RFID

Often, techy blogs are not big on RFID technology -- mostly for privacy reasons. Here, though, WIRED offers 10 cool uses of RFID, like making sure surgical sponges aren't left inside a patient. Sure, surgeons get to use the wands for their RFID systems, but not us. :-(

Week 4: Choice / Twitter ... and Digital Literacy

Matt recently shared an article on managing multiple social networks. Author Ben Parr asserts, "People may disagree with me, but I believe you should sign up for the most popular social networks regardless of whether you are going to use them all. This prevents someone else being mistaken for you and protects an account that you may want to use later." (Parr's article on mashable.com) This comment, and indeed most of the article, assumes that your online presence and professional presence are intertwined -- if not one and the same.

I think that when (if) I get the chance to do web2.0 on behalf of HCPL, I'd create yet another user name. After all, I followed Parr's advice and went to Check User Names -- there's a lisalib on myspace, and that's not me. I might not want to be confused with her, certainly not for work. It would make sense to make a generic username tied to the position, not me: NPYA, or something.

I am intrigued by a final tip from Parr: atomkeep, which promises to allow me to update many social sites at once. This way, the twitter site I created could live on for those who would rather follow me that way.

Whenever I hear about a cool resource, or find one on my own, I want to share it. To the extent that teaching digital literacy and online safety is something public librarians should do, I'd love to be able to share Parr's article with patrons. The people who ask ref desk staff for "help with the computer" don't know how to sign up for an e-mail account and attach their resume. The patrons who can do that -- and more -- seldom ask our help. Wouldn't it be great if we could reach the tech-savvy with something like HCPL's Tech Tip of the Week? It could be a blog, with RSS -- and we could write an abstract version that would go out via Twitter? I don't tweet, so that's harder to picture.

Just thinking out loud on this one.

College Readers

The Sunday Washington Post ran a compelling opinion piece on reading and young adults – YA meaning college students, in this case. The author asserts that based on popular books selling at college bookstores, college students read “young” titles that are less political than those college students read in the mid 20^th century.  There is a useful quotation towards the end that says young “'people don't necessarily read their politics nowadays. They get it through YouTube and blogs and social networks.'”

Read the Ron Charles piece from the Washington Post, here. 

Test

Web Does Promote Connectedness

An article on the PsychCentral website summaries a recent study on teens and the internet. While 1990s internet use was characterized by interactions with strangers in chat rooms, 21st century teens "nurture their existing relationships" online.

Research on Teens

The Girl Scout Research Institute conducts regular studies on the lives of young people in the U.S. As a part of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., the Institute focuses on girls, but often considers boys as points of comparison. For instance, "The New Normal: What Girls Say About Healthy Living" compares attitudes of boys and girls towards school, body image, and sports.

The Facts and Findings section pulls together information "on current trends and statistics for girls and youth emanating from various sources such as the Girl Scout Research Institute, Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Education Statistics, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Monitoring the Future, and other public agencies, Web sites, and publications."

Given this week's topic, I note there's no RSS, but I did sign up for an email newsletter. This resource is one worth knowing when you are looking for quality information on children and teens in the U.S. to use in your own professional development, or for a student in high school or above doing research.

Week 3: RSS Feeds

It took me a while to believe in RSS. I really didn't think it was so very difficult to click over to my favorite blogs to see if there was a new post. Library school friends swore by theirs for news, but I am not much of a newshound. It may have been peer pressure from my best friend to add a feed to my personal blog (she would not read it if she had to remember to look for it!) that finally got me on board.

Now I check my Bloglines feed daily to keep up on:

• books, via Guys Lit Wire and the Hip Librarians Book Blog.
  
• technology trends with Wired. 
• library trends with Library Stuff.

I also get a feed from the Census Bureau and another from the Librarians' Internet Index that give me ideas for displays and (for the latter only) make me aware of cool new online sources.

CHPL could really benefit from push technologies like feeds or social networks. I learn about cultural events around town that way, and I am certain many of our patrons do, too. Imagine a tech-savvy mom checking her feeds in the morning and noting, "Oh good, the storytime break is over, let's go, kids!" If our high school-aged kids could access social networks in the library as well as at home, the events feature of Facebook and MySpace would put our name and our activities in front of their faces. And I am sure readers of all ages would enjoy a feed telling them about newly arrived books in their areas of interest.