Blog postings from the initial INF506 post 20 Nov, 2011 to 2nd Feb, 2012 shows evidence that I have:

(a) engaged in the self-paced modules, online readings and online class discussions.

(b) completed a number of immersive learning activities, used a range of social networking tools and documented reflections and evaluations of these learning experiences.

Part 2: (a) Evaluative statement

The following three OLJ tasks will be used as evidence to demonstrate that the learning objectives of the course has been met.

1.    Building the Academic Library 2.0
2.    Critical evaluation of Delicious
3.    Five key points for a Social Media Policy

As the digital environment continues to become more pervasive in our daily lives libraries have to adapt to these changes and ensure that their services remain relevant to users’ needs. Many libraries are now embracing the Library 2.0 ethos into their services to meet changing needs of 21st century learners. The underlying message of Library 2.0 is participatory information service (Farkas, 2009) and reaching new users through the “long tail” (Casey & Savastinuk, 2007). Social networking enables libraries to build collaboration, have conversations, and create content with their user communities in the social space. It is a proactive library service aimed at improving communications and engaging with your user communities via social media and social networking tools.

In the blog post Building the Academic Library 2.0 Farkas points out that a library service must know its users and non users. It should evaluate existing services and find out if that is meeting the specific needs before implementing any new service. In the connected world of Web 2.0 your users can be  active participants in the creation of your library service so include them through customer feedback and review processes. If a library wants to introduce mobile devices find out which ones are most popular with your users and use social networking tools to find what other are libraries are using. Given this information critically examine the features and functionality to find out if it will meet information needs of users and support their learning. Embedding your library services in social sites where your users spend a lot of time (De Rosa et al., 2007)  and by creating portals or links from your library website or catalogue will enable the library to reach its user through the ‘long tail’ (Casey & Savastinuk, 2007). It has been confirmed in this subject that users start their search on social sites, Google or Wikipedia and not the library catalogues so find ways of pushing your content out to your users in places they do their research. The other point that was stressed was building a learning culture in your organisation by starting in-house programs that focus on different aspects of Web 2.0 technologies and social software that will help libraries to enhance services and improve contact with their user communities. For this to happen staff need to devote time to “play” and evaluate the software as part of professional workplace learning. Individual immersive learning activities with technology may not support all staff so library management must cater for the different learning styles and recognise the value of emerging technologies and how library services can leverage these to support information and collaborative needs of their users. (This post meets learning objectives  1& 2).

The blog post Critical evaluation of Delicious provides a critical examination of the features and functions of social bookmarking tool, Delicious, to meet the information needs and support collaborative activities of users thereby meeting learning objectives 3 and 4. The revamped site is easy to use and offers much enhanced features including stacks, multi-word tags, media previews, category browsing and the ability to collaborate on stacks make it highly appealing to individuals and organisations to network and share web content. The power of Delicious lies in the social networking aspects that enable users to see what other users with similar interest are discovering and to follow other users’ stacks and catch up with updates through email, feeds, RSS and social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter. Collaborative tagging, a distinct feature social bookmarking application Delicious, facilitates information sharing of user tagged content. Discovering web content through Delicious has been  greatly enhanced through the stacks feature and makes it more like a content curation site. With the graphically visual stacks users can discover than search for information which is what Delicious is aiming to achieve. With the vast amount of digital content including the availability of Creative Commons  and Open Education Resources, libraries can use Delicious as a tool for collection development. Delicious offers educational institutions a great platform for resource sharing and collaboration in teaching and learning.

The blog post Five key points for a Social Media Policy demonstrates learning objective objectives 5 by discussing the social, cultural, educational, ethical and technical management issues that exist in a socially networked world and how information policy supports such issues. Social media are a powerful new form of communication and the number of users on sites such as Facebook and Twitter is growing at an exponential rate ((Burkhardt, 2010; De Rosa, Cantrell, Havens, Hawk and Jenkins, 2007 ) so a social media policy must address all the above issues. The main points stressed in the post is that all contributors should take responsibility for what they write, exercise common sense, sound judgement (Lauby, 2009) and be guided by their institution’s code of conduct. For example the User Online Comments policy from State Library of Queensland states that the policy  encourages contributions from all users but their comments must be ‘appropriate and respect the needs and sensitivities of others’.

