So this is not the end of the program, but the beginning of …

Just when I thought I had a good handle on where we should be heading with library 2.0 services, the report from OCLC called “Sharing, Privacy and Trust in Our Networked World” made me stop and think and even revise my ideas.

The report defines social networking as “doing something more than advancing communications between individuals, driving commerce or speeding connectivity. It is redefining roles, muddying the waters between audience and creator, rules and relationships, trust and security, private and public. And the roles are changing, not just for a few but for everyone, and for every service, on the Web.”

The report advises us that if our goal is to create a social library, if we focus on broadcast services such as RSS feeds, we are likely going in the wrong direction. RSS, as good as it is, just “perpetuates the traditional concept of the library as a supplier of information, not a place for idea generation and exchange.” Simple techniques such as adding a “my favorites” or a “wish list” would go a long way towards providing library users with the interaction they find elsewhere. 

Many people think of a social library as a library of traditional services enhanced by a “set of social tools – wikis, blogs, mashups and podcasts.”

What was interesting to me, is that the report writers  said that after working on the report they revised their concept of a social library.

Becoming engaged in the social web is not about learning new services or mastering new technologies. To create a checklist of social tools for librarians to learn, or to generate a “top ten” list of services to implement on the current library Web site, would be shortsighted.

The social Web is not being built by augmenting traditional Web sites with new tools. And a social library will not be created by implementing a list of social software features on our current sites. The social Web is being created by opening the doors to the production of the Web, dismantling the current structures and inviting users in to create their content and establish new rules.

Opening the doors to mass participation can be messy. But it often creates “the most exciting venues for collaboration, creativity, community building – and transformation.”

Opening the doors to mass participation also works towards the mission of the library in that it provides our customers with the joint ownership they want in their web experience and gives them a reason to return to the library website. By inviting participation, the connection between the customer and the library changes, as does their perception of the library.

Week 9, Thing #23 Summarize your thoughts about this program

What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?

Actually my favorite discoveries in this journey were the ones relating to other people’s experiences. I felt good about the effort and time everyone put into the program and that in the end it was very worthwhile on many levels. I liked how pleased people were when they tried something and were successful, even though it was hard and sometimes very frustrating. The teamwork that went on as one staff member helped another – in branches, between staff in different branches, and in drop-in sessions, was amazing and unexpected (for me) as part of this program. It may have been one of the best parts. I loved the AHA moments when people discovered something new and started thinking about ways they could use some of these services themselves. Then they started to think about ways BCPL could find new ways to communicate with its’ customers. I also liked that it helped us to start down a path of helping more staff to become comfortable with technology.

How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?

I’m pretty much a life-long learner already since I’ve taken college courses throughout my life, went back in the late 1990s to finish my college degree and graduated in 2001. Last year I started towards my masters degree. I’m not sure if I’ll finish but that doesn’t mean I’ll stop learning. This 23 Things program was something I discovered last summer and consequently dove into learning what it was all about. I’m really pleased that I am a part of helping BCPL with this program. I’m also really pleased that we’ve been able to hire a technology trainer, Joyce Johnson, to help BCPL improve technology skills for its staff. I hope to work with Joyce on learning to teach classes and learning about ways we can use new technology to bring learning to our staff via podcasts, online tutorials and who knows what else!

Were there any take-aways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?

The unexpected outcomes for me were the teamwork that was involved and the sense of accomplishment that people felt. My favorite thing to say was:

If you’re just learning about the technology in this course, you’re missing the most important part.

What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?

 There were some parts where it was confusing and more difficult than necessary for people to navigate. I would also have people create and register their blog at the beginning rather than in Week 2. The behind-the-scenes tracking was a little difficult. I’d try to make that a little easier on the liasons.

If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you again chose to participate?

Definitely. I think this is an incredible way to reach a lot of people. The self-paced learning works around all sorts of schedules. I think the learning means more to most people if they’ve spent time and taken steps on their own to figure something out rather than have it spoon-fed to them through a manual. Then, when they actually help someone else to learn something, they’ve taken one more step towards making their own learning more permanent.

How would you describe your learning experience in a few words or a few sentences, so we can share our successes and promote this program?

My personal learning experience started last summer. I was looking for “something” that was interesting and meaningful to me and my job. Learning about new ways for the library to reach our customers was really interesting. Realizing that we, as technology ‘professionals’, should help the library learn about new technologies that are available for reaching our customers and for doing our jobs better and that we could actually make these things happen, was exactly what I was looking for in my career.

