Can I Google a reference librarian? (MToaS34)

I've been thinking a lot about this issue lately, and not just because of MToaS prompting. Is the function of reference librarians, or at least staff who sit at the reference desk, still relevant? My immediate answer is, "Of course!" But then I have to add, "Just maybe not in the same way we/they used to be."

I've been trying to keep track of the questions that I get asked that could be called "reference." Of course there is the annual inundation of third-graders looking for books on Beethoven. I don't know why the teacher doesn't say, "pick a famous person," or "pick a famous composer." Nope. The whole class does the same subject and my two juvenile biographies and the one circulating "B" encyclopedia get checked out right away, and every

one else needs to put something on hold. This happens every year.

And there are have been patrons who've asked for books about grieving, building bird houses, making good bread, buying a used car. 

But none of these questions take more than a moment to answer. They don't cause me to flex my "reference muscles." (One question, at the SCPL reference desk did, and that was about US troop levels abroad) The questions that make me feel like I'm really stretching are all on technology. Specifically, Web 2.0 technology.

 What is Twitter?

Is Twitter the same as instant messaging?

Is is safe to be "friends" (on a social networking site) with someone you don't know?

How do I get this picture of me from my cell phone onto Yahoo personals?

How do I know which web sites are secure?

I know I'm not the only one who gets questions like these. Yes, lots of our patrons can ~ and do! ~ bypass us and turn to the Internet for answers to their questions. But there are many left on the sidelines, watching this social and technological sea-change occur and feeling more and more stranded. Before we start bemoaning our presumed obsolescence we should take a moment to contemplate how these neighbors and patrons are feeling. And then get busy learning and teaching.

I was talking the other day with some other staff people about the difficulty of getting more people involved with 23 Things, or More Things. I know it takes time. I know life gets in the way of this online studying. I understand that for some people, the blogging aspect is hugely intimidating. In spite of all this, I think we need to keep urging our fellow library staff ~ at all levels ~ to learn about and grow more comfortable with web technologies. 

In an age when many of our patrons can google their questions, and will turn to wikipedia for answers, we need to stay cognizant of the disparity in our communities between the web-proficient and the patrons who picture only a rodent when you say the word "mouse." Our jobs are no less relevant today than they were before Google. They've just changed a bit here and there, and we need to keep up. 

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Pic credits: "Twitter Logo Map 09",  www.flickr.com/photos/82298325@N00/3346248321. and "Questions Answered" at www.flickr.com/photos/45082883@N00/223839049

Facebook and Privacy: what to make of it?

Post-Note: 3/2/09. I've heard that the new TOS's have been changed/removed.

I have some friends who keep talking up Facebook with me. The biggest reason for some is the increased ability (vs. Myspace) to enact privacy filters to control who can or cannot access one's account information. 

Facebook is making a splash about this, using sparklines to help users set the exact privacy level they require. A brief article on Mashable gives more detail. 

However, this 2/16/09 Mashable article brings some scary news. Facebook has changed its Terms of Service (TOS) so that now everything you ever write, upload, comment on, etc. belongs to Facebook in perpetuity, regardless of whether you leave Facebook at a later date.

That means words, pictures... whatever.

It's a little unnerving to think that while millions of people are using Facebook to connect with old friends, Facebook is taking ownership of their every word, photo or suggestion for improvement. The TOS are new, and retroactive.

It's not that I think that Facebook is part of some nefarious plot to undermine copyright and artistic control. No, it's not like that at all. It's simply that I think the Internet and social networks are pushing copyright and ownership issues so far past our laws that we are entering a land of remarkable unknowns. There are nothing but questions here... and, of course, lawyers.

Pic Info: "Facebook Knows What You Did Last Summer," From Flickr CC

MToaS 26: Ning-ing-a-ling

Okay, here it is: I will try the Ning thing again. I can see the appeal of a social network created around a specific subject area. In fact, that's far more appealing to me than the broad-brush strokes of Myspace or Facebook.

One thing that is frustrating to me is trying to figure out who else on the 23 Things Ning is a GRRL member... not that I can't chat with other folks, but I'd like to know who else from Great River is active in the 23 Things loop. So many of us, however, are afraid to put real details on our profiles. We use nicknames or share no more than that we're from "Minnesota." I am as guilty of this as anyone else. For my picture, I used one of my cat. This will only help someone figure out who I am if they've had the privilege of meeting our "official greeter" Rosie. And, if they've gotten that close, they've probably already heard me chatter excitedly and incessantly about cool Web 2.0 things like GoogleDocs, PBWiki and WhenIsGood.

