Welcome to iLibrarian

Facebook and other popular social networks are constantly in the news. Check out the latest with these articles:

The Facebook revolution - LA Times, October 7, 2007

“The kinds of information one can push through a digital web of family, friends, neighbors and colleagues — properly segmented — is endless and powerful. For instance, because I have a Facebook profile, I already know what books, magazines and newspapers my friends read, what websites they frequently visit, what music they listen to and what TV shows and movies they like. Many executives I know “google” and “facebook” job candidates before they arrive for an interview.”

The Fakebook Generation - The New York Times, October 6, 2007

“Facebook did not become popular because it was a functional tool — after all, most college students live in close quarters with the majority of their Facebook friends and have no need for social networking. Instead, we log into the Web site because it’s entertaining to watch a constantly evolving narrative starring the other people in the library.”

You Are Not My Friend - Time, October 04, 2007

“This is hard to say to a friend, but our relationship is starting to take up too much of my time. It’s weird that I know more about you than I do about actual friends I hang out with in person–whom I propose we distinguish by calling “non-metafriends.” In fact, I know more about you than I know about myself. I have no idea what my favorite movie or song or TV show is.”

via Social Media

The University of California, Berkeley announced yesterday that they will be posting complete course lectures to YouTube. They are the first university to offer full course lectures on the video-sharing website, and have already compiled over 300 hours of video on their channel page in the subjects of biology, physics, and search engine technology.

Via Collaborative Thinking

A recent study by the Yankee Group has indicated that there has been a significant lack of growth in virtual worlds such as Second Life which may be due to their non-mobile nature. According to this study, Second Lifers only average 12 minutes per month in-world, while sites like Facebook entertain visitors for 186 minutes per month.

Via CrunchGear.

The folks over at Common Craft have come up with a new video explaining how to use a new Web technology in easy-to-understand terms - this time it’s Wetpaint Wikis. Check it out here.

The latest niche to expand in the social networking arena is online communities for gamers, and most prominently for players of MMOG’s or massively multiplayer online games, and MMORPGs or massively multiplayer online role-playing games. This is hardly surprising considering it’s recently been reported that 217 million people worldwide play online games, and that strategists are forecasting the online games market to triple its current $4 billion dollar worth over the next 5 years.

• Second Life Profiles - Social network for Second Lifers.
• GuildCafe - Slick social network for MMORPG players.
• Koinup- Social network for players of SL, WOW, The Sims, IMVU, and others.
• Rupture - Social network for MMORPG gamers, right now aimed at WOW players.
• Warcraft Social - Social network for WOW players.
• WOW on MySpace - Quite an impressive MySpace page for WOW players.
• The Sims Resource - Social network hub for The Sims players.
• GamerVision - Social network for gamers.
• Wii Tube - A YouTube for the Wii community
• MMO Faces - A MySpace-like social network for gamers.
• Sparter - A gamer-to-gamer marketplace.
• Steam - Social network hub for Valve games and more including Call of Duty 2, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike, etc.
• WOW - Rumored to become a World of Warcraft social network in the near future, owned by AOL, see article for details.

The New Web has brought with it some amazing tools for creating online subject guides. These tools offer the addition of multimedia and multi-format elements such as photos, videos, social bookmarks, RSS feeds, and widgets to traditional resource guides, as well as an interactive dimension which makes them particularly 2.0. Here are a few tools for creating your own 2.0 guides. Got any other ideas for subject guides? Please share them in the comments!

Squidoo

Experts in any field are welcome to create subject guides which are referred to here as “lenses”. Lensmasters are able to add narrative sections, link to websites, online articles, blogs, RSS feeds and much more including pulling in multimedia and external content such as images from Flickr, bookmarks from del.icio.us, videos from You Tube, books from Amazon, and even inserting Google maps. Lenses can be made interactive by inserting user polls, enabling user voting on recommended resources, inviting users to add to resource lists, and allowing reader feedback.
Already being used by libraries & librarians?
Yes, check out these examples:
Using Web 2.0 Principles to Become Librarian 2.0
Library 2.0 Reading List
Resources for LIS753