In addition the policy should consider protecting the privacy of staff and customers, managing reputational risks, and risks relating to infrastructure and protection against data loss. media. It is the responsibility of information professionals to exercise professional ethics and encourage all users engaging in social media to contribute materials that are authentic, appropriate and of value to the users who will be accessing that information. Users must understand the concept of community and post information that is positive and respect people’s privacy. Address compliments to your library services graciously and reply to negative feedback by addressing the problem. It is important to maintain confidentiality and to respect copyright and fair use thus highlighting ethical and educational issues that exist in a socially networked world. The policy must provide clear guidelines for content publishing, appropriate online interactions and time management for all users of social media thus highlighting technical management issues.

By progressing through INF506 subject modules, experimenting with various social networking tools and participating in Facebook discussion groups, contributing to Flickr and Delicious accounts I believe I have been able to achieve the subject’s learning objectives. These experiences have contributed to my professional development in social networking.

Part 2 (b) Reflective statement on you development as a social worker as a result of studying INF506 and the implications for your development as an information professional.

My development as a social worker has been greatly expanded by studying INF506 and it will advance my professional learning and progress my career as an information professional. Studying INF506 enabled me to explore, experiment and, engage with social media tools, social networking sites and social software which I didn’t have the opportunity to do in my workplace. As a result I expanded my professional learning networks to include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Delicious, Slideshare, Second Life, Dropbox and subscribed to a number of useful feeds for blogs and wikis. Now I feel more confident to join networks and contribute. I was overwhelmed by the enormous amount of information on these networks and had to carefully judge what is best for my library service and for myself and subscribed to RSS. I think it is important to have a healthy balance between your professional learning and personal life.

I have used Twitter and realise the value in following relevant tweets and expanding my networks. It offers libraries new ways to connect with clients but is that what my library and my users want? I explored Second Life for the first time and found it very challenging to navigate in a 3D space but after gaining some experience it was fascinating to discover the possibilities it offered for supporting library services such as virtual reference and a place to host information literacy programs for the net savvy generation. INF506 has been an enriching experience for me as it It has added a wealth of knowledge and new skills to progress my career. Learning new social software by immersing in different activities is a powerful way to gain first hand understanding of how a tool works and engaging with the social networks deepens your knowledge and application of Web 2.0 tools and the underlying principles. The 4Cs of social media -  collaboration, conversation, community, and creation as shown by ASU Libraries’ use of The Library Minute videos has provided a wealth of information to incorporate Web 2.0 tools into various library services and programs.

In reflecting upon my journey I have gained more insight and understanding of the power of social networks in my personal and professional life. Looking back at the first post  I wanted to understand the socially connected world and find out how I can leverage social media tools and technology to enhance my library services. I have a gained a new understanding of how libraries are using social media to reach out to new users through the concept of ‘long tail’ (Casey & Savastinuk, 2007). Library 2.0 service offers great potential for libraries as explained by Farkas in  Building the Academic Library 2.0 and working towards this approach does not require a major funding boost but requires management support for individuals or teams to invest some of their time into exploring the potential applications of Web 2.0 tools. The research patterns of users have changed  and library catalogue is no longer the first point of search for students (Calhoun, Cantrell, Gallagher & Hawk, 2009). According to Burkhart (2009) the email is dead as IM is the main form of communication for the net generation. This an important message for libraries to consider because the use of social media will continue to rise. It is very important to develop a social media policy (Burkhardt, 2009; Lauby, 2009) with clear guidelines for internal and external staff  and students for online communication. A lot of libraries blog and it is important to have well planned guidelines for different groups of clients.  The ethical and legal issues regarding information use such as copyright, fair use and plagiarism are major concerns for libraries and Valenza (2009) provides wonderful ways of incorporating social media in library classes.  Her blog has been a great source of inspiration and ideas for me. The high use of video and photo-sharing websites, YouTube and Flickr and other social media tools shows that informational professional have a duty to teach users the responsible use of social media and contribute towards digital citizenship. I think issues such as copyright and ethical use of information will continue to be a challenge library professionals as social networks grow.