So... I dutifully added a couple of messages and sent one and updated a picture and other things on my profile. 

I think it is good to have the Ning be at the top of the list rather than at the end (not that we can't shuffle). I'm hoping that as the MoreThings group continues it will be used more, and therefore more worth the time to use...

Thing 21: Beyond MySpace

This is what I really like about the concept of social networking sites. The Internet makes the world seem both smaller and larger: you can be a lonely geek in your little corner of the world, but via the Internet, find a whole bunch of similarly geeky folk to share with. That's an amazing thing, and very exciting. It takes the old idea of pen-pals and makes it much more immediate and exciting. You find others like yourself and discover the extraordinary breadth and diversity of people, places, cultures... that's so very cool.

I liked the look of Gather and Ning, and I also wandered around Bake Space for a while. I also played with google briefly and found Schmooze, a Jewish social network; Citizen Scientist for the layperson with a lot of curiosity, Maccaca, an online Digital Museum of Art for artists, and so much more.

So yes, I'll spend more time looking through these sites. I'd also like to find a way to let patrons know about these sites -- it seems that MySpace and Facebook get all the press, but they are so oppressively glitzy and teen oriented. It's nice to know that there are options for people who don't want that.

One note: I was watching a little bit of snowboarding on television yesterday, and between runs they were interviewing a couple of the "star" snowboarders. The interviews were not what I would have expected, instead they were right out of the MySpace "Coke or Pepsi?" survey. Sort of a media mashup. But it's alright for snowboarding, I guess, though I will be really scared if interviews start looking like this on the nightly news.

Thing 11 -- Delicious

Onto another thing which, like so many other things, has led me on to so many other things that I could easily fiddle my day away at the keyboard and accomplish not one single thing on my list of many things to do on this absurdly cold Friday.

Okay, is anyone else out there COMPLETELY SICK OF WINTER YET? It is March 6, and this morning IT WAS 18 DEGREES BELOW ZERO... STANDING TEMPERATURE.

Sorry. Please forgive the shrieking. I'm just do damn sick of winter I can hardly focus on anything else. At the library we put up tropical decorations to try to take our minds off of the weather. Patrons get a laugh out of it, in between grumbles. We did this a couple of weeks ago, thinking it would be warmer by now. Now, we're cold and starting to get weary of the hula-skirt look. These things shouldn't happen.

So, anyway, back to Delicious. I like the idea of it, and am eager to spend more time getting comfortable with it. There have been many times that I've been either at home or work and wanted to get to a page that I had bookmarked on my computer at the other place. Delicious can help with that.

While putzing around Delicous I found a blog called "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies," by Charlene Li and Jeff Bernoff. Their post for the day is called, "The Future of Social Networks: Social Networks will be like air." In other words, ubiquitous, and if we find ourselves without them for any amount of time we'll start gasping and feeling freakishly anxious. (Okay, I'm paraphrasing.)

Although I haven't a clue who Charlene Li is or whether she is someone I ought to be paying attention to, it does seem like a noteworthy article on a few points. Li suggests that five to ten years from now, "[W]e will look back to 2008 and think it archaic and quaint that we had to go to a destination like Facebook or LinkedIn to 'be social'."

Fortunately, Li does point out that the technology needs to be ubiquitous. Like phone service, Internet service must be available everywhere. However, when will Internet access be as easily affordable as a telephone? I've yet to find an article that addresses this. Yes, just about anyone can purchase a phone, thanks to Walmartization (don't get me started). How long will it take for that to be translated to the Internet?

This also makes me think of an article I read a couple of weeks ago from Multi Channel news. The article, "Cable 3.0 Is Aiming to Co-Opt Web 2.0," speaks to emerging cable technologies that will bring social networking to our television sets. In this future, "a 'My TV' personalized screen... [will] combine a list of someone's favorite movies and TV channels with recommendations on videos to watch from friends and Internet content-like video blogs."

And right below this article, another one titled "Advanced Ads on Tap," telling us that "Google wants to take the ad-targeting capability that powers Internet ads and marry it with the 'emotion' provided by television advertising." It's coming soon, as some companies are "already selling interactive overlay ads to let viewers request more information from a sponsor."

Oh brave new world...