Wiking the Blog and Walking the Dog – Social Software, Virtual Reality, and Authority Everywhere
Sponsors: PLA LD
Innovators from within the library world present creative and practical initiatives that show how libraries can participate in the dynamic emergence of web-based information services. If you are looking for ideas as to how your library can embrace technologies offered by the likes of Wikis, Blogs, Web 2.0, Second-Life, Podcasting, FlickR, You Tube, and My Space, then this is the program for you. Traditional forms of publishing, research, and recreational information will be challenged and expanded, as will traditional notions of information authority. Presenters will show how library participation in these contemporary online forums via social software is becoming as common as walking the dog.
Matt Gullett
“Emerging Technologies Librarian,” Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, N. C.
speaking on behalf of Helen Blowers, Gullett described Blowers’s 9-week staff learning (not training) program, which included exposure to blogs, photos & images, RSS & newsreaders, tagging & folksonomies, wikis, online applications, podcasts & videos. The goal of the program was to provide exposure to new tools and to allow play, thus empowering individuals to expand their own knowledge without fear or apprehension. This program emphasized collaborative learning and acceptance of mistakes.
More online at the Explore, Discover, Play Blog
Other sites mentioned:
Tom Peters
founder of TAP Information Services, spoke on behalf of Lori Bell, of the Alliance Library System about librarian adventures in Second-Life. Peters reported that there are over 7 million registered avatars. Second-Life hosts cultural programs, museums, businesses, recreation, buildings, property, services, campus environments, and yes, libraries. There were, he said, 5,000 visitors to the Alliance Info ‘archipelago.’ Peters went on to discuss social networking within Second-Life and how group behavior can be monitored and used to promote intellectual commerce. Other topics of interest: Second-Lifers & their envisioning libraries of the future (think: Glass’s glass house in New Canaan), virtual exhibitions and cultural commonses.
John Blyberg
Now of Darien, CT, Public Library (formerly Ann Arbor District Library), Blyberg spoke of the AADL’s Drupal-based library catalog and the role users played in tagging, rating and commenting on titles in the catalog. Presenting for a second audience at ALA 2007, Blyberg gave a compelling view of the AADL’s strides in making their catalog social. An interesting throwback the AADL team incorporated into the system was allowing users to create a personalized card in the style of an old-fashioned catalog, complete with user comment. Blyberg offers the software that negotiates with Drupal freely on his site.
Blyberg’s catalog card generator
Meredith Farkas
Distance Learning Librarian, Norwich University, Vermont.
During her third appearance at ALA 2007, Meredith continued the theme of new uses of wikis and blogs for academic and public libraries. She suggested audience members look to innovative examples from commercial and non-profit sources, as well as to libraries of differing types. She offered a compelling argument for the Wiki as subject guide (see also her article in the latest issue of American Libraries, “Subject Guide 2.0”); for wikis & blogs as public suggestion boxes (to improve transparency of services & policies); for Facebook as a mechanism for eliciting Collection Development suggestions from students. She also showed some interesting examples of wikis that are community-built knowledge bases. Her own wiki is community-edited: Library Success : A Best Practices Wiki. Although she ran out of time, she has put her presentation online for more ideas about use of FlickR, RSS feeds, LibraryThing, tagging, and more.
