Final assignment INF506 Evaluative report

“Ui mai ki ahau, ‘He aha te mea nui o te Ao?’
Māku e kī atu,
‘He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.’
If you were to ask me, ‘What is the most important thing in the world?’
I would reply,
‘It is people, it is people, it is people.’

Traditional Maori saying.

(“Glossary and Whakatauku,” 2009).

Evaluative statement

Social media is more than a collection of tools it is a way for people to connect with one another. People are finding that social media can enhance their lives, allowing them to participate in conversations and community no matter where in the world they are. Online participation is growing as wireless internet and mobile technologies develop and become cheaper and more accessible to the public. Social media is all about people connecting with people. David Lankes, Professor for New Librarianship at Syracuse University, challenges libraries to be “of the people”. When someone comes to a library (either in person or online) they must see an opportunity to contribute, to be an integral part of the community that is the library. Community members don’t support the library because they are satisfied customers but because they see the library as part of who they are (Lankes, 2012, p.37). Social media offers a way for libraries to connect with people and build community.

Library 2.0 is about participation and building community. Instead of providing collections and having our patrons come to the building to access them Library 2.0 takes the library out into the community and into the Internet environments through social media. The Internet has not only enabled libraries to be accessible 24/7 it has also allowed them to invite conversation and participation with patrons. Library 2.0 acknowledges that there are communities and conversations that would be enhanced by librarian participation and that this is a two way street. By identifying specific groups and catering for their needs online, libraries can build trust, partnership and good will (Bond, 2016a).

The appeal of social media tools for many librarians is that they are free and that their patrons are already using them. However, to create and maintain a social media presence takes time and planning. While the tool may be free the staff time involved in successful social media presence is not (Crawford, 2014, p.3). A first step is to find out what social media tools your patrons are using and how they are using them (Bond, 2015b). Are they residents or visitors to the platforms? Residents and visitors is a way to describe people’s participation and presence on social media (White, 2014). We can be a resident or visitor at any given time depending on our purpose. A ‘visitor’ simply uses a website without leaving any trace of themselves there whereas a ‘resident’ logs in, creates posts, interacts with others (White, 2014).  It is possible to collect information from people and see where they are residents or visitors with the technologies they use (“Visitor and Resident Maps,” 2014). Libraries can be informed about where to invest time in social media once they know where their patrons are mostly resident.

By creating a way for people to feel connected to community and increasing their knowledge of other people, social media can bring reciprocity and feelings of trust (Young & Rossman, 2015, p. 21). This is where involvement in social media communities can be essential for libraries. People will share their experiences good and bad within their social media communities. If the message is negative it is important to know about it in order to respond and do something about it. Positive feedback also should be acknowledged. Social media has a broad reach with messages being passed on from one community to the next. A social media presence can build social capital for libraries, earned over time as people interact positively within the online community (Solomon, 2013, p.26).

Creating a plan around the social media tools patrons use and the content and the frequency of posts will assist libraries in developing communities on the Internet (Bond, 2015b). The plan should identify goals so that evaluation of progress can take place (Steiner, 2012, p. 56). Having a way to gauge success is helpful. Often social media tools have inbuilt statistics, page views, likes, retweets and so on that can be an indication of how well the social media strategy is working to build community.

When utilising social media an organisation needs to be develop a social media policy so that everyone involved will know what is expected and acceptable. This is especially true for school libraries which serve a wide range of people, some of whom are impressionable and vulnerable children. A social media policy which clearly articulates expectations, best practice, guidelines and procedures would assist in maintaining a healthy and respectful online community. Involving the people within the community in creating and reviewing the policy will ensure it is robust and respected (Bond, 2016b).

Public and University libraries have been at the forefront of using social media to develop dynamic online communities. By studying their use of the tools school libraries can utilise the best practices already formed and create successful communities of their own.

Reflective statement

It would be true to say that I enjoy participating in social media. I reside in Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube and as a blogger. I found to my surprise that I enjoy creating content, interacting with others and participating in a variety of online communities. Before this course started I knew of a lot of social media tools and used them along the continuum of visitor through to resident. I was already using some of them at school. All teachers at my school blog using WordPress and I am expected to blog weekly about the library. I tweet about each blog post using hashtags to link in to the school social media accounts as well as some that relate to education – thus expanding the audience.