My knowledge of social networking tools useful for my library services has been greatly enriched through my social bookmarking project using Delicious, that has enabled me to create a digital collection of web resources to support library instruction, teaching and learning at the institute. I was working on the libguides project for my library while doing INF506 and decided to explore social bookmarking as a collection development tool for harvesting web resources and explore the option to embed Delicious stacks in the libguides. As a result of INF506 I have become more comfortable in using the various widgets in libguides such as RSS, and embedding online video, images and photographs. I have a great collection of web resources on my personal Delicious account and have created a few subject specific ones to support my faculty. I have been sharing this experience with my colleagues and some faculty staff and now include social bookmarking into my library instruction. My project was highly successful as it was able to demonstrate that Delicious is an effective tool for collection development, resource collaboration, and supporting teaching and learning at my institute.

This subject has helped me understand the quantum shift that has happened in formation seeking behaviours of users and the power of social networks in information retrieval. Social networks and blogs are  now the fourth most popular kinds of online activities (Chapman, 2009) and these are visited more often than emails. The insights gained from INF506 has made me realise the direction my library service needs to head in order to offer a viable, relevant Library 2.0 service that meets changing users needs and incorporates user input in the review processes. And to borrow from Farkas, I will ‘get rid of the culture of perfect’ and experiment with services with user input, evaluate and review so it is of benefit to my user community. This shift is important for libraries to grow and continue to meet the needs of our digital citizens.

As an information professional in a Web 2.0 world, professional learning and engagement are essential  components in maintaining the health and status of my profession. Through this subject I have been able to expand my professional toolkit  and I think  I have developed the skills to change and adapt to the ever-changing information landscape. What is more important I think is that continuing professional development is an essential criteria for my growth and development of an information professional. And my journey continue…

References

Arapahoe High School. (2007). AHS Blogging policy. Retrieved http://arapahoe.littletonpublicschools.net/forStudents/AHSBloggingPolicy/tabid/1486/Default.aspx

Brown, A.L. (2011, December 29 ). Top ten social media and libraries prediction for 2012. Retrieved http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2011/12/29/top-10-social-media-and-libraries-predictions-for-2012/

Burkhardt, A. ( 2010, January ). Social media: a guide for college and university libraries.  Retrieved http://crln.acrl.org/content/71/1/10.long

Casey, M.E., & Savastinuk, L.C.( 2007 ). Library 2.0: A guide to participatory library service. Medford, N.: Information Today.

Calhoun,K., Cantrell., Gallagher, P & Hawk, J. ( 2009 ). Online catalogs: What users and librarians want: An OCLC report. Retrieved http://www.oclc.org/reports/onlinecatalogs/default.htm

Chapman, C. ( 2009, July 13 ). Network design: Examples and best practice. Retrieved http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/13/social-network-design-examples-and-best-practices/

De Rosa, C., Cantrell, J., Havens, A., Hawk, J. & Jenkins, L. ( 2007 ). Sharing, privacy and trust in our networked world: A report to the OCLC membership. Dublin, Ohio: OCLC.  Retrieved from http://www.oclc.org/reports/pdfs/sharing.pdf

Farkas, M. ( 2007, November 2 ). Building the academic library. [Video file]. Retrieved from   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_uOKFhoznI.

Lauby, S. ( 2009, 6 February ) . 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy. [Web log]. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/

Valenza, J. ( 2009, 27 September ). 14 Ways K-12 librarians can teach social media. Retrieved http://www.techlearning.com/article/14-ways-k%E2%80%9312-librarians-can-teach-social-media-by-joyce-valenza/46329

I have successfully downloaded the software and logged into Second Life for the first. Finding your bearings and navigating in this environment is definitely challenging especially for those who don’t have much skills with digital gadgets such as games but I think it is an amazing virtual world for teaching and learning. It is an experience to explore this environment.

Here are some of my photos in Flickr that I took while touring Second Life.

Second Life is a 3D virtual world where users can socialise, connect and create using free voice and text chat. Users can create an ‘avatar’ and explore this world and interact with others in this social space. A number of educational institutions and commercial organisations including ABC  have a presence in this virtual world.

The University of Western Australia has a blog in Second Life. There are exhibitions and presentations.

