Connecting Librarian

I have been thinking about this subject for weeks, longer probably and I’m not the only one. There’s been a lot of discussion about what social software people are using, people stopping blogging and some restarting and more. In the light of this, I thought it was about time I sorted out all the myriad of thoughts and ideas that are going around my head and totally confuse you about it too.

I have been exploring lots of social software online in the past 3 years or so and I think I am finally settling into a few selected ones that I am enjoying. The places I spend at least a little time everyday are Twitter (feel free to follow me - tango2), Facebook and a gaming site Gold Token, besides the several email addresses I monitor for myself, my work, hubby’s business and my church. I also believe in this blog still, although I am not posting as often, probably for a couple of reasons, which I will go into later.

http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2007/11/

I tried Library 2.0 on Ning, but there’s only so much you can do online and I find that most of the people I want to be in contact with are on Facebook. I never registered for Linked In, never felt the need because of my Facebook connections. And Facebook has great word games, although I could do without the vampires, zombies, knights etc. I use IM mainly at work, but not much at home, probably because I don’t have many addresses yet, so that could change. I love del.icio.us, but at home I am using it more as ‘I want to know where these websites are when I need them’ account. At work however, I am having a ball, using it for our Olympic Games links. And don’t get me started on podcasts and RSS feeds (both of which I love).

I want to do more with my Library Thing account, maybe integrating it more with my blog, like I have with Twitter, the same with my Flickr account and I haven’t gotten into YouTube or any equivalent yet, except as a regular viewer. We’ll see what happens though. Still that’s a lot to be using and trying to keep up with on a regular basis.

I have a feed from my blog going into my Facebook and I have integrated my Twitter feed into my Facebook and my blog because I don’t want to be concentrated in one spot. I like the idea of being able to be seen and heard in a number of places. Exhibitionist maybe, or maybe just a librarian to the core, making it as easy as possible to find that information. Dispersing my twitter feeds means that have to open them up, which for some people is a legitimate privacy concern, but I can live with that. Again, I guess its the librarian in me that just wants as many access points as possible. On the otherhand, it means that I can’t discuss everything that I may want to (ie. the odd rant), as it would viewable by all, including those about whom I am ranting, but that’s the price you pay.

So why 2008 in the title? Because all this will change. Two years ago I just had the blog, email and a bit of IM. Delicious was something new on the radar for me then too. Its only in the last year that I have really got immersed in Twitter and Facebook. So who knows how the landscape and how I choose to use it, will change in the next year.

So I guess I’m saying, that I plan to be found online in these places: my blog, facebook, twitter, delicious, flickr, library thing (getting there anyway) and that’s enough for now. I like being in all those diverse places, but I also like my content coming together in one place, to give a big picture view, so that’s where this blog will still play a big part.

The blog as I said earlier has been quieter, for a number of reasons. Firstly, because I am spending time in the other places I have mentioned, secondly because I have been doing some presentations, writing papers and have just finished a couple of articles (waiting to hear if they will be published). Thirdly, the big changes that seemed to be happening and happening fast with Web 2.0, seem to be slowing down a bit. Comes from being on the cutting edge I guess, we are now just waiting for everyone else to catch up a bit before we move onto to the next big thing - or maybe we’re just waiting for the next big thing to appear? Or is it just me?

So how do I manage to keep up with all this. I don’t know really. But Clay Shirky, author of “Here comes everybody“, has some thoughts on that. I really recommend you take the time to watch this video, where he explains where the time comes from. Its worth the 15 minute investment (and I really must get the book and stick it on Library Thing).

Anyway, so now you know where to find me. And wherever you go looking for me, you can be guaranteed that you’ll be able to find out what I’m up to. Whether or not you want to, is entirely up to you!

Next Space (OCLC) magazine includes a social networking article featuring Stuart Weibel.

Where is the Library as a brand?
Perceptions of libraries and information resources - OCLC report (available online)
3300 respondents to questions on library use, awareness and use of library electronic resources, internet search engine the library and the librarian, free vs for-fee information, the brand itself.
Libraries are trusted sources of information, search engines are trusted about the same, people care about quality and quantity of info they find, but speed is less important (not believable). However, convenience is very important.
Do not view paid infomration as more accurate than free info.
The overwhelming brand image of libraries is BOOKS!