Libguides

LibGuides is a white-label subscription service which enables libraries to create a branded community of librarian-created subject guides or portals for their users. These subject guides, or libguides can incorporate all kinds of content including pulling in RSS feeds, embedding videos and podcasts, pulling in del.icio.us tag clouds, uploading documents, and running user polls, etc. These guides are very widget-friendly - I was able to insert a Rollyo search box with my custom-made search engines, and libguides can be shared through a Facebook application. Libguides creators - librarians - get their own individual profiles which aggregate all of their guides and contact information, and they can even embed a live IM chat widget.
Already being used by libraries & librarians?
Yes, it’s currently being used by over 30 libraries, here are a few examples:
Dalhousie University Libraries
Boston College University Libraries
Utah State University Libraries

Koonji

Hindi for “key”, a koonji is a how-to or resource guide for a particular subject which is broken down into steps. Each step describes a process and can include narrative, recommended links lists, tips, videos, and images. Users can add and recommend links, vote for and add tips, discuss guides in forums, and rate koonji guides.
Already being used by libraries & librarians? No, not yet, be the first! For now, see these interesting guides:
How to get your book published
Fortune telling with Turkish coffee
How to sell your house

Library Subject Guides using del.icio.us

Here is a resource guide and a technique for using the linkrolls feature of del.icio.us combined with an RSS feed service such as Feed2JS in order to output a dynamic list of resources onto any website. This guide will let you know how to get started with creating your own subject guides utilizing your del.icio.us bookmarks. This technique is perfect for those who want to keep their existing subject guides, with their formatting, on their own websites, etc. but want to be able to offer fresh content regularly without the hassle of updating pages.
Already being used by libraries & librarians?
Yes, by a few so far, check out these examples:
Chelmsford Public Library
Hilton C. Buley Library

The Fund for Public Schools is launching a campaign to support New York City’s public school libraries which will run from October 3-19. During this time, purchases made at any of the retailers listed here, will have a portion of the proceeds donated to benefit the libraries.

Looking for inspiration? There are many different types of blogs out there, and many different kinds of blog posts. You don’t need to limit yourself to just one, but you can incorporate many different types of posts into your writing. Consider writing one of these types of posts when you’re looking for something new.

• Breaking News
• Opinion
• Resource/Link List
• Ideas/Inspiration
• Aggregate List/Guide
• Review/Analysis
• Humorous
• How-to/Tutorial
• Interview
• Case Study
• Snarky or Contrarian
• Diary Entry
• Video
• Images
• Charts & Graphs
• Surveys
• Scholarly Articles

Want more blogging tips? Check out these articles:

• Blogging Tip Central
• 55 Essential Articles Every Serious Blogger Should Read

The LibrarianInBlack has compiled some fantastic coverage of the recent Future of Libraries conference which took place at the San Francisco Public Library’s Main Branch on Wednesday, including detailed panel reporting in these posts:

• Future of Libraries Conference: Keynote Presentations
• Future of Libraries Conference: Social Software in the Library–MySpace, Wikis, IM, Blogs, and Flickr
• Future of Libraries Conference: Services Without Sites: When Fingertips-to-Fingertips Augments Face-to-Face
• Future of Libraries Conference: Collection Development/Collection Management, Link+, E-Books and the Proliferation of Formats

Thinking of starting a new blog project? Decided to go with open-source but you don’t know whether to choose WordPress or Drupal? You may want to read the Wordpress vs Drupal article by the Bivings Report in which they recommend -

Wordpress for:

• A single person or group blog
• A blog-driven website

Drupal for:

• A blog community (10+ authors)
• A full-featured website (multiple content types, templates, and frequently edited sidebar/content blocks)

…and you can also check out their discussion roundup of the best comments and questions they got regarding this article as well as their responses.

According to Compete, Facebook is now the third most popular destination on the Web in terms of page views. But what are people doing when they sign on? Check out this Compete chart to see what activities the 22 million people who signed into Facebook did in August:

Click for full image.

