Flicking or Pinning

tag=blogposting week 10

As I've worked my way through this Web 2.0 class, I think I've become a cheerleader for the New York Public Library.  I've never been further east than Springfield, IL in my conscious life (I was born on an air base in Germany when my dad was in the US Air Force and stationed in Bitburg; I spent a glorious six months on European soil, turned 1 in New Mexico, but made all of my memories west of the Mississippi -- primarily in SD, WA, and CA), so I've never set foot on a single step of a single branch of NYPL.  I've never tried to ride a stone lion or tried to recreate scenes from Ghostbusters in the reading room.  But everytime I go to look at how libraries are using social media, NYPL seems to be absolutely on point, doing everything so right that it seems natural.  That's true also of their use of Flickr and Pintrest presences.  In the interest of not just promoting NYPL, though, I've decided to discuss a series of libraries here (in addition to NYPL). 

[Tangentially, my wife and I have not yet gone on a honeymoon -- we just celebrated our 3rd anniversary this week.  We want to go to Scotland.  But Maybe we need to go to NYC and spend a week at the library on our way.]

Flickr:

Okay, so as you can tell from the ringing endorsements above, the logical place to start talking about Flickr is the site of the New York Public Library. NYPL is just so astute at their use of images across their Internet presence.  They typically reserve themselves to posting images from their archives and they typically curate their posts well, presenting the most attractive photos.  One easy mistake to make would be to just throw all your photos on the web and force your community to slog through blurry pictures or shots that may as well be doubles.  We have to be constantly cognizant of the purpose of our online presence.  It's not just a place to unload our pictures and say, "see we're on the web."  NYPL's Flickr seems geared towards drawing patrons into the library to scour the archives for various research projects.  People interested in the history of auto companies, early modern dance, or cyanotypes of British algae may look at the page, realize that NYPL has images of these things in their archives, and run to the library to check them out (or find images they need right on the Flickr page).  The other thing that NYPL does as well as anyone could expect is that they fully dedicate themselves to their social networks.  In the case of their Flickr page they have some 30 albums, many with more than 100 pictures in them.  It's easy to immerse yourself in their pictures and spend some quality time on the site.

With their page Sacramento Public Library also highlights history.  In this case it's more local.  They have some archival photos of the library's book mobile.  It's not a terribly exhaustive set and it's probably not as useful to researchers as the photos on NYPL's site, but it's fun.  And Sacramento hits a few things that NYPL doesn't.  They have some photos of a program called the Read and Feed Garden.  They also have a photo set called Book Spine Poetry -- a fun idea whereby stacking books lines up the titles into a kind of found poem.  Photos of outreach and programming events is a great way to develop interest in your library.  The only knock against Sac Public's efforts is that their page seems a little skimpy.  More photos of more events would help make this page as amazing as NYPL's.

Combining the kinds of efforts seen on NYPL's page -- revealing your archive -- and Sacramento Public's -- showing off your programming efforts, developing fun photo project like the book spine poetry -- can provide a good model for a Flickr presence.

Pintrest:

Today is actually the first time I've really looked at Pintrest.  I'm actually not thrilled with it.  It looks like an enormous glossy catalog.  Check out the presence of Westerville Library or Muncie Public Library, for instance.  In the first few lines of images on both pages, it looks like they are advertising products.  The cover photo for Westerville's A is for App album looks like an add for the iPad.  Muncie's page currently has an overturned bottle of red nail polish as the cover of their Go Cardinals! album that looks like it was plucked from a L'Oreal advert.  Very few of the pictures or album names seem specifically connected to the individual libraries.  Contrast that with New York Public Library.  The photos they've placed as the covers of their Pintrest albums and the titles of those albums are much more frequently connected to the library: What NYPL is Reading, NYPL loves U, Little Lions (a reference to the big stone ones out front of the physical library; the album is pictures of housecats looking lionish), NYPL Photos, NYPL Collections, and NYPL's Current Events.  Even when their Pintrest explicitly advertises products, they are connected to the library: NYPL Gifts.  To my mind, the lesson here seems to be that if you want to promote your library, it might be best to upload your own photos to the site instead of using public domain images that look like inadvertent advertisements and to be careful about naming your albums.  Connect them to your library.  It seems like Pintrest makes it easy to accidentally advertise other products; think carefully about what you want your Pintrest to say about you.