ABC offers a number of services in Second Life called  ABC Island.  ABC Services in Second Life are really interesting.

Why should librarians and educators care about Second Life?

According to Ilene Frank that is where our users are headed. They are becoming more familiar  and comfortable with virtual worlds. Users with an average age of 26.25 spent an average of 22 hours in virtual worlds. Online gaming fans spend  time in virtual worlds. According to  Gartner Group (2008) by 2011 – 80% of active Internet users will be using virtual worlds. it is becoming a familiar and favoured environment. Association of Virtual Worlds (2008) lists 250 virtual worlds.

One issue with virtual worlds is that it requires computing power. To run Second Life the minimum requirements are – broadband connection or LAN connection and a high quality computer with appropriate graphics card. Another problem for educators is dealing with students who have physical disabilities.

Play is not the only features. Virtual worlds have captured the attention of educators who are eager to explore the possibilities of simulation, role–playing, and creation that are possible in virtual environments.

Educators are looking at Second Life – free, opportunity to learn social skills

Some of my fellow students did their INF506 Project Presentations in Second Life. These presentations looked so real and shows the different ways this environment can be used to engage students.

Policy is intended to control activity and guide it in directions which are desired for political, social, economic or professional reasons

Policies may be very broad statements of vision or more specific in the form of strategic plans. A policy will often include:

• goals and objectives, that is, what it is intended to achieve
• methods by which the various parts of the policy are to be implemented (procedures)
• where responsibility lies for implementation
• details of time schedule, resources and any other aspects relating to implementation

Did you know video – changing media landscape and convergence of technology

1. The mobile device will be the world’s primary connection tool to the Internet in 2020.
2. Digital ads growing rapidly
3. Traditional news channels are dying
4. Impacts on services
5. Ebooks are becoming popular

Within the context of impact of social media on individuals, organisations, and society, in general, the following information policy issues are gaining prominence in the eyes of governments and policy-makers:

• Intellectual property, copyright and emergence of the Creative Commons
• Privacy, disclosure of personal information and online safety using SNSs
• Information access for all, adequate bandwidth/wireless/mobile connectivity and the ‘digital divide’
• Regulating the Internet in libraries, organisations and in the home
• Information and digital literacies, and recent emergence of transliteracy
• Acceptable use/online behaviour/social networking policies

Valenza, J. (2008). When YouTube is blocked (way more than eight ways around), NeverEndingSearch [blog] 19 December. Available http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/blog/1340000334/post/1410038141.html

YouTube is the world’s major video portal. It has terms and conditions for use and it is important to educate our users the ethical and legal issues regarding accessing digital content from such sites. Checking YouTube terms and conditions I found it is against YouTube’s terms of service to download ‘or rip’ videos from their site. It is important that we promote digital citizenship to the next generation of adults and find safe ways of gaining access to technology.

Yes blocking access to such as useful information resource is very frustrating if there are no other alternatives available to users. But it is important for all stakeholders to understand the value of social media and develop policies that enables the responsible use of social sites. The number of videos uploaded to YouTube is growing rapidly. It has a mix of good, bad and ugly but that does not mean access should be blocked. YouTube has some great educational videos and students and staff must have access to these. It is a matter of discussion and debate with the administrators to expose the usefulness of such a powerful video resource. And it is free and available 24/7.

Media policy for schools

Requires the development of a social media strategy – how it will be used, and  why?

How to monitor and reinforce, do we need a different one for students, staff & administration, how to evaluate social media tools, examine existing policies ( posted to Delicious)

Some key items

1 What is social media and how will it be used

2. Confidential information

3. Responsibility for what is written online

4. What happens if the policy is violated

Social media policy is a strategic document of an organisation.

When developing a policy consider:  all stakeholders, focus on behaviours, review existing policies, use reference documents available, draft it and get legal opinion.

There are considerable challenges of finding authentic information in a socially networked world.

How trustworthy is the information in Wikipedia, and social networking sites such as Facebook?

An area of concern regards the credibility of content and the future of research and how social media will shape this.

Social media is changing the way we work, offering new models to engage with customers, colleagues and the world at large. This kind of interaction can help build stronger, more successful business relationships and enables organisations to take part in global conversations related to work.

