Online Organization Tools

Signing up for the RSS feeds was really easy because I already had a Google account. And it was fun to add a few things that will be fun to check up on. I will eventually add more as I think of things to add. I ended up signing up for LibraryThing because it seems like it has the most users, but I am going to look into Shelfari again because so many people seem to love it. As to signing up for either Delicious or Diigo, I had a hard time deciding. I like the look of Diigo better and was going to sign up for that, but didn't after all because I couldn't figure out how to do it without changing my toolbar. I am a creature of habit and didn't want to change it. I have a fear that changing something like that will mess up everything else. So I signed up for Delicious and only added a few bookmarks for now because I have a hard time sitting there and trying to figure out what to add. These tools are all very new to me and I have to admit, I still haven't quite figured out all these wonderful things I am supposed to be doing with them. I am not very good at the exploring part because I feel like I don't even know what to look for. I feel I do much better when someone sits with me and shows me exactly what I can do. But I guess I will eventually get better at exploring as I increase my knowledge of these tools.

Setting up a Wiki

Setting up a wiki was really quite easy. It was probably a little easier because I was familiar with the format from using a wiki in Barb's class last semester, but I think anyone could do it without too much help. I was proud of myself because I was even able to figure out how to do different pages. (Thank you, tutorials!) Anyway, after some consideration on what to make the wiki about, I decided on a wiki to help teachers at my school get information about the library. (I chose not to make one that students would use because after reading everyone's discussion posts, I can see that there are a lot of issues. My school is K-3 and I am only the assistant and don't feel ready to jump into something as big as a student wiki.)

My hope is that the wiki will be a place for teachers to turn to when they have questions about the library and no one is available to answer them. I feel that the majority of our teachers do not know the huge amount of resources that are available in our library and I want to change that. My plan is to add the basics of the library to the wiki, then share it with the head librarian and she can add to it in any way she feels would be helpful. Teachers could even add to it if there was something they wanted to share with other teachers, such as a great book they discovered that their students loved. I am excited about the wiki and I hope that the teachers will take the time to look at it and get something out of it.

Setting up a blog and Twitter

I didn't have to set up a blog for this class because I had already set one up for Barb's Children's Literature class last semester. Thanks, Barb, for letting me use the same one! From what I remember, setting it up was pretty easy, even for someone who has never had one. The only thing I found a little bit difficult was posting pictures, but I finally managed to figure that out.

Setting up a Twitter account was also pretty easy, though I haven't quite figured it all out yet, like, what exactly is the point?! But I am glad I have the account so I can see what everyone means when they talk about tweeting. I had an email today saying I had a new follower and it made me feel a little odd because I don't know who they are, but I'm just not used to connecting to people online that I don't know. I also don't know if I can erase the old tweets I receive. The only ones I signed up to follow so far are Penguin Books, The Library of Congress, Google, and 1 friend who is on Twitter. I don't really know how to contact or follow other people yet. I will have to fiddle with it some more.