This course has shown that with planning and goal setting, my haphazard blogging and tweeting can actually do more than highlight what is happening in the library. In my first blog post for the course I expressed a desire to use social media to promote the work of our library (Bond, 2015a). I now see that social media offers more than the opportunity to broadcast to colleagues, parents and students about our services and resources. It has the potential to be a community with the people involved exchanging ideas, recommending books and participating in developing a positive school library culture. When there is a shift of focus from use of social media for marketing to that of community building, the library can help people share in research and learning (Young & Rossman, 2015, p. 22).

Social media is a long-term process of building relationships with individuals, rather than marketing to the masses. It is about creating personalized connections that allow for conversations between members of the library community. It helps to build good will and is faster and wider spread than word of mouth (Solomon, 2013, p. 191). I have learned that a key to building relationship with students, parents and colleagues is to listen to them. I want to find out what social media tools they are using and how they are using them. During the project I conducted for assignment 3 I made the mistake of assuming that because teachers of grade 7 were using Google + to communicate with their students that the students themselves were using that tool for discussion. As it turned out the use of Google + was to share and reinforce information from their classes and there was little interaction expected from the students.

I learned from that experience that I need to investigate thoroughly before committing to a social media tool. It is helpful to take some time to explore the functionality of the tool with the students so we use it effectively. I have recently started to use Pinterest more due to our school building project. I was saving pins of library designs. While discussing ideas for our “Love reading week” our Marketing Director, Jen Gokmen, showed me how to search Pinterest for specific topics, follow boards, and send messages.

Our school has a closed Facebook group for parents, staff and alumni and a twitter handle. The marketing office maintains and manages all school social media accounts. Our library team can post to the Facebook page and add the twitter handle to our tweets. An advantage to this is that people are able to see us as members of a wider school community as well as participants in the online communities of Facebook and Twitter. We can be active participants in building the online school community through existing channels rather than creating our own.

I will develop a plan that will give guidelines for how we use social media in the school library, which tools we will utilise and who is involved (Bell, 2012, p. 218). The plan will also need to have a goal, specific actions, frequency and possible subject matter, and a way to evaluate impact.

Our school does not at present have a social media policy. I will form a group to create one – this can be a professional learning community for the 2016 – 2017 academic year.  A social media policy would give clear expectations, guidelines and procedures to protect everyone using social media and promote positive community building.

I have gained so much from participating in this course. I am passionate about using social media to enable our school library become a more “multidimensional socially connected space” (Young & Rossman, 2015, p. 22). The most important thing is the people and the community we create together.

References

Bell, S. (2012). Students tweet the darndest things about your library – and why you need to listen. Reference Services Review, 40(2), 217-220. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/00907321211228264

Bond, A. (2015a, November 22). Social networking – beginning INF506 [Blog post]. Retrieved from Wondering @ work website: https://abond.edublogs.org/2015/11/22/social-networking-beginning-inf506/

Bond, A. (2015b, December 12). Module 4.1 Building school library 2.0 [Blog post]. Retrieved from Wondering @ work website: https://abond.edublogs.org/2015/12/12/building-school-library-2-0/

Bond, A. (2016a, January 12). Module 5.2 5 reasons why school libraries should be using social media [Blog post]. Retrieved from Wondering @ work website: https://abond.edublogs.org/2016/01/12/5-reasons-why-school-libraries-should-be-using-social-media/

Bond, A. (2016b, January 21). Module 6.2 Developing a social media policy [Blog post]. Retrieved from Wondering @ work website: https://abond.edublogs.org/2016/01/21/developing-a-social-media-policy/

Crawford, W. (2014). Successful social networking in public libraries. Chicago: ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.

Glossary and whakatauku. (2009, October 8). Retrieved January 23, 2016, from http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/Glossary-and-whakatauki

Lankes, R. D. (2012). Expect more: Demanding better libraries for today’s complex world. San Bernardino: R. David Lankes.

Solomon, L. (2013). The librarian’s nitty-gritty guide to social media. Chicago: ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.

Steiner, S. K. (2012). Strategic planning for social media in libraries. London: Facet.

Visitor and resident maps. (2014, May 7). Retrieved January 23, 2016, from https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/evaluating-digital-services/example-visitor-and-resident-maps

White, D. (2014, March 10). Visitor and residents [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sPOG3iThmRI

Young, S. W., & Rossman, D. (2015). Building library community through social media. Information Technology & Libraries, 34(1), 20-37. Retrieved from EBSCOhost database. (Accession No. 103786230)

Module 6. 2 Developing a social media policy

5 Key points to consider when developing a social media policy relating to employees use of Web 2.0 tools for work and personal use while using the school’s computers, network and time.

