Survival of the fittest

I have heard two phrases, "Survival of the fittest" and "Only the strong survive", that I thought were synomous.

Week 6 Chat

This week's assignment was amusing to me because I am the person responsible for keeping the patrons from chatting on our computers. Our librarian really enjoyed this assignment and quizzed us on text abbreviations, some of which I never knew existed.

Our library does not participate in the LRCLive. I am the secondary Blackboard Administrator for our college and I am open to the idea of answering questions via chat but I am often assisting patrons or some other duties. I think the delay in responding would defeat the purpose.

Week 5 Wikis

I checked out the examples and most of them were exactly what I expected although I found one a little confusing. I think wikis are great for knowledge bases, collaborations and community websites. The wikis I am most familiar with are for online gaming. They are usually created and maintained by the more experienced players. Wiki which I think is an acronym for "what I know is" can be edit by anyone who feel they have knowledge on a certain subject. In my opinion, libraries could use wikis for knowledge bases, collaborative projects and book reviews internally. But I believe publicly libraries should stick to authentic or official forms of information delivery. Most students look to libraries to get information for research papers and essays and a lot of instructors do not recognize wikis as legitimate sources.

Week 3 Social Networking

I like social networking sites because they are a great way to meet new people and stay in touch with friends. I do not believe there is safe place on the Internet. I believe privacy controls are adequate but people are the bigger problem. If a person does not want information known do not post it on a website.

I have been using Facebook for about three years now and have even added a second account. My first account has grown so large that I lose track of my close friends, classmates and coworkers. Last check, that account had approximately 4600 friends and it fluctuates because there is 5000 friends cap. I generally use my accounts for personal use.


If I were going to set up a social network for our library, I would choose Facebook. Facebook is very popular and it is liked by young and old. Myspace seems to be catered to younger audiences and would seem better suited for middle and high school students. I will have to concede that a lot of small time musicians use Myspace also.

Week 2 RSS Feeds

RSS feeds are great because I read the summaries from the google reader and decide whether to read the whole article. It is nice because the articles come to me and I don't have to surf for them. I am currently subscribing to the following are:

1. Geeks.com
2. TigerDirect.com
3. ESPN: The Worldwide Leader in Sports
4. HowStuffWorks
5. Newegg.com
6. CBSSports.com
7. CNN/SportsIlustrated
8. Yahoo! Sports
9. USAToday Sports

Web 2.0

What does Web 2.0 mean to me? I believe Web 2.0 is suppose to be the warmer, kinder web that welcomes interaction between users. I believe Web 1.0 was more WYSWIG(what you see is what you get). It was the information superhighway where you could find information on anything you wanted to know. Web 2.0 encourages users to interact with web sites as well as other users. I now have friends and acquaintances from all over the world. If people were all of the same mindset, Web 2.0 could encourage world peace. Since that is not the case, I do not see that happening. The open-minded person can and probably will make several new friends plus learn a lot about other cultures.