Five Weeks to a Social Library
These are some of the instructional screencasts and podcasts for Five Weeks to a Social Library.Video Episodes:
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21:20:42 03/10/07
Library Branding
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 02:20:42 03/11/07
Alane Wilson and Alice Sneary of OCLC on Library Branding for Week 5 of the "Five Weeks to a Social Library" online course. It's right under an hour and highly relevant to thinking about the "Big Picture" of making your library social (online), the library brand and what perceptions you may need to overcome with users, as you start to implement social networking software tools in your library's everyday activities.
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05:30:23 02/02/07
Mingle! Mingle! Or, How to Mix with Library Users in Myspace, Embrace Every Opportunity to Get Out t
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 10:30:23 02/02/07
Beth Evans, Brooklyn College Library
"Working a party" takes on new meaning when you are
* A) A library and
* B) The party is the world of Myspace and
* C) You want to get out the Library Message to all of your real and potential users who may have overlooked you in their detours through other sites on the web and other distractions in the real world.
Yes, they (our users) are online, and so are libraries, but are we all in the same online space? Myspace is fast growing to become a web within the web. As quickly as individuals, companies, organizations and institutions are putting up web sites, there's a parallel surge of development going on in Myspace.
Popular with the net generation, Myspace is where library users are spending their time. Is it any wonder, then, that companies like the Sheraton Hotels , organizations like the World Wildlife Foundation and institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles have set up profiles on Myspace?
So what does the environment of Myspace offer that would make it attractive for libraries? Myspace is a place where libraries can post information about events and opportunities in the library, contact users as individuals and as members of special interest groups, and develop a new image for ourselves as accessible, willing to listen and remarkable in what we can offer.
Learn a bit about who's out there in Myspace, how libraries are using Myspace, how to establish your own profile, how to court library users as friends, how to keep up interest in your institution and how to go home from the party with your reputation in tact ;-)
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08:54:03 02/01/07
Tagging, Folksonomies and the Collective Consciousness of Online Communities
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 13:54:03 02/01/07
* Presenter: Gabriel Lundeen
* Web-site and/or blog: In development âââ€%scaron¬â€œ none at the moment
* IM screenname: ignatiusmonkey
* Institutional affiliation: Los Angeles Public Library
* Brief biographical information: Gabriel Lundeen works as an Adult Services Librarian at the Los Angeles Public Libraryâââ€%scaron¬ââ€z¢s Canoga Park Branch. He received his MLIS from Florida State University in 2005. He enjoys mountain biking, writing and scheming about his ongoing quest to revolutionize the information world and change his actual job title to Rock Star Librarian. Though he has done bits of teaching, this presentation would be his first crack at professional instruction
Title: Tagging, Folksonomies and the Collective Consciousness of Online Communities
A Brief Description: Tagging, Folksonomies and the Collective Consciousness of Online Communities will serve as a practical and conceptual introduction to tagging and new methods of classification on the Web. The informal organization of information possesses the implicit power of connecting people and ideas, creating new communities and answering new challenges of cataloging the Web.
The class will focus on:
* why people tag and what they get out of it
* the differences between tagging and traditional top-down hierarchical library collection cataloging - what it is and what it isn't
* how tagging and folksonomies represent "the wisdom of crowds"
* libraries that actively use tagging and how libraries can use tagging to understand and assist their patrons
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06:16:35 02/01/07
Using the Tools: How Millenials use the world wide web
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 11:16:35 02/01/07
By Jami Schwarzwalder
Millennials born 1980 to 2000 are a generation that has grown up with video games and the Internet. They are surrounded by technology which has given them experiences like no other generation before them. I propose to show participants how Millennials use the various tools available from the Internet and encourage them to spend time experiencing the world on the web, so that they might be inspired to create programs and online applications in support of informal online learning. Topics I would highlight: Art , Audio , Movies , Comics , Gaming , and Socializing. I would also develop a Webquest to give experience with the concept of online identity.