When you consider how people communicate with one another, social media is becoming fundamental to personal and now professional dialogues. The distinction between personal and professional use of social media is becoming more blurred. Companies are realising the value of having employees follow and participate in the social media conversations about their brand. Oracle actually encourages its employees to follow the company’s social media channels (Stiles, n.d.).

Schools are different to big corporations in their daily operations but not when it comes to the community conversations about them on social media. Schools should have a social media presence to build their own brand and contribute to those conversations. To ensure the reputation of the school and the safety of the students there should be very clear standards of communication practice around the use of social media. Effective policies represent a school’s intent to deal with all of its community with “trust, transparency, authenticity, integrity and competence” (Johnston, 2015, p. 185).

Here are 5 key factors to consider if your school is creating a social media policy

  1. Involve the people to whom the policy will apply. Create a committee and get a range of people to be involved (Zimmer, 2010). In a school that would include students, parents, teachers, school leadership team and Board of Governors. The range would not only to represent those interest group’s views but it would also most likely represent a range of social media use.
  1. Listen to the community. Ask people about the way they use social media both at home and at school. Find out what people’s expectations are about the personal and public divide in social media (Johnston, 2015, 185). Survey the community, collect information about what people are using and how they use it. (Oxiem Brand Interactions, 2010). Schools have the great resource of parents who may well have knowledge of their own workplace policies.
  1. Review existing school policies that may have impact. Schools will already have a number of policies that relate to this one such as Technology Acceptable Use Policy, Student Safety Policy and Staff Conduct Guidelines. It would be important for the Social Media Policy to reinforce these (Oxiem Brand Interactions, 2010). 
  1. Investigate the Social Media policies of other schools and corporations. Ask schools with similar focus to share their policies. Look at corporation policies to see if there is some cross over.
  1. Involve the people to whom the policy will apply. Throughout the process get feedback, consult about philosophy and then once the policy is completed get more feedback. Provide training around the policy for everyone to whom it applies (Johnston, 2015,  179). Regularly review the policy with everyone.

References

Johnston, J. (2015). ‘Loose tweets sink fleets’ and other sage advice: social media governance, policies and guidelines. Public Affairs, 15, 175-187. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pa.1538.

Oxiem Brand Interactions. (2010, March 18). Social media policy for school districts [Slides]. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/oxiem/social-media-policy-for-school-districts?ref=https://interact2.csu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-636350-dt-content-rid-1452935_1/courses/S-INF506_201590_W_D/module6/6_2_Social_media_networking_policies_organisations.html

Stiles, M. (n.d.). Essentials of an employee social media policy [Blog post]. Retrieved from Oracle Social Spotlight website: https://blogs.oracle.com/socialspotlight/entry/essentials_of_an_employee_social

Zimmer, L. (2010, April 14). Social Media issues and policies for government agencies. [Slides]. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/guestd39dc835/social-media-policies-for-government-agencies-why-and-how?ref=https://interact2.csu.edu.au/bbcswebdav/pid-636350-dt-content-rid-1452935_1/courses/S-INF506_201590_W_D/module6/6_2_Social_media_networking_policies_organisations.html

Module 6.1 Finding authentic information in a socially networked world

A few years ago at an ECIS librarian’s conference I heard Joyce Valenza speak about using Twitter as a way to connect students with real world situations. She spoke about the Arab spring and the protests in Egypt and how one of students started to follow a hashtag and found a teenager tweeting from within the protest movement. It was very powerful learning and connecting for her students. During the same study the students also found some rogue twitter handles that seemed to belong to prominent world leaders but actually were fake accounts. The students and teachers together worked on ways to identify authentic and fake twitter accounts of these leaders.

It is not everyday that we are actively researching about current world events but as a recent article in the Huffington Post pointed out “When a Twitter exchange between Nicki Minaj and Taylor Swift can become the subject of national debate, knowing who’s really posting — or who really isn’t – matters” (Fitts, 2015). So when twitter was being used in the classroom to follow a presidential campaign (Journell, Ayers, & Walker Beeson, 2014, p. 53) hopefully the teachers are also guiding their students to ask questions about the validity of the sources of the tweets and to be responsible tweeters themselves.

With more people being able to create content credibility of information found on social networking sites is a real concern. People seek information about medical problems on question sites such as Quora but are the people answering the questions qualified to answer them? Health professionals are discussing ways to ensure medical information found on specific health concerns websites and forums can be trusted. Creating profiles of the contributors is one solution that is being discussed (Hajli, Sims, Featherman, & Love, 2015, p. 248).

