Social Blog

I can’t believe the course is finished! What a great adventure it has been! LIS 9763 was the first distance education course that I have taken, ever, and I am sure glad that I did. I knew that this course would be really interesting and I was really happy when I got into it, but this class greatly exceeded my expectations. Every week I felt like I learned something new, as these tools were really interesting to learn and explore. I constantly found myself playing with and applying these tools to my everyday routine. For example, since this class I have created and maintained a delicious account, subscribed to many RSS feeds, explored countless blogs, and even created one myself J, visited various wiki pages and experimented with some neat library mobile applications.  I now understand why these tools are quickly being applied to libraries everywhere, regardless of their function or goal. These tools have great potentials to be used with existing library programs and services, to develop new ones, and they are also great methods of promoting them.  I knew that social networking tools had a role in libraries, but after completing the course I can easily identify just how great these roles can be. I also now believe that these tools can be used to increase a library’s clientele as they are great ways in which librarians can meet users ‘where they are’, by essentially going to and reaching out to them. I especially enjoyed learning about RSS feeds, as I knew very little before. By working on my project proposal for the implementation of one at Canadian Agriculture Library, I have truly realized the many many benefits of this tool.

            This experience has been great, I felt that the weekly slideshows were informative and interesting and that the readings were very illuminating, as they revealed the importance of these tools in simple and educational manners. I especially enjoyed the case studies that were applied to each tool. It was wonderful to gain a sense of how these tools were applied to real libraries, and the ways in which they have enabled libraries to strengthen their programs and services.   I would like to thank you Amanda for a truly wonderful and informative course. I thought you did an exceptional job delivering the content in a manner that keep us all engaged, informed and interested. And thank you classmates for your weekly postings, and comments, they were a lot of fun to read and offered perspectives that I do not think I would considered. Best of luck! Thanks again Amanda!

This weeks content really got me thinking, and reflecting about just how literate libraries are about social media. I believe that many libraries, specifically public and adademic libraries are demonstrating great efforts in implementing current web 2.0 technologies and tools. Throughout the course we has examined many great social media tools and have analyzed case studies about libraries that are taking advantage of these tools. However, while it is wonderful that libraries are working towards creating services and programs by using these tools in order to remain and be regarded as current and relevant by users, there are a few things still to consider. For example, as this week’s content has illustrated, many libraries using these tools may be using them improperly or  not to their fullest potential. Thus, it is possible that these libraries implement these tools with high expectations and goals, without other considerations such as best practices or whether or not a policy should guide use. Ultimately, it is incredibly important for libraries to ensure that they carefully research, understand and examine best practices of the tool they wish to use. Another thing that this week’s content has got me thinking about is why these tools are not present in other libraries, such as special ones. For example, for my co-op placement I was placed at the Canadian Agriculture Library. Throughout my MLIS program the predominace of Web 2.0 technologies in the library world has been ephasized and exmained over and over. So, when I came to CAL I was quite suprised by the lack of 2.0 tools they had used. I didnt think much of it then, but now after taking this course I constantly find myself thinking why? One of the only tools CAL had implemented was Delicious, and I believe that that was only because another co-op student before me had worked on its implementation, and quite possibly proposed its use at CAL. Therefore, I have made the assumption, and this may be incorrect or even unfair but I will make the conclusion anyways, that some libraries may not take advantage of these tools simply because they are unfamiliar, unaware or even weary of such tools. By obtaining co-op students I believe that many libraries are able to learn about current technologies vicariously through them. However, although this is a good method to remain up-to-date, libraries should strieve towards updating services and programs as technology and society as a whole evolves. Libraries, especially specialized ones, need to, as Kathy Sierra suggests, not be so afraid to take risks. Although I know there are specific guidelines, values and missions libraries must abide by, they should not avoid risk-taking merely because of the fear or failure. By learning more about social media tools, and by exploring other libraries who use such tools for a sense of best practice models, libraries can prevent themselves from being socially illiterate, out-of-date and ultimately absent in a social media dominating society. Since technological tools will continue to evolve, if libraries remain in the dark, out of fear, ignorance or sheer laziness, it is possible that they will have to try harder to promote themselves or justify their presence as a result of their inability to remain visible.

