Ning rhymes with Jing

The major benefit of Ning is also its greatest drawback. The reason why Myspace and Facebook are so popular is because so many people are on them. In order for social networks to work there needs to be a large group of people using the sites, adding friends and creating content. While there are several reasons why I personally prefer Facebook to Myspace for my private (though can I really say its private?) life, the main one and the reason I decided to create a Facebook profile is--my friends are on Facebook. If none of your friends are on a SNS then it isn't really worth joining.

Ning allows you to create and customize your own, selective, social network. Getting enough people to join your network and contribute, especially when competing with the big boys of SNSs is very difficult. If your purpose is to create a social network of your library users, you are better off creating profiles on Myspace and Facebook and trying to connect to your users there. Frankly, there isn't that much to draw them to yet another social network service.

However, if your have a specific purpose in mind, targeted to a specific group and want to be able to control the setting (especially privacy) then Ning is a great tool to use. For example, you may want to use Ning to add dimension to your book groups at the library. You can post reminders of the next meeting date and book to be read, host discussions before and after the group meets, post about upcoming library events of potential interest, and share reviews and discussions of others books members enjoy and recommend. "The book we are reading this month reminds me of this other book I read..." or if the novel is set in a certain location, like London, a member could post pictures of places mentioned in the book from the trip they took to London. There is a lot of possibility for Ning to enhance your library programs and connections with your patrons, if used correctly.

Ultimately, you need to assess what you what to accomplish and what your needs are before you can determine if Ning is the right tool for the job.

Because all the cool kids are doing it

heather's Dewey Decimal Section:

944 France & Monaco

heather = 8510858 = 851+085+8 = 944


Class:
900 History & Geography


Contains:
Travel, biographies, ancient history, and histories of continents.



What it says about you:
You're connected to your past and value the things that have happened to you. You've had some conflicted times in your life, but they've brought you to where you are today and you don't ignore it.

Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com

Boyd's library lessons

What lessons can libraries take from Boyd observations?

I think Gabrielle stated it the best in her post here:

http://gcscils598f08.blogspot.com/2008/11/danah-boyd-library-infolessons-1.html

Libraries have committed themselves to reaching out to diverse groups. A major part of being a librarian is finding out who our patrons are, what they need and meeting those needs. Preschool story time, employment information, ESL help, LGBTQ collections and many, many more all come out of the commitment to serve all our patrons. So if our patrons use a diverse range of social network sites (be it for reasons of class, ethnicity, economic standing or simply personal preference) we need to be prepared to bring our services to where they are, rather then expecting them to conform to one website of our choosing.

Sticky? Y/Y?

Why are places like Facebook and Myspace so 'sticky'?

I decided visual aids would help answer this question, so have another screencast.

http://screencast.com/t/w32PmVKJhI

Facebook how to

Click the link below to view a screencast of how to add photos to your Facebook profile.

http://screencast.com/t/ZwJCfcrxI

Favorite Videos

There were a lot of cute, fun and educational videos, but two stood out as my favorites.




I love dressing up, my closet is full of RenFaire garb and I've done some anime 'cosplay' as well. Steam punk as a genre intrigues me, and I love Steve's outfit and the creativeness of this idea.

The second video I really enjoyed was the "Do you want a treat video?" seen here. I love cats and this video shows just one of the reasons why.

Place a hold on a book in less then 5 min!

This short and easy tutorial shows you how to place a hold on a book using the Morris County Inter Library Loan system. You can do this from your home computer, then, like magic, the book will be sent to your home library to be picked up at your convenience!

View it here.