OLJ Activity - Building Academic Library 2.0

View the YouTube video called 'Building Academic Library 2.0'. This is part of a symposium sponsored by Librarians Association of the University of California, Berkeley Division in 2007. While this presentation is over one (1) hour in duration, there are a number of key points raised by a number of speakers, including the keynote speaker Meredith Farkas, that relate to any library or information agency that is trying to transform their library into a 2.0 Library.

Consider advice provided by one or more of the speakers in terms of a library and information agency that you know (as an employee or user). Select five (5) key pieces of advice from these speakers, and consider how these may be applied to your library to help it embrace a Library 2.0 ethos. Write up your findings as a post (of no more than 350 words in your OLJ).

I am not currently working in a school, however, I have selected my previous school to base this activity on. It is a secondary, systemic Catholic girls school in an inner-west suburb of Sydney. The following advice I selected from the symposium all comes from the keynote speaker, Meredith Farkas:

1. Blogs have made it easy to communicate in a less formal way.

Creating blogs to target the needs of different groups in the school may be a way of opening communication to students about services provided and resources available. Blogging is a more effective communication tool for students than posters around the grounds or announcements in meetings. Blogging is talking to the students in a way they want to be communicated with. 

Having never worked as a TL before, my initial examples of blogs may be fairly limited but they include: 

• Book Club blog, 
• Premier's Reading Challenge blog
• HSC student blog.

2. Question everything. Dewey or Don't We. 

Is the Dewey system the most effective way to catalogue the collection to meet the needs of students? Are the girls more familiar with searching through bookshops to find what they are looking for? Should the library shelves be reorganised to reflect the way girls 'shop' for a book? Should bookshop categories be applied to the collection? 

Questioning the way things are done is an attribute of a Librarian 2.0. I like this idea of reorganising the library shelves. At my school setting it could be done on a small scale to begin with by creating a history section. I have seen this done at St. Ignatius' College Riverview Libray. Another example of moving away from Dewy is by a New York primary school. This school reorganised it's library away from Dewey to a more useable way for students in an attempt to increase readership (Harris, 2012). 

3. Communication becomes more transparent.

Using wikis and blogs requires a certain level of trust in communication. The transparency of communication can help build community and partnerships. The library can be responsive in listening to the needs of users.

Many teachers set up wikis for student use in their own subject or use the school intranet page for classwork. Releasing a pathfinder for resources through the library collection on to the students' subject wiki or webpage would bring the library to the students. Scheduling the timing of this communication to the day the assignment is released will open the 'doors' to the library to students at just the right moment. Connecting with the students in this way shows the TL cares about the students' needs.

4. Build participation.

Creating wikis to share content can be tailored to specific groups of students. At this school setting HSC students by nature share resources and study 'together'. Why not set up wikis from the library as a study hub based on HSC subjects? Coming from the TL rather than the teacher the wiki can be a collaborative tool between the students, the TL and the library to share content.

5. The need for policies to govern acceptable use. 

The nature of social networking tools can mean content is posted without being moderated. It is essential the school has a social networking policy outlining acceptable use for staff and students. It is also clear the policy is understood and enforced. The functionality for staff to delete unacceptable content should also exist. All contributors should take responsibility for the content they publish online. 

Farkas, M. (2007, November 2). Building Academic Library 2.0 [Videofile]. Retrieved February 5, 2014 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_uOKFhoznI 

Harris, C. (2012, August 9). Summer Project: Kill Dewey [Web Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://www.thedigitalshift.com/2012/08/k-12/summer-project-kill-dewey/  

Blog feed

When I set up this blog I decided to use blogspot as my platform as I have never used it before. My previous experience of blogging was with wordpress. Since this was a social networking subject, I thought I would explore use of a different blogging platform to which I was familiar. To learn something new.

Each time I blog I feel I become more familiar with the features and functionality of blogspot. I think I still prefer wordpress though.

During the initial setup I listed all the blogs to follow that were recommended in the subject outline. I was then surprised that they did not appear on the blog when I viewed it. I was puzzled as to where they went?!

This week I was exploring adding widgets to the blog view. In particular, I was looking to add a tag cloud for the labels. It was during this process that I discovered how to add the blog feed.

Once I added the blog feed to my blog it was much easier to see the updates to the blogs. The latest update pushed that blog to the top of the list. I really liked the functionality of this feature. I have not yet set up RSS feeds for blogging and I think I prefer the blog feed on the blog as it compartmentalises the content together rather than linking to email.

Tonight, enthusiastic about my discovery of blog feeds and the potential applications of this feature I set out to share my new-found knowledge with my husband. He uses a wordpress blog for his HSC Economics class and is constantly seeking current content to share with his class. I asked him if he follows any economists blogs, suspecting he didn't and I was right. I then showed him how he can add a blog feed to his wordpress site and encourage the students to use it for wider reading as well as alert him to current content. He now just needs to develop a blog list to follow!

OLJ Activity - 4Cs of Social Media

Visit ASU's collection of The Library Minute videos and view five (5) of these one minute videos, then visit two (2) of the other Web 2.0 tools used as part of the ASU Library Channel suite at http://lib.asu.edu/librarychannel/.

Write a critical evaluation on ASU Libraries' use of these platforms to achieve the 4Cs of social media.

