Monday, October 29, 2007

IL 2007 - "Next Generation Research Tools"

Saturday 1:30 - 4:30 - Preconference Workshop - "Next Generation Research Tools"

Here is a link to the Internet Librarian 2007 blog.

Pam Howard & Mira Foster hosted the workshop. They talked about different Web 2.0 tools, such as Flickr, YouTube, Furl, Zotero, del.icio.us, and Clipmarks, and how these tools have been incorporated into the librarians/researchers repetoire.

They focused on how relationship between the librarian and the user. Librarians need to foster and nurture relationships with users using the tools that their communities are using outside the "library" environment. We also need to take the time to utilize new tools that are transforming how individuals conduct research. There are practices that we are teaching, for example, note taking techniques, that are now being transformed by online tools or new software. Also, multimedia projects are being incorporated into school curricula and we need to be aware and knowledgable on how to use these different tools.

What I really liked about this workshop was the fact that they had practical examples on how students can use RSS aggregators, online note-taking & bibliographic applications, flickr or google maps, in real world assignments.

Tools I am interested in are Zotero, Clipmarks, Noodle and Furl (you can archive webpages). I will post a list of cool links later.

Looking at some of these tools, like Zotero, makes me want to go back to school. It's made creating bibliographies and taking notes from online sources and even collaborating with peers so much easier.

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