This week’s content comes with very good timing, as I am currently working on creating a policy for digitization projects at our library. Although digitization is not a social network tool, a policy is necessary in order to guide library staff in the future. Unlike a policy written for social networking tools, the policy that I am working on will serve as a tool to assist staff in when dealing with similar projects in the future. After spending much time reading about policies, and preparing to create one, I have undoubtedly recognized the importance of its existence. This is especially true when thinking about social networking tools. Policies not only enable consistency in procedures, but they also ultimately ”address appropriate use as well as provide guidelines for content moderation” (Haskell, 2007). Since many of these tools have the potential to create serious privacy issues, it is so incredibly important to ensure that users are aware of the risks that they are taking when using these tools. A policy should clearly outline the potential risks, proper conduct and responsibilities of users to ensure that these tools are 1. used properly, 2. that their use aligns with the purpose of their implementation, and finally 3. to eliminate as many problems that these tools have the power to create. Problems and barriers are inevitable, especially when developing new programs, services and implementing new tools. However, by creating a strong, comprehensive policy, the library can take a big step in ensuring that these tools are as successful as possible.

Okay, so I have a confession to make. Before this week, I did not really know what an RSS feed was. This is something I’m not very proud of, but ultimately I was clueless. I had heard of it, but had failed to truly grasp a sense of what it entailed. Now that I know, Im wondering what took me so long. Man is this wonderful thing! I’m currently working at the Canadian Agriculture Library at AAFC I can easily recognize the incredible value of enabling our clients and users to subscribe to one, or many, RSS feeds. One challenge CAL faces is promoting material, and essentially informing people of what we have, and continue to add regularly. By implementing RSS feeds, I believe that this problem can be resolved. Using similar feeds that the University of Oklahoma’s has created, CAL can take one more step to ensure that clients remain ‘in the know’ and are continuously aware of ‘what’s new’. I believe that this is so incredibly important to keep users informed; for, if they are unaware of the resources, services, programs, and events that occur within the library, things that are all aimed towards satisfying their information, occupational or even recreational needs or desires, than they can ultimately be rendered useless. We are constantly adding new resources to the catalogue, books, and recently as a result of a digitization project I’m working on, I am continuously adding links to records of AAFC publications and other serials that have already been digitized by outside institutions. However, before learning more about RSS feeds I did not really know how we could keep users regularly updated about what we are doing and finding in the library. Also, in the reference department, librarians create subject pathfinders for topics of interest to our clients. An RSS feed would be so helpful in locating new resources available online. I really think that this tool would be incredibly useful in our library. The only problem is, firewall barriers. So much online content is filtered at CAL, and I think that this is an issue that would need to be resolved in order to not only implement, but also ensure that that potential RSS feeds would be as useful and unrestricted as possible.

I was really excited about this weeks content, especially because I have recently jumped on the iphone bandwagon. Also, the very notion that users can essentially carry the library in their pocket is incredible. Although I have not really taken advantage of the multitude of apps that are out there, as the variety and number of them can be quite overwhelming, I think that an app for the local public library would be something that I could consider downloading. Why? well ultimately because of its many benefits, such as those that have been outlined in the readings for this week.  I can recall many times when I would get frustrated at the library because I was unable to look up a book that I forgot the call number for. I would patiently wait while users would hog the computers to do anything but look at the OPAC. How convenient would it be to be able to reach in my pocket, search the OPAC on my phone and take the call number with me to the stacks. No pencil and papers needed. No line ups at the computer. Retrieving information would be that much more convenient and effortless. The creation of applications, or cloud computing, for users to download would be a great way for libraries to extend library services beyond the physical space of the library. I think it is imperative that the library stays current with trends throughout society, especially when it comes to technology. This doesn’t just include modifying services and programs in relation to emerging technology. Libraries should ensure that they are constantly revising and evaluating their services according to emerging and alternative user patterns. I believe that a lot of library users today seek services that fit their lifestyles, and for many of those individuals, especially students, those daily routines are often hectic. Therefore, the ability to seek and retrieve information quickly and conveniently is crucial for many of them. By offering users the ability to search library materials, learn more about the collection, place holds for items, locate various branches and many other functions, the library can better ensure that they are adequately serving their patrons. This step could also allow libraries to reach out and connect with a variety of users at once, users who are often hard to serve, and also users who are on the go. Although I think I would prefer to search an OPAC from a desktop, or laptop computer, I can see the real value of having access to the library OPAC on my phone.

