Gabba gabba

I’m really stoked to be giving a few talks on library technology and web 2.0 goodness during Sept. and October!

Dates and Talks
Sept. 18, 2007 – Introduction to RefWorks. Location: EBL Classroom, Time: 12:30-1:30. Feel free to bring a lunch, and light refreshments will be served (i.e., cookies!). This session will be repeated on Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007.

October 19, 2007 – NELINET IT Conference, Olin College. I’ll be giving a talk on developing catalog search widgets for Facebook and using Meebo in conjunction with AIM for Chat reference. These have been fun summer projects for me, and I’m keen to share what I’ve learned with my LIS colleagues.

October 15, 2007 – CT Museum Educator’s Roundtable, CCSU - I’ll present an introductory overview of Web 2.0 technologies. I’m really looking forward to meeting with this group!

Crackbook

Surprisingly, it wasn’t a 19 year-old co-ed who exhorted me to join Facebook but rather my good, 30-something but looks fabulous friend Sara. She lured me with the strangely voyeuristic prospect of being able to find old co-workers and high school friends. Well, being almost twice the age of the average Facebooker(ite?) I didn’t find any former schoolmates; however, I did convince my 18 year-old nephew Zach, who recently finished his first year of college, to befriend his poor old auntie.

At any rate, I’m happy to report that I now have exactly 7 friends, most of whom are librarians! Facebook is indeed worthy of the sobriquet “Crackbook”. It’s completely addictive, fun and, yes, voyeuristic. You can join all sorts of arcane groups… I have an old friend, an extraordinary double bassist, who even has his own fan club in FB.  Facebooks presents an intriguing social paradox, which I think might account for its appeal. FB offers incredible intimacy but is at the same time very public. For example, this past week Sara and I made arrangements for a play date with our kids by writing on each other’s walls.  I’m not sure why this way of communicating is better/more appealing than telephone or email. Perhaps it’s merely the novelty of something new, but I have this vague suspicion it’s something more that I’m simply unable to articulate at this early stage.   

So if you’re on Facebook, please be my friend, PLEASE! 

Second Life – my Avatar

I’ve been playing around a little with Second Life for the past week. It intrigues me, not so much as a social outlet, but rather as a space to collaborate and learn. This is my Avatar, Library Babii, who isn’t terribly bright (she keeps running into walls unable to find a way out!). I’m not sure how close a likeness she bears, but those of you who know me in the terrestrial world can weigh in. My husband, who’s an artistic sort, created my Nintendo Mii, which is a more than reasonable facsimile of yours truly… as well as ones for himself and our 2-year old. She thinks it’s a scream having cartoon parents and goes absolutely nuts when her Mii is on screen (a narcissist in the making perhaps?).

Finally!

A colleague of mine just sent U.S. News & World Reports’ 2007 list of the 25 best careers… and guess which one made the list. FINALLY! Score one for the info sleuths.