Wikipedia the most famous of all crowd sourced encyclopaedia also needs to be treated as an overview or a starting point on a topic rather than a base for serious research (Ghose, 2015). More serious scholars are taking ownership of articles but people still need to check the credibility of the source of the information.

So based on the three articles I read from the module (marked with an asterisk in the reference list below) the two essential take-home messages are when using information found through social media

  • Be a skeptic. Ask WHO is posting this information? (“Authenticating Information,” n.d.). Check their credentials, even go as far as to ask are they really who they say they are. Check the basis for the person’s authority (“Evaluating Sources,” 2015).
  • Be responsible. Check on the validity information before passing it on. That may put Snopes out of business but it is the right thing to do.

References

Authenticating information. (n.d.). Retrieved January 18, 2016, from http://mediasmarts.ca/internet-mobile/authenticating-information

Evaluating sources. (2015, December 22). Retrieved January 18, 2016, from http://guides.library.jhu.edu/c.php?g=202581&p=1334914

Fitts, A. S. (2015, April 8). It’s easier than ever to impersonate a celebrity online — and we’ve all been duped. Retrieved January 18, 2016, from Huffpost Tech website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/instagram-celebrity-impersonators_55bbc26be4b0d4f33a02c3d7

*Ghose, T. (2015, August 20). Can you trust wikipedia on science? Retrieved January 18, 2016, from Live Science website: http://www.livescience.com/51926-are-wikipedia-science-pages-trustworthy.html

*Hajli, M. N., Sims, J., Featherman, M., & Love, P. E. (2015). Credibility of information in online communities. Jounral of Strategic Marketing, 23(3), 46-72. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0965254X.2014.920904

*Journell, W., Ayers, C. A., & Walker Beeson, M. (2014). Tweeting in the classroom: Twitter can be a smart instructional tool that links students with real-time information and connects them to authentic discussions beyond school walls. Phi Delta Kappan, 95(5), 53. Retrieved from Expanded Academic ASAP database.

Module 5.3 Developing a social networking strategy for our school library

Effective social networking takes time and planning (Solomon, 2013, p. 24). It is important to know what you want to achieve with the use of social media. Having measurable goals helps establish the purpose of the use of time and resources in maintaining a presence on social media (Ramsey & Vecchione, 2014, p. 76). Once the goal is established then it is possible to select the best social media tools for the purpose, create some steps to implement the plan and also have a way to measure success.

Istanbul International Community School (IICS) has just over 600 students ages ranging from 3 to 18 years old. It serves an expat community with families from all over the world. The library team has one Teacher Librarian and three assistants.  Any social media strategy for the library has to be sustainable and realistic in terms of whom we are trying to reach and the amount of time required developing and maintaining our presence.

Jennifer Gokmen and Amanda Bond

Jennifer Gokmen and Amanda Bond

Our school already has a closed Facebook group. This group is for parents and students of the school, alumni and friends of the school. It has a public twitter handle @iics1911. These social media tools are maintained by the school’s marketing team, headed up by Jennifer Gokmen. Jennifer monitors Facebook posts and actively retweets school related tweets. The main audience for the school twitter and Facebook accounts are the parents.

Instead of creating a separate Facebook page and dedicated twitter account I think it is a good idea to participate actively within the existing school accounts. Our library posts can add to the school social media presence while at the same time highlighting our programmes and services. We can be passionate partners in our wider school social media efforts (Ramsey & Vecchione, 2014, p. 78). Also since we will be using our personal twitter handles and Facebook accounts to complete the posts this will help our audience identify the library staff in the school, they will see us as professionals who communicate with pride about our work.

While we do have some parents as library members and regular borrowers we would like to communicate with our parents to show them the programmes and services we provide for our students and their families. The Pew report into parents’ views about libraries found that the majority of parents with children younger than 18 years of age feel that libraries are very important for the children as they develop as readers and researchers (Miller, Zickuhr, Rainie, & Purcell, 2013, p. 2). To have a goal that involves more “buzz about the library” (Solomon, 2013, p. 15) is appropriate. Social media will provide one way to spread news and build relationships (Burkhardt, 2010, p.10) with our parents.

The strategic plan should include the goal, who is involved, an assessment date, action items and how the goal will be measured (Steiner, 2012, p.56). Our social media strategy should include all these things and also have a desired frequency of posting. Below is a draft of a marketing strategy for our library using these ideas and guidelines.

 Appendix   Draft marketing strategy for IICS library

Goal

Increase parent and colleague awareness of library programmes and services

People involved

Teacher librarian and anyone in the library team who will commit to the goal.