Library Brand Equity - we need a strong visible brand on the web.  Libraries currently are a black and white presence in a colorful, flashy web world.
How do we build the brand?  Build on the trust of our patrons. Build on our business model - making info look free to our end-users.  Build on the scale that libraries represent - presence in every community, global scope and reach.  Improve awareness of library resources.  Make libraires a part of the new electronic environments that dominate social, educational and work environments.  We need to be there!

Social netowrking software!  Its not new, just the technical manifestation is. Deliver library services into the emerging social networks. Motivate people to participate: tagging, book reviews, emergent relationships that are evident from data about what people borrow, like and dislike, link to the people as well.  Need to build our own systems into the social structures that are so quickly developing.

Numbers of content creators and contributors are changing - increasing.  More people are wanting to get their content out on the web.  Their are great innovative approaches to attract that content to the library community.

Social Networking is not just for games: Facebook, MySpace, Second Life and Twitter.  All are flawed as service delivery models - business models are closed or obscure, features are rudimentary or overbearing. But they foretell a digital future in both their virtues and faults. Stuart Weibel has both Twitter and Facebook accounts and will be your friend.  They teach us about what people are doing out there - think of it as a professional investment.  They are all goofy because they are all new.  They will develop and some of that development will be interesting.

Libraries must compare favourably with experiences that our patrons expect: discovery and recommender services, web 2.0 social network capabilities, experiences of comparable commerical services, last-mile delivery capability, bookstore social experiences.  We are offering an experience as well as a service.  Save the user time.

Can Libraries compete in this space?  Should they?
Social software movement is fueled by (dollar denominated) entrepreneurial fervor.  Rate of innovation (and failure) is rapid. Distinguish between trends and the trendy and don’t get wrapped on the latter, especially when they fail.

Future of library catalogues?
Evolving towards network level. Collections linked to people, organisations, global location, concepts, context, metadata and social networking benefits.  Fit into the workflow and social lives of patrons. Help create a scaffolding for past knowledge and future productivity.

Web or Scaffolding?  We want more conherence and context, durable environments that help us preserve and fix resources in the context of culture, librarianship embedded in the emerging technologies of a social web.

Our catalogues need to be wholistic, treating not only works, but also people, concepts, works and objects (FRBR).  In addition we need book reviews, lists, services, commentary, other?  Book reviews are part of social bibliography, user created content.  All these things should be First Class Objects which have to ahve a persistent identity on the web, accessible by anyone or any applicaation, stand alone (attribution, clear IP rights), curated (not left alone). Allow the user to enter and tranverse the catalogue from any point.

WorldCat Identities - Beta product from OCLC - Another piece of the puzzle?
Tag cloud shows the top 100 identities.  Uses bibliographic data and mining it from other sources at OCLC.

Complicated puzzle - where ya gonna turn?
People, information, resources, places, terminologies, user generated content, FRBR (explain it to your patrons).  We need to better mine and utilise the data that we have.  Hook everything together with the right sort of identifiers.  A coherent identifier infrastructure is essential. Broad dissemination of identifiers serves the library collaborative and is the single most compelling means of making library assets persistent and visible on the web.

Persistence: not technological but rather a function of the commitment of organisations.  Libraries and other cultural memory organisations do this well.  Harder to do in the digital era, but the community is up to the task.
Universal access and global scoping: open to all, public identifiers in a public Web. Should work everywhere. WorldCat is the first globally-scoped identifier architecture for library assets in which the global surrogate is mapped to locality.  But we’re not quite done yet.
SEO and canonical identifiers - visibility of assets in the global library is diluted by the multiplicity of identifiers, agreement is needed on a canonical identifier.  Lack of it is a dilution of our brand and a lack of visibility on the web.
Branding is an important component of URIs - every URI is a micro-billboard branding library content in a crowded and largely commercial Web landscape. URIs need to be designed for people as well as machines, should be speakable, should be as short can be as managed, should have a predictable pattern that makes them hackable and truncatable.

FRBR is an important ocintrubtion to resource organisation on the web, but it is a challenge to explain to users.

World Cat - Mid 2006. Globally unique, freely available, citable and resolvable, independent of location, but not quite canonical.  Falls short because of duplicates, either mistaken or functional, not always resolvable to content and only sort of canonical.

