Thing 4 Current Awareness

I was really tempted to put in a picture of currants for this one, but have held back! For Thing 4, I was surprised to be asked to investigate a site/tool I'd never even heard of: Pushnote.

Pushnote
After having a read some other posts by 23Things participants (e.g. Girl in the Moon), I've decided not to try.  It might seem a bit lazy but the chances of me wanting to use it after I've the programme is over are small so I'm going to concentrate on other things.  I already use Delicious to tag sites and I find that quite helpful for keeping track of sites for my own use.  I'm not really bothered about sharing sites with other people.  If there's something that's struck me enough that I want to share it, normally it's something that I think will be of interest to a particular person and so I'll email it to them. It's always a nice excuse to get in touch with someone and show you're thinking of them.  As you can guess from that last comment, I mainly send links to friends and family!

Flickr: Tracy Holland

Twitter
Last year in the Oxford 23 Things we looked at Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  I signed up for Twitter to try it out but concluded it was for 'old people' who could afford internet enabled phones.  Since then I've realised I'm getting old because quite a few of my friends Tweet.  Unfortunately, I'm still a pay-as-you-go gal so my attempts at Twitter use are sporadic.  When I was doing the taught part of my library course and working two days a week I would check Twitter in the mornings before going to class and on my studying at home days but now I'm back working 4 or 5 days a week I've not been bothering. Same conclusion as last year (backed up by Laura's experience).

RSS feeds
Now I like these.  I use Google Reader to track my favourite blogs and find it really clear and easy to use.  If I didn't use it, I'd probably not bother to check each blog so it's a boon. Spotty dog! (Thanks to my friend from Dingwall for teaching me that phrase)  I've signed up for the cpd23things participant feed so I'm looking forward to using that to widen the pool of participants posts that I read for the next Things.

Not Very Current Awareness
Writing this post, I've realised that I don't really use these tools for very up-to-the-minute info.  Perhaps this is something that I can reflect on for Thing 5 - how can I efficiently and effectively improve my current awareness?

Blogging

Having has a nosey at some of the other 23 things blogs I have been surprised by how many bloggers were nervous or lacking confidence in their Web2.0 skills. It came as no surprise that quite a few people didn't know a lot about the different tools, but it didn't occur to me that they would be 'scary'. At the other end of the scale are some very experienced bloggers who talk the talk.

I might not know a lot about some of the Web2.0 things we are going to be trying out over the coming weeks but I'm not expecting them to leave me completely flummoxed. This is mainly because once you've got a few of the main things down - signing in, creating profiles, uploading files - most sites are quite easy to navigate. If all else fails there's always trial and error!

In terms of blogging I don't think this is something I would do at an individual level because I don't have enough to say (Susan - the other SSL trainnee - will attest to my love of succinct phrases wherever possible). They are very useful for collective information sharing. For instance, the SSL staff blog is great for sharing information about lost property, IT problems, messages about readers coming to collect books/needing assistance. It is especially good as a way to ensure staff who work mainly on the issue desk are kept up to date and for info to pass between day staff and evening/weekend staff. The Oxford Graduate Trainees blog is also a good way to discuss library things with between the trainees - like the 23 things!