Arizona State University (ASU) Libraries have a collection of YouTube clips entitled The Library Minute. I viewed five of these, including The Library Minute: The Social Connection and explored ASU Libraries Facebook page and podcasts. I can appreciate their attempts to achieve the 4Cs of social media – collaboration, conversation, community and content creation, however, I feel they have fallen short.

The Library Channel is ASU Libraries blog sharing content pertaining to news, events and announcements. Trolling through the blog it does not appear there is much collaboration in the presentation of content published. Although it can be inferred a number of people are responsible for content creation as content covers current exhibitions, historical podcasts and YouTube clips on The Library Minute series. 

It does not appear the intended audience, ASU LIbraries' users, are participating in the conversation with them. For example, the Facebook page has only 575 likes, rather small scale for a University and the latest post from 11 days ago (7 Dec) about study tips for upcoming exams only had 3 likes and 2 shares. Hardly having a collaborative conversation with the community.

The Library Minute Series on YouTube consists of a number of brief, informative and fairly engaging clips. However, some appeared to have been created a number of years ago, thus not presenting the most current of content creation. The comments I read by viewers also did not appear to be from ASU students, thereby presenting evidence ASU Libraries are not engaging in the conversation with their community. Anali is the only 'character' in The Library Minute series. The inclusion of other ASU students in these clips will assist in collaboration and building community between the library and its users.

ASU Libraries are on Twitter and it appears they are achieving more success in achieving the 4Cs of social media using this social media platform. They have 2474 followers on twitter and have 1768 tweets. This is more of a community than the Facebook group has generated. Tweets are fairly regular, with nine tweets in the last week. It does not appear though users of the library are communicating with the library through Twitter. This conversation is very much one-way communication from the library.

McBurnie (2007) argues a library's use of a social networking tool must be purposeful. In this case I question ASU Libraries' use of social networking tools just for the sake of using another web 2.0 platform and focus on the tools that generate conversation with their community. I feel ASU Libraries should adopt Schrier (2011) principles for integrating social media into their overall strategic plan. In particular principles #1 listening and #2 participation will assist in ASU Libraries in engaging with ASU Library students in social media. 

McBurnie, J. (2007, October 1). Your Online Identity: Key to Marketing and Being Found [Web Blog Post]. Retrieved from http://web.freepint.com/go/blog/2510

Schrier, R. A. (2011). Digital librarianship and social media: the digital library as conversation facilities, D-Lib Magazine, 17(7/8) July/August 2011. Retrieved from http://dlib.org/dlib/july11/schrier/07schrier.html

Is it a blog? Is it a Wiki? Is it a Facebook group? Or maybe a microblog? That is the Question!

Blog, wiki, Facebook group or microblog?????
That is the question!

I am deciding which social networking tool will best suit my Project.

The current tool is a wordpress blog. This seems suitable. However, I was thinking a wiki may be the way to go to enable the students and parents to contribute content. But after talking with my husband (let's call him 'the client') he does not want students and parents to contribute. That would require action on his behalf and with email, phone calls and text messaging already from parents who expect an immediate response, I can see his point. So I am back to siding with a blog.

I then had the thought of a closed Facebook group. But survey results have indicated only 43.33% would be interested in being a member of a closed Facebook group. 40% indicated they were not on Facebook, and a further 16.67% were on Facebook, but not interested in being a member of a closed group. That is, only 13 out of 30 respondents (to date) would be interested in a closed Facebook group, therefore this is not an appropriate social networking tool for this community.

Now for microblogging . . . My understanding to date of microblogging is that it is best suited to the workplace. Most of the boarding parents live in rural areas and the lack of reliable and fast internet connections can have implications for them. 

So I am back to thinking the blog is the way to go!

Social Networking Project

My project involves evaluating a blog my husband used this year to communicate with the parents of boarding school students. He is responsible for the care of around 50 Year 9 boys in an independent Catholic school in Sydney.

This year to increase communication between himself and the parents he set up a wordpress blog. His experience with wordpress stemmed from the utilisation of a blog for senior students in his curriculum area.

For the boarding parents he intended them to check in with his blog weekly. He posted a weekly newsletter to the blog, but also emailed the same newsletter. This had me thinking, how many parents are using the blog and how many just open their email. Other information on the blog were photos he had taken of the boys at school, leave forms (which are on the school website) and a map of their hometowns with a photo of each student taken at their home.

I felt he was not taking complete advantage of the blog for communication purposes. I believe he should not have emailed the weekly newsletter, but emailed occasionally to remind parents to be checking in with the blog weekly.

I also felt more information should be included in the blog such as:

• leave information, 
• details for weekend sport, 
• practical information for rural families visiting boys, such as what's on in Sydney and tourist attractions.

Preliminary reading of the survey I conducted of this year's parents and their use of the blog also revealed one respondent suggesting the need for information about visiting other schools for sport, such as venue details and where to park.

I am excited about revamping his blog and presenting it to him. 

YouTube clip from Module 1 Web2.0 Social Networking and the Social Life of Information.

I am uploading this clip to my blog for a couple of reasons.
1. To have a link to it once the interact site is no longer available to me.
2. To see if I can embed a video in to my blog.