Exercise 8 - SNS

Now, I'm pretty familiar already with social networking sites. I have both a Facebook and a MySpace account. Admittedly, I don't check them as much as I did when I first signed up. They can become kind of time consuming. There's all sorts of places to put information about yourself. You have to keep updating your favorites, you profile photo, your blog, etc. It can get tiring! I do, however, check both of them occasionally just to keep up. SNS's have gotten a lot of flack in some of my classes for being too impersonal. You can have 200 friends on Facebook, but honestly, how many of them are actually your friends? On the positive side, I do think they are handy for people with out of state friends. A lot of my theatre friends moved to New York after graduation and honestly, these sites make it easier for me to keep up with what they're doing. I guess there's ups and downs to everything.

I decided to sign up for a Shelfari account to see if it will help me expand my reading list. The jury is still out on this site...

I think it's a really great idea that libraries have begun to incorporate aspects of Web 2.0, such as MySpace into their libraries. While they require extra effort to keep updated, I feel that they're a great way to reach out to the younger populations who are incredibly adept at these technologies.

Exercise 6 - Podcasts

I went to npr.org and clicked on Arts and Entertainment because I like to think that I'm artsy fartsy most of the time. I found a cool podcast called "The Play's the Thing" by L.A. Theatre Works. It's a weekly radio show that covers the best of American as well as World drama. The plays are recorded in front of a live audience and range from Shakespeare to Miller and beyond. I think that it would be a good thing to listen to on a long drive or something where you'd be able to have a long attention span. This week's podcast was "Atomic Bombers" by Russell Vandenbrook. It was part of L.A. Theatre Works' Relativity Series for their scientific plays month. Not necessarily my cup of tea. But I'd definitely revisit them.

Then I went to our Library on Demand and got on the waiting list for "Holidays on Ice" by David Sedaris. I also downloaded "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by the same author. The best part is that David Sedaris is the one reading his stories. I saw him recently at a book talk at Playhouse Square. He can tell stories better than anyone. He's very entertaining. I highly recommend listening to him read "The Santaland Diaries". Genius.

Exercise 7 - Wikis

I laughed out loud a little when I saw our next exercise. Ironically, one of my grad school assignments was to contribute to the Kent State Library Science wiki. Here's the URL:

http://ksulis60003.pbwiki.com/

Our assignment was to find a relevant site in one of the catagories and contribute it to the wiki. I chose Library Blogs and found one called the Twilight Librarian, which is librarian Jim Rettig's musings on library life. There are some really neat blogs on the wiki to explore if I ever find the time.

I am also a frequenter of the site lostpedia.com. I'm a HUGE fan of the tv show Lost. This site is basically a wiki all about the show. You can contribute facts and theories about the various characters and situations in the show. Or you can just sit back and read about what other people have to say.