Thing 20: "I AM big, it's the PICTURES that got small"--Sunset Boulevard

If Norma Desmond had lived a few decades later, she could have reinvented herself in the universe of YouTube She could have been the 80-year-old British pensioner and widower, geriatric1927, whose series "Telling it all", is one of the most subscribed videos in the short history of the site. In this series, he talks about himself and the world around him, and one of his episodes has actually reached over 2 million viewers so far.

The same movie quote can also be used to describe the phenomenon of YouTube. It is a small screen that shines brighter than any social networking sites. Even though it has more popular videos than quality videos, it is still a land of many possibilities, it's social impact has been widely recognized, and libraries should capitalize this opportunity.


YouTube, with 100 million views worldwide everyday, is a place where library can gain high visibility. From what I have seen in YouTube and Yahoo video, many libraries have already used this social networking tool to conduct virtual library tour, to promote library programs, to share information, and to create training manuals. Picture is worth a thousand words, messages in this visual format can really travel far.


Free flow of information, A+ Partners in Education are two of the many causes that our library always champions, one of YouTube's nonprofit programs, "Broadcast your cause", is a place where I think we can reach out and make a powerful statement.


I found the following video in YouTube after I had read about the World Digital Library Project in the newspaper. The project is initiated by the Library of Congress, and people who are involved know where to go to broadcast their message.

This blogpost is created and posted directly from Google Docs. I choose this program over Zoho simply because I have already had a couple of gmail accounts, this makes trying some of the program's appealing features easier.

To start this free service, I don't need to install any software. I very often work from 2 different workstations, now I can have easy access to this service from any one of them.

Google Docs looks and works a lot like many conventional word processing softwares, it requires very little technical expertise to use it. I can invite up to 200 people to share, and 10 people to edit my document simultaneously. This concept of sharing and collaborating is very similar to wiki. Like wiki, all revisions are recorded. Unlike wiki, I have better control over the quality and the access to my work with Googke Doc. I can also add a RSS feed to alert other participants of the latest update.

"Word count" is a nice feature to have too. It is statistics that analyzes the structure of my work, and I can take it as an advice to improve my presentation.

Once my document is created, it's saved and stored automatically inside Google Docs, this makes floppy disks more and more obsolete. It can also be searched by keyword, there's no need to go through the extra step of tagging the document.

Now more and more people turn away from conventional e-mail and prefer to communicate through text messaging and social networking sites, Google Docs, with its many nice features, can make e-mail relevant again.

Thing 15 : Web 2.0 : How do I connect thee? Let me count the ways.

Web 2.0 is about “Connection”.

Libraries connect with their users in numerous new ways. They blog, they send the latest news by RSS feeds, they run online bookclubs, they help users navigate the internet and make suggestions of useful websites. They also understand the power of social networking sites and some have already made their presence in MySpace and FaceBook.

In the past few weeks, we read success stories of websites such as Flickr, FaceBook, MySpace, and LibraryThing. They succeed mainly because they give users a chance to contribute and to share information they have.

We also learned about the significance of virtual world. Many businesses campaign aggressively in Second Life. Education institutions and medical communities such as American Cancer Society and Center for Disease Control create avatars to dispense and share information.

These new technology tools are no longer for the young and the hip. They can help create a library without borders where users can fully participate and share resources. These tools are designed to build user loyalty by engaging them and connecting them on many levels.

When information flows freely on the internet, library users expect the same from libraries. Libraries need to break down barriers and share their resources. Users should be able to access to every electronic resource owned by every library in this country.

New technology has opened many doors and Web 2.0 is becoming part of the library culture. However, it works only if every library user owns a computer and participates in the same network. What if, for example, I need a tablespoon of sugar in the middle of baking a cake? Instead of looking for my buddies online, I would go to a different reality, I would knock at my neighbor's door. I would like my library to be the neighbor whom I can still count on when internet has its limitations and fails to connect.

Thing 6: This "Retrievr" is a golden mashup

I used to think Flickr was not for me. I don't take pictures, I don't own a camera, I keep all the Kodak moments in my mind and my heart, I have nothing to share. Now "23 things" forces me to take another look at Flickr and the mashups that are used with this service, the results are fascinating. I particulary like the combination of Flickr and Retrievr and this is how it works. First I draw a sketch, then Retrievr will display matching images that are taken out of the Flickr collections. It doesn't really matter if the images actually match with what I draw, it's the anticipation of what Retrievr can come up with makes it exciting.

It's a fun way to search photos and it's addictive!!