Module 3 OLJ Activity: Building Academic Library 2.0

Five key pieces of advice that spoke to me from the Building Academic Library 2.0 symposium and some ideas on application in my library to help it embrace a Library 2.0 ethos.

1) Adapt or die

Library 2.0 means adapting to changing user demand whilst understanding that we're not the only game in town anymore. In my university library this requires "radical trust" from all. Just as management must relinquish control in trusting staff to decide/act/engage so staff has to trust demands that might take them beyond traditional roles.  

2) Avoid the culture of perfect

This works against effective social media. When my library first dipped our toe in the social media ocean, this was the twitter process:

• someone writes the tweet
• tweet sent to social media (SM) team-leader
• SM team leader edits and forwards to manager
• manager edits and consults with University Social Media team
• University Social Media team returns to manager who approves/disapproves, returns to SM team-leader
• who returns the officially approved tweet to the original staff member
• who tweets the (now obsolete) tweet

There reasons behind this process boiled down to image control and professionalism, but of course this was untenable. Academic libraries must abandon what was once the essential 'voice' for a more authentic web 2.0 persona.

3) Know your users

Implementing every trending technology wastes resources if not meeting a need. 2.0 libraries think innovatively to understand users and to this end my University Library has a Outreach Librarian, tasked with articulating an understanding of our student cohort. I love the idea of asking students what they want on facebook, perhaps this idea would work for my library's Pinterest.

4) Build a learning culture

An educated staff is essential for library 2.0 success. Resistance should not be simply dismissed but rather examined for causes and processes put in place to avoid/minimise high stress situations. A culture that embraces and supports learning/training as a standard operating procedure will help.

5) Everyone has potential

Empowering staff to create, innovate and make decisions creates by-in. It should be recognised that Library 2.0 is never complete. We need to be constantly updating and rather than aiming for perfect we need to be agile in our up-take and flexible in our responses.

image credits

Bottom of the glass: The scorpion's dilema | flickr | sha3teely.com |LeadershipConneXtions | Maurilio Amorim

Defining Librarian 2.0

I guess those of us in LibraryLand like our edges straight. We like to know exactly what we're dealing with; have procedures delineated and definitions articulated: but I'm wondering...do spend too much time defining and not enough time doing? Do we still need to be defining librarian 2.0?

In 2008 delegates at the ALIA NLS represent a nervous approach to 2.0.

• a librarian who uses web 2.0 technologies
• overseer of web 2.0 technologies to facilitate library 2.0 collaboration
• social networking in a library environment
• inter-reactive
• using technology?
• social, collaborative environment that engages customers
• a new breed of librarian that represents a state of mind the looks at services users technology and mashes them all up
• library education 2.0? haven't thought about it but I'll have a go ...

If I ask "isn't that what we've always done?" after each of the speakers in this video, I find myself mostly saying "yes". Librarians have always been early adopters - we recognised the need for information to be findable long before search engines, we understood metadata long before other sections of society. Perhaps then these comments can be summarised thus, Librarian 2.0 is a librarian doing what they've always done - creating, informing and collaborating - in a community that now includes the online community.

Laura Cohen's (2006) Librarian's 2.0 Manifesto captures 2.0 librarians.

We have always responded positively to changes in our culture, if we hadn't we'd be extinct already, but Cohen acknowledges that we need to move faster now. In 2006 she said we need to educate ourselves about the information culture of our users and incorporate that knowledge into our library services. This is not a time in history for libraries to move slowly but alarmingly, it seems that two years on from ideas like Cohens the new librarians at the ALIA NLS were still coming to grips with definitions rather than engaging in the process.

The Cohen Manifesto:

• educate, we need new skills
• courage, it's a new world step into it bravely  
• try for excitement not fear
• essential...willingness to let go
• accept mistakes and the 'not quite perfect'
• leverage what's out there, google doesn't have to be the enemy of us
• go to our clients and speak their language
• collaborate, it's not about being gatekeepers anymore
• less of the locked-down more of the open

So let's stop defining it and start doing it we'll work out definitions as we go.

The last word goes to Mal Booth University Librarian at UTS who in 2011 said let's use new technology, to do new things.

Innovative Libraries I follow on Pinterest

Following on from my last post I thought it might be good to show you what I mean. So here's two libraries I follow on Pinterest who I think are getting it right.

New York Public library (NYPL) has 31 interesting boards, they post regularly - which maintains engagement (it must be working they have 27,971 followers) and they think outside the box. Not only do they have the standard boards "what NYPL is reading", "NYPL's current events" but they have boards for recipes "What's on the menu?" and gifts-giving "Gifts for Grads"

Best feature: Collaboration!

Lights, Camera, Action is a group board designated by the people symbol in the board title. NYPL has joined with the British Library, Penguin books, The Folio Society, London Library, Carnegie-Stout Public Library & CA State Library to pin to this board- an example of libraries collaborating through social media.

NYPL encourages social interaction with the use of #tags for example the "Little Lions" boards encourages users to post their own library cat picture with adding #NYPLLittleLion). #tags are a way of driving traffic and growing followers


The librarians list is another collaborative board that invites anyone to join in, and appears on many library Pinterest boards.