Free your content! RSS for Libraries

SirsiDynix Institute is offering a free webinar called “Free your content! RSS for Libraries“, on August 7, 2007 at 11:00 AM Eastern time featuring Paul Pival —Distance Education Librarian, University of Calgary and Meredith Farkas —Distance Learning Librarian, Norwich University.

Paul and Meredith will describe what RSS is and how to use it in a variety of ways in libraries: to make it easier for users to find out about your collections and programs, to push subject-related content to patrons, and to publish dynamic content on a variety of pages. There are many tools that make generating RSS feeds, subscribing to RSS feeds, displaying RSS feeds and mixing RSS feeds an incredibly simply proposition for those with little technical knowledge. In addition, they will show you how to use RSS to easily keep up with the topics you are interested in without having to visit multiple websites each day.

Since this is one of my department workplans for this year I’ll try to watch it but if not, I can always catch the podcast later. RSS is one of the 2.0 things I think BCPL should implement for our customers this year.

Don’t forget to check out your global community!

The third annual BlogDay is coming up at the end of this month on Friday, August 31st. Bloggers from all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. Preferably the blogs will be from cultures different from their own culture, and points of view different from their point of view and attitude. On this day, blog surfers will find themselves discovering new blogs around the world and celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.

What is BlogDay?
BlogDay was created with the belief that bloggers should have one day dedicated to getting to know other bloggers from other countries and areas of interest. On that day Bloggers will recommend other blogs to their blog visitors. With the goal in mind, on this day every blogger will post a recommendation of 5 new blogs. This way, all blog readers will find themselves leaping around and discovering new, previously unknown blogs.

Why do we need a BlogDay?
This activity was started by Nir Ofir. He suggested this activity because he felt that the more blogs there are, the less time he was spending on new web logs. Because of the overload of information, he found he was missing a lot of good blogs. He initiated blogDay in 2005 with the belief that bloggers should have one day which will be dedicated to discovering new blogs around the world.

Firefighters Embracing 2.0

I found an article which talks about how firefighters in Los Angeles are using web 2.0 technologies to reach out to their community and to pull in information from their community. Pretty interesting. If they can do it, can’t we?

Why should we spend what little time we have learning this stuff??

Have you understood yet why we’re spending some of the time we have at work, during one of the busiest times of the year, on this program? Are you feeling that there’s nothing really here for you? Have you thought that we should just hand you a manual and let you refer to it when you need it?

This was a statewide program. MAPLA was behind pushing it to the state so they must have seen something about the program that was worth

• trying to get most library systems in the state involved and
• allowing library staff across the state to spend work time on the program for several months.  

Do you understand that ”something” that they saw yet?

Here are some of the reasons I’ve discovered. Have you read about other reasons or come to them on your own? Please add your comments to this post whether you agree with me (or the program) or not!

1) This program encourages an exploration of “web 2.0″ technologies. These may not be things you are interested in using for yourself and you may not even see the point of using them. But some of our customers *are* using these tools and we should at least know about them when our customers mention them. We also need to begin to figure out how libraries might use these technologies to interact with our customers, now and in the future if we want to remain relevant.

Remember that customers coming into the library don’t really know or care whether you are a librarian or a circulation staff member. They’ll ask anyone a question! Personally and professionally, this learning is good for all staff members.

2) This program hopes to provide staff with new tools (that are freely available on the Internet) to better support BCPL’s mission.

This program is not *just* about learning about new technology.

1) This program rewards staff for taking the initiative to complete 23 self-discovery exercises.

2) This program is about discovering about the change in the way people are communicating. The whole library 2.0 thing is about the changes in the way library staff and customers interact, in the way customers want to participate in their library experience. In the last few years customers have begun to 

• add comments to blogs,
• write reviews of materials,
• have information come to them via RSS feeds (you could be notified when your favorite genre or author has a new title added to our catalog), and
• have information available via “mashups” (for instance maybe library catalog information could be available in FaceBook or MySpace – places we *know* our customers are spending a great deal of time!)

3) This program gives our staff the time to gain confidence in learning new skills. I’ve heard over and over again how surprised and pleased they are that they could do something they never in a million years would have thought they could do! They’re proud of their accomplishments and enjoy showing off their new skills to their family and friends! This will carry over into their work and BCPL and our customers will benefit more than we ever expected.

