Cultural Diversity - Rollyo

I have created a Rollyo for Cultural Diversity sites that I have referred to and used for topic education. While searching I noticed that there were many other sites related to similar types of information.

Mashups and API

After heading over to Rollyo and searching "librarianblogs" for privacy postings, I selected to view postings by the Krafty Librarian particularly the posting on the Cleveland Clinic creating a partnership with Google to allow patients to access their personal health records. John Sharp of eHealth raises concern that people will not trust Google to store their medical records.

The Krafty Librarian responds by saying that individuals are used to having personal information in cyberspace, which I quite agree, because many people already bank online, pay bills online and make purchases online. However, the concern may lie more with the notion of having personal information in Google. And, while having this information readily available may be useful and help to improve healthcare for many, exploring other consumer healthcare avenues like MedlinePlus might prove to be a better match for accessing public health records.

Looking at Mashups a bit more globally, I can conceive of using something like this to identify healthcare needs and services provided to specific populations within the Western New York area. Targeted services could be offered to particular groups, areas and individuals.

Podcasting and Online Hosted Video

From my perspective I can imagine multiple applications appropriate for this technology. In fact, just this week a colleague in HSL created several mini tutorials instructing library clientèle on how to do such things as place a request for interlibrary loan materials via ILLiad: Interlibrary Loan for UB Faculty, Staff & Students.

In perusing YouTube I found that aside from using this technology for tutorials, many Health Sciences Libraries are using the medium to conduct tours like the University of North Carolina Health Sciences Library or for playful or public relations opportunities like the McMaster University Health Sciences Library staff dressing up for Halloween.

Online Photo Sharing

Picture of the Lyons family from Andy and Mary's wedding in Florida, September 14, 2003.

Flicker is a great way to share pictures, etc. with family, friends and colleagues who are in far away places, and around the corner. In order to make better use of flickr and publishing photos in Facebook, I need a bit more practice.

Web Office Tools

Tried Google Docs, Zoho Web, and Mircrosoft Office Live. Great concept, and certainly a valuable tool that can be used when sharing and/or collaborating on documents, presentations and information with colleagues, friends and family. Each has slightly different features which makes the selection of which to use somewhat based upon what a person is accustomed to using. With frequent use the particulars of each would come more easily. I can put these tools to use immediately!

del.icio.us

I have been using several del.icio.us accounts for awhile. We have developed a del.icio.us account for the Reference and Education Services (RES) department of the library, and I have been using a personal account too.

The library account is shared by everyone in the RES department and is often used to highlight important, relevant, and highly useful websites that are frequently consulted as tools for responding to information requests. It is used as an internal tool within the department that allows everyone to have the same access to information resources. Members of the department can add additional resources as found, notifying others in RES that they have added new tools.

Personally, I've used my account for professional and personal links. The professional links are to resources that I frequently consult or that I believe to be relevant to my work. Personal links fall within the areas of sites I think are fun, of interest to me or others that I want to share. In addition, as has been stated previously by others, del.icio.us allows me access to my links no matter where I am. 8->

Social Networking Tools

This week I created a Facebook account. I found some old and some new friends and colleagues to add to my Facebook account (very nice). As part of the exercises I added several applications, which I found to be great additions to have close at hand. Visit me on my Facebook account and ask me to become your friend.

1. How can MLA use social networking to connect to members?
It seems to me that MLA could use social networking in multiple ways to connect to members. First, it can be another way to push out information to members. More importantly, I think it is a way to seek information from a "group" of people - to provide feedback to the organization from a greater mass. It could be a way of speeding up the work of the Board, as communication mechanisms make it easier to connect with the membership. Some of the annual meeting business with the membership could be conducted away from the meeting leaving time for alternative programming or discussion of meaty items affecting the organization and profession. Additionally, these types of tools lend themselves toward greater education and CE opportunities. Shorter, more targeted programs could be made available to members multiple times a year.

2. Should my library have a presence on Facebook, MySpace?
We have conducted preliminary inquiries, consulted the literature and have found that at this time there are very few health sciences libraries using Facebook. As part of the University Libraries system however, the general libraries have created a presence on Facebook directed toward our undergraduate population.

3. Are there privacy issues?
This is where I tend to have some difficulty, it is a fine balance between providing information and fearing that there are individuals (albeit few in relation to the numbers) who compromise the safety of individuals on these systems. Where is this balance? And it changes depending upon the type of information one is placing out there and for what purpose. Having voiced my concerns, there are scads of individuals placing lots and lots of information out there, and I don't think that trend is going to stop.

4. What did you like or not like about your experience?
I must admit after creating my Facebook account, I found that the applications and communication capabilities under one source could be a benefit of time and access. With time being such a precious commodity the greater number of things you can accomplish from one destination the greater the appeal. This poses challenges for libraries, because instead of coming to our sites, individuals are beginning to take what they need - often leaving other relevant & quality resources behind (not to mention any new resources that could be missed.)