Assessment date

End of the school year – June 2016

Action Items

  1. Post to twitter daily about IICS library during the working week.
  2. Use @iics1911 and #iicsreads #iicslib #love2read and/or #pypchat with each tweet.
  3. Post once a week to Istanbul International Community School closed Facebook group about library matters and include relevant hashtag.
  4. When posting to the library blog tweet using the hashtags above with the link to the blog post.
  5. Retweet and share colleagues’ posts about the library.

Measures

  1. Fill in Google Doc on Monday morning showing tweets, FB posts, retweets, favourites, likes and shares.
  2. Anecdotal evidence from parents and colleagues about things seen on social media
  3. Increased page views on Blog

Time frames

Start 18th January and evaluate February 29th (first Monday after the break) and April 25th  (first Monday after Spring break) to check and discuss progress.

References

Burkhardt, A. (2010). Social media: A guide for college and university libraries. College & Research Libraries News, 71(1), 10-24. Retrieved from ProQuest database. (Accession No. ISSN: 00990086)

Miller, C., Zickuhr, K., Rainie, L., & Purcell, K. (2013, May). Parents, children, libraries and reading. Retrieved from http://libraries.pewinternet.org/2013/05/01/parents-children-libraries-and-reading/

Ramsey, E., & Vecchione, A. (2014). Engaging library users through a social media strategy. Journal of Library Innovation, 5(2), 71-82. Retrieved from ProQuest AP Science database.

Solomon, L. (2013). The librarian’s nitty-gritty guide to social media. Chicago: ALA Editions, an imprint of the American Library Association.

Steiner, S. K. (2012). Strategic planning for social media in libraries. London: Facet.

Module 5.2 5 reasons why school libraries should be using social media

The three library websites I compared were Christchurch City Libraries, Auckland libraries and United World College of South East Asia (UWCSEA) an international school in Singapore. I was hoping to compare three school libraries but as I was researching for this post I found many school library websites are behind password protection or are simply a page on the school website with a link to the catalogue.

Andy Burkhardt states that libraries should be using social media to: communicate, respond to feedback, promotions and getting to know their users (2009). Here are some reasons school libraries should be using social media

  1. Build community. One of the great advantages of social media is that it encourages communication, collaboration and the building of community. Both the Christchurch City library website and the Auckland Libraries website have tabs for teens and kids. On the Teens pages there are sections for homework help. Both libraries also have photo sharing tools Flickr for Christchurch and Instagram for Auckland. Both show community events within the library and in other areas. Both libraries have Facebook and Twitter accounts.
  2. Get the message out. All websites have articles, links to events happening within their libraries. Summer reading programmes, seminars, resources. The two public libraries also have ways to tweet or like their posts. This feature helps the message spread even further than the reach of the library website, utilising the friends and followers of their patrons. These extra tools encourage further communication and collaboration (Braxton, 2015).
  3. Access resources. UWCSEA has booking sheets for spaces within the library. They show that teachers and students and parents can book these areas. All the libraries have ways to access the catalogue and e-resources. UWCSEA also has libguides for students and teachers including seminars for deeper learning. Christchurch and Auckland have a way to book a one to one session with a librarian to help with research, computer skills or reading recommendations.
  4. Opportunities for participation. One thing social media and web2.0 offers library patrons is the chance to participate. The public libraries have areas on their websites that enable patrons to recommend books for purchase or give feedback about programmes and services. There are blogs offered that have comments enabled. By adding in the opportunity to get involved the visitors to the website also take ownership of the library itself (LeGarde, 2011).
  5. Getting parents involved and caring about their school library. Barbara Braxton recommended that librarians should target parents, peers and principals when advocating for their libraries (2012). Particularly when it comes to parents, as they can be powerful school library advocates, she recommends being a prominent presence through newsletters, website and social networking (Braxton, 2012). UWCSEA has a sign up area for parent volunteers in the library as a tab on their website.

These are great reasons for school libraries to get involved with social media.

