iNat

This community cornerstone is even located on the corner of one of two main intersections in the small town of Thamesford, Ontario. (The other intersection, which has the only set of traffic lights, also has the Tim Horton’s! Canada’s second staple next to the public library!) Of course, the Tim Horton’s is about a two-minute walk down the street from the library!

Welcome to Thamesford, Ontario!

Thamesford is a small south-western Ontario town, with a small urban population and a mostly-rural community, which means you see more farming equipment (in the summer) and more snowmobiles (in the winter) on the town streets, than cars. A town within Zorra Township and Oxford County, Thamesford has just under 3,000 residents that are part of the larger 8, 000 plus Zorra Township. Thamesford is located on the banks of the Thames River, and conveniently situated at the corners of major highways: Highway # 19 and Highway #2 (or Dundas Street). The library (and the Tim Horton’s) are located along Highway #2/Dundas Street, which leads west to London and east to Woodstock.

Thamesford Public Library, view from main street

Thamesford Library and Resource Center, sign in front

This means that the library, is indeed, located in the middle of town on the main street. Between local businesses and storefronts, the Thamesford Public Library is surrounded by its own green space, complete with a gazebo and garden. This new library space had its grand opening in November of 2002, which included a new building, new landscaping and new paved parking lot. The new library also included meeting rooms and other spaces for community meetings, including a meeting room for the local Thamesford Lions Club called the “Lions’ Den”.

Thamesford Town Cryer begins grand opening ceremony, 2002

Mayor Bill Semeniuk and Oxford M.P.P. John Findlay at grand opening ceremony, 2002

A community hub, through and through, this lesser “TPL” is large in community support and recognition. The library in this quiet town provides meeting places for a very active community, including a thriving network of community associations, organizations, clubs and groups. The library building itself—a short modest new brick building—is only partially occupied by the public library; provides other community space for the elementary schools and churches outside of the community centre and Thamesford arena.

This new facility was built with the hands and hearts of the community: much community fundraising went into this new space when it was built in 2002. The library space and collection serves all the residents of Thamesford: from an aging community who, the majority, keep the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 558 full of live music and participate in the library’s book clubs, to the young families growing up in the new housing development on the outskirts of town. This blue-collar working town is based on the agricultural industries of the area: an old flour mill on the banks of the Thames River at the edge of town used to be the main factory, however, now the main factory is a large fowl processing plant—just down the street from the library, on the other side of the post office!

Thamesford Flour Mill, on banks of Thames River

Thamesford's major industry, Cold Springs Farm (left); and Thamesford Post Office (right)

Even when I was taking these photos of the library, on perhaps the coldest day of the year, I could still smell the cozy smell of a wood stove in a nearby home and could see the circles of warm, comfy wingback chairs in the reading area of the library. This is definitely a place that you could call your home away from home! When I moved to this small town in May of last year, I received not only a warm welcome to the library with my new library card, but an entire welcome wagon to the town of Thamesford.

Visit and enjoy the Thamesford Public Library for yourself on the Oxford County Library System website ( http://www.ocl.net/locations/thamesford/), or on the town of Thamesford website ( http://www.thamesford.org/), or even find community news on Thamesford’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thamesford-community-page/377769258114?ref=nf.

I noticed that Amanda has tagged her last post as “so long” “farewell” “adieu”… a bittersweet moment! I agree- it is hard to believe that 14 weeks have passed by so quickly. Amazing.

To answer Amanda’s final 7 questions:

Oh my goodness. My view of social software has changed drastically since starting the course. I think I had a completely different perception of the term “social media” when I began this course. I’m not sure how I would have defined it then, but it would have been something not as easily accessible or usable for me. I guess it seemed like something very foreign at the start.

First of all, I really find tools of the collaborative, connective, and cloud computing types the most useful and important. (That’s my disclaimer.) Of all the social tools we’ve explored this term, I think my favourite tools for libraries would be items like wikis and social bookmarking and tagging items like delicious. Each has its purpose though: wikis because they are a collaborative tool that can be used by anyone-students, staff, all types of libraries, anyone who works within a team; delicious because I think it’s a fresh new and attractive way for students to research and share information. Library and information science is about connecting and sharing, not just searching and finding anymore. At this time of year, it’s time to throw out the old, and bring in the new! The easiest implementable tool, for use by staff and patrons, I think, is facebook. I think you can get the most bang for your buck with this one! With very little output and effort, time, and skills required, this tool can be easily used, and accessible by patrons and students. Plus it’s still in the now, and young users are still using it, not like myspace. Also, you can kill two birds with one stone and get some library and marketing promo in there.

Hmmmm… least potential software for library service, I would say, is… well, that is a tough one. If anything, I would choose mashups because of the time and skills involved. Although not a lot is needed, it is enough to be more than some of the other social software and tools out there. A lame answer, but I think all of the tools that we’ve discussed are advantageous in their own way.