Examples of information/media policies – posted on Delicious.

Key issues in these policies looked at the social, cultural, ethical, educational and legal aspects. Technical and management issues, privacy and confidentiality, trust.

National Library of Australia – Social media statement from their website

These guidelines are intended to provide clarity to employees on how to conduct themselves in the emerging world of social media.The National Library of Australia embraces the use of social media as a corporate communications and community-building tool. The Library encourages every employee to express themselves and communicate online in many ways, such as through social media, professional networking sites, blogs, and personal web sites. However, all employees need to use good judgment about what material appears online, and in what context.

Five key points for inclusion in a social media policy could be:

1. State the purpose of the policy and define what is social media means to the organization. Address the different types of applications such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other emerging technologies (Kroski, 2009). The policy should be framed on things that internal staff or students can do rather than what they cannot do using social media. Establish guidelines to manage risks and protect internal employees and external clients. Consider who your audience will be so all groups are examined when writing the policy. Keep the policy short and focused so users will be able to access it easily.
2. All contributors should take responsibility for what they write, exercise common sense and sound judgement (Lauby, 2009) and be guided by the code of conduct. Whatever material is up on social media needs to be age appropriate, ethically sound and portray the view of the organisation to benefit existing and prospective clients.
3. Respect copyright and fair use of materials by encouraging all contributors to acknowledge any original work posted. Through ethical and legal use of materials a positive tone will be created for the overall use of social media and the interactions that will follow.
4. Understand the concept of community as social media is about connecting and having a conversation with your community. The content and tone must be positive so online experience is pleasant and valuable for all parties. All parties must respect each other’s privacy and maintain confidentiality.
5. Productivity matters – within a work environment it is important for staff to know the guidelines for using social media during work time whether for study purposes, professional development or personal use. For students guidelines need to be established as the appropriate amount of time spent on various forms of social media. Finding the right balance between social media use and work will safeguard organizational and personal productivity.

Social media is ubiquitous and establishing a policy that sets the boundaries and empowers employees and clients’ use of the various social media tools will contribute to a positive social networking experience for all.  Many organisations already have existing communication policies and social media policy can evolve from these. For social media policy to be effective there needs to be some staff training to leverage the benefits.  As new social media tools are emerging rapidly the policy must be revised frequently so the guidelines are consistent with new technology developments.

References

Fleet, D. (2009, 18 October). Social Media policies [e-book]. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/davefleet/social-media-policies-ebook

Kroski, E. (2009). Why should your library have a Social Media Policy? Retrieved from http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6699104.html

Lauby, S. (2009, 6 February). 10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy,[web log]. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/

Delicious, a popular social bookmarking site, founded in 2003 and recently acquired by AVOS, was re-launched in September 2011, with a new focus on curation and discovery. There was much outrage and mixed comments in the social media ( O’Connell, 2011; Valenza, 2011) regarding site performance, however, the revamped site offers new enhanced features and functions ( Delicious, 2012 ). The new  features include stacks, multi-word tags, media previews, category browsing, the ability to collaborate on stacks  making it highly appealing to individuals and organisations.

Delicious has a simple interface, is easy to use and is backed up with sufficient support documents, however, some online tutorials will be useful. Initially Delicious had an online forum to interact with users but that has now been replaced by Facebook and Twitter and site updates are provided through the Delicious blog. Privacy is a critical factor on the Internet and Delicious takes into consideration when sharing stacks or setting personal or corporate profiles. The minimum requirements are an email and a password and users can create a public or private profile and upload a profile picture. Links can be saved to the profiles using the bookmarklet that can be easily added to any browser, however, it is optimised for IE9 and Firefox. On the other hand the bookmarklet provides a ‘push button content generation’, a feature of social curation sites such as Pinterest and enables users to create sets of curated content called stacks on Delicious. Users can browse the Delicious community by 12 different categories which enables quick discovery of their preferred subjects through the stacks.

