Libran Librarian

I have spent considerable time playing with del.icio.us (which I had never used before this assignment) and comparing it to Google.   Overall, I found that for all topics I searched, there were considerably fewer hits in del.icio.us than in Google.  But I found that most of the websites in delicious were very relevant to my search topic.  An example of an unexpected result in del.icio.us was a search for information on the new ‘Canada Food Guide’.  One of the links took me to a site called ‘The Beer Hunter’ .  This site is  “a Google Maps mashup that shows you in real time retail outlets (including the LCBO, The Beer Store, etc.) where you can find booze in Ontario”!  Admittedly I still find Google a great source because it delivers tons of results very quickly.  And you can typically find lots of relevant stuff in the first page or two of searching.   I am glad I know about del.icio.us though as I will use it as another source to search for information.  And I also like the fact that now that I have set up an account on del.icio.us, I can access/add to it from any computer.  This assignment has been interesting for me as  I it has reminded me of how much information is available through the Web – one link leads to another and another.

Here is a link to a great shot I found in flickr.

After having played with wikis using wetpaint and PBWiki, and looking at some of the others (Wikispaces, StikiPad), I know that I know more about them than I did before.  But there certainly are a lot of features available if you care to delve more deeply.  Initally I thought PBWiki was easier to use (although adding my first page was not as straightforward as I thought it would be) but after having looked more closely at wetpaint, I think I like the way it is organized more.  I can now see how this tool could be used by a group of students working on a class assignment for example.

I decided to use Google Reader as my RSS aggregator.  I didn’t have any trouble setting up an account late Friday afternoon.  I  successfully added two feeds and thought hey, this is no big deal.  Then earlier today, I went back to add a few more feeds and didn’t seem to have any recall of what I had done on Friday!  I persevered and have now added a few more feeds.  Now I am interested to see how useful I will find this application.