Whilst the Otis Library doesn't have the followers NYPL has it does have 139 boards that showcase the library and its resources allowing pinners to click straight through to the Otis catalogue to check if it's on the shelf and if not reserve the item. 


Otis also has some interesting ideas for engagement. The "Donations Boards" encourage followers to donate specific items to the library and provides a phone number for direct contact.  and my favourite "Choose Your Character's Outfit" which encourages users to design an outfit on a free site and then pin the results - with random winners receiving a Coldstone Creamery gift card! 

The 'Knitting group and Patterns" board promotes a group that meets weekly in the library 

and my favourite "Choose Your Character's Outfit" which encourages users to design an outfit on a free site and then pin the results - with random winners receiving a Coldstone Creamery gift card!

Module 2 OLJ activity: Social Bookmarking site - Pinterest

The February 10 2012 State Library of NSW blog post What is Pinterest and could my library use it?
expounds the possibilities for using Pinterest in a library context. In 2012 Forbes writer Stephanie Chandler (2012), cited a report by Experian that had Pinterest in the top three social bookmarking sites (Para. 1). More recently eBiz has it within its top five in 2013. The popularity of Pinterest should make it a contender in decision-making process that goes with the development of a social media policy.

The development of a social media policy begins with a clearly defined vision and purpose; it should have an understanding of audience both needs and engagement perspectives. With these boxes ticked the most appropriate medium can be adopted and a strategy developed that represents a consistent social media presence.

As I am personally deeply immersed in the Pinterest-world I am interested in how Pinterest can work for libraries. Pinterest is an image bookmarking site developed by Ben Silbermann in 2009 and describes itself as a “tool for collecting and organizing things you love” (Pinterest “About page).
Functionality, Features, functions and issues

Some librarians, like Irene McDermott (2012), find Pinterest to be “like tumbling in the surf” (p. 8) as they react to the image-based medium that is so different from text-based media. This speaks more to a social media skill-level however,  and will not be the experience for all. Once signed up, either from scratch or with an existing Twitter/ Facebook profile which gives you instant access to your existing social network connections, Pinterest is functionally intuitive.

Profile and Boards
decisions about online identity are important and should be part of a social media policy for anything other than a personal profile to ensure consistency in your online presence. Once the profile is established decide on some boards - obvious ones for libraries - new books, good reads etc.  

Pin it button
Added to a browser creates easy access to pinnable images on the web, it’s interesting to note that not all images on the web are pinnable. Once the image is pinned to a Pinterest board, it retains the original web location and creates a direct link back to the source. This does not however circumvent the sticky issue of copyright, as Hansen (2012) highlights when she points out that images found on the web are not always the original and that Pinterest actually recreates the image; this is making a new copy which infringes the owner’s right of reproduction (para 11). Content managers can ensure web-images are unpinnable with the addition of script provided by Pinterest creators whilst other image-sharing sites “such as Flickr, SlideShare, Etsy, Kickstarter, and SoundCloud have created a script which automatically adds attribution that cannot be changed or removed” (Hansen 2012, para 11) to comply with copyright.

Copyright is a minefield for Library Pinterest sites, who should be holding themselves to justifiable standards. One way to ensure copyright compliance is to pin Creative commons images.

Search
By searching Pinterest you can find and follow others with similar interests. This creates your ‘home feed’. Click on the

                                                                                                                                                  to see your home feed.

Pin, like, send
As people you follow pin to their boards you can very simply (on mouse-over) re-pin to your boards, like and send (email) the image to a friend. Social interaction also occurs through the comments section.

For libraries

Pinterest is a relevant inclusion in library social media presence by virtue of the fact that it is seen as a social media tour de force with immense up-take across personal, corporate, and education sectors. The power of Pinterest can be leveraged in two ways: by content creators as they add Pinterest widgets to their own sites (the “pin it” button or “follow me on Pinterest”); and by social media teams to broadcast their services through a Pinterest account (Hansen,  2012, para 5-8).

Libraries can use Pinterest in an obvious way – to showcase books. As an image-based social media, book covers are ideal and can be used to promote newly arrived stock, staff/patron favourites, subject reading lists with links for “borrow this item” driving traffic to the library site.  Lee Lofland (n. d.), articulates ways libraries can use Pinterest beyond the obvious such as a local history resource, research, collecting ideas for library displays, promoting library events, and promoting libraries in general. Social media is all about connections. Pinterest can connect libraries with their own patrons, with patrons out there in the WWW and with each other.

Libraries on Pinterest can encourage reading, promote life-long learning and connect with the world in a way that will help to ensure future viability by going to the patrons rather than waiting for them to come to us – and isn’t that the beauty of social media.