NEWS!!!   Pilot project by OCLC - GLIMIR - Global Library Manifestation Identifier which is global in scope, canonical, business neutral, provides the URL equity necessary to support the library brand, fits comfortably with the FRBR model.  If its going to work, it can’t be an OCLC product, but it will be managed by them. It will require participation, buy in and support, all of which will be very tricky to achieve.  Can a global community agree and adopt this when there are already so many identifiers - eg. ISBN.  OCLC is launching this pilot to identify functional requirements and practicalities solicited review from technical specialists,moving forward will require a careful balance of use cases, business issue and more.

Identifiers are key to fulfilling the mission of libraries in a digital future, to compete ont he open web for recognition of our brand, to integrate our traditional bibliographic values with social networking content, to provides services and access to the digital tribe - our future constituency.

weibel-lines.typepad.com.
twitter - stuartweibel
flickr - weibel-lines

Kim Tairi - Swinburne University of Technology, Rob McCormack - Peodair Leihy and Peter Ring - Victoria University
“Fairy tales and Elggs: social networking with student rovers in learning commons”

Rovers were used in the Learning commons - student peer mentors who worked in pairs.  Created RoverSpace - an online community for Rovers to share knowledge and problems, initially used Elgg (open source social networking space), now use Google Groups and Mediawiki.

Student rovers need to be peers (complementary service to librarians), seed a culture of learning (exemplars of good learning practice, paid work as a positive (good addition to or complement of their coursework), where the community meets (some rovers see working for the library as an honour).
Having rovers who reflect the university’s student population, in terms of background, courses etc.

RoverSpace - contains shift reports, statistics, administrative communication, reflective tasks, organic information sharing space.

Duties: - basic advice, assistance, operational support to students in the Learning Commons regarding IT and Library queries
- assist students to clarify their learning issues and develop strategiese to tackle them
- refer students to online/library resources, formal student learning advice and other forms of assistance

Rovers handled 4500 queries in the first 2 semesters of 2007  83% dealt with in a few minutes. 7.2% referred to library staff. 70.5% of queries were for printing, photocopying, catalogue, borrowing and returning, finding items on shelf and the swipe card technology.

Happily Ever After?
better publicity and more visibility
more training and better knowledge management
different roles (lead rover and webmaster)
more efficient support (only one in off peak times)
capitalising on online support potential
other platforms - Cosmopolis
PDAs

Bruce Heterick - JSTOR
“Shift happens: how the network effect, two-sided markets and the wisdom of crowds are impacting libraries and scholarly communication”

Check out the YouTube video “Shift happens” - series of factoids on how the world is changing.

“Technology is everything that is invented after you were born.”  “Technology does not add or subtract something. It changes everything.”
eg. Printing press (Gutenberg -1440) led to the Protestant Reformation and the Renaissance
Linotype machine (Merganthaler - 1886) led to increased newspaper circulation (cheaper production costs)
Integrated circuit (Kilby/Noyce - 1961) led to digital computing
World Wide Web (BernersLee - 1989) led to search engines, e-commerce, information transition
iPod (Apple - 2001) - led to portable media

Library in use is using audio avatars - surfer dude on using Google, southern lady on archives from JSTOR - podcast how to use the resources.  Students downloading and listening to them when they want.

Four exponentials ….. working together
- Moore’s Law - power of computing is doubling every 18 months ( hold true for last 25 years and probably for next 10 to 15)
- Law of Fiber - capacity of the bandwith is doubling every 9 months - allowing us to deliver much more than we could have imagined a few years ago
- Law of Storage - digital storage doubles for the same cost every 12 months (its not a concern anymore because it is so cheap)
- Law of Community (Metcalf’s Law) - the power of the network goes up with the square of the networked people interacting with it
Each law is an exponential change agent, but with all of them working together, feeding off one another, it has caused such great change that it has become unsettling for people.

“If things are under control, you are moving too slow”.

