Facebook & Twitter

I've always thought that Twitter was a silly thing. I really don't need to know what people are doing every second of the day. But, I'm going to try it out for a bit and give it a chance. I do get a little chuckle every time I hear a celebrity or news operation say, "Tweet me .... blah, blah, blah" because the word "tweet" is so corny. I hardly ever update my status on Facebook and so I think that Twitter will just be one of those things that I do once or twice and never again. When prompted to do a search, I searched for tweets about Justin Beiber's haircut that broke in the news a few days ago. Really people?? Really?? There are that many people who had to communicate that "news" story to everyone and anyone. Sigh.

Facebook on the other hand, I check regularly. I have the app on my iPhone and it is one of the first things I look at in the morning (right after I make all my moves in Words with Friends). I really enjoy staying connected to people I have known and probably will never see again. And, it's a great way to share information, updates, and opinions. I have played around with the privacy settings before, but I'm not overly obsessive about them.

I do think that Twitter and Facebook are great ways for the Library to communicate information about events and resources. Facebook is so much more widespread than MySpace ever was and it's a great platform for any organization or business (and it's free!).

As far as using these social networking tools in the library, there might be occasions. I think just knowing how to use these is important because patrons are using them and ask for assistance. Although, in working with children's and teens, they are usually the ones showing us how to do things on the computer.

Thing #3

I really like a lot of the tools Google offers its users in the way of publishing, researching, and exploring. I did not know about the Google patents and that's fun - I looked up the patents for toilets and dog dishes. One could use this site to construct a program for children about strange inventions. Or, I think kids would just be interested in knowing when the first ....fill in the blank... was invented. It would be a great tie in with the Ben Franklin programming this summer.

I see lots of kids and teens using the Google Maps street view to look at neighborhoods. It's a pretty incredible thing to be able to look up your house and see it on the computer screen. Well, it's incredible for me, but it might be that for this current generation, things like that are becoming commonplace and expected. I also love traveling virtually to ther countries using the satillete view and Google Earth.

Overall, I think I should spend more time exploring Google's fleet of products. And I will!