Reading for Week # 13

Reichardt, R., & Harder, G. (2005). Weblogs: their use and application in science and technology libraries.
Main points of this article are:
- All libraries grapple with the need to publicize their services to their patrons
- Marketing and outreach help determine who the library's audience is, what services to offer them, how to let them know that the services exist,
- This webliography collects examples of promotional materials, blogs, and library liaison programs to inspire creativity in marketing and outreach strategies for the scientific, technical and medical (STM) library.
- The purpose of the webliography is to provide examples of materials and approaches that are being used for marketing and outreach by libraries in general, and STM libraries in particular.


2) Charles Allan, "Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program: Sharing knowledge to better serve patrons"
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2007/apr/usingawiki.cfm

Main points of this article are:
- The multi-author, collaborative software known as a wiki, can be used by librarians to manage their work in library instruction programs
- A library instruction wiki can create better information sharing, facilitate collaboration in the creation of resources, and efficiently divide workloads among librarians.
- Library instruction wikis have two chief uses: the sharing of knowledge and the ability to cooperate in creating resources, such as informational handouts and guides.
- A library instruction program includes multiple librarians dealing with changing information and gaining independently held bits of knowledge
- Wikis are an excellent way to close these gaps and improve inefficiencies. Wikis are increasingly used to manage information in organizations, and libraries are beginning to employ them. Use everyone’s specific experiences and valuable individual expertise!
3) Xan Arch, "Creating the academic library folksonomy: Put social tagging to work at your institution" C&RL News,
http://www.ftrf.org/ala/mgrps/divs/acrl/publications/crlnews/2007/feb/libraryfolksonomy.cfm
Main points of this article are:
- You bookmark the sites you find, but soon your bookmark list is huge. You research from home and from work and you can’t always find the site you bookmarked yesterday. Was it on your work computer? Are you really finding all the sites that you need for your research? Can Google really find everything you want?
- Social tagging is a relatively new phenomenon that allows an individual to create bookmarks (or “tags”) for Web sites and save them online
- These tags include subject keywords chosen by the user and often a brief description of the site. Sites like del.icio.us allow users to share these tags and discover new Internet resources through common subject headings.
- The resulting collaboration is called a folksonomy—a taxonomy created by ordinary folks. In a way, this technology is making users create their own controlled vocabulary and assign subject headings to each Web site they visit. If we are already making classifiers out of ordinary people, why not bring social tagging into the library?
- So you want to try social tagging in your library. It was useful for your own research, and you can see that it would be a significant added service for your patrons. You’ve chosen the software, and you have found a niche for it in your library’s Web site. Now how do you create content?

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I agree with the ideas that these two articles pointed, and I would like to see all libraries adopt them.
4) Jimmy Wales: “How a ragtag band created Wikipedia”
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia.html
I really liked this video, and I think Wikipedia is a good source of information. I know that anyone can add and change information in Wikipedia. But I think most people who need information about some topic, first they read about it from Wikipedia and then they see what sources Wikipedia offer so they can read about the topic more.
Personally I like Wikipedia and I use it every day.