A great way to organise and present the links is through stacks. A stack is a collection of links on a common topic or category. According to Valenza (2011) Delicious stacks is a ‘kind of fusion of bookmarking, microblogging, curating, and sharing– beefs up and prettifies its popular bookmarking service’. The stacks can be customized for a particular course related research or project with an appropriate image, title and a description. Using a visually appealing stack with strong graphics is a great way to present a more dynamic view of the links rather than a search tag result or a tag cloud. Unfortunately not all links come with images and currently users cannot upload any graphic images or photographs. This might be to prevent copyright breaches and to avoid inappropriate images on a collaborative bookmarking site but Internet is full of all types of strong graphic images.

Web 2.0 has revolutionised the means at our disposal to filter and share information and Delicious achieves this through ‘filter by tags’. Sharing and following users is via email but it has to be verified before any sharing occurs. Users can share a stack on Twitter or Facebook by clicking the ‘like’ or ‘tweet’ buttons allowing more social interaction.

The power of Delicious lies in the social networking aspects that enable users to see what other users with similar interest are discovering and to follow other users’ stacks and catch up with updates through email, feeds and RSS. In addition new social features allow users to collaborate on stacks, add comments and suggest new links for stacks which takes social bookmarking to a new level of collaboration and content creation. The exchange of information through ‘share’, ‘follow’ ‘invite’ and ‘collaboration on stacks’ supports social learning and integration with Facebook and Twitter opens it to a wide range of users. The way Delicious is evolving shows how social media will transform the the way users discover and interact with content over time.

For libraries it offers enormous opportunities for collection development and in supporting distance education. It provides educational institutions with a great platform for teaching, learning and resource collaboration.

References

AVOS. (2012). AVOS. Retrieved 20 January 2012, < http://www.avos.com/>

Charles Sturt University. (2011). I am sisocialmedia on Delicious. Retrieved 22 January, 2012. <http://interact.csu.edu.au/portal/site/INF506_201190_W_D>

Delicious. (2012). Delicious blog. Retrieved 22 January 2012, <http://www/delicious.com>

Gil,E. (2012, January 4). How Pinterest will transform the Web in 2012: Social content curation as the next big thing [web log post]. Retrieved from http://blog.eladgil.com/2011/12/how-pinterest-will-transform-web-in.html

O’Connell, J. (2011, September 28). Social bookmarking not so Delicious anymore (web log post). Retrieved 20 January. <http://heyjude.wordpress.com/page/2/>

Valenza, J. (2011, September 28). Delicious stacks [web log post]. Retrieved 20 January  2012, <http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/neverendingsearch/2011/09/28/delicious-stacks/>

The three libraries that I choose were The National Library of Australia (NLA),  The State Library of Queensland  (SLQ) and Yarra Plenty Regional Library (YPRL)

Social media enables libraries to connect and communicate with patrons in new and innovative ways. Because of the ubiquity of social media use libraries can leverage these social networking tools to interact with patrons news ways.

List of reasons why libraries should be on the social media.

1. Promoting and Marketing services and collections – through the use of Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Youtube and RSS feeds the library is able to publicise and promote services to a wider audience using information sources their patrons already use. The NLA participates in a variety of social media to network with its patrons for example they have created a number of instructional videos using YouTube with screencasts to show how to use the wealth of content in Trove.  Yarra Plenty has subject specific blogs with RSS feeds for patrons to select the services of choice. ( Comparative Table )

2. Communicating with patrons – social media enables libraries to solicit feedback from patrons and respond to feedback as shown by SLA through their posts and comments blog. The NLA has an active Twitter account to notify patrons of news, special collection and events. A special blog to showcase special exhibitions and through Facebook they get feedback from patrons.

3. Reach a wider audience – by using several subject specific blogs regarding their programs Yarra Plenty reaches out to specific groups of patrons such as Plenty of Web 2.0, Yarra Plenty reads, Genealogy, Local history, Book groups.

4. Extend the collection to a wider audience – using social media libraries can   transport their collection to any place at any time as shown through the webcasts and RSS feeds at SLQ and the library podcasts at NLA.

5. Keeping patrons up-to date with programs and services – shown by the variety of feeds that SLQ offers to patrons. Patrons can subscribe the feed of their choice.

6. Understand user needs and improve services – comments from Facebook and Twitter (as shown by all 3 libraries) provides libraries a with a rich source of information t o evaluate services and programs to meet changing user needs.