Introduction

One of the things we pride ourselves on at the North Grandville Public Library is our ability to connect with patrons. With a little friendly conversation over the reference desk or circulation desk we are able to choose useful and interesting resources, develop relevant programs, and suggest community events that appeal to our patrons. It is important to us that the people of North Grandville see the library not as a storage facility for books, but as a place that helps enrich their lives. To improve our ability to connect with patrons we have decided that we cannot limit our interaction to the people who come through our door and when people come through our door. That is why we have created a Twitter account.

By posting quick updates and small pieces of information geared towards the interest of our patrons, we hope to increase our presence in their life and their knowledge of the world around them. This should also prove to be a good venue to reach community members who might not be patrons (yet!) by sharing information about our resources and programs with other groups and people who may be interested. Even just getting their attention with an interesting link might give them cause to come check us out (online or in person). We think this is a fun and organic way to create a sense of community for our library online.

Target Audience

North Grandville Public Library’s twitter account has been established in order to reach out and engage an often hard to reach clientele, kids and teens. We believe that the best way to connect with this group is to ‘go where they are’ and ‘speak in their language’. We are specifically interested in expanding the library beyond the physical walls of the library itself by reaching out to clients in more convenient ways. With the predominance of social networking tools throughout society, and as a result of the strong use of these tools as communication, and collaboration means, we believe that we can better serve this often hard to reach group. We feel that our twitter account will attract this group because of the strong population of them who already use social networking tools. Whether they use these tools for recreational, informative or social interests, the fact that they are there, and that we know that they are, is imperative. Here at North Grandville Public Library we are excited to engage kids and youths by encouraging them to participate in programs, take advantage of our resources and services, and essentially learn more about the library through our twitter account. It is just another tool we are taking advantage of in this social network driven society in order to communicate with our valued patrons.

Our project however, did not come without a few barriers, or rather dispiriting information. In a study done by Pew “Social Media and Young Adults” it was found that teens, 12-17 year olds, account for the majority of social networkers at 73%. They typically use these tools to post pictures and videos, to chat with one another and visit and post on others’ facebook, twitter and other accounts. Although there is a large population of teens using these tools, many of them are not particularly interested in Twitter, as only a mere 8% follow or have twitter accounts. Twitter appears to be an exception to the growing use of online tools. A mere google search of ‘Teens AND Twitter’ reveals a discouraging amount of literature exploring their disinterest in twitter.

For example:

1. “Why Do Teens Shun Twitter?” (PC World)-
2. “Teens Don’t Tweet; Twitter’s Growth Not Fueled By Youth” ( Nielsen Wire)
3. “Twitter not all that popular among teenagers, report finds” …(Washington Post)

This was an issue North Grandville Public Library had to work through; as, despite our interest in engaging and capturing the audience of kids and teens, we were unsure of how successful our efforts would be. We wanted to increase the potential success of our project, and ensure that this group would be responsive to our efforts. Therefore, we explored this issue further, particularly by speaking and surveying youths in order to determine why exactly they are not responsive to twitter. We asked such questions as ‘why do you not have a twitter account?’, ‘would you follow your public library on twitter?’ and ‘if you were to follow the public library on twitter, what kind of content would you like to see?’, in order to learn more. By better understanding youths and their relationship, or lack there of, with twitter our library was able to apply our knowledge in order to create the best twitter account we could build. We believe that our library’s twitter account has strong potential, and can inevitably capture the attention of this group. Although we cannot assume that they will be, and remain, responsive to our endeavours, our promotional strategies will inevitably assist us in our efforts to make our project as successful as possible. We have and will continue to develop strategies to encourage kids and teens to not only follow our account, but also to comment, contribute and collaborate with one another and with our staff.