References

Braxton, B. (2012, July 12). Peeing on the job [Blog post]. Retrieved from Blue Skunk Blog: http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2012/7/12/peeing-on-the-job-guest-post-by-barbara-braxton.html

Braxton, B. (2015, July 19). The social media hat [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://500hats.edublogs.org/2015/07/19/the-social-media-hat/

Burkhardt, A. (2009, August 25). Four reasons libraries should be on social media. Retrieved January 11, 2016, from http://andyburkhardt.com/2009/08/25/four-reasons-libraries-should-be-on-social-media/

LeGarde, J. (2011, August 9). 5 things every school library website should have [Blog post]. Retrieved from The adventures of library girl website: http://www.librarygirl.net/2011/08/5-things-every-school-library-website.html

Module 4.3 My PLN

I began seriously exploring personal learning networks (PLN) while at an ECIS Librarians’ conference in Istanbul in 2011. The Keynote speaker was Joyce Valenza and during her presentation she showed us  how to use Twitter as a PLN and showed us a great tool to curate the tweets – paperli (Valenza, 2011). Paperli curates all the tweets from any of the people you are following or the hashtags you are following – like #tlchat for example. I get to read the tweets of the people I follow once a day in a newspaper type format with links to the content being tweeted about.

Suddenly a whole new world opened up for me. I not only met fabulous presenters at this conference, I could follow them on twitter and immerse myself in their ideas, discussions and best practice. I jumped in and was fully immersed in social media PLN (Utecht, 2008). 

As time went on I discovered that I could follow people’s blogs and when I purchased my first i-pad I discovered apps that would aggregate the ones I found most useful. Twitter was very useful in discovering the top 10 people I wanted to follow. Some of them also had profiles on Facebook and I found that a helpful way to follow.

I glance through the feeds and chose the things I want to read deeply. Then I add them to my diigo account, sharing with relevant groups, and tweet the links to the world.

Somethings I would like to explore next year are:

  • to leave comments on people’s posts. I haven’t stopped to do that and I know I love it when people engage with my blogs.
  • to participate in a live #tlchat meeting one month. This group has a very active presence on Google plus.

Balance is something I struggle to achieve with a social media PLN (Utecht, 2008). We are fortunate in our school that we have Professional Learning Communities (PLC) and these are a great combination of face to face meeting times and discussing learning through social media. I am quite out of balance at the moment with my Masters studies at Charles Sturt University but I do enjoy the extra PLN that the courses offer. Very shortly I will be on vacation with a lovely few days in a remote part of the South Island of New Zealand. No cell phone coverage, no Internet, just some good books to read and very few distractions.

My PLN meme

References

Utecht, J. (2008, April 3). Stages of PLN adoption [Blog post]. Retrieved from The thinking stick website: http://www.thethinkingstick.com/stages-of-pln-adoption/

Valenza, J. (2011, May). The Wizard of Apps [Slides]. Paper presented at ECIS Librarians’ Conference, Istanbul, Turkey. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/joycevalenza/wizardappsupdatepdf

Module 4.3 Librarian 2.0

Bad libraries build collections, good libraries build services, great libraries build communities (Lankes, 2012). Of course when tweeting that thought David Lankes was not meaning libraries the buildings but in fact, the librarians who work there.  Once the term Library 2.0 was coined and used to describe the changes happening in library services and collections with Web 2.0 tools and platforms the natural progression would be to look at the professionals who are making Library 2.0 come alive – the librarians themselves.

Essential knowledge: Librarians 2.0 needs to know their users. 2.0 anything is about collaboration, co-creation and community so it is important to know that community well. That would mean knowing their needs, what they like and how they receive information.

Essential Skills: The traditional library knowledge of collection building and management will always be necessary but as well as that librarians 2.0 will need knowledge about technology and how to use it effectively for marketing, curating, communicating and managing collections as well as building community (Partridge, Lee & Munro, 2010, p.326). It is not only knowing about Web 2.0 tools and platforms it is utilising them effectively. The skills of change management are important as well –the world we live in, and our profession in particular, is in constant change (Huvila, Holmberg, Kronqvist-Berg, Nivakoski, & Widén, 2013, p. 199). This is requires the skills to cope with disruption and utilise it to enhance services.

Essential attributes: Having an attitude that embraces change and develop new ways of thinking is very important (Patridge, Lee & Munro, 2010, p. 332). Librarians need to be proactive and reactive to social media in order to make it work for them (Huvila, Holmberg, Kronqvist-Berg, Nivakoski, & Widén, 2013, p. 203). A Librarian’s 2.0 Manifesto, created by Laura Cohen, gives 14 statements showing the attributes of Librarian 2.0 and almost every one of them involves being proactive (Hamilton, 2010).  The job of a librarian is constantly evolving so an important attribute for someone in that role would be curiosity and the willingness to learn new skills.