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06:42:09 01/29/07
Duck Soup: Using a Blog to Provide Product Support
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 11:42:09 01/29/07
By Karen Harker
The UT Southwestern Medical Center Library provides numerous electronic resources and services. These include not only mission-critical databases for clients and Library staff (e.g., Ovid, Web of Science, ejournals, ebooks, etc.) but also software programs that are used primarily by staff (e.g., Camtasia, MovableType, etc.). Many of these resources require varying levels of support to both continuously maintain access to them and effectively use them. Such support ranges from the basic links to vendors and/or an FAQ to the more in-depth online tutorials and locally-created documentation. For many years this information had been retained by individuals within their email boxes, file drawers, or personal knowledgebases, but a more efficient method of storing, accessing, and maintaining this information was needed: a central repository that would be easy to organize, convenient to update, and searchable. MovableType, a locally-hosted blogging system, was selected as the most appropriate tool on-hand. A blog "Duck Soup" was created which included categories for each product and sub-categories for the kinds of support (alerts/news, FAQs, vendor and locall-created help, and tutorials). It is envisioned that this information will be updated by those who are most closely associated with each product. The MovableType Publishing Platform is easy to use, and all appropriate staff have access to it. Furthermore, other staff are able to comment on the items, thus extending the reach of Duck Soup. This program will cover how the Product Support method was developed and implemented, an overview of the tools used, issues and concerns which developed, and future implications of the system.
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12:51:32 01/18/07
A puppy with a new ball: Engaging library staff in social networking tools during the MULTA project
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 17:51:32 01/18/07
Kathryn Greenhill , Murdoch University Library
Presentation Abstract
In April 2006, I was asked to find out about RSS feeds and blogs, and suggest some ways we could use them in our academic library. Poking about on the web, I quickly realised that the attitudes and expectations brought with new web tools were probably more interesting than the tools themselves. I also realised that it would be much better if other library staff knew more about the tools and attitudes, and then we worked as a group to find gaps that they could fill.
This lead to the MULTA (Murdoch University Library Thinking Aloud) project, which ran from 16 June to 11 August 2006. I wrote and designed a tikiwiki site so that staff could play, play play in a safe environment. They had set readings, a set of tasks to complete and a hands-on workshop each week. Everyone was new to the material and was learning about the same tools the same time.
The effects of the project have rippled out to libraries on our other campuses and other work areas of the University. It has changed the way we do things in our library. We have formed a team to implement recommendations made as part of the project. We are creating blogs to communicate internally and with our users. We are using wikis for our everyday work. Now the project has finished, participants are voluntarily running education sessions for their work areas, often on demand from the people who didn't participate. We are looking at XML, APIs and mashups as part of what we do, not strange foreign acronyms. We intend to keep abreast of new developments and use a similar reading/task/workshop model to learn about them.General staff IT competency and acceptance has been raised as a result of the project.
The official aim of the project was to:
* Find out about "Library 2.0" technologies
* Gain "hands on" exposure to five classes of technology
* RSS feeds
* Wikis
* Blogs
* Forums
* Social tagging
* Create library wide discussion of these technologies, formally on the webspaces and, hopefully, informally.
* Investigate the technical setup required for these technologies and gain staff skills to set them up.
* Create a set of recommendations about the future use of these technologies.
I will outline some of the practical issues with setting up the project, including:
* choosing the tools
* choosing the format
* engaging staff to participate
* pros and cons of using a Content Management System for blogs, wikis, forums
* how much time it took to administer
* how it was administered
I'll describe:
* the effects of the project on the library staff
* what we did when our Teaching and Learning Centre wanted to join in,
* what worked and what didn't
* what happened when people started using the site for real work during the project
* how my expectations differed from the outcomes (in a good way)
* tweaking necessary while the project was live
* how non-participants became partcipants during the project
* the recommendations made at the end of the project
* how we kept up the momentum from the project
* what it's like six months down the track
* why I probably learnt more than anyone
* why it was FUN
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10:04:07 01/18/07
From Writer's Block to Library blog
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 15:04:07 01/18/07
Anne Welsh, Information Officer, Bibliographic Services, DrugScope
Common deterrents to professional blogging are a perceived lack of material to blog about, and the amount of time needed to produce material. Drawing on the presenter's own experience and illustrated by clear examples, this presentation demonstrates how common library activities such as acquisitions, cataloguing and enquiry work can be transformed quickly and easily into blog entries. It asserts that the librarian's relationship with her/his user group is an advantage many professional journal editors would envy. Since all library activities are structured to meet the needs of its clientele, they provide sources of information that can be communicated to the library blog audience. Enquiry work can be used to generate blog entries in the style of frequently asked questions, while resource discovery / acquisitions work can provide entries about new sources of information. Cataloguing and indexing has traditionally fed acquisitions lists, and the blog can be used to communicate new acquisitions on the day they arrive. Many of these entries can be automated or semi-automated: most LMS can facilitate database reports from the catalogue to produce lists of new orders / additions to stock and from the library knowledge database to produce new resource lists or the answers to commonly asked questions. This presentation encourages course participants to draw upon their existing skills and knowledge of the needs of their user group to create an information service blog that will satisfy this existing group and attract a wider audience, both to the blog and to the information service as a whole. By the end of the presentation, course participants should feel empowered to write material for their own professional blogs.