• 21 million people browsed their own or their friends’ user profiles
• 14 million people interacted with Facebook Applications (this activity took the most time per visit)
• 16 million people browsed photos
• 8 million people joined or visited groups
• Only half a million added friends
• Only a mere 80,000 “poked” someone

Read more in the Compete report: 14 million people interacted with Facebook Applications in August

Web users are finding social networking features being rolled out on their favorite websites ranging from eBay to Digg to the new Yahoo! Mash. BusinessWeek’s Scaling the Social Web article discusses the new “Social Web” standard of implementing user profiles and enabling sharing and participation on traditional websites.

Also, check out the related slideshow featuring the top-voted sites from BusinessWeek’s annual Best of the Web survey.

Robert Scoble comes up with ten rules for using Twitter, but puts a refreshing twist on his top list by telling us how he breaks each of these rules on a regular basis in his: The 10 rules of Twitter (and how I break every one). Scoble lists these as the rules you “should” follow:

1. Never send more than 140 characters.
2. Never Tweet more than five times a day.
3. Never follow more than 300 people.
4. Never follow anyone who isn’t your “real” friend.
5. Don’t assume other people are having the same experience you are.
6. Don’t post thoughts across multiple Tweets (see #1).
7. The Twitter question is “what are we doing?” It’s NOT “what do you think about XXXX?”
8. Follow one person for every 10 who follows you.
9. If other people are telling you you’re spamming, you should listen to them.
10. Don’t put things into Twitter that aren’t designed for Twitter like photos, audio, etc.

Now, you’ll have to check out his post to find out how he blatantly disregards these “rules”.

Via Social Media

Yahoo! is getting into the social networking game with their own offering called Mash, currently in beta. With elements taken from tried-and-true online networks, Yahoo! is creating a user profile system which it hopes to eventually integrate with its other social applications. Here’s a preview of what Yahoo! has in store with Mash.

Click for full image.

Features

Customizable Profile - You can add a personal touch to your user profile by adding your own backgrounds, and choosing module, background, and text colors, however, guest viewing your profile can toggle between your creation and a plain white background simply by clicking the “this is fugly” link.

Add Modules - Much like start pages and Facebook, you can build your profile to be whatever you want it to be by adding modules such as the Flickr RSS, latest del.icio.us links, My YouTube videos, Amazon wishlist, or Pimp my Pet. Modules can be rearranged by dragging and dropping them around the page. Yahoo! has plans to open up the platform to third-party developers in the future, as Facebook did with its Apps feature.

A Little Help from Your Friends - A unique feature of Yahoo! Mash is that your friends can help you out with creating your profile by adding modules and RSS feeds to change your page. Of course you can always change your permissions to keep them from “being helpful”. You also have the option to limit access to only best friends or family.

Revision Control - Another great feature of this social network is the wiki-esque revision history which is available for each user profile, enabling you to revert back to a previous iteration of your profile at any time. A great option to have in case you find your friends have been up to no good on your page!

Pulse - This feature provides updates on what everyone in your social network is up to, for example what new modules they have added to their profile, who they have invited into the network, what guestbooks they’ve signed, etc.

Blurt - There is a “Blurt” box on each profile which is similar to the Facebook “Status” feature. Both are used to write short blurbs about what you are doing at a specific time, much like a tweet on Twitter. You can toggle your Pulse to see only Blurts from the people in your network, receiving a report much like on a microblogging site.

Right now Yahoo! Mash is an invite-only private beta, new users can get in if someone creates a profile for them. So if you want in, send me an email at [ellyssakroski at yahoo.com] and I’ll create one for you.

Read more about Mash with these articles

Yahoo’s New Social Network Puts You (and Your Friends) in Charge

Yahoo Invites Us Into Mash, Its New Social Network

Yahoo finally gets a good social network: Mash

In this month’s Tech Tips for Every Librarian column in Computers in Libraries, Michael Stephens and Rachel Singer Gordon explain the process of getting up and running with the IM aggregator meebo, embedding a meebo me widget into a website or blog, and configuring a meebo Rooms chat space. Check out their helpful overview article, Embedding a Librarian in Your Web Site Using meebo.