Blog Post #4 Web 2.0 Organization

Once upon a time librarians had the market cornered on organization: subject analysis, access points, barcodes and call numbers were accepted as the very means of finding and arranging information. However today Web 2.0 tools enable any and everyone to do just this without a guide or strenuous decisions over which subheading to use and we librarians find ourselves reeling. We thought our system was --although not above reproach perhaps-- simple and refined and that we had employed all of our knowledge and practicality to enable users to access and browse but instead we find what we consider hard earned labor and understanding as difficult and fussy. One way to meet the user needs better is to simplify our system focusing on actual physical access rather than on the organization. The "get it now" is becoming the "get it yesterday." But does that make the system completely obsolete or misunderstood?
It's impossible for librarians to appease every user but finding the mean of usefulness is what we have aimed at all along, however Web 2.0 programs seem to suggest that we have indeed missed the mark in some ways. Delicious, for example allows the user to create their own tags which they can use later to organize and use as access points. Looking at my own account the tags I can't see them functioning up to standards of a subject heading. Although they are useful to me that doesn't mean that it translates equally across to other patrons understanding and so we can easily be caught up in confusion traced back to semantics. Subject headings are basically their own language or code: once you learn how to use them the rules don't change, but if you never take the time you will undoubtedly miss a great deal of information with this straightforward tool. In this regard subject headings are merely a consensus of appropriate tags, whereas Delicious allows users to create their own subject headings to suit their personal needs. Nothing wrong, but again, not entirely equal and therefore equally useful.

Post #3 The Machine is Us/ing Us

This post is named after a YouTube video similarly titled. Basically the video expresses that the Internet's prevalence in daily living has become a defining activity in our lives. Text is written and rewritten without any loss, new technologies merge multiple forms of media to create and expand our knowledge of expression. Through these daily activities we have changed our way of thinking to the abstract and ephemeral. We are creators, we are dreamers in pixels, and our only limits are our lack of understanding when trying to express ourselves. Digital medium and information are no longer limited to what we see on the interface placed before us, instead it is focus on the full content itself rather than being restricted by the design.
Because digital content is teaching us a different way to not only connect and create but how to think about ourselves and information in general (it is rare nowadays to actually lose content permanently due to company precautions to protect their servers and thereby also their interests), this is what it means that The Machine is Us/ing Us. Digital content has redefined our standard of living as well as our viewpoint towards society in general. We are Us/ing Us through our own use of The Machine itself.

Blog Post #2 Handheld Devices

If given the budget of $10,000 I would purchase about 30 internet tablets. These could be used both inside and outside the classroom to help children in their research individually or in groups of two or three at most. The internet tablet also has audio and video watching capabilities that can be used to flesh out lesson material. Since it also includes word processing software notes can be taken and ideas formed during the experience itself and backed up digitally for students to work on later. Of course there is also online word processes that can be used as well.
Depending on their durability the internet tablets could be checked out by teachers during a field trip to help students use the web appropriately to connect to their surroundings and gain more understanding of the social, political or ecological environment. Teachers could also use the device during field trips to help keep organized and find additional material for their students to investigate as new ideas present themselves in the added context.
Faculty and staff could use the tablets during their conferences for note taking or additional on the spot research just as teachers could use them to make lesson plans wherever they go. Also in case a computer shut down they can be used temporarily until the technical problem is fixed.