Hellooooooo!!!

Hi Guys,

My name is Alexandra and I am currently completing my second co-op term. I am working for Environment Canada at the Canada Centre for Inland Waters' library in Burlington. I have finished two terms of my MLIS degree and I am back to London in the fall for my final semester.

I am fairly inexperienced with social software and that is part of the reason I decided to take this course. During my first co-op term, a library patron searching one of our databases inquired about the little orange RSS button on the top of the screen. I am ashamed to admit that I could not answer her. In fact, I had absolutely no idea as to the function of the "orange button". Being a good librarian, I performed a little search and found a number of definitions. My favourite explanation was this one: "How to explain RSS the Oprah way", come on, who doesn't love Oprah?!

This got me thinking about different types of social software and how they are used in libraries. When I realized that FIMS was offering a course on the topic, I was very excited. My social software experience is quite limited. I do have Facebook and Instant Messenger accounts, but this is my first blog experience. I use Wikipedia occasionally and I am interested in learning about other ways that wiki's can be employed.