The Beginning!

Hello fellow Document Management 1 students!

I am a little trepidatious about this assignment because there is so much for us to explore but am looking forward to learning about Web 2.0 tools, how to interact and collaborate with them and how they might be beneficial in a library or information agency environment.

It will be interesting to see how comfortable I feel with theses tools at the end of this assignment and whether my preconceptions of Web 2.0 are changed. I am particularly interested to see how well I am able to communicate and interact with my buddies Liz, Emily, Katherine and Bev and the rest of the Doc Man class.

Let me give you a little background on myself. I have a BA from Melbourne University with a Major in Art History. This is my second semester of MIM. I came to this degree/career choice by chance. I also undertook a Law degree along with my BA but decided that I'd rather stick pins in my eye than finish and become a lawyer. When I quit law I saved for a year and then went to live in Berlin. The job that I had to get me there was working in the Access Support area of the State Library of Victoria. At SLV I realised how much I enjoyed working in this environment, how interesting and pleasant the librarians were and how diverse a librarian's role can be. That's why I'm here!

I actually have a limited understanding of how to use Web 2.0 tools as unlikely (and perhaps embarrassing) as that may be to admit given that they have been around for ages now. I am an avid blog reader and one of my friends has an online magazine (Radius magazine if you're interested), and some have blogs and tumbler accounts which I follow. But I have never had a blog or a twitter account and refuse to create a Facebook account. I am somewhat sceptical of how tools such as twitter and blogs can be used in the professional environment but I am willing to be swayed. Also sometimes I am overwhelmed by the amount of content that is produced using Web 2.0 tools and question the value of these tools when the content can be so boring, pointless and sometimes erroneous. BUT I think that this might be because I haven't fully come to grips with this technology (i'm still a little shaky on RSS feeds)...and so....

.......here are my learning goals for this assignment:

• to increase my knowledge of, and experience in using, Web 2.0 tools so that I am able to use them competently and effectively 
• to explore if/how this blog and other Web 2.0 tools (ie Twitter) will allow me to collaborate, interact and communicate with my fellow buddies and classmates 
• gain an understanding of how these tools can be utilised specifically by the library and information agency sector 
• to gain a deeper understanding of how these tools are shaping how we communicate with one another on a global scale 

I look forward to reading your blogs (especially those of my buddies!)

Ellen