7. Making information accessible -shown through the variety of social media – RSS feeds , podcasts, web feeds, Youtube videos, Twitter and Facebook  by NLA.

Participating with social media is a two-way street and responding to patrons’ feedback is important as shown by these three libraries. Libraries must harness the benefits of social media as it provides libraries with new ways to engage with clients, build relationships and contribute to digital citizenship.

Libraries

Providing Information Services

Supporting educational programs

Library Promotion/Special collections

Developing a reading/learning culture

National Library of Australia (NLA)

Blogs

The eloquent page

Twitter

What others are saying about NLA Podcasts Facebook

Library Podcasts Facebook

YouTube Blogs

Behind the scene

Trove blog

Twitter account YouTube

Blog

Handwritten Online forums   RSS subscription

Facebook 

Blogs

Library Podcasts

State Library of Queensland (SLQ)

Ask SQL

Blogs

Feeds

Twitter

The Edge @Twitter Online newsletter

Webcasts

RSS 

Online newsletter

Web feeds 

RSS

Yarra Plenty Regional Library

Facebook

Twitter

Blogs

Online newsletter Email a Librarian

Facebook

Twitter

Blogs

Online newsletter

Yarra Plenty Reads blog Plenty of Web 2.0 blog

Here are some ways libraries can use Twitter

Reference services – use new online tools to connect with patrons

• Read latest news – many major sites have Twitter feeds which makes it easy to catch up with news & latest information – BBC, ABC, CNN
• Identify expert in a specific area – find out who is talking about you or your patrons
• Share tips on finding or accessing information online   – spread the knowledge of learning to others
• Posts can link to interesting stories about literacy or other libraries
• Use it as an assessment tool to find out what others are saying about your service
• Patrons can ask questions about specific materials

Announcements and updates

• Use it to highlight new resources, group meetings, current news,
• Stay informed of new technologies
• Inform patrons of library programs
• Create alerts for specific groups
• Update patrons about new resources
• Get information on conferences of interest to libraries & follow feeds

Discussion

• Get feedback on potential policy changes
• Try having a question and answer session – provide assistance to patrons
• Don’t ignore conversations that are happening about your library or library community – stay engaged with followers to find out what people are saying about your services

Helpful feeds – find the ones that is useful and follow such as

•  @librarycongress:  The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world, keep up with everything from their special collections to latest events
• @LibraryJournal: @LibraryJournal offers library news, book reviews, and more
• @heyjudeonline: Check out Judy O’Connell to learn about library and information services.
• @mstephens7: Michael Stephens is an educator, librarian, and blogger that encourages his followers to never stop learning or dreaming
• @geeklibrarian: This  Librarian is a geek helping public librarians venture into the world of Web 2.0.
• @Librarian: This feed will give you a look at libraries in a totally unique way.

Vendors using Twitter – interact with your vendors in a new way

Reference

100 ways to use Twitter in your library (2009).

http://acceleratedbachelordegree.org/100-ways-to-use-twitter-in-your-library/

Brookover, in her article Why we blog raises a number of important points to consider regarding blogging.  She mentions that “….libraries are reaping the rewards, well-written, frequently updated public blogs help librarians relate to their patrons, generate support for new building initiatives, and market programs, collections, and services”. A blog is a great communication tool for disseminating targeted information to patrons and but it must be regularly updated. So it is important to consider how a library will use the blog, staff training and the time commitment required  and the scope of topics it will cover. How will public comments be handled and how the success will be measured?. I think addressing user comments in a timely manner is very important to maintain our relationships with patrons.

I explored a few academic library blogs at random and found that the topics covered included new materials, library programs and events, online resources, and library services which are often the same as those covered by in person or email interactions. User feed back was little but blogging has ‘empowered librarians to reach their users in new ways and develop user-library relationships that is so fundamental for our institutions ability to thrive’ in these tough economic times.

Meredith Farkas’s post The essence of Library 2.0 ( January 24, 2008) on her blog Information wants to be free has a clear message for library and information professionals  as we can learn much from this pioneer of Library 2.0 movement.  She stresses the importance of assessing what our users need and want before implementing Library 2.0 technologies . Her focus is us is on user needs, services and learning. Do not be caught in the hype of Web 2.0 technologies. I think innovative practices does not necessarily equate to Web 2.0 technologies as all libraries are different. And not every library will be able to use all those tools. Our users have different needs. So find out  what your users want, assess your services and find out what other libraries are offering so you can learn from that experience.