They are facilitating the transition from the Information Age to the Age of Participation:
- actively engaging with what they are receiving - blogs and wikis are descendents of that need
- multilateral, not unilateral - not just working person to person - more apparent but also can be more confusing
- communities, not silos - around the information, how will they be facilitated through the platforms being used
- contribution as well as consumption

They are contributing to an environment with new dynamics:
- The Network effect - service becomes available as more people use it, growth can be extraordinarily fast (often virally) and can occur with little or no centralized control, glider - the power of the network must move down.
- Two-sided markets - WEb 2.0 where people contribute and consumer, economic network having two distinct user groups

Wisdom of crowds - groups are smarter than the smartest individual in the right circumstances
- decisions by crowds work when the crowd is diverse, decentralized & work independently ie. Wikipedia

Libraries will have to engage more at the place where their users are - proactive engagement.
Publishers have to be building self-sustaining communities or be consolidated.
Faculty - have to become more conversant with the technologies, adopt these advances, focus on networks, not institutions.

Law of change - libraries will have to change as the larger system of which we are a part changes, or risk being ejected from it.
Gorbachev Syndrome - leaders swept away by the tide they have created.

Do we move forward to what is inevitable or do we hold on to the continuity that we have, however profoundly it is flawed?

Michael Geist - Canada Research Chair of Internet and E-Commerce Law, University of Ottawa
“Unlocking access: in support of a hands-on Internet policy”

Early days of the web (90s) were seen as a hands-off time for government, leaving it to the practitioners and users.  However, government and policy have always been a part of the internet.

Internet 2008: World of blogs, podcasts, social networking which is enabling people to create, speak out, making their voices heard.  They can share experiences and find that they are not alone. Creation, using desktop software and distribution of video is also growing exponentially - eg. Star Wreck, Elephant’s Dream.  Public broadcasters are allowing their users (and funders) to do the same. (eg BBC)  Flickr with billions of photos now has over 100 million photos available under Creative Commons licences - enabling others to create with this content as well as millions of other online works.

Growth of the collaborative media - ie. Wikipedia - 2 million articles in english. Encyclopedia of Life aiming to catalogue all life on earth in 10 years - started last year.  OhMyNews - citizen journalism contributed by the person on the street, to a handful of editors.  Project Gutenberg, LibriVox (audio of it), MIT Open Courseware (7 years old) - online syllabi, course materials, powerpoint demos, podcasts and videocasts. Public Library of Science - open access peer reviewed scientific journal. Internet archive is good for more than the Way Back machine, it will host any content that the individual has the copyright to. Digitisation projects worldwide making previously unknown titles or those thought to be lost, now available to all.  Underlying a lot of this is open source software.

Internet 2018: Four pillars: connectivity, enhance participation,copyright, content
Price of admission for participation, lifelong learning, self expression is access. Connectivity - Broadband for all.
Muni wifi - market can’t do it all, there is a place for public utlities
net neutrality (not the Internet 2 model - pay for better service) - will help develop innovation - much would not be around today if it had not been in place ie. Google, eBay and Amazon.  Need legislation to ensure equity for all.

Enhance participation - intermediary liability issues - being blamed for the content of others and sometimes having legal action taken.
domain names
privacy - protections are often dictated by the policies of the sites they inhabit
trust
transparency

Copyright - anti-circumvention - trying to keep it away, but if not, then retain fair dealing rights
fair use - ensure robust enough to deal with the shifting landscape
term extension -
orphan works
WIPO -

All communities need to speak out so that our governments are truly representing the view of the people in international negotiations.

Content: Open access, digitisation, crown copyright sometimes used as a legal form of censorship, public broadcasting.

Schubert Foo - Vice Dean SCI Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
“Going virtual for enhanced library experience: a case study of the National Library of Singapore

His website - www.ntu.edu.sg/home/assfoo/

Was impressed with the developments in Librarianship in Australia, as evidenced by the papers and showcases at VALA. Encouraged the audience to share internationally and not think that the innovation can only come from the US or Europe.

National Library Board oversees the National Library and all public libraries in Singapore.

Singapore is a very IT savvy country. As young as 3 year olds are given mobile devices to play and learn with. Everywhere in Singapore, heads are down, using their handheld devices. Government initiative promoting Singapore as an IT island. Social and affluent society, cosmopolitan - coffee drinking is an experience in itself.

Singapore Libraries - brick vs click, collect-organise-store-access, mediator (source to user), authoritative, trusted content

Library users are in the minority and are scholars, researchers, library savvy.  Others find info needs met by search engines, see web info as legitimate and the only source, they think Google, Yahoo, MSN not library, expect instant gratification, find info until is downloadable, expect exception user experience (memorable, unique, exquisitely simple).  How do we find solutions to reach the majority and bring them back to our physical and virtual libraries.

