Poke, Poke, You Owe Me A Coke (diet, that is)

I am on Facebook though it is not my first foray into joining a social networking site. You are welcome to poke me if you'd like (and no, you do not have to owe me a diet coke for me to be your friend but you do have to know my "real" name)! I think the first social networking site I ever joined was probably friendster about 5 or 6 years ago. But, lacking very many "real" friends, I grew bored quickly and ceased to check my account. I moved on to myspace a few years later and found more "real" friends, renewing some fun connections to people I knew back in elementary, middle, and high school. Myspace was fun for me...at least at first. Customizing my page with layouts in fun colors, themes, and photos and checking in to see what friends old and new had been up to and were doing with their pages was the most enjoyable aspect. However, the novelty soon wore off and my checking in and updating my account there soon dwindled. Now I probably log in once a week to check out anything new my friends have posted or changed their status to. The strangest thing for me about social networking sites are all of the requests to be "friends" with people who I do not know in real life or have any commonalities with.

At one point I was friends with a number of different libraries and library systems on myspace. I was curious how these libraries/systems were planning to connect with me and keep me interested in being their friend. With the exception of one library organization, these libraries didn't do anything to connect with me beyond our initial friend-making. I was hoping for blog posts, messages, status indicator updates, or bulletins. Anything that would draw me into looking at the library's page again or inform me of what the library was up to. That simply did not happen, though I did recieve lots of requests from authors wishing to be my friend. My feelings now after about a year of hearing mostly only silence from all my library "friends" is that if a library, library system, or organization chooses to create a myspace presence, they should commit the staff and time to keep thier friends' interest and get their message out through regular posts, bulletins, etc.

I do think it would be fun (and popular!) to offer a teen program at the library with the wireless lab to show off ways teens can "pimp" their myspace pages. One could even throw in some education about online safety/privacy once there is a captive audience. I know I've heard of other libraries doing such programming and it being very successful. What about you, readers, have you tried any programs like this?

I <3 IM

Welcome back, fellow Project Players! I'm excited to embark on a new semester of learning about all kinds of fun 2.0 tools and resources. I'm beginning semester 2 with a warm cup of hot cocoa (with mini marshmallows, of course) rather than my usual Diet Coke being that it is late evening and I don't want to be awake ALL night.

I first began IM-ing with my sisters when we all spread out across the world during our college years. IM was a great way to keep in touch - mostly because it is FREE - and the three of us could set dates to "chat" together. I soon added friends near and far to my buddy list and could happily chat away during the long, cold Wisconsin winters while watching a movie or baking cookies. I've never been a good "phone person" and have not had a landline phone in probably 5 years or so. IM (and txt) offers the perfect alternative and even works despite having no bars on your cell phone (no, most people cannot hear me now from inside my house!) I still find it a tad strange to chat with friends that live a mere 5 or 6 blocks away... but then again, in negative degree weather, it sure beats walking down the block!

Internal IMing at my library was a precursor to offering IM reference. Many staff set up IM accounts using yahoo and meebo and *try* to remember to login when they are at a single computer station for a set amount of time. This is yet another way for us to communicate with one another and ask quick questions - especially since our service desks and offices are spread out over multiple floors. If you'd like to be my buddy, my screen name is stojaime (AIM & Yahoo). I am usually good about logging in when I am staffing the Reference Desk. You should see me online about 30 or so hours each week. As you can see on the side column of my blog, I have a meebome widget so you can also IM me even if we're not buddies.

My library began offering IM reference service for patrons during set hours about a year ago. We have accounts set up in all of the major IM services and we aggregate them though Meebo. Our official hours are Mon-Thurs from 6-8 pm and the service is staffed by the one person on duty at the Adult Services/Reference desk. So far, traffic has been fairly low. Then again, we have not done a lot of PR. We have some flyers and table tents in the library on the tables where our wireless is strongest. We also have some business cards advertising the service that I've handed out to teens during programs. We have the meebo widget on our website and we add our screen name to lots of pr so patrons can add us as buddies. If you'd like to be our buddy, our screen name is askstoref. In the future, I'd like to expand this service with more hours and lots more PR, especially to the middle and high schools. The one challenge with expanding the service and more PR is how to staff it and keep up with questions coming from patrons expecting a speedy reply while also being the one person staffing a reference desk and handing all in person, phone, and email questions. I think our first step at having a few set hours is a great way to get our feet wet and see what works for us.

By the way, for SCLS people out there reading this, your MeeboMe widget may or may not work on a LINK computer! So, you may or may not be able to IM me via my widget, nor will you be able to test if yours is working correctly, depending on what version of flash is installed on your PC (or unless you use a non-LINK computer station).

My Dog is Licking My Laptop!

Seriously...I had to wrestle for a space to see the screen. I think she was also getting lost in adding restaurant and market links to my del.icio.us account. Here's a sloganizer for you faithful readers,

Del.icio.us has gone to the dogs

Reflecting on the semester, my latest questions are thus:

1. What is the correct format for editing and changing blog posts? Is it okay for one to simply edit and republish? Or is one supposed to use a strikethrough for edited areas and add in new info in italics or something of the sort? Is there some sort of blogiquette I should be aware of?

2. How does a semester 1 participant register for Project Play semester 2? Or are we automatically registered simply by finishing? Will there be a registration limitation and thus I should be noting the start time and date on my google calendar?

3. How many diet cokes did you enjoy during our first semester? I lost count!

Thank Goodness for the Diet Coke!

Phew! Thanks for the great tip of grabbing a Diet Coke before beginning lesson #2 of Project Play so I was good and caffinated as I read through all of the links. Similar to another Project Play participant Pinky, I am not completely new to blogging. I have a rarely updated personal blog and I am a participant in an internal library staff blog; however, reading the article Why and How to Use Blogs to Promote Your Library's Services has got me thinking about if and when my library might want to begin an external library blog. After reading David Lee King's article about the Library 2.0 Ripples, I would place my library at about a 3.5-4. That tells me that my library might be ready sooner than later to take the public blog challenge. I'm looking forward to discussing ideas about our target audience and blog content with other Project Play-ers and staff at my library. I can really see potential in a blog for the young adult crowd - promoting library programs, services, and the SLP. Madison Public Library's Teen Topix blog is a great inspiration and I learned a lot from blogging this summer at the SCLS Teen Read Blog.

Now, I think I might just be ready for a second Diet Coke.