Twitter: The software and its useful features

After researching other public libraries that are implementing Twitter and internalizing the results of our recent patron survey (in which patrons described how they would like to see our North Grandville Public Library grow), we collectively decided to use Twitter. This software is a social networking and microblogging service that allows users (staff and patrons) to use up to 140 characters to post or “tweet” a message (Twittering Libraries, Brown) on our own account web page. Posts or “tweets” can also consist of a photo, audio clip, or even a video snippet. Once we developed our North Grandville Public Library account, our library circle, or audience of “followers” could “follow” our posts or messages. With this Twitter web-based software, we also have the option of creating these messages or “tweets” for all of our patrons as a large group, or to make some private, or to send certain messages to only certain reading or library groups of subscribers, such as our teen readers, or teen techies groups. As our staff update our library “tweets”, it is not only displayed on our Twitter account web page, but is also delivered to our “followers’” or patrons’ pages who have signed up to receive our messages (based on Twittering Libraries, Brown). Our information is then aggregated into the personal stream of our patrons. We can also tag posts with keywords so that patrons can search topics within our posts and follow conversations (7 Things…, EDUCAUSE).

We chose Twitter because social media service marketing trends and industry information indicate that Twitter is currently the best-known microblogging site (7 Things You Should Know About Microblogging, EDUCAUSE). Twitter is also still growing, with increasing applications that enable microblogging to do more, which is encouraging that this software will be able to increase our communication and community.

We also selected Twitter as our social media of choice for North Grandville Public Library because it will give us the closest connection to our users, especially teens. Twitter is one of the most current, cutting-edge social media softwares available, and if this is what our patrons are using, focusing on our teen groups, then this is the software for us.  Using Twitter will also help bring our library into the realm of Web 2.0 services by implementing this real-time web software.”

We feel positive that using Twitter will be very advantageous to our North Grandville Public Library and library community. This web-based social networking software has many outstanding and library-friendly features, as outlined below:

- free software; only cost is staff time

- quick and easy to use, like instant messaging (e.g. Microsoft Messenger); will take very little staff time

- web-based software can be accessed by mobile devices; staff can update from several devices

- on the flipside, patrons can link to Twitter with many mobile devices and applications and access our posts; ease of accessibility

- can be used often; frequency will keep patrons interested

- software has reach and scope of other social networking services (e.g. our page will be available to the public like other websites) (based on Good, from Brown)

- simply that we will be able to reach, connect, and communicate with a few individuals or all of our patrons at once

- we will have the ability to network with not only patrons in our library community, but also other libraries in our system and the staff there as well

- this tool can be redirected for staff use, such as for educational and professional development opportunities

- ultimately it allows us to create awareness in advertising our programs and services

- finally we can improve our branding by incorporating/syncing our Twitter account with our other social media services (e.g. our main North Grandville Public Library website, our Readers’ Advisory blog, our Facebook page, etc.)

Execution

Most of our tweets will focus on awareness – the promotion of new or interesting books and resources, and informing people what activities and events are going on at North Grandville Public Library. In these tweets it is important that we provide a link to the library’s webpage that provides more information. We will also keep on top of current events and issues affecting the community so that we can provide links to useful websites and promote our items that are of timely interest.

We also plan to follow other high profile libraries to stay informed about what they are doing and increase our followers’ exposure to the public library community.

We have set up an RSS feed to receive any tweets that mention the word “library” within 25 kilometers of North Grandville (London, Ontario). This way we know if anyone is talking about us, or if someone has a library related issue or question, then we can help, even if it wasn’t directed to us (suggested by David Allen Kelly). To reach out to other people who may not be following us or be patrons, North Grandville will search for community groups and events that have Twitter accounts and send them messages about our resources and services based on their interests (also suggested by David Allen Kelly).

Maintenance

All staff, including librarians, technicians, and pages, are encouraged to tweet for the library if they come across anything that people might find interesting or useful. To ensure that this is not ignored when things are busy and that important events get the promotion they deserve, one staff member will be responsible for posting and responding to tweets directed at the library (responding should be done every day, and no more than three days, at the very most, should go by without a new post). This responsibility will rotate month to month, and staff members and always ask the project manager for the Twitter account for help or advice. Re-tweets are also encouraged for events, but they should be used sparingly.

