Module 5.3 Developing a social networking strategy for our school library

Posted on January 16, 2016 by abond

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

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

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

Measures

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

Time frames

Start 18^th January and evaluate February 29^th (first Monday after the break) and April 25^th (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

Posted on January 12, 2016 by abond

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

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.
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).
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.
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).
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

Posted on December 18, 2015 by abond

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

Posted on December 17, 2015 by abond

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

Posted on December 15, 2015 by abond

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:

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

Auckland libraries website meets all these criteria.

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.
The catalogue search is available on every page.
Hours of operation are shown under a quicklinks button
Links to the social media presence are on the page: Facebook, Twitter, Historypin and their own mobile app
There is an about section clearly marked. It has a drop down menu with many more options including locations, plans and policies, job vacancies.
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.
The library addresses and phone numbers are easy to obtain in the locations button.
The navigation bars are very clear. There is horizontal navigation along the top and also quick links down the left hand side.
There are links to mobile and apps on the home page and on other pages including the contact us page.
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

Posted on December 12, 2015 by abond

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

Posted on December 10, 2015 by abond

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

Module 3.6 Dialogue for improvements – customer reviews

Posted on December 7, 2015 by abond

“Oh Central City Library, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Your massive selection, that can be pre-reserved online and sent to any library of your choosing.

Your efficient self checkout kiosks that let me check out up to 10 books in one go.

Your cheerful atmosphere and very helpful staff. ”~ Neera J on Yelp (2015).

What a response and what a review. The same library is reviewed by a different customer, SuriSun on TripAdvisor, speaks about the workshops and classes offered at the library (2014). Both positive reviews and on each site the Central City Library of Auckland is given very high ratings. Does it even matter, especially when each site only had a handful of reviews about these libraries?

More people are in the habit of turning to review sites to make purchases of products and services (Anderson, 2014). Review sites such as TripAdvisor and Yelp offer a very different dialogue for customers. They use them to give their opinion about products and services. Their posts are often more targeted and pointed, especially when they do not like some part of their experience, the anonymity of the forum can allow such brutal honesty (Derysh, 2013). Yet these very customer reviews can be the feedback needed to improve the services offered.

Businesses are being encouraged to not only read their online reviews but to actively engage with the customers, thanking them for good reviews and seeking to address complaints and frustrations for the customers with a negative experience (Olenski, 2015). This way the review becomes a dialogue and other potential customers can see how the business is responding to criticism.

The reviews posted about Central City library were for the most part very positive, friendly staff, great wi-fi, comfortable areas, children’s programmes. Neither Yelp nor TripAdvisor seemed to have a place for the library to publicly comment though private comments were available. How would a Teacher Librarian go about getting this kind of dialogue going within a school library? Having some anonymity would be helpful for students and staff who wanted to post negative reviews and it would be helpful to have public dialogues going. There are tools available to provide ways to canvas and collect customer feedback, a simple Google search will provide some good options.

Our patrons are our customers and the opportunity to enter into discussion with them about their experience in our libraries could very well lead to new ideas and improved services.

References

Anderson, M. (2014, July 1). Local consumer review survey 2014. Retrieved from https://www.brightlocal.com/2014/07/01/local-consumer-review-survey-2014/

Derysh, I. (2013, July 31). Why customer reviews crush social media marketing [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.desk.com/blog/social-media-marketing/

Neera J. (2015, September 27). Central City Library [Online forum post]. Retrieved from Yelp website: http://www.yelp.com/biz/central-city-library-auckland?page_src=best_of_yelp

Olenski, S. (2015, June 12). 5 ways to make customer reviews work to your advantage. Retrieved December 6, 2015, from http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-networks/steve-olenski/2015-06-12/5-ways-make-customer-reviews-work-your-advantage

SuriSun. (2014, August 24). Central City Library, Auckland region [Online forum post]. Retrieved from TripAdvisor website: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g1811027-d2526230-Reviews-Central_City_Library-Auckland_Region_North_Island.html

Module 3.2 Good short things – tweets and twitter

Posted on December 1, 2015 by abond

#iicsreads

“Good things, when short, are twice as good.” Baltasar Gracian #twitterquotes (Collins, 2009)

While I do follow some useful Twitter accounts I find the hashtags are the most useful way to follow events or broadcast to a group of people with similar interests. During conferences I tweet using the official conference hashtag. I often read back using the hashtag to see what my colleagues have noted or commented on. A hashtag can connect you with a group of like minded professional such as #tlchat which Teacher Librarians (TL) around the world use (Valenza, 2010). This particular hashtag not only collates posts from some leading TLs but it is now used for regular monthly discussions on topics with one session ‘live’ (TLChat Live, 2015). There are many blog posts giving TLs guidance on how to tune in to valuable discussion about their work (Rodriguez, 2014).

At the moment our Professional Learning Community (PLC) is focusing on how to buld a school culture of independent reading and our hashtag is #iicsreads. Not only do we tweet articles and photos to that hashtag as members of the PLC our students are using noticeboards with that hashtag to write up their reading quotes and tweets by hand.

