The joys of chasing links

Sometimes following links on the SLJ website can lead to fascinating destinations, making it worth the time I sometimes spend doing it. Not all link-chasing leads to frivolous sites to find out the latest celebrity scandal; in fact, none of SLJ's links do that, but you can often find useful tools for helping patrons. If you've ever tried to explain social software to teachers or parents, you know how difficult the concept can be, so finding a clear, logical article that explains the components of social software is very helpful. Here is just such an article, called "Social Software Building Blocks" It's rather old now--dating from 2007--but the concepts are still relevant and can help to explain the appeal of social networks for so many young people. The more understanding librarians and other adults have about social networking, the less likely they will be to try to block youngsters from using them. The faster we get schools and libraries on board to support constructive uses of social networking, the better we can serve the young people who use them.

Zero tolerance strikes

Where's the spell-checker when you really need it? SLJ's Bowillan's Blog
today includes a story about a ten-year-old banned from Club Penguin because she made a typo and wrote "sex" when she meant "sec". It's easy to see how that would happen, and any human being who looked at the message "I'll be back in a sex" would guess what had happened, but the unforgiving computer that monitors Club Penguin automatically bans anyone who slips. Club Penguin is a useful site for young computer users and it's too bad they don't correct this problem before too many kids are hurt by being kicked off a site. (Of course, they may be working on this as I write and if they are, they get a gold star.) As librarians and parents, we should remember not to jump too fast and scold children for inadvertent mistakes that make make them seem subversive when they are only making the same kind of mistake adults make every day. We must keep our human eyes alert to check the mindless settings of the computer systems we let our children use.