Promotion

We will promote our new Twitter account heavily on our website, and in the teen and kid’s areas of the library, as well as at their programs. This includes adding our Twitter user name to our brochures, bookmarks and posters, and, of course, word of mouth. It is hoped that gaining followers on Twitter will come naturally once the community is aware of the library’s Twitter account.

Follow us on http://twitter.com/NGrPubLibrary

The readings for this week made me realize how controversial social networks can be. When we think about tools to implement in the library, we tend to focus on the benefits of them rather than the potential problems that they could cause. Facebook is undoubtedly one of those tools that has the ability to do both good and bad at the same time. When libraries create Facebook accounts and groups they inevitably expand library services beyond its physical space. The library can have the ability to reach out to underserved populations in the community or gain new patrons by capturing the attention of many users at once. Facebook is a tool that is accessible by all, and as a result the library is able to better serve their information needs and interests while promoting the library at the same time. As Meredith Farkas illustrates in her post “Libraries in Social Networking Software”, ‘being where the patrons are’ is extremely important, especially because the role of the library is to serve its community. Since social networking software such as facebook and Myspace have such a strong prevalence throughout communities everywhere, especially in teens’ lives, it is imperative that the library stays current with trends, and ‘being where the patrons are’ will ultimately allow them to do so. Problems however arise when deciphering whether or not the prevalence of facebook and Myspace is bad, especially in school libraries. Teens especially are enabled to do a variety of things that may be deemed inappropriate, wrong, unacceptable or distracting while using this tool. Censorship issues and decisions to ban such sites the come into consideration and problems inevitably arise. The biggest issue I feel is the destruction of a relationship between the library, or librarian, and their patrons. Patrons may loose trust and respect for the library if they are prevented from accessing tools, materials or resources. Meredith Farkas illustrates this when she writes:

Whether we like it or not, our patrons between the ages of 16 and 25 overwhelmingly use MySpace and Facebook, and are not going to stop using them no matter what policies we put in place. As librarians who should know our users, we should at least be aware of what they’re doing online and see what roles the library can play in our patrons’ online social worlds.

I believe that in order to continue to have a relationship with patrons, especially groups that may not relate well with librarians, aka students, it is important to determine ways to reach out to these groups, ‘being where they are’, while still protecting their privacy. Im sure this is a lot easier said then done, but by creating effective and useful Facebook Profiles that offer a variety of tools and information, groups may be more inclined to visit them. They may as a result ultimately spend less time visiting their own personal profiles, at least while visiting the library.

I think this link right here is a great example of the collective power of folksonomies:

http://www.43things.com/things/view/127445/create-a-list-of-100-must-read-books-and-read-them

As Ellyssa Kroski outlines in her article “The Hive Mind: Folksonomies and User-Based Tagging”, 43Things is like a global ‘to-do list’ where everyone can share their goals, and ambitions as well as they strategies others are doing to achieve them. This specific link leads you to a ‘create a list of 100 must read books and read them’ list. A list of people who share this goal is listed as well as various comments about their progress or what they have added to their list.  You can also search through various goals and find something that is relevant to you. I found this tool to be soooo very interesting. I could visual how a tool like this could be implemented in a library setting, as librarians, adults and youths could all share and collaborate their goals and aspirations. Tools such as 43things allows users to add tags in order to develop an organizational scheme for their thoughts and ideas. Inevitably a ‘foksonomy’ or ‘hive of minds’ or ‘collective intelligence’ forms. That is, users are able to develop their own taxonomy or classification schemes in ways that make sense to them, and also in ways that they will remember.  Folsonomies allow users to  organize in inclusive ways that reflect  a diverse and wide range of ideas and personalities. They are  not limited to controlled vocabularly but instead enable users to discover, share and collaborate easily because tags or subjects are developed to accomidate a vast audience equipped with various vocabularies. This is incredibly important, especially in the diverse communities we dwell in. Folksonomies allow us to remain inclusive rather than exclusive when using social networking tools. Folksonomies ultimately reflect the community; as, they change, adapt and grow as users do, and this is very imperlative for the library.