Andy Burkhardt’s post Four Reasons Libraries should be on Social Media (August 2005, 2009) states the following reasons:

1. Communication
2. Respond to Positive/Negative Feedback
3. Marketing/Advertising
4. Understanding Users Better

This is a great article that briefly and succinctly sums up why libraries should be using social media. The email is dead is a huge take home message – and a lot of the libraries are using IM for communicating with  their patrons. This is true at my library. The reasons are clear and make a lot of sense in this digital age. I think this is an article that all librarians should read and take notice as it will help them to see that there isn’t one good reason why they should not be using social media tools as a way of making themselves seen and heard by their patrons. I just hope all other readings are this simple to read and convey the message.

AnnaLaura Brown’s blogs on top tools and trends for libraries on her Social Networking in Libraries blog , shows a the rise of Facebook fan book pages for libraries but my library does not have a presence there yet but my institute does have a Facebook page for marketing and promotions.

The trend of offering social networking classes is a wonderful idea and it is a great way to market the library and get patrons in the door. A food for thought for my library. As my project was based on using Delicious to create web resources to support my faculty I will be teaching Social bookmarking as part of Information literacy this term.

Library related widgets such as libguides widgets is becoming very popular and my library has just launched libguides that uses widgets such as RSS, Youtube videos and other widgets. Our library intends to develop a range of tutorials using online learning technologies including podcasting and screencasting.

With regard to ebooks and ebook readers the library is still exploring the best options that will support the current technology platform. With reduced budgets this makes it very difficult to juggle resource priorities at some libraries. The other reason is that there is not much course specific materials out there. And getting teaching staff to embrace ebooks is another challenge.

The library catalogue has a mobile interface so it can be accessed via mobile devices.

These trends provide a few options for me to explore further at my library but given the resources available to us I think we are making a good effort in participating in a range of social networking activities.

There are many pieces of advise in the keynote and I have used five key advice to consider here:

1. The world of Web 2.0 is wired, connected, interactive and evolutionary. Our users are no longer information consumers but they are contributors and co-creators of information. With available technologies anyone can contribute information so building trust and partnerships with our users is important. We are participants in information creation.
2. Know your users – It is important to get to know your users and non users and examine any assumptions you may have. This is very important to work to meet changing user needs. In the connected world of Web 2.0 your users are the active participants and co-creators of your library service. Trust them as partners in your service. Their feedback and comments from your social media tools for example library blogs, provides a rich source of information to access your services. Give them a role to help define library services of the future.
3. Go where you users are. Survey your users and find out what their research needs are and what they value. If your users are frequent users of social sites try embedding your library services in places where your users are such as creating portals or links from Institute Facebook page to the specific areas of your library website/catalogue so users can find the information they are looking for research. Users start their search on Google or Wikipedia and not the library catalogue so find ways of pushing your content out to your users in places they do their research.
4. Build participation – get over the idea of being experts in your fields. Harness the collective intelligence of your users by sharing knowledge and resources through social bookmarking tools. Social book marking is a method of capitalizing on the collective intelligence of your users in projects or research work. The tags and annotated lists can be stored on permanent location such as a wiki and can be linked to catalogues or learning management systems. Here is an example of content collaboration – University of Pennsylvania’s Pentags. Use wikis and blogs to collect information from the diverse staff in your organisation so you can tap into them at the point of need. Create subject specific blogs or wiki but find out if that is what you or your users need. You cannot know everything so network and share knowledge.
5. Build a learning culture in your organization by starting in-house programs on different aspects of Web 2.0 technologies that will help your library to enhance services. Work time must be devoted to this type of professional development where one has to work with new technology. Immersing oneself with others is the way to learn but do understand staff members’ needs and limitations as everyone learns differently. For library management is important to understand the learning styles of your staff and offer appropriate training experience. Learning emerging technologies should be part of people’s job descriptions and be valued by the organisation.