Reference List
Byrne, R.(2013). Three ways students can search for creative commons images [Video]. Retrieved from                            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CQ9ks0hXRI

Chandler, S. (2012). Pinterest Power: How to Use the Third Largest Social Media Site to Promote your 
             Business. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-             
             progress/2012/06/13/pinterest-power-how-to-use-the-third-largest-social-media-site-to-
             promote-your-business/

eBiz: The eBusiness|MBA Knowledgebase. (2013). Top 15 Most Popular Social Networking Sites | 
              December 2013. Retrieved from http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites

Hansen, K., (2012). Pinterest as a tool: Applications in academic libraries and higher education.

Partnership: the Canadian Journal of Library and Information Practice and Research, 7,(2). Retrieved

from ttp://davinci.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/perj/article/view/2011/2631#.UrMVV3mIqUl

Lofland, Lee. (n. d.). 20 great ways libraries are using pinterest [Web log message]. Retrieved from

http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/20-great-ways-libraries-are-using-pinterest/

McDermott, I. E. (2012). Pinterest for libraries. Searcher20(4), 7-9, 45. Retrieved from

http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.uws.edu.au/docview/1015600344?accountid=36155

Pinterest about page. (3013). Retrieved from http://about.pinterest.com/

State Library New South Wales. )2012, February 10). What is Pinterest and could my library use it? [Web
               log message]. Retrieved from http://blog.sl.nsw.gov.au/pls/index.cfm/2012/2/10/what-is-
               pinterest-and-could-my-library-use-it-learning-20-update

microblogs in the workplace

Reading the 2009 article 12 Microblogging Tools to Consider and then the 2011 Deploying microblogging in organisations made me wonder about current trends in microblogging in the workplace.

My own experience with in-house microblogging Yammer and to be honest I don't find it very successful. I think it was designed to keep staff at the university where I work on the same page via collaborative information sharing. I joined up because I'm interested in social networking but I don't know what the buy-in from staff is.

I do know I largely ignore it. My limited Yammer engagement is via the email updates on posts, but to click through to read conversations is more than I have time for and I'm wondering if this is not just a box that the uni feels it needs to tick rather than effective communication. It'd be interesting to discuss this with my colleagues to see if it's just me that's out in the yammer-cold or not.

The library microblogs with twitter service, as do a lot of other university units - we quite often retweet each other, but I know a lot of the staff are not buying-in there either. I think the potential for social media collaboration will come when we move away from our reliance on email and face-to-face meetings to interact in a different space altogether.

This interview, in 2012, with Don Tapscott has some interesting ideas along these lines.

Kaveh Moravej  (2012).. YouTube chnanel: Making internal collaboration work: An interview with Don Tapscott

retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8oLCgWj3is

Social networking: what is it to me?

Social networking: what is it to me?

Social networking (SN) is a new way of making friends and creating connections that has moved beyond the scope of what was once possible. Once upon a time social networking involved going the prestigious school, sitting in the 'right' pew in church, being invited to join groups with secret handshakes or even greasing the right palms to ensure the essential meeting took place. In the Information Age however social networking deploys the power & reach of web2.0 technologies to widen those horizons.

Web 2.0 is a phrase coined to express the move from the locked down operator driven origins of the internet to the interactive user contribution/creation 21st century web, which opened a Pandora’s box of possibilities. Everyone with the right tools can now engage online. We can record our lives and opinions on blogs; we can comment, create a buzz even brings down governments by microblogging; we can learn & share our knowledge via media sharing sites; we can bookmark our interests instead of pinning them to our notice boards.

My experience
When I first started blogging and I was astounded by the rich virtual world of relationships literally at my fingertips. For a long time I maintained two blogs, reading & craft-related with a third for when I was travelling. No blogging for me right now, but I enjoy friendships all over the world with the bloggers I read.  I still blog when I travel because it allows my family to see some of what I'm seeing & for me, is a wonderful enhancement to the trip itself - a way to remember the little things that get lost as the holiday days merge together.
 

Now Instagram & Pinterest are my playgrounds. I have a whole community of friends I have never met in real life (IRL) & who I value as highly a my IRL friends. As complete strangers meeting in the virtual world we 'do friendship' in a new way but the sharing of triumphs & struggles remains the same. We share our lives, learn about culture & life in way that I never experienced on Facebook or Twitter, but everyone has their own preference, their own mediums with which they just click. I am on Facebook, but only to keep in touch with OS family and Twitter, but I never really took to it.  I am on ravelry and flickr too but on any given day you'll always find my on IG.

We are engaged with social media in the uni library where I work, Twitter & Pinterest, I'm lucky enough to have been on the Twitter team from the get-go & it has been an amazing experience to see how libraries can engage in SN. 

What do I wan to learn?

Once upon a time, in the world of secret society networking & church pews, the library's importance as a storehouse of knowledge was unequalled; we cannot say that today.  In completing INF506 I hope to gain some expertise in an area which will certainly become essential if libraries are going to stay relevant. I am passionate about libraries engaging with their clients and broadcasting themselves to the world, libraries and librarians are an awesome resource in the Information Age. We can help make sense of that vast world-sized web but we must meet our clients at their point of need, I want be there - social networking up a storm meeting them in their playgrounds. I hope INF506 can help me with that.