(Kayabali, 2013)

One twitter hashtag my colleagues and I followed throughout the months of May and June in 2013 in Istanbul was #occupygezi. We all lived within a five minute walk of Gezi Park and Isitklal Cadessi. Both these areas saw clashes between protesters and riot police. There were clouds of tear gas, fireworks used as weapons and many people were injured. Each day we would follow the hashtag to see what protests were planned, see photos and video footage. We would decide on the safest route to walk home from the bus and alert each other as to what might be happening on our own streets next. Twitter was used as a way for the protesters to communicate with one another.

I do of course follow some key people, Joyce Valenza, Jude O’Connell and Ewan McIntosh are a few people I have had the privilege of hearing speak at conferences (a great source of people to follow). School Library Journal, Mashable, Scholastic, Awesome stories all constitute great sources of tweets. Then there are your favourite authors – many of whom are on twitter now as well.

At first I was worried about missing someone’s important tweet – the twitter sphere is very noisy at times. Then I was introduced to paperli. Paperli is a free web tool which uses the twitter content you are interested in and creates a daily paper (Paperli, n.d.). I have created my own daily paperli called “Librarybond” which curates my entire twitter feed. This year I created a new paperli for middle students following current events “News and Current Events Daily”.

Follow, hashtag, curate and retweet – twitter is a way to stay up date with breaking news in your neighbourhood and trends in your professional life.

References

Collins, T. (2009, June 5). “Good things, when short, are twice as good.” Baltasar Gracian #twitterquotes [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TheLittleBookOf

Kayabali, Y. (2013, July 31). [Gezi park protest twitter bird]. Retrieved from http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/july/protest-art-in-real-time/

Paperli. (n.d.). Save Time and Money. Retrieved December 1, 2015, from http://paper.li/learn-more.html

Rodriguez, M. (2014, May 27). Top Twitter Hashtags for Librarians. Retrieved from http://hacklibraryschool.com/2014/05/27/hashtags/

TLChat Live. (2015, November 10). https://twitter.com/TLChat [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/TLChat

Valenza, J. (2010, December 30). For newbies: Just Heart the (#) Hashtag! [Blog post]. Retrieved from Never ending Search website: http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2010/12/30/for-newbies-just-heart-the-hashtag/

Module 2.1 Web 2.0 the era of the amateur

Posted on November 29, 2015 by abond

Web 2.0 seems to be a way to try to differentiate between the first series of Internet tools and environments and the more recent ones. It uses the software update numbering method to try to show an improved and enhanced internet (“Web 2.0,” 2015).

Web 1.0 describes the first generation of web-based environments. These environments were mostly static and provided ways for people to find out information (Todd & Gordon, 2009). They were also, for the most part, produced by experts and professionals. Website developers and information architects were the people designing the websites for clients who provided the content.

Web 2.0 was first spoken of in 2004 as a way of describing a new generation of web-based services which emphasized sharing and collaboration. In particular sites would share user developed content, collect it, and distribute it to others (Darwish & Lakhtaria, 2011, p. 205). While the term Web 2.0 was coined to show the participatory nature of the next generation of Internet tools and environments the founder of the Internet, Tim Berners-Lee, rejects the whole idea of Web 2.0 saying that Web 1.0 was all about connecting people, “that was what the Web was supposed to be all along,” (2006). With connection and participation being the original intention of the Internet it seems that Web 2.0 is a term that is used to describe a broader and deeper used of the Internet to share information, opinions and ideas globally.

Regardless of whether the term Web 2.0 is valid or not the participatory nature of the Internet as it exists right now is undeniable. Web 2.0 is era of the amateur (Koltay, 2010, p. 2). So with web 2.0 anyone can create websites, blog posts, publish opinions and observations to the Internet and their work is available to the public at large.

This era of the amateur poses a huge challenge to Teacher Librarians when teaching information literacy skills to students. Not only do students need to discern the source and validity of the information they can access through the Web 2.0 environment they need to develop a wider range of literacies than the traditional ones of reading and writing. In fact other literacies considered essential for this century include; visual, critical, media, tool and digital (Churchill, 2009). As well as being consumers of information available on the Web students themselves are producers of information and that in itself carries new sets of skills and responsibilities.

References

Berners-Lee, T. (2006, July 28). Where we’ve come, and the challenges and opportunities ahead (Interview by S. Laningham) [Transcript]. Retrieved November 28, 2015, from https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/podcast/dwi/cm-int082206.txt

Churchill, D. (2009, June 12). New literacy in the Web 2.0 world [Powerpoint]. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/zvezdan/new-literacy-in-the-web-20-world

Darwish, A., & Lakhtaria, K. I. (2011). The impact of the new web 2.0 technologies in communication, development, and revolutions of societies. Journal of Advances in Information Technology, 2(4). Retrieved from ProQuest database.

Koltay, T. (2010). Library 2.0, information and digital literacies in the light of the contradictory nature of Web 2.0. Webology, 7(2), 1-12. Retrieved from ProQuest database.

Todd, R., Dr, & Gordon, C., Dr. (2009, June). Powering Up Minds and Powering Up Machines: Guided Inquiry, Reading, and Web 2.0 [Microsoft Powerpoint]. Retrieved from http://slideplayer.com/slide/4810867/

Web 2.0. (2015). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved from http://school.eb.co.uk/levels/advanced/article/438358