Yelp!

Yelp is great! Thanks to the 26.2 Things in Boston course I am participating in, I discovered this great review service for your local businesses and places. Our organization has an entry, but no reviews yet. I found great reviews of the Coolidge Corner Movie Theatre programs, which include those of our Boston Psychoanalytic Society: http://www.yelp.com/biz/coolidge-corner-theatre-brookline-2

TripAdvisor and Epinions

I use both TripAdvisor and Epinions to make decisions about my travel. I just realized Epinions grew bigger in recent year, and you can write and read reviews about pretty much everything, not just travel. I like how they make you list pros and cons, and I think the account/profile management is very user-friendly, hassle-free. I decided to decribe my recent hotel experience here:

http://www0.epinions.com/content_446398041732

Thing 5 - In Reviews

Reviews are relatively new experience for me, even though I always consult them, I rarely go back and rate items. I recently reviewed several things I bought on amazon, and I added another review today. All in all, the process is very straightforward, my only confusion was that my bad 1-star review of the Lego Star Wars watch does not show up, I can only see how I rated this item. When I tried to submit it again, it says I already reviewed this item. I don't think amazon excludes bad reviews - I probably did something wrong. Here is the link to reviewed items, I am OlgaU from Boston there:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00028A9TW/ref=cm_cr_mts_prod_img

The one that does not show:
http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Kids-Star-Watch-2907STWR2/dp/B000UOJEJ4/ref=pd_ys_iyr2

http://www.amazon.com/Pokemon-Diamond-Pearl-Water-Bottle/dp/B0017UCM3A/ref=pd_ys_iyr4

I use TripAdvisor reviews for my travels, so I will try to review something there, and also check out Yelp in my next post

Thing 4 - How social networks can work for us

Of all places, libraries and archives are ideal ones to moderate dicussions and participate in the 2.0 communities. I recently joined Library 2.0 network on Ning http://library20.ning.com - it does take time to check in and out, but I found it useful to learn how other librarians implement RSS and use blogs, and what resources there are for law and other special libraries. You read how people use various sites, and you learn a lot. So, first of all, the network like Library 2.0 could be used for our library and archives staff to get professional news, find out about new technologies, and seek advice in selection of the new data managment system. Second, this could be an ideal place to invlove our membership in discussions about aquisitions of new archives, what is worth preserving, and how the copyrights and sensitive materials should be treated. All decisions are currently made by a very slow process of committee meetings where people exchange opinions, vote, etc. A social network i.e. "What makes history of psychoanalysis" could speed the process and, more importantly, bring critical researchers to brainstorm pros and cons of every aquisition with us. As we recently found out, many historians of psychoanalysis and experts live on the other side of the world. Thus, online social network, is the only chance to consider opinions of those who would otherwise be counted out. And lastly, there should be (and probably are) networks out there for psychoanalysts to discuss latest in their fields of research, post articles, and contact fellow professionals. There are also analyst-patient referral networks to connect people in need to care professionals. Psychoanalytic library can monitor and integrate all such networks, post links and descriptions on library web site, and encourage patrons to participate.

Welcome to Archives Go Digital!

Welcome to my blog! Archivists, librarians, collectors, and amateurs, please share your thoughts on the future of archives and record management. How can we come out from the dusty basements and shady attics to take up residence in the cyber space? Scan, scan, scan - let's make our precious manuscripts and black-and-white photographs talk! Wait, what about copyrights? Have those scribes ever dreamt of going online? What are the promises and perils of OAI-PMH, OAI-ORE? How to find cheap tools to redo our catalogs? Mike is on: history is being recorded - how podcasting changed audio archives. Hey, it is an interesting world out there...