Screen Names

Here are my IM screen names:

AIM: jdear01

Yahoo Messenger: infostrategist

Wiki Evaluations

In examining the library wikis for this exercise, I must admit that I’m not all too fond of wikis that use the template similar to that of Wikipedia’s. The wikis of St. Joseph County Library, University of Huddersfield, and University of Connecticut Libraries all seem to share this commonality. I never quite got the hang of the built-in search engine which, when you press enter after you enter your keywords, will automatically default to the first hit that pops up, much like Google’s “I’m Feeling Lucky” button.

The University of Minnesota Libraries sports a more appealing look, though the text colors—particularly for the comments—could use a different color to contrast the site’s background shades of olive green.

I’d be curious to see what WorldCat’s wiki has to offer with its reviews feature. I’m already a fan of their public interface for WorldCat (as opposed to the FirstSearch one). Perhaps this will be a nice alternative to the comments posted in Amazon.com.

Overall, it seems that almost every wiki I encounter is jam-packed with information—multiple postings, categorical links, etc. (that whole information overload issue), which is why I was drawn to Butler University Libraries’ Reference Wiki.

Library Blog Observations

Lansing Library Teen News & Reviews Blog
http://lansinglibraryteen.blogspot.com
I didn’t care too much for the polka dots background, but considering that this is a teen blog, I suppose these decorative embellishments give the blog a more “animated” feel. I did appreciate the Categories, Contributors, and Previous Posts links, as they provided more opportunity for browsing, much like flipping through the pages of a magazine.

Ann Arbor District Library Books Blog
http://ww.aadl.org/catalog/books
Compared to the other library blogs, I found this one quite interesting in that the blog itself appears to be integrated seamlessly with the library Web site. The postings and navigational links appear to serve functional and aesthetic purposes.

Waterboro Public Library H20book
http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blog.htm
This blog seemed to lack the visual appeal of the others, given that the colors for the background and text were rather bland. I could not locate any commenting features, though it was nice to see the local keyword “labels” applied to each entry. I figure that this must be more of an informative rather than an interactive blog.