MyFace

Ok, I cannot take credit for the "MyFace" name, that came from the fearless leader of the crypt and I thought it was very funny. On the outside, Facebook and Myspace may appear to be very similar, but I like Facebook much better. I cannot really put my finger on why, but maybe it is because in the Myspace world I would be a "friend" of the VHS, whereas in Facebook, I can be a fan of the VHS. I guess being a fan makes more sense to me. I have to admit also that I am quite addicted to FB. I like being able to check on my friends and basically see what is going on in everyone's life in about 5 minutes. It is a nice way to keep up with people and to find out things about them you might not have known. During the election is was really something to find out people's politcal leanings.

I quickly scanned LinkedIn and I think it might be useful were I searching for a job (which I am not).

I also checked out Meebo. I am not much of an IM'er, nor do I text message that much either, but I can see the usefulness of this application for those who do. It would be nice to have one single application to go to and remember a password for and to be able to access it from anywhere. It could also be helpful for intitutuions like our to have live chats with patrons who have reference questions, but then that leads to other problems such as who has to monitor this and how much will it take away from you time.

At MARAC, I met someone who works at a University and we talked about the IM feature being used to help students with library reference questions. In one the IM ended up being nine pages long if printed. This is too much! This tool needs to be used for short conversations not for epistles! In this case, the librarian should have had the student call or come in for a face-to-face chat. This is the danger of relying too much on technology. So much can be lost in translation.

Another archivist and I were discussing whether or not we would become dinasours later in our careers; as in would our technical skills become obsolete. My first reaction to this was no, because I feel as long as we keep augmenting our current skill sets with new information I think we will be ok. But as we kept talking, I thought this might not necessarily be the case. I am from an in between generation. I grew up with computers, but the internet did not come along until I was in college. I have know the pre and post internet world, so as much as I love the internet I could get along without it. The current generation of college students cannot contemplate a world without the internet, cell phones, text messaging, etc. I am not all that fond of text messaging. I still prefer complete sentences. I get mad at my nephew for sending me e-mails where he abbreviates words like he would if he were sending a text. So in some ways I am already falling behind the cutting edge. I'll have to console myself with the knowledge that I am doing the 23 things and that I use email and have a Facebook page...but I still am not big on faceless, voiceless chats, or text messages.

L8tr,

Devo