References

Hamilton, B. (2010, April 7). It’s in the way that you use it: What library 2.0 means to me [Blog post]. Retrieved from The Unquiet Librarain website: https://theunquietlibrarian.wordpress.com/tag/laura-cohen/

Huvila, I., Holmberg, K., Kronqvist-Berg, M., Nivakoski, O., & Widén, G. (2013). What is Librarian 2.0 – New competencies or interactive relations? A library professional viewpoint. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 45(3), 198-205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961000613477122

Kingrss. (2006, November 9). A librarian’s 2.0 manifesto [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZblrRs3fkSU&feature=youtu.be

Lankes, R. D. (2012, February 7). Bad libraries build collections. Good libraries build services (of which a collection is only one). Great libraries build communities. [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/rdlankes/status/166525664319639552

Partridge, H. & Lee, J. & Munro, C.(2010). Becoming “Librarian 2.0”: The Skills, Knowledge, and Attributes Required by Library and Information Science Professionals in a Web 2.0 World (and Beyond). Library Trends59(1), 315-335. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Retrieved December 16, 2015, from Project MUSE database.

Module 4. 2 Library websites

Computers and mobile devices make it possible for people to visit the library’s virtual space as well as going to the actual building during opening hours. A dedicated website is effectively the digital front door of the library (Thorpe & Lukes, 2015, p.134).  Auckland libraries are available to me whether I am in New Zealand or here in Turkey (Auckland Council, n.d). I am about to go to New Zealand for our three week winter break so I went to the website to search the catalogue and then reserve some books for this course (as well as few to read while on the beach).

What constitutes an effective library website?

The home page should have the following design features:

  1. Library name (Thorpe & Lukes, 2015, 153).
  2. Online catalogue search box (Thorpe & Lukes, 2015, 153).
  3. Hours of operation (Thorpe & Lukes, 2015, 153).
  4. Links to own social media presence e(Hofschire & Wanucha, 2014, 8).
  5. An about us section (Thorpe & Lukes, 2015, 153).
  6. Contact us (Thorpe & Lukes, 2015, 153).
  7. Library address and phone number (Thorpe & Lukes, 2015, 153).
  8. Navigation bar along the top of the page horizontally (Thorpe & Lukes, 2015, 153).
  9. Link to mobile app or ways to find mobile apps (Lazaris, 2009,p).
  10. B e colourful and visually appealing (Lazaris, 2009, n.p).

Auckland libraries website meets all these criteria.

  1. The Auckland Libraries name is clearly displayed. There are 55 different branches of the Auckland Libraries. There is clear navigation to find a branch near you using a Google map.
  2. The catalogue search is available on every page.
  3. Hours of operation are shown under a quicklinks button
  4. Links to the social media presence are on the page: Facebook, Twitter, Historypin and their own mobile app
  5. There is an about section clearly marked. It has a drop down menu with many more options including locations, plans and policies, job vacancies.
  6. There is a contact us section clearly marked at the bottom of the home page. It takes the reader to a form to fill in with complaints, requests or compliments. It also provides phone numbers and the social media links.
  7. The library addresses and phone numbers are easy to obtain in the locations button.
  8. The navigation bars are very clear. There is horizontal navigation along the top and also quick links down the left hand side.
  9. There are links to mobile and apps on the home page and on other pages including the contact us page.
  10. The page has a green background but it goes from a deep shade of green on the left to a lighter lime green on the right. It is visually appealing and the main information is before the scroll. The scroll is only half a page down.

Overall the Auckland Libraries website is a great example of a well designed and well managed digital front door.

References

Auckland Council. (n.d.). Libraries home page. Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/EN/Pages/Home.aspx

Hofschire, L., & Wanucha, M. (2014). Public library websites and social media: What’s #trending now? Computers in Libraries, 34(8), 4-9. Retrieved from EBSCOhost database. (Accession No. 103903332)

Lazaris, L. (2009, November 27). Designing websites for kids: Trends and best practices, Smashing Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/designing-websites-for-kids-trends-and-best-practices/

Thorpe, A., & Lukes, R. (2015). A design analysis of Indiana public library homepages. Public Library Quarterly, 34(2), 134-161. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01616846.2015.1036708

Module 4. 1 Building School Library 2.0

Library 2.0 is a way to describe a change in the way libraries use social media and web tools to interact with library users (Huvila, Holmberg, Kronqvist-Berg, Nivakoski, & Widen, 2013, p. 198). Istanbul International Community School (IICS) library caters for students age 3 – 18 years and their families. Web 2.0 tools offer IICS library an opportunity to meet the needs of its community. Using the ideas from the Berkeley seminar on building library 2.0 (UC Berkeley Events, 2007) there are five key pieces of advice that will help IICS library to go forward.