What do hey do to close the gap? Delve into the information space of the users . Make resources more discoverable for them, thus bringing them back to the library.

Mobile phone penetration in Singapore 2007 - 109.1% of the population. SMS Nation - 3rd place afer Malaysia (210) and the Phillipines (846) - with a monthly average of 209 text messages per month.  Relatively cheap to send SMS and is often used to close business deals (no signature required).

Role of library - to connect users to resources that users need, for whatever purposes, in any format, from anywhere, using any device at the time (instantaneous for some) they want it.  Library as an info-concierge - individual info object is a self sustaining, self contained node unit, can be content or service, in any format.  Need to be inter-connected with multiple access points. Upon discovery, an information object becomes an info-concierge with ability to connect to other content (in library or outside) or other information seekers.  Connectivity can be achieved by hyperlinks, different platforms, pusing information - connectivity not necessarily one way.  Evolving a mesh (web) of information.

What’s Next? Browse by subjects, browse by format, recommended relational search, up and coming events, photos and stories to share. This content is harvested rom internal and external resources. Content can be released to spaces tousdie the library to promote discovery.(ie social networking spaces)  Residency in other spaces allows users to use them as best suited for their needs. If they don’t want the content, they can ignore it, but its there if they are interested or a need arises. Example: BookJetty.com.(like Library Thing) but will show if its in a local library or link to an online bookseller for purchase.

Library as a network of inter-connected info-concierges. Requires harvesting of other resources, selecting and authenticating contents, meta-tagging, creating, maintaining and growing taxonomies, information content organisation. Internal - NLS web content and subscribed databases. External - GYM, MICA, IDA, NAS.

Library as a network of true collaborators. Connectivity: content to content, people to content, people to people. Libraries are best placed to provide this. Dialogue/information sharing tools: wikis, blogs, social spaces.  Both library owned and other owned content.  We don’t have to own everything, we need to harvest content that is useful to our users, regardless of source.

In house exhibitions are rendered as far as possible to virtual exhibitions, once the physical one has ended.  National Library of Singapore is a smart building, approximately $300 million. ie. maximised airflow, use of sun and reflecting panels, trees on the 7th floor were chosen from thriving ones in the surrounding area. (book to be published on it soon).

NLS repositioned its reference service to meet users’ changing expectations and consumer lifestyles. Service within reach - SMS reference. Ask a librarian service by phone, one public library has a video conferencing service (no librarian in the branch), email and now SMS. 60 characters in Chinese, up to 160 in English.  Librarian resolves enquiry and enters answers via a standard template.  Reply with a direct answer or a URL. The URL gives more info, including more search terms to use, highlighted resources including notes on where to look in them, links to their availability.  At the end they include feedback questions which the user completes and submits. The answers are kept in a database as a future searchable resource.

Observations: overall positive feedback.  Various types of questions answered. Some users expect instant replies. Usgae rates averages 10-15 enquiries per day. Accessing NLS through Google, Yahoo and MSN. Created Infopedia - articles authored by NLS reference librarians about personalities, places and historical events in Singapore.  Use SEO to make sure it appears high on search engine results.  (infopedia.nlb.gov.sg)  Using Google based content (ie. maps) helps get links to your content. Content usage has increased exponentially with better exposure on the web - from 400 views to 63,000 views per month.  Other micro-sites are being explored.

Collaborative reference network. Making use of community expertise - librarians, researchers, community members. If questions can not be answered, referred to the network of specialists - who will then respond to the query which the librarian will then return to the user.  Uses forum for the discussions occuring over a query, can follow a thread.  Observations: still goes through the library, reference communities can included librairans, experts or others.

Challenges: requires support, experimentation, budget, time and innovation. Future promises excitement for librarians, managers, developers and vendors. Librarians will continue to grapple with constant flux of technological changes, users’ behaviour, users’ expectations and the need to reinvent themselves and continue instilling information literacy knowledge to users.  Need to continually learn about our users.  Referred to the JISC/British Library report on the Google Generation - Information behaviour of the researcher of the future.

I have finally caught up on all my reading, amongst which was a very thought provoking post by John Blyberg entitled “Library 2.0 Debased“, which in turn was inspired by Kate Sheehan’s post “Are librarians culturally self-aware“. I recommend you check out both posts as well as the comments, there is some interesting reading there.