I was already familiar with facebook and twitter, so I didn’t spend much time with them. However, I did fall in love with delicious and mashups. It’s amazing how using a tool can instantly show you how it is useful, no matter how much reading you do. I’ve used mashups (with Yahoo! Pipes) to somewhat successfully stream 2 blogs for my car club- it’s great having all of that information in one place! I’ve enjoyed the blogging, but it seems kind of one-sided to me- that I’m just typing into oblivion, and that there isn’t much collaboration or connection here. I am distributing information, and people can respond, however, I don’t really see the interaction here (not immediately, anyway!).

Loving the distance ed piece!!! Especially with the snowmageddon we are currently having, I can actually get to class! And submit work! Amanda said (when I submitted my project on Wednesday), “Aren’t you glad we have this distance ed course?!” Plus, I actually think I contribute more online than I ever have in a classroom setting. I’m not much of a class participater, much less monopolizer, I tend to ingest and digest- lots of thought, but not a lot of blabbering.

Other than our chat tool issues, which seem to have been resolved fruitfully, I don’t know if I have any other suggestions for improving the learning experience. Except maybe we should squeeze in a topic week on Second Life. I didn’t realize that it was such a big deal, but apparently it is! I knew next to nothing about it until I did my final project for it.

I think this is one of the most practical and useful courses I’ve taken in this program to date. Seriously. I really feel that the last 13 weeks have been a fantastic use of my time, and I’ve gathered so much from it in terms of knowledge and use. And especially when I heard that many co-op interviewers are looking for familiarity with web 2.0 tools, I was super happy! Everything in this course has been about the big picture and using these tools for real purposes in real libraries with real mandates. I am very happy with the way this course turned out, and have recommended it (and Amanda!) to many others. It’s also a fantastic course because it fits the tech course requirement for the program, and many are struggling with selecting a tech course that they feel they can handle. Not only have I completed this course, but I feel I am well equipped to jump into a library position and use social media! Plus, with my marketing background, I am just itching to implement some of these newly discovered (new to me!) tools… yippee!!!

Thanks again, Amanda, and congrats to everyone on completing this course, and completing this semester, and heck, to those of you graduating!

Have a safe and lovely holiday!

Nat xxx

Oh, evolution of communication, sometimes I wonder if we are designing our own downfall by creating without thinking, and just snowballing ahead… Perhaps it will all end dramatically, like Locke et al’s image of the opossum run over by the road-stripe-painting machine… Or maybe we can just feign death like opossum’s are noted for, but I think that would probably achieve a similar end.  Sorry for the rant, everyone! Too much coffee and not enough sleep for me! Only 7 days left, everyone!!!

I really enjoyed the culminative nature of the collection of readings for this week- a great summary or full-circle recap for this course. (The word recap actually represents recapitulation, which always reminds me of the refrain section of classical music.) I especially enjoyed Shirky’s use of the term “collective bender” to describe the origins of organizations out of apparently a time of drunken slurry. (Plus, his explanation of the purpose behind Desperate Housewives was brilliant!) These pieces all provide an interesting take on the origins that began the evolution of communication, technology, and both together… And without risk-takers and riskiness, would the evolution of these things have changed course in the past? And how so? Always interesting to see what the future holds…

And just as communication is breaking down barriers in the market and industry, it is breaking down barriers within libraries, as discussed in Casy and Stephens’ piece about transparent libraries. After this week, it really seems to be that communication is the beginning and the inevitable end! Both creator and catalyst… Both good and bad…

Wrapping up for the last blog next week… I am really beginning to appreciate how useful this course has been for me, in terms of technologies, but also in terms of thinking about the big communication and social media picture. Many thanks!

Good luck this week, everyone!

Nat

So, I had to add this… Lauby in her piece, “Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy?” said she turned to her “tweeps” for insight. I’m assuming that is a conglomeration of “twitter peeps”?

Genius for the future.

Natalie

I just wanted to say that I’m very appreciative that this topic is in the syllabus.  Although discussing metrics is never exciting, it’s definitely a necessity for framing our social media efforts! I will definitely integrate and store the assessment ideas (site analytics; fans, followers and friends; user engagement; and user research) for use at a later time.

That said, I’m on my second blog holiday this week! Please still feel free to comment- I will post again next week!

Happy week 12, everyone!

Natalie

Good morning everyone,

Lately I’m feeling like everywhere I turn in my life, there is another access point to something 2.0! Whether I’m writing a paper on a library’s evaluation plan of their web 2.0 services, or collaborating with group members on Google Docs, or contributing to work RSS feeds- I didn’t realize that 2.0 tools were so prominent in my life.

Question: would one consider ftp-ing a 2.0 app or service?

After watching this week’s slideshow by Amanda, I understand how mashup-creating could be highly addictive and consume a lot of time! When watching the video, a zillion mashup ideas came to mind…will check out Yahoo! Pipes. I found the “Learn How to Build a Pipe in Just a Few Minutes” by the Yahoo! Pipes Team to be very helpful. I’m also really enjoying the “7 Things You Should Know About…” series of pieces- the RSS one in particular was exceptionally helpful. I think as far as web 2.0 tools go, RSS feeds are probably the tool or service that I’m the least familiar with. So, I’m going to bite the proverbial web 2.0 bullet and do the following 5 things to beef up my RSS/mashup-related skills for this week:

1. Freshen up current html skills. (I can’t use a cheat sheet for the rest of my life!!)

2. Create a mashup on Yahoo! Pipes for practice.

3. Subscribe to at least one more RSS feed.

4. Read the class RSS feeds more often. (Both blog posts and comments)

5. Compare RSS feeds and other social networking tools (like Facebook and Twitter) as far as creating currency in information updates.

6. **BONUS** Create a linkroll on my delicious account. (Loved Amanda’s example in the slideshow for this week.)

Ok, there’s my to-do list.

Good luck to everyone with this week with final projects! We’re almost done this semester!! (Which is hard to believe, indeed…)

See you next week!

Natalie

Happy blog-iday to me! I will be taking my first blogging break this week, but will be back next week!

Happy week 10, everyone!

Natalie

IM + social networking services = twitter

Good (from Brown’s piece this week) says it well with the quote above! Interesting how the closer social networking services become to instant messaging, the more personable the interaction, the more close-knit the community becomes… Heck, social networking services are even connecting or linking through IM services these days- just look at Aardvark (which I just joined, by the way!).

After reading this week’s pieces, I think I may have to join twitter, as well. And after reading about the plethora of fantastic library uses for twitter, I would love to implement some of them! And the tweet-abilities are endless: Kelly outlines 5 different tweet styles that are library-appropriate, and not just for informing, or information, but to engage users and to promote actual interaction. Plus, Brown’s piece lists endless examples of twitter suggestions to try at your library- and very specific examples for specific library purposes. I also appreciated that both Kelly and Brown mentioned that if tweeting was something that library staff just didn’t have time for, there were quick and easy tweet suggestions.

I also discovered that there is a term for your friend posting what they had for breakfast on their twitter account: ambient awareness. As much as I laughed, it is true- it seems very natural and human nature-like to be providing others in our intimate circle with information that they would be wanting to know anyway, but is not deserving of an entire email or phone call. (What is a phone call anyway? Does anyone remember?!) Real-time web is in essence this. The presentation of ambiance. This ambiance is the real life that happens between blog posts and emails, says Common Craft. And as we organize our online lives, even real-time web is organized by “nowness” (Schonfeld).

Fromm really goes into depth with the ins and outs of twitter as a new form of communication. Like Schonfeld, he is emphasizing the “now” factor here, dubbing twitter-type media as “Now Media”.  Fromm also gives a well-rounded report on the birth and growth of twitter- interesting!

P.s. I would like to be the first person to use a single punctuation mark to describe my mood, thank you very much, Stephen Johnson!!! (How Twitter Will Change the Way We Live)

!

Natalie

Question: Can you use hashtags on facebook as well as twitter? Welcome responses!

Find me on facebook: Nat M.

Natalie

Remember when you were in highschool or junior high? I’m sure most of us were walking identity crises. And if the stress of highschool academic life wasn’t enough, we had the task of finding out who we were on top of that!

I was intrigued by this week’s readings and the prevalence and relevance of the digital identities of young people within social networking. Mack, Behler, et al. call Facebook (or I’m sure this applies to other social networking communities) the “print yearbook equivalent”. Which is a great analogy, considering I still have all of my yearbooks- the junior high ones especially being snapshots of that place in time, with personal information and photos for each student, and all things cultural that you would like to remember about that time in your life. Even if it was the grunge period of the early nineties!

After reading this week’s pieces, I see how the digital public (as coined by Boyd) has created a whole new environment for young people that is supporting and allowing them to explore not only their digital identities, but also help uncover their identities in general. In Boyd’s discussion of identity production and how it is supported by this networked culture, I’m seeing how this digital public is a safe haven for teenagers who, existing in a life completely controlled by other people (parents, teachers, etc.), can have control of their lives and just hang out with their friends, digitally. It appears that this piece of identity management gives young people an outlet or environment in which to express themselves and be uncontrolled by others. This statement directly correlates with the findings of Hewitt and Forte’s study regarding student and teacher relationships on Facebook: that students prefer (overall) to not have relationships with teachers on Facebook.

My question of the week: Do you think that if we had had Facebook (or other social networking communities) when we were in highschool, it would have been advantageous for us, too, in expressing our identities? That we could have benefited from this tool, and that our forms of expression would have been directly influenced, and/or different in some way? Or we would have been more solidified in our identities then?

P.S. I really enjoyed how in Hewitt and Forte’s piece, they call it THE Facebook. I think Facebook has an identity crisis here. Lol.

Natalie