Social Intelligence

Folksonomies and tagging are relatively new concepts for me, but concepts with potential to make my work and research extremely interesting in the coming years. I do a good bit of exploring on the internet whether I am doing my own research for school, looking for information for someone else or just browsing the internet. I think that  bookmarking websites and sharing them with others could become a hobby that continues through out my life. Often  when I hear a new term or meet someone from elsewhere one of the first things I do is to Google the term or location to learn more about it to add to my knowledge base and make sure I understand it in the context of my own experience.

Tagging is the way that people are now making sense of the world around them and making sure that they remember the websites, blogs, books, music, etc.  they might want to go back to at a later date. Social bookmarking sites and tagging in library catalogs enlarge the amount of information that is being digested by these individuals. If people add their own terms to those currently existing they will be able to find these items of interest in the future and in some cases find other items of interest that someone else has tagged with the same term. They will adding to their personal library and knowledge base as well as potentially sharing new resources with others who also enjoy the topic.

Interest groups develop as result of social tagging when people realize that they share an interest in multiple websites or articles. They can then share ideas and information that the other people might not have as well as solve problems and come up with new web content or programs. People with particular interests  are motivated to keep up with the latest news and changes in these areas and so are able to provide information to others with similar interests. Interest groups can act as a panel of experts validating new knowledge, recognizing fakes and forgeries as well as providing constructive criticism and input for ongoing research.

Folksonomies and the other changes being made to library catalogs are exciting in that they have the potential for making the vast knowledge base of the internet sortable on some scale and creating greater access to traditional resources. The idea is that the terminology developed by users is added to that chosen by cataloguers resulting in a library catalog that is a portal instead of a wall to a larger majority of library users. I am sure many others have read a great book or watched a movie and then wanted to read or see something else only to discover that further works by this person are unavailable.  Having a wider selection of search terminology available would aid in making a secondary selection and as a cataloguer I have no difficulty recognizing the frailties of the traditional catalog.

 LibraryThing for Libraries and Bibliocommons provide extra information from the knowledge bases of the users and other librarians. Information on topics like series and other editions as well as the wealth of material from other countries. Social cataloguers are creating amazing resources that we as librarians can not dismiss whether we add the content directly to our catalogs and websites or whether we just let people know what is out there in the virtual realm.

I listen to the CBC radio regularly and it seems that everytime I am turn around they are telling me that if I want to learn more about a topic or person they are interviewing I should go to their Facebook or Twitter account. Or if you wish to respond to anything you can respond via either Facebook or Twitter. Today they spoke with a tech blogger about the latest Apple  product, an ipad which is somewhere between a laptop and an iphone for reading e-books, websites, and watching movies with touch screen functionality.

The readings for week 8 that I have been reading to get ideas for my groupwork project talk about the use of social networking sites as a way for professors and librarians to connect with students, however, it sounds like those who have been using this technology are already popular so this is just another way for their students to interact with them. I think that the most important thing to remember in using this sort of technology is that this is only one way to communicate with our audience. We need to remember that not every audience within the library population will be comfortable with attaining their information via a social software network. I must make sure that I have feedback from the audiences that I am trying to communicate with via social software so that I am communicating on the right network and am not infringing on their privacy. If Facebook or MySpace is your chosen method, like your blog, you must make a personal point of connection that they can choose to connect to or not. It seems that if you go with the institutional communication method or try to link directly with your patrons by friending them it can backfire. They have to get to know you on their terms.

I have spent a good bit of time online in the last little while setting up a virtual zoo on Facebook that a friend prompted me to create. I checked out the list of visitors I had had and this little virtual adventure is definitely bearing more fruit than the call I put out to seniors on this blog.  I must either link my latter post to senior friendly sites or comment on these sites with my blog as a connection. Does anyone else have a helpful suggestions for getting more traffic to this post?

I also sent a help request to Facebook to add Naramata to the list of possible locations so that I can enter my current location into my Facebook profile. A small thing, but something that I want to be able to do.

