How to Web 2.0:Your take-away guide to making it work for you

Andrea Mercado, Reading Public Library

NHLA Library 2.0 Workshop 9/24/2007

“Are you on…?”

New behaviors, different user culture Tools *and* communities So. Much. