Week 3 - Social Networking Tools

Social networking could be used by the MLA to connect with members, but that is if most if not all of its members are on facebook. Using this assignment as an example, only those who were enrolled in this CE course benefited from the MLA annual meeting event page on facebook. Social networking faces the same dilemma that virtual chat reference faced and still probably faces (in some libraries) and that is the perception that it is not a productive method of getting work done. One way to overcome this perception is through the offering of CE courses such as this one. Getting people introduced to social networking tools is a great beginning. They more they know the more likely they are to using these tools to enhance what they already do well.


After going through the exercise I don’t see how having a facebook or MySpace page would benefit the medical library where I work. This has to do primarily with our patron base. I don’t think physicians and residents would find it worthwhile since every minute of their day is spent on patient care.

There are definitely privacy concerns when using social networking sites. I know you ultimately control what makes its way on to these sites, but how much of one’s information is recycled for other purposes that we may or may not know about?


What I liked most about facebook and MySpace was being able to located long lost friends and classmates. It is also a great way for me to keep in touch with family and friends.

Week 2 - Wikis

Blogs and wikis seem to serve the same purpose. They both provide you with the ability to communicate, keep track of ideas and share comments and thoughts. The only slight difference that I could see was in the structure and format. Blogs seem to have more of a diary/journal feel while wikis have a more relaxed feel.

MLA CE Web 2.0 - Week 1 - RSS Feeds & Patrons

Blogs can be useful in our medical library for communicating among staff members. It can be a good method for each department (ie reference etc) to discuss and share ideas for improvements as well as problem solving ideas. Blogs can also be useful for tracking incidents and successfully passing them along to other staff members. For our library blog we currently use word, but I think using a blog such as this will be beneficial.

Our medical library can use RSS feeds to further enhance the different subject guides that we have compiled for our patrons.

With the use of RSS feeds patrons will be able to keep up with updates and changes to these subject guides without much difficulty.