BTW, here's my entry for NYPL's little lion.

That's my cat: Syd Vicious.

Online Community

Tag=blogposting week 9

I was just lamenting to my wife last night that with the ability to so carefully choose our media landscape and our physical and electronic communities that I feel like my online experience is stagnant.  It's easy to hide yourself in a world of what you like.  You can watch Star Wars movies, tv shows, listen to Star Wars podcasts, and engage in Star Wars friendly web communities.  And that's -- all of it -- wonderful if that's what you want to do.  But -- sometimes, not all of the time, but sometimes -- I like to be challenged or exposed to a range of view points.

For me that means I'd appreciate having experiences -- online, via the media -- that aren't simply entertainment.  My assignment this week in library school is to discuss online communities and how they are moderated though.  And while it seems tangential to my ennui, I think there are some ways in which carefully moderated online communities can both burst the insular post-modern existentialist consumer entertainment bubble and create safe spaces for challenging view points.

The typical -- and by typical I mean careless -- model of online community can perhaps be typified by the users on Yahoo News Articles.  Here are a few comments from a recent article about President Obama's stance on immigration.

These kinds of comments are of absolutely no substance.  Yahoo, which doesn't carefully moderate their comments section creates a morass of vitriol.  It's a perfect landscape for Trolls and flame wars.  Furthermore, even though people offer dissenting opinions in these threads the histrionic tone is typical.  And that elevated tone means that people aren't being persuasive.  There's no actual cultural exchange here.

As Scott Rosenberg argues in his article Online comments need moderation, not “real names", these problems are typical of under-moderated threads.  They don't result in real community.  Even John Grohol in his article Anonymity and Online Community: Identity Matters, which as its title suggests implies that anonymity is part of what allows such horrifying comments, also argues that moderation and establishing a relationship with your members is key to developing an actual community -- a space where we could imagine dissenting opinions being stated tactfully.

If you're about to launch an online presence in the hopes of attracting a community.  Don't just turn on the message boards and the let the comments fly.  Be ready to actually talk to your commenters and moderate your boards.  Anonymity can breed a culture of whispers and deceit, but it doesn't need to.  If you engage your anonymous users and your lurkers (people who are members of the community but choose not to post) in actual conversation, you can keep things civil and develop a fulfilling community that introduces Star Wars fans to The West Wing or the Jim Lehrer News Hour.

Wiki Applications for libraries

tag=blogpost week 8

Reading through the chapter on wikis in  Meredith Farkas' Social Software in Libraries, I was struck by her initial suggestion for how to use a wiki in a library.  She discussed setting up a wiki with information about the local community -- where to get your car worked on, where to catch local sporting events, etc.  I thought, "Gee, that sounds like the Davis Wiki."  I flipped the page, and there was a screen shot from the Davis wiki and then a description of it.  Having lived in Davis for the past decade, I wouldn't have even thought of hosting such a wiki on a library page or having librarians involved in its launch because I took for granted that it ought to already exist.  But libraries do seem like ideal sources to help spark such information, whether they ultimately only launch it or whether they monitor and maintain it.  It makes sense for libraries to make such connections because they are often already collaborating with many local organizations -- schools, local government, social services, police departments, businesses, etc.  Such a wiki also shows that the library is interested in and integral part of the community.

Farkas also suggests using a wiki to provide more information about library holdings.  I like the idea very much and want to call it The Illuminated Catalog.  Patrons could provide information about the books or dvds they check out including the edition, the readability, the utility of the information, the wear and tear on the item, etc.  Furthermore, such a wiki could aid the library in determining book orders, programming, or services as it would create another portal for patron feedback.  Librarians could see what was being read (at least by the web savvy, wiki editing crowd) and address complaints or provide further service.