4) This program has encouraged teamwork between our staff members. People of different knowledge and skill levels are helping each other to work through the program. It happens across different job levels and age levels. I’ve even seen people from different branches working together. When people help each other to learn they solidify their own learning and will retain it better.

5) Most importantly this program teaches us that library 2.0 is about a shift in the culture and philosophy of our customers and how libraries are shifting their services to meet the changes that we’re learning about in this program. Libraries need to remain relevant to their customers needs.

Oh, yeah. Parts of it are fun, too. Kind of cool that we can have fun at work!

 So … I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again … if you’re just learning about the technology in this course, you’re missing the most important part.

Week 8, Thing 18: Online Productivity Tools

Jim DeArmey and I have been using Google Spreadsheets to help us track the blogs for the 23 Things program. Its been very easy to use and very convenient. Jim and I can each access it from any computer and have even used it at the same time although that seems to take a little longer. The best thing is that we can instantly see the changes the other person has made to the document. Its also nice that you can use the docs and then set it up to post directly to your blog. What does that tell us about how many people are using blogs?

I’ve also tried Airset as an online calendar. Its at least as good as Outlook. It even lets you set up shared calendars for all parts of your life while still keeping some things private. A shared calendar could be shared with your spouse and family or with co-workers for coordinating office schedules. For the shared part of the calendar, those people with whom you choose to share, can also add to the calendar. You have to try it, I’m probably not explaining it very well!

Week 7, Thing 16: Wikis

I’ve been looking at and experimenting with wikis since last summer. I like the idea of having content that a group of people (or anybody) can edit without needing to know HTML. We’ve had Staff Help Desk web pages for about 8 years but there’s always been the issue of keeping the information up-to-date. I’ve had people over the years who could have easily kept the information updated if they knew HTML. We’ve also spent lots of time teaching our staff how to use HTML. That’s not to say this learning isn’t beneficial but it divides people into those who know how and those who don’t.

I played around with several free wikis such as pbwiki and actually liked that one very much. The problem for me is that I need to have more control over help desk content. It isn’t something we necessarily want out there for everyone to access but we do want it available to all staff.

Finally, this spring, when we started trying out WordPress for blogs, I approached Bob about downloading MediaWiki for us to try. The wiki would then be on a BCPL server and we could eventually limit access if necessary. So now, we’re in the middle of copying and editing the help desk web pages over into MediaWiki. So far, so good.

Hopefully by this fall, we’ll be able to share our content with the rest of the BCPL staff and allow them to add their own technology expertise into the wiki. After all, they’re the ones who are using RFID and public computers every day. They can share their tips and best practices. Perhaps we can create an online technology manual for the public computers so that branches can share and keep up-to-date. I’m sure we’ll come up with more ideas too.

Liberate your control freaks

If you feel that your library system is putting roadblocks in the way of change, try this slideshow for inspiration. Actually I first saw this mentioned in Helene Blowers blog, LibraryBytes, and she specifically mentioned that she heard several people at ALA mention the IT department and “library management staff who supported blocking access to several social network tools.”   I have to admit I heard this at ALA, too. Several times. As a member of an IT department, we gotta do something about the bad reputation we’re getting!

My IT Department Always Says No

Ouch. This was a remark that I heard several times at ALA and one that really bothered me. I don’t think that your IT department should be holding your library system back. Actually the opposite – as my IT department manager says, we should be leading the library system in making technology-related decisions.

But there are some considerations that come into play. A must-read for people in IT, as well as librarians, is Michael Stephens’ article Into a new world of librarianship.

Without a firm foundation in the mission and goals of the institution, new technologies are not implemented for the sake of coolness and status. Technology is put to the test: Does it meet the users need in a new or improved way? Does it create a useful service for putting users together with the information and experience they seek?

One of the most often repeated concerns in an IT department is why are we doing this? Is it just because its the latest and greatest thing? But here’s the thing. If the IT department doesn’t keep up with the changes that are happening so rapidly in the way libraries are communicating and collaborating with their customers, then how can they know why these services are important? How can they prepare for offering these services, and even more important, how can they prepare to support them in the long run?

There needs to be a balance between saying the cautious NO to keep things manageable and sane from the IT perspective, and saying YES to technology that leads the library system into the future with a good plan for new services; services that meet the mission of the library on the front end but also have well-thought out support for the back end.