Messing Around in the Sandbox: Thing #17

Playing around with editing the OCL Web Things PBwiki was a lot of fun. I haven't ever actually edited a wiki before, but it's just like editing any other sort of document when you get right down to it. I added my blog, of course, and added the Mets to the list of favorite sports teams. Have I not mentioned that yet? (In sort of related Mets news, I realized recently that I always seem to use the RSS feed from Mets.com when I explain RSS feeds to people. Why is that the one I pick? It's not intentional, I promise.)

And also, since sharing technology is one of my favorite parts of being a librarian, I also added a tip to the list of Our Favorite Computer Tips. I posted a link to Zamzar, which has quickly become one of my absolute favorite web tools ever since one of our customers showed it to us a few months ago. Zamzar is a free file conversion website that lets you upload files so they can be converted from one file type to another. They then email you a link to download the new file. At first it just sounded like an interesting tool, but I have used it for so many things. Mostly, I use it to convert Word documents and Excel spreadsheets and Google docs into .pdf files. I've also used it to help customers who come in with .docx files, which we can't always open on the public computers at the library. It can also do all sorts of music and video file conversions, but I haven't explored that as much yet. I'll have to try it one of these days.

Wiki Wonderland. Or, Thing #16.

Okay, first things first: as a librarian, I know I'm not supposed to love Wikipedia. My uncle, whose hobby is asking me questions about libraries and books and research, recently asked me, "So what's the deal with Wikipedia? You really mean that ANYONE can edit it? What a bad idea!" I explained that there had been some controversies and like anything on the Internet, you have to consider your source, that Wikipedia has made some adjustments to just WHO can really edit the articles... but in reality, it's very often still the first site I check for basic trivia and ready reference type information. I wouldn't use it in a research paper, and I wouldn't tell a student to use it, either, but it can be a truly valuable resource when you are just getting started. Or if you have a question about something pop-culture or technology related. Or if you want a quick list of an author's published works instead of trying to sift through Amazon's search results. Or if you are bored and want to learn about dragons or history or where they filmed Casino Royale and how it fits into the overall story arc of James Bond.

But anyway, this Thing was not created so I can write about my own personal love of Wikipedia. At least I am fairly sure my fellow committee members didn't have that in mind. Wikis in general are pretty cool, and I have to also take a minute to say how much I love the Common Craft video about wikis. (Well, all of the Common Craft videos, really.) Wikis are things that maybe people have heard of, but I don't know a lot of people (even tech-savvy folks like myself) who actually USE them to share information. Which stinks, really, because wikis can be so useful for any sort of collaboration - having one for the reference department would be wonderful, in the same way that having all of our reference department links together in a del.icio.us account would be wonderful. The Library Best Practices wiki is something I haven't seen before this challenge. As someone who hasn't even been out of library school for a year yet, I still have a lot to learn about being a librarian. This is a great resource that I'm honestly going to have to bookmark and read through later, because I know I'm not internalizing it all now. But honestly, how cool is it that it's even out there? I <3 web 2.0, as nerdy as that means I am.