1. Know your patrons: Meredith Farkes counselled librarians to find out what their patrons are into and what they enjoy. Find ways of gathering information about them that are not simply answering our questions created by our own view of the world. Once a year IICS students, staff and families complete an anonymous feedback form about the school. A few questions about the library would be helpful with a comments box as well for further thoughts.

2. Plan: Shel Wagner spoke about understanding what people want and then creating a plan to accommodate it. At the moment there is an annual IICS library plan but it doesn’t include the use of web tools or technology to promote conversation with users. Developing a five year plan that includes ways to use technology and web tools to develop and market library services would enable purposeful development of library 2.0.

3. Partnership: Shel Wagner also recommended creating strategic partnership between libraries, IT and the communities they serve. For IICS library the key partnerships would be with school leadership, the technology team, the parents and students using the library. Using social media and web tools to connect with these partners would be one way to strengthen and develop the partnership.

4. Build Participation: Meredith Farkes spoke about communication, going where are users are virtually – like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and building participation. She recommended being in the virtual spaces that the students use like adding library access to the online learning portals. IICS has many homeroom WordPress sites. It would be simple thing to ask each teacher to add a library search box as a widget to their pages.

5. Get rid of the culture of perfect: Meredith Farkes knows her librarian colleagues well when she gave this challenge. When applying social media and web tools there is the need to get things done quickly and know that editing and improvements can come later. At IICS library that means blogging about events as soon as they happen – getting the word out quickly can mean a lot for the students involved. It also means trying new ideas and tools even if we are not experts at using them yet. We are making the plane in the air when using web 2.0 tools, they are changing all the time.

References

AFallGuy4u. (2007, October 8). EDS airplane [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2zqTYgcpfg

Huvila, I., Holmberg, K., Kronqvist-Berg, M., Nivakoski, O., & Widen, G. (2013). What is Librarian 2.0 – New competencies or interactive relations? A library professional viewpoint. Journal of Librarianship and Information Science, 45(3), 198-205. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961000613477122

UC Berkeley Events. (2007, November 2). Building academic library 2.0 [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_uOKFhoznI

Module 4.1 Arizona State University as an example of Library 2.0

Arizona State University Library (ASUL) is developing web 2.0 platforms to make its services and resources known to the students and staff. The 4C’s of Web2.0 are described as connectivity, community, conversations and co-creation (Mootee, 2008).

Connectivity
There are so many ways to connect with ASUL: through their website, email and chat, Facebook and Twitter, the Library Minute and podcasts. ASUL is utilising many platforms to invite students to connect with its services and resources.

Conversations
With Facebook and Twitter accounts there are opportunities for conversation. The website also has instant messaging as part of the help desk and a feedback “We’re listening” page. There was one comment about the air conditioning not working in the private study rooms which was replied to explaining the air conditioning was being repaired and there were electric fans available at the issues desk (Arizona State University Library, 2015). One library minute ends with the question “Can we hear you now?” inviting students to communicate freely with library staff (Arizona State University, Tempe Campus, 2011).

Community
ASUL is creating community both online and face to face on campus. The website has links to all the online communities of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram as well as others. The Library Minute is clearly appealing to the student body, “We want to be YOUR library,” (Arizona State University, Tempe Campus, 2011). The Library Minute videos show many user friendly features which include board games, meeting rooms and cafes (Arizona State University, Tempe Campus, 2014).

Content creation
The website carried an Instagram competition which is content creation by the students in collaboration with the library. The library minute and other podcasts show the library is involved in content creation. There are vodcasts of guest lectures and the library has its own YouTube channel.

ASUL is a great example of library 2.0 in its use of social media and web 2.0 tools to connect with its student body.

 References

Arizona State University Library. (2015, September 18). We’re listening. Retrieved December 9, 2015, from https://lib.asu.edu/listening

Arizona State University, Tempe Campus (Producer). (2011, April 15). The social connection. The library minute. Podcast retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohyqXAhLgsM

Arizona State University, Tempe Campus. (2011, November 30). The library minute: study spaces. Retrieved December 10, 2015, from https://lib.asu.edu/librarychannel/library-minute

Arizona State University, Tempe Campus (Producer). (2013, August 1). Intro to ASU libraries 101. The library minute. Podcast retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpzDwCp7yo4

Arizona State University, Tempe Campus. (2014, September 17). The library minute, fun things to do in the libraries. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUAJv6Cck1I

Mootee, I. (2008, February 4). Web 2.0 and the 4 Cs [Blog post]. Retrieved from FutureLab website: http://www.futurelab.net/blog/2008/02/web-20-and-4-cs