Thing 12 - Do you Digg?

Evidently people have nothing better to do than spend all day on the computer looking for stories, videos, podcasts, etc. to share with other people. I definitely think this is a productivity detractor. Add a few graphics and what you basically have are "ads" or "commercials" on the Internet that someone wants you to take the time to look at.

I myself am always "tempted" to click on the link "giant beetle found in McDonald's hamburger" when I log on to AOL. These are all like tabloid tidbits trying to grab your attention. There will always be something to entice the user to click on the link.

I don't see any use for these sites for public libraries from my point of view. But if someone finds them worthy, I'd be willing to listen.

Thing 11 - Tagging and Del.icio.us

I have lots of experience tagging in Flickr and tagging in del.icio.us is pretty much the same thing. I think del.icio.us would be great when you are doing a research paper, planning a vacation, even putting together a presentation.

I love the idea that you can have access to the site from any computer - that's a big plus!
I'm not sure how the public library would use it other than internally. I don't quite see the connection with del.icio.us and the patrons we serve, however.

Thing 10 - Wikis

Wiki's are still a hard concept for me to wrap my mind around. I have a hard time with something that anyone can go into and change. If a library was going to start their own wiki, I would want to make sure that there were controls on who could edit and to make sure someone was checking the validity of the edits.

I think it is a good idea that many teachers have banned the use of wikis for research. Although I'm sure not all wikis are the same, how could a student distinguish between a "good" and "bad" wiki with valid information or invalid information.

Thing 9. Online Collaboration Tools

Google Docs sounds like a great tool. I, however, use MS publisher quite frequently and even have some old Microsoft Works documents on my computer at home. I was disappointed that I could not upload those files on Google Docs. It would be wonderful to work on my MS Publisher files from any computer at anytime.