Maybe it is just my comfort level, but I still prefer to go to a library in person or to their website versus connecting with them via Facebook.  I like to leave my Facebook time for communicating with friends some of whom happen to be librarians and library students. I wonder whether I would use it more for building a professional network of colleagues all around the country and the globe that I can chat with to solve problems or swap ideas.

I use MySpace to check out new bands when there are concerts offered I can check out the band’s sound to help me decide whether I want to spend the money and time on going to a concert. I would talk to my young adult or an technically connected friends about whether they would find a facebook connection to their libraries anymore accessible or if they still prefer to do other things with their online time.

As to the whole internet dating thing that a number of friends have chosen to experiment with over the last few years, I do not know if I am in the right headspace to try it. I think there is too much opportunity for misrepresentation and outright fabrication in this realm, but maybe I am just not ready to do that sort of personal research and exploration yet!

I am think about doing a paper about older adults’ use of social software. I did a quick Google search and came up with an interesting and lengthy set of results for seniors and social software. I am also volunteering in a library with a good sized senior population so it could be of help to the librarian here.

I am interested in when you started to use social software and why?

 Which applications do you use eg. Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, YouTube, Social bookmarking sites such as Delicious, Social networking sites including internet matchmaking sites?

What prompted your entrance into this world?

If you do not use social software, why not?

Who do you visit with old friends, new friends, family?

Are you part of interest groups?

What can libraries do to faciltate social networking and information gathering in the virtual realm?

After reading various prospectives on web 2.0 technology and transparency of business and marketing objectives, I started to wonder how far we as a society have really come in creating transparent, user friendly environments that promote access and collaboration. I would say that this issue may be one that will be perpetual beta as people seem to treat web 2.0, like the metric measurement debate (CBC commentary ), which means that we will use some of the new ideas and technology and at the same time hold onto many of the old ways. The metric debate I felt this clip was appropriate from the CBC archives as similiar points about the cost, time, cultural connections, etc. were brought forward by both sides. The difference is that while this was a Canadian debate the debate over social software is an international debate.

I think in some cases not moving forward or complaining about social software is the result of a combination of protecting our professional turf regardless of which industry we are in and fear that the new technology will cause more problems than it will solve. The issue is though that regardless of how we feel about the new technology that is coming into our world it will not stop coming. We must find a way to contribute that is both comfortable and productive. Meredith Farkas has some suggestions and opinions about libraries using social software that I thought you should all read. She has also included a lengthy set of links that may be of use if you are patient enough to read to the end of her post or if you choose to skip the post that is up to you. I enjoyed it as I have seen some interesting uses for both Facebook and MySpace and I enjoyed her commentary. Thanks Meredith for your input and making me think. I look forward to hearing my colleagues’ response to Libraries in Social Networking Software.

 http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2006/05/10/libraries-in-social-networking-software/

 I also enjoyed the input of  Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk about possibilities for serving our customers in a library 2.0 setting and particularly the discussion about patrons adding reviews, ratings, and tags or subject headings to library catalogue records. There were whispers about this technology before I left cataloguing temporarily to go back to school. The whispers appear to be turning into shouts with articles and blog entries such as Laurel Tarulli’s about social tagging in library catalogues and patron complaints about other people’s tags. The question is why can we not treat patron created content like the comments received on blogs which can be moderated with the appropriate disclaimer.

 http://laureltarulli.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/social-tagging-in-the-catalogue-you-allow-that/

It may require extra time from our already busy day.

It might alienate older users who were comfortable with old system. 

It might actually make it more convienent for library patrons to do their business without ever stepping through the doors of our physical library, thereby, decreasing circ stats, and decreasing the need for staff.

I know the way I have presented these concerns it may seem like I am trivializing them as at least two of the concerns mentioned are contradictory in nature, but I am not trivializing as I have had similiar concerns particularly the one about the extra time it would take me to get used to a new system. The problem is that if we do not change then we will be left behind and not be serving our communities effectively.