service for staff or even customers in the future. IMs might be a great tool when we have branches and as more people become comfortable in using them.

Digg

Digg and Public libraries are similar in the way they are customer driven. Customers are going to request what they like and not what we think should be in the library. I thought Digg was very similar in that regard. We are just as driven by our demographics as Digg is. I'm not sure if people think of public libraries any differently then they did before. On what qualifies as news has always, in my opinion, been generated by what public opinion has wanted to know about. I might think something is not news worthy, but if a large mass of people feels it is, that's what people are going to want to know about. I find it all kind of in a grey area. Things like digg and diggita can be useful that you can weed out what you want to know about it, but I'm not sure I want to get my information that way.

photo sharing

I can see how photo sharing websites could be interesting to libraries. I did like how one of the libraries that used Flicker had photo contests for patrons. I thought that would be nice to have on our website maybe. We could also do some photo contests ex. would be maybe voting on your favorite photo. We could even do themes maybe to get people interested in sharing their favorite things that tied in with the library. I signed up with snapfish and thought it was pretty easy to use.