Like pathfinders, which are used to create a list of resources on a specific topic to guide a user through a subject, delicious similarly groups links together on a given topic  through the use of tags. However, unlike pathfinders, delicious allows users to create ‘bundles’ of resources on a variety of categories while grouping items on a topic together. It allows users to apply tags to links by using ‘simple language’ instead of the controlled language and subject headings used by cataloguers. Although delicious tags may lack authority control, their usefulness in a library setting is profound.                

 While on my co-op at the Canadian Agriculture Library at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, I had the opportunity to work on a few projects using delicious. Specifically, while working with the reference team, I created and maintained delicious accounts created for some of AAFC’s portfolio partners. These accounts grouped resources on a variety of topics, from biodiversity to food inspection, that these industries would find useful. The use of social bookmarking tools to assist the AAFC’s clientale in their research needs was quite significant. As a reference librarian working on this project I was able to recognize how delicious enabled me to share and organize ‘collections’ of resources for clients in manners that were easy to understand and access both on and off site. By using delicious to connect clientele with their interests and areas of expertise, I was able to help users discover new web content daily, in a simple and well organized way. Accessibility and ease of use are two factors that I find to be incredibly important when it comes to creating library services and tools, and delicious embodies what an effective, low-barrier and simple to use resource should be.  As ‘connecting’ people is one of the fundamental features of social bookmarking tools, delicious’ allows users to connect with other individuals using similar tags or bundles. There are endless opportunities to share, explore and discover resources by connecting with other users via tags.  Users can learn about new resources found by professional associations, academic, public or special libraries, individual experts and more by exploring tags of interest to them. I certainly experienced this when I searched the tag lis9763. It was so fascinating to explore what others had found, as well as various tags classmates applied to their findings.

 While reading more about social booking marking tools, I came across this interesting quote:

 “Librarians are so careful about what is bought for the print collection, but then we watch our googlers race around the Internet among unedited and ill-founded and repetitive single-page resources. [Using del.icio.us] is our attempt to select suitable material, to post it without delay, and to provide access points and comments on content,” says school librarian Jan Radford, (Delany College, Granville, Australia).

This librarian, like many others, embraces such social bookmarking tools as delicious in the library. I agree, as I truly believe that it is important to ensure that library materials and services grow and change as the community and society it does. This is particularly important when thinking about services for youths, kids who have grow up in a world of emerging and innovative technology. Delicious and other social tools offers a way for librarians to engage youths, to  ’speak in their language’ and essentially to introduce them to new learning tools.

Before reading the articles for this week the term ‘Crowdsourcing’ was utterly foreign to me.  The definition of the term also provided me with little satisfaction, Crowdsource– “to outsource work to an unspecified group of people, typically by making an appeal to the general public on the internet” (Dictionary.com). However, after reading through these articles about social bookmarking tools, and collaborative resources, I have come to realize that to crowdsource is to essentially share ones sources: resources, ideas, thoughts, expressions, with crowds: the community at large, the library, friends, family, social groups. By using the internet to tag, or categorize online content users are equipped with the ability to share or ‘outsource’ their findings, or even their own individual work with others. Delicious, Flickr, Technorati, are all  wonderfully useful tools that allow users to keep track of their online findings, possibly in order to share them. By sharing resources, people can ultimately save other indivudals time that they would have spent searching for themselves, and it also offers them the opportunity to explore resources that they may not have found on their own. The tools also work to assist us in more individual or personal levels. As the resources available online are growing immensly everytime, tools such as delicious enable users to “personalize their online searching” (Rainie, 2007). The application of these tools in a library, especially a public library, are endless. Id like to explore the application of ‘Delicious’ in a library setting a little further in the assignment, so I won’t go into too much detail, but something that I found to be extremely interesting in this weeks articles was the belief that taggin allows individuals to classify things in their own way. I thought alot about this. How incredible is it that every individual can essentially develop their own classification schemes to organize topics in their own way, instead of relying on convential schemes like Dewey or LLC? Tools such as Delicious or Flicker are not merely resources we can use to keep track of sites or resources of particular interest to us, but they also offer us the opportunity to organize, categorize and personalize the internet in ways that we  see fit or in manners that make sense to us. Ultimately, I have become a huge fan of these tools, particularly Delicious and Flickr, I only wish I had know about these tools earlier!!