Week 15 Reading Notes

1) Galen Gruman. “What cloud computing really means” InfoWorld, April 2008. http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/04/07/15FE-cloud-computing-reality_1.html

Cloud Computing is yet another concept that is new to me! I really like the way Gruman explained Cloud Computing as "Sky Computing with many isolated clouds of service which IT customers must plug into individually." I think it is a great way to define and explain the 7 point breakdown explaining  cloud computing.

2) Explaining Cloud Computing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hplXnFUlPmg&NR=1

Very interesting! cloud computing is closely related to Web 2.0. It is known to be elastic, flexible, inexpensive, and reliable. I thought it was cool the way he explained how cloud computing is like electricity a century ago.
I was at a meeting this afternoon at Hanover School District and they were talking about cloud computing.  They even had one there.  It was neat to see it again this evening on the video. They were talking about how they instituted the BYOD, Bring Your Own Device, in their school district.  They were very proud.  They were actually featured in a national magazine for their futuristic thinking.
I like the way this course has given me the opportunity to become aware of the new trends in technology.

3) Thomas Frey. The Future of Libraries: Beginning the Great Transformation

http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=120

I really enjoyed this article.  These are real dilemas libraries are facing.  I love the background information about the preservation of the da Vinci collection, the history of the library's role, medieval times, Johann Gutenberg, and Andrew Carnegie.  The 10 key trends affecting development of the next generation library were very interesting and so were the recommendations for libraries.  I shared this article with my colleagues at Guthrie Memorial Library.  I really believe this is something we should look at and discuss as a staff.

Week 14 Reading Notes

No place to hide site: http://www.noplacetohide.net/

Well, I certainly believe this is completely true.  We are over - recording/ over- tracking but what can we do about it?  It seems we are so consumed with being safe, we do not consider what we are jeopardizing in the meantime.  I think this site is neat to read.  It has many valid points.  You certainly can come away feeling a little paranoid. However, I think about what is taking place on our campus right now.  That is a prime example to support what O'Hara is saying.

TIA and data mining http://www.epic.org/privacy/profiling/tia/

Once again I can understand what is taking place and maybe the thinking behind the concept.  However, are we attempting communistic ways to protect ourselves from terrorism?  One has to wonder. Will the "Total Information Awareness System" and the "Domestic Spy Plan" protect us or make us more vulnerable than ever?

MyTurn: Protecting privacy rights in libraries, By Judah Hamer • September 24, 2008

Protecting the privacy rights in libraries can create other problems.  I questioned this when I first began working in a public library.  I can remember someone coming in to pick up a book on hold for a spouse or a child and we could not allow them to pick up the book without the patron's card who placed the book on hold.  I questioned this and was told it was to protect the privacy of patron.  Another instance is when we call someone to tell them the book they placed on hold is in, we cannot reveal the title unless we are speaking t the patron who placed the hold.  One last example is when a patron returns a book, that book does not remain on their record.  We do not keep a record of what patrons borrow.  Sometimes a patron will ask us , Can you check to see if I checked this out before?" and we tell them we do not keep those kinds of records because of privacy.  We are very careful to protect the privacy of our patrons.

Week 13 Lab

http://liswiki.org/wiki/User:Lmk75

Week 13 Reading Notes

1) John Blossom (2009). What makes social media tick: seven secrets of social media. Content Nation, chapter 2. Wiley Publishing Inc. Blossom_Content_Nation_7_Secrets_Social_Media.pdf 
This was a very interesting article packed with information about what makes social media work and the seven secrets of social media. Until of late, I would not have considered myself a computer person.  I would not have known what social media  and "user generated content" was, not because I did not hear it often, but because I chose to block out the terms and the ideas.  I am now more interested and somewhat more knowledgeable.  I found it very interesting that social media is a peer to peer medium. I have heard of Eb 2.0 but did not previously know that Web 2.0 includes wiki, weblog, and other collaborative tools.
I am very excited to be in the "know" and to be able to take the steps to continue learning.
Listing the publishing goals and the social aspects for each topic was helpful. The 7 Secrets of social media listed in the article gave an interesting perspective.

2) Charles Allan, “Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program: Sharing knowledge to better serve patrons, C&RL News, April 2007 Vol. 68, No. 4 Using a wiki to manage a library instruction program.htm 

Let me start off by saying I agree that library instruction and wikis make good partners.  I have minimal knowledge of wikis and that knowledge I got from my 13 year old son who had to create a wiki for school.  He helped me create a wiki but I do not know much more than the fact that I have a wiki page somewhere out there in the great server in the sky!  I am excited to learn from this article that it is made for sharing information and that you actually invite people to participate.  I look forward to the next lab.
I also copied and sent this email to the staff Guthrie Memorial Library where I work.  I think this is something we should be doing.

 3) Xan Arch, “Creating the academic library folksonomy: Put social tagging to work at your institution” C&RL News, February 2007 Vol. 68, No. 2 http://www.mendeley.com/research/creating-academic-library-folksonomy/?mrr_wp=0.1

Well, well,well!! I have never heard of "folksonomya taxonomy" or social tagging!  These are very interesting "ideas/ concepts". It is interesting how social tagging allows a person to create bookmarks for web sites and can actually save them on line.  I could definitely relate when they talked about not knowing what and where you saved.
I found it interesting that folksonomya taxonomy was created by ordinary people and I plan to investigate del.icio.us, oneof the best known tagging sites, further.

4) Jimmy Wales: “How a ragtag band created Wikipedia” http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jimmy_wales_on_the_birth_of_wikipedia.html

What a great source of information.  Jimmy Wales assembled "a ragtag band of volunteers" to manage his wili media foundation.  I like the idea that evryone on the planet can get a free encyclopedia. It is amazing that a top 50 website, more popular than New York Times and run by 1 employee  is run with a bandwidth expense of $5,000.00.

I found it interesting that there were many misinterpretations about what Jimmy Wales says and what is reported to have been said. 

I will say that in the past, prior to hearing this information, I believed wikipedia to be an invalid source of information because it could be edited so freely.  Idid  not realize how well it was monitored and I certainly had no idea it was monitored by volunteers.