Farkas mentioned that some libraries use a wiki as their main web presence.  I think this is also a great use for a wiki.  The ease of use of wikis can allow the library's webpage to shift and grow quickly as all members of staff can easily update or change the site.  It's a wonderful solution for a library that wants to reflect the ever shifting nature of library services on their webpage.  And the library can look more engaged if its webpage is always up to date.  Some consistency will of course aid the patrons in their navigation of such a site.

Another great wiki use suggsted by Farkas is to create a fount of collective reference knowledge.  This is especially useful in libraries where reference professionals have different areas of expertise, but can be generally useful to.  This kind of wiki includes resources for particular reference questions.  The clear upshot of this is that patrons don't necessarily have to be directed to a particular librarian.

In "Refresh for Success," Sally Jones discusses a wiki based training program for the Moonee Valley libraries in Victoria, Australia.  While she doesn't go into full detail about the nature of the wiki, it seems that the site covers the library's online resources.  She suggests that the use of the wiki -- which allowed employees to complete the training anywhere and anytime at their own pace -- was quite successful.  I'd want to know more specific information about the training itself before endorsing this kind of wiki use, but more importantly, a wiki that describes library resources for library staff could be quite beneficial.  It might have a slightly different focus than a wiki designed to inform patrons of library resources.

All of these uses can have great impact on library services, but they also require a collaborative environment.  The wiki itself isn't enough; you have to have the community and sense of community to edit the pages.

References

Farkas, M. (2007). Social software in libraries. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc.

Jones, S. (2011). Refresh for success: Moonee valley libraries online database training wiki. APLIS, 24(2), 91-93.

tag=blogpost week 7

After reading several articles about online collaboration tools in the business world I began to wonder if or how such tools could be implemented in a library setting.  Many of the articles discussed the benefits of such tools for telecommuters.

My initial thoughts were that telecommuting seems like an inefficient model for most library employees.  Much of the work of the library is about connecting in person with people -- at least traditionally.  And while it might make sense for libraries to expand their reach to virtual worlds, which would facilitate telecommuting, the basic model -- at least for public libraries -- is that funding comes from the country or local municipality and thus the target patron ought to be local as well. 

There may be some library positions that could accommodate telecommuting (perhaps catalogers, for instance), but I think that the online collaboration tools are perhaps more useful for knowledge sharing, meetings, and external collaboration.

In his article, "Corporate Culture not Technology Drives Online Collaboration," Will Kelly talks about the construction of knowledge archipelagos, where certain employees have more institutional knowledge than others and either hoard it or the company fails to make the knowledge accessible to everyone else.  If you've ever worked somewhere and felt like you didn't know the most basic procedures and your co-workers scoffed at your ignorance, you may have been experiencing something like a knowledge archipelago.  I've encountered such situations in each of my last two teaching jobs.  I wasn't informed about procedures such as reporting tardies, submitting grades, accessing institutional email, or accessing (ironically enough) the centralized drive with all of this information on it.  Kelly argues that centralized drives are essential to bridging archipelagos; they certainly seem like useful tools for bringing new employees up to speed on institutional culture.  Such a tool would be useful in any job and would ease a new library employees orientation.

Simon Mackie, in "Invest in Collaborative Tools, Get More Than Double Return, Study Says,"virtual business meetings can be effective ways to bring people face to face.  I've found that, with some droning exceptions, virtual meetings with strict agendas can move faster and more efficiently than face to face meetings.  If your county library district is wide ranging and all employee meetings require excessive travel and extensive library closures, such meetings might be ideal.  Certainly if you are trying to team-build such meetings might not work.  But if you want to make a weekly or monthly address, such meetings might be money and time savers, which also help create a culture of open conversation.

Finally, I think that tools such as Facebook and Twitter can help create external collaboration.  In a recent conversation with a librarian about Teen Advisory Groups, I learned that one of the major benefits of organizing such a group was that they could help inform librarians about purchasing.  Certainly virtual patrons could also assist such purchasing on a much larger level, and could incorporate wider swaths of your patronage than simply teens.  Such collaboration could also help build loyalty in your clientele.