Blog Post #4: The Job of Organizing

While it used to be the job of professional catalogers, currently through Web 2.0, the duty of organizing books and materials can basically be done by anyone. More and more, everyday people who are not trained in cataloging materials are doing so. I do feel that it is great that people can share their opinions and suggestions for sources; however, because these people are not professionally trained catalogers and indexers, there could be resulting issues of inaccuracy. Librarians are experts in their field, and organizing materials is their specialty; therefore, I feel that the job of cataloging should remain with the librarian rather than taking the risk of having outdated information and a faulty system for those who are seeking accurate and reliable sources. Folksonomies and tagging web sites can indeed be beneficial, and tags themselves can be incredibly helpful. There are, however, still issues that remain regarding accuracy. Untrained, everyday folks are able to tag and organize, and the tags placed on sites and sources may not be appropriate to the content of the source, which leads to imprecision for those who are seeking information. While I feel that it is nice to have the ability for people to add their own information and opinions, there is still a lack of reliability when these tasks are not performed by trained individuals such as librarians.

Blog Post #3: "Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/Using Us"

In chapter 1 of Library 2.0 and Beyond, Courtney points out that in our world today, “…more people share their ideas, contribute content, and have easier access to collaborative tools.” There are far more people on the web today than in years past. In Professor Wesch’s video, entitled “The Machine is Us/Using Us”, he very creatively and precisely illustrates Web 2.0. By titling the video as he did, Wesch explains that “the machine is us”, meaning we (the users) are the ones who are putting the data and information on the web. We are the ones who are organizing all of the data as well. Wesch cleverly stated, “XML + U & Me = Database-backed Web”. This means that the users (“u and me”) are putting the information on the web ourselves, and we are creating the web. We actually “are” the web because we are the information providers “for” the web. Wesch explains that it is the people (us) that teach the machine to do various tasks. With every person, every click, every link, and every command, we are teaching the machine what to do. Therefore, we “are” the machine.

By the same token, Wesch says “the machine is using us” because without the user, the web would not exist, and certainly would not be advancing as rapidly as it is. Wesch points out that the web is no longer just information or the linking of data, but instead it’s connecting people. People are constantly sharing and collaborating on the web using blogs, wikis, and other social networking sites. Without “us” (the user), the web would not be what it is today; the machine uses us to grow, to develop, and to continually progress.

Blog Post #2: Handheld Devices

A current issue at our high school is that we cannot afford to purchase a lot of books to be used in the classrooms. We have the same novels we’ve had for years and years. They’re old, big, bulky, and falling apart in many cases. They take up way too much space in storage rooms, classrooms, and on bookshelves. If I were the librarian at my high school and had $10,000.00 to spend on handheld devices, my first purchase would be for a class set of Ebook Readers for teachers to check out for their classes. A class set (30) at $200.00 each would cost roughly $6,000.00. These Ebook Readers could be used within the classrooms for reading classics and books of any length. These digital Ebook Readers would take the place of all of our big, bulky books that are currently in the classroom. Thousands of ebooks can be accessed and/or downloaded for free from various web sites, and since money (or the lack thereof) is a huge concern at our school, the Ebook Readers would provide a way to access new reading material without spending unnecessary money. The Ebook Readers would be stored in locked rolling cart cases in the library and numbered with library bar codes for organizational bookkeeping purposes. They would be available for check-out for teachers of any content area on an as-needed basis for use within their classrooms, and then they would be returned to the library for storage after use.

Our library currently has numerous table workstations, but there are only 3 desktop computers in the entire library to be used for research. We have nearly 700 students in our high school. There is a major need for devices that will allow for research. With my remaining $4,000.00 budgeted for handheld devices, I would purchase 8 PDAs at 500.00 each. By purchasing a set of 8 PDAs, students could facilitate their research. Since PDAs can do virtually anything a regular desktop can do, students would have access to the Internet, use regular computer software, listen to audio files, watch video files, and create or edit most any kind of document. This would be a perfect addition to our library, which is currently lacking in ways for students to access resources for their research. The PDAs would be stored in the library at all times, would be used in the library at the existing table workstations, and then returned to the librarian for storage after use.