Anyway, the biblioblogosphere was buzzing over John’s post and I had read quite a few posts about it before I actually read the original. Normally I wouldn’t necessarily blog about the same thing, especially when there are so many others who have already done so, but after reading the post for a second time, then on reading some indirectly related content and mulling over it a bit more, I felt I had something more to contribute to the discussion.

Just as I was getting started, more came in that added to the mix - The essence of Library 2.0 from Meredith Farkas at Information Wants to be Free, Web 2.0 and Library 2.0: Its’ all about the stuff from Philip Bradley at Phil Bradley’s Weblog and Nobody ever said from Walt Crawford at Walt at Random. Again, I recommend you check them all out.

As a result, I am rethinking my whole attitude to Library 2.0. There has been a lot of difficulty in defining it, mainly because the term and the attitude it is supposed to define (user-centric, meeting them where they are at, etc) has come at the same time as the tools and many have been unable to separate the two or see that there has been any distinction between them. My overriding thought is whose fault is it that the message got lost? I know that I have been leading that bandwagon from my small perch and so I have some responsibility in that blame.

It has become cool, hip, its cutting edge, so if you are a happening library, you are doing Library 2.0. Understandable. The tools are ubiquitous, easy to use, are being used by our users and are mostly free. How can you not want to be all over them?

A lot of talk in the above mentioned blog posts is about vendors jumping on the bandwagon - which is understandable from their viewpoint - they’re giving libraries what they are asking for, whether they really know what they want or not. Is this a bad thing?

John Blyberg talked about how SOPAC hasn’t worked as he planned, but that’s part of being in libraries and in cutting edge stuff. As he says, we have to take risks and try things, some will work, some won’t and we will learn and move on to other things. Doesn’t mean we stop experimenting. As Meredith points out, just because it doesn’t work in one library, doesn’t mean it won’t work in another. Unfortunately, it usually takes time and resources which are in short supply in most libraries, making them reluctant to allocate them to things that may not work. Which makes me think that is why library vendors have such interest in their new Library 2.0 services - pay someone else to do all the work, cheaper and quicker. (questionable, but I am sure there are people out there who would think that way).

Which brings me back to the heading of this post. Ryan Deschamps at The Other Librarian posted We asked for Library 2. 0 and got Librarians 2.0. At the time I posted on it - Library 2.0 - its far from over, but now I think Ryan was right, to a certain extent it is, even here in Australia where it is still relatively new. If we want to stop the bandwagon leading our libraries astray and see them focussed on users and services, then maybe as individuals we need to drop the Library 2.0 and focus on being Librarian 2.0’s - at work and outside of it and just help our libraries to utilise and adapt the Web 2.0 tools that are appropriate for our users and our services. Our libraries should always have that focus anyway - regardless of what tools are available - its not one size fits all.

So my part will be to drop Library 2.0, but continue to be a Librarian 2.0, instituting Web 2.0 tools in my library as our users needs are assessed and I find that Web 2.0 is the best option. If Web 2.0 tools are not the best option, then we wont’ go there - at least I will try to make sure that doesn’t happen. As Phil Bradley said, they’re just stuff.

These are exciting times, with exciting new tools to play with. So I will continue having fun with them, inside and outside of work. However, I will also keep my focus on our users and do my best as a public librarian to provide them with best service possible - whatever means that will require - Web 2.0 or not.

There’s more in this discussion, but can’t get my head around it all at this time. Would love to hear your thoughts on it. For those of you going to VALA, hope to see you there!

Whilst I catch up on quite a bit of reading and get my head around my next planned post, whilst also getting my children ready for school (with my son starting Grade Prep) I thought I would point out a great resource.

Many of you would already have seen at least some of these, but they are all well worth a look. The videos are all quite short (3 to 4 minutes generally) and do a good job of explaining the topic at hand in layman’s terms. Kind of like a video dummies guide.

From Common Craft - “We produce short videos that make complex subjects easier to understand.” The Common Craft Show is a series of free videos on social media topics, which also help them to showcase their work.

