Reaching Cam23 Nirvana #cam23

So, here's to the end of Cam23 2.0. I have enjoyed the programme and along the way I've learned lots of new things. I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to read other people's Cam23 things blogs, but look forward to catching up with them at my leisure. Here's my overall summary of the Cam23 2.0 journey...

Things which made you smile

• Prezi was fun and although my first prezi was nothing special, the end result made me smile. I only did a very simple one, but found it easy to use (apart from some difficulties figuring out the path).
• Lightshot - so quick and simple to use!
• Flickr and creative commons licensing can go in this category as using creative commons licensed pictures from flickr can really liven up a blog post and they have so many other library-related uses!

Things which have become a part of the way you live and work

• I still don't engage in that many conversations, but I regularly use Twitter to see what people are talking about and for current awareness.
• Blogging has become much easier (although I still don't consider myself an experienced blogger!) and I will continue with this throughout the chartership process and hopefully beyond. I am finding it a very useful way of putting my reflections down in writing. 
• It's too early to tell right now, but here's hoping that Zotero will become part of the way I deal with references.

Things which you'll never go near again

I won't say never, but at the moment I don't have a need for Evernote. I'm also still holding off on LinkedIn and LibraryThing, although maybe one day I will change my mind about these.

Web 2.0 and social media more generally - what role do they really play within libraries and information services?

This sounds like an essay question from my library masters course! For a start, a lot of librarians and information professionals use web 2.0 and social media for their own development, current awareness, networking, sharing information and so on. This is why I think it's great to see people getting involved in 23 things to learn about the technologies and tools that are out there, and decide which ones they like and which ones will be useful for them. I have found social media to be really helpful for my personal development and I have learnt so many new things through them. Some of these things help me to be more effective in my work (even in small ways such as lightshot screenshots saving me time).

Then of course there are library users, who really come first in libraries. I would say that social media increases the number of ways we can engage with users, find out what they want and help them. If library users are on facebook and twitter etc, then it is great that libraries and information services are there if users want to access information or start conversations there. Of course a lot of these web 2.0 tools are directly useful for library users, such as RSS feeds for new books, bookmarking and reference management tools. It's all about providing a better service to library users, and web 2.0 and social media can help with this in many ways.

I'll stop here before this turns into an essay-length post, but will just add that I am looking forward to the party this evening and seeing all the other Cam23 participants! Wordle is currently have technical difficulties, so a wordle of this post will follow...