Anyway, the ones most of interest to me and I will assume will be of some interest to you are:
Video: Google Docs in Plain English
Video: Online Photo Sharing in Plain English
Video: Blogs in Plain English
Video: Social Bookmarking in Plain English
Video: Wikis in Plain English
RSS in Plain English

I would also recommend them as ones to show others who may be struggling with the particular idea being discussed. They are brief, easy to understand, user friendly and even a little bit of fun. Take some time to check them out and enjoy!

“Promoting “2.0 Training” with “Fantastic Freebies” and other innovative programs. Janie & Bob from Princeton whom I spent time with last week.

Inspired by Computers in Libraries 2006. You can do more than basic tech training. Several easy to implement paths to grow at Tech training program - low cost in money and staff time.

Position yourself as Tech Gurus. Get involved with local users groups, present for local groups, develop and/or join technology mailing lists, create a tech training blogs, sell up at each and every class, tease with new content. Never underestimate the power of a full colour poster.
Databytes program - brown bag session for an hour at 1pm, each librarian takes a turn at it, open to staff and public.

Bringing them in - 15 freebies in 15 minutes. Locate freebies through PC Magazine, SEOmoz’s Web 2.0 awards, Time Magazine’s 50 coolest websites, Filehippo. Constantly scan tech blogs, library blogs, tech news sites and the popular media. ie. Slashdot.

Text editing freebies - Google Docs, YourDraft, Ajaxwrite
Organisation freebies - Tadalists, Cozi Central, Google Calendar
Productivity freebies - LogMeIn (control a remote computer), CCleaner
Photo and Video freebies - GIMP, Everystockphoto, Flickr, OneTrueMedia

Future class plans at options. Photoshop to GIMP and Pixer/Picnik. Blogger to Wordpress. Bloglines to Google Reader. Social Bookmarking. Podcasts. YouTube/OneTrueMedia/SplashCast. Digital scrapbooking. Classes are alway in constant beta, keep things fresh and keep innovating.

Slides will be on Library Garden Blog.

Tech Freebies Program Ideas - Matt and Robin who I will see at Charlotte tomorrow!

People are coming to us, wanting to create. Kids are Media Snackers (check their website).
Make it happen from painting to pixels, from crayons to cameras. Use what you already have - ie. Office suite. Use Freebies - ie. Tux Paint - basic painting program for kids.

More - Game Maker, Architect Studio 3D, Google Sketchup, YouTube, Picasa, GIMP, Frank Lloyd Wright Preservation Trust, flickr, Audacity, MySpace, Second Life and Wink (debug mode). Do some simple things to address the interests of kids.

Purchased software and activities - Youth Digital Arts CyberSchool, iMovie, Garage Bank, ACID Music Studio, pinnacle, Stop MotionPro, Fraps, Kudlian Soft, Digital Storytelling.

Robin explained all about ImaginOn - more about that after I visit it tomorrow. In house creation, including animation using Stop Motion Pro, Pinnacle Studio, Sony Acid Music Studio, Garage Band (Mac) and Final Cut Studio (Mac). Have a portable animation station. Next steps - “Participatory culture shifts the focus of literacy from one of individual expression to community involvement.”

youthtech.wordpress.com

Social software to Meredith must meet 2 of the following definitions:

• communicate, collaborate and build community online
• syndicated, reused, remixed

Characteristics

• Easy content creation and sharing - democraticised creation, anyone can create and edit - eg. CIL 2007 Wiki
• Online collaboration - regardless of geographic location, collaborating in a single shared space eg. Google Docs
• Conversations: distributed - taking place in many different spaces - eg. blogosphere, using comments, trackbacks, you can trace conversations (BlogPulse site to trace conversations)
• Conversations: real time - instant messaging to access people in real time, friends are already there, is the library?
• Capitalizing on the wisdom of crowds - social tagging tools such as del.icio.us to find what others have found interesting, wikis to share local knowledge at conferences etc
• Transparency - ratings websites abound, so nothing escapes scrutiny, it allows us to make a more human connection with entities online and organisations are responding with human touches such as blogs
• Personalisation - choose and combine our own content with RSS feeds, bringing them together in one space - making them our own newspapers, podcasts become our own radio stations, using your computer, CD player or MP3 player
• Portability - ear buds seem be surgically attached to young adults - need to be providing content for the devices they are using

What can libraries do?

• Disseminate information - blog to push information out easily to our users, especially using RSS feeds so they can get it in the form they choose. Harris County Public Library uses a blog as a reference service - recommend books on topics that are of interest due to recent event. RSS feeds from the catalogue based on subject, author, title and more. Ohio Uni Biz Wiki - a subject guide, allowing subject access to resources, easily editable and searchable. Use del.icio.us to subject collect relevant bookmarks - Washington State Library has a genealogy collection which is annotated and available through RSS. Use podcasts to deliver library instruction, interviews, local history - eg. Omnibus
• Get feedback! Start a Conversation! eg. Ann Arbor District Library has built great conversations through their blogs and more by leaving their comments open. Better than a feedback form. Use social networking sites such as FaceBook and MySpace. Oceana Wilson uses the bulletin function to solicite suggestions for book purchases etc from students.
• Give the library a human face! Use Flickr to show what your library is all about. A picture is worth a 1000 words, show your fun activities and more. SJCPL blog really talks to their readers like they are talking to an old friend. Use visual elements and fun language.
• Provide services to remote users. More and more that our visitors are virtual only and we need to be reaching them also. Use IM, as they are already using it instead of trying to make them use something unfamiliar - such as virtual reference software. Calgary Public Library tutorials using webcasts, instead of screen shots or step-by-step instructions.
• Provide services where our users are. MySpace profiles, or like Brooklyn College Library which has built a portal where their users are: portal to online resources, blog and more. Thomas Ford uses MeeboMe widget to open IM messaging right from their website, without having to sign up for IM. Use RSS feeds to syndicate your content to many different locations.
• Provide services using tools patrons use. SMS reference using mobile phones which are ever present on particularly young people.
• Capitalise on collective intelligence of colleagues and users. Ann Arbor has integrated tagging into their catalogue - getting contextual information on these resources, from their users, making it easier to find. Have also got, users who borrowed this, also borrowed….. Hennepin has integrated commenting into their catalogue, patrons can write reviews and it can be found in their catalogue.

Strategies for introducing social software in libraries

• Avoid technolust - think about the needs first, then choose the best tool for it
• Will it improve library services? Will patrons use it? - Who are our patrons, what are there needs, it all has to be context appropriate to the users of your library
• Involve staff at all levels in planning - not just the tech savvy staff, but all those who have to use and market the tools, they can provide some great insights.
• Involve IT in planning - include them from the start, create a consortial rather than an adversarial relationship
• Play with Technology! Kick the tires! Start using the social tools, check them out and you will get a lot more insight on how they work, how they could work and their problems.
• Trust your patrons, learn from them - don’t fear what your users may post - its about radical trust and it we don’t have it, we miss out on valuable contributions
• Consider maintenance and sustainability - think long term once you start with it, not just the next few months, but years and years
• Do you need a policy? Don’t always need one, but there is a benefit in having things such as a comments policy.
• In Marketing, focus on the functionality - patrons don’t really care about the tool, but are interested in what it provides.

Meredith announced the winners of the competition to find cover art for her new book - “Social software in libraries”.

Links from the paper are at http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com

I was going to take a break from this Learning 2.0 - intensive version, but in a moment of weakness, I decided to start the next lesson - image generators and got hooked! I should have known better - this learning 2.0 stuff is fun!

Here’s one - the ultimate search for me (nothing wrong with my self image!)
(from http://www.gooogie.co.uk/)

And another: (from http://www.ComicStripGenerator.com/)

This led to trying Library Thing, which I have been meaning to do for a while. I love idea of being able to see all my books with their covers and info beyond the title and author, like what Syndetics will do with our new ILMS (can’t wait!)

So it took me 2 seconds to join up and then another 10 seconds to add 10 books to my library. If only everything was so simple! Now I will keep adding to my library which will take some time, but in the meantime, I have subscribed to the RSS feed from the Library Thing blog so I can learn more about this great service, as I go. I am even planning to add a widget from Library Thing to my blog, as soon as my new additions list is not my complete library! If you want to see what I have added, go to my Library Thing account.

Finally, I have had one play with Rollyo a little while ago and also had a look at Google Co-op search, in the hope of getting a type of federated search happening on our library website. It worked OK with some of our databases, but due to the variations in validating users, it didn’t work with them all. However, now that I have been reminded, I will be getting back onto it at work. With both these products, its easy to do.

Wow - a lot to do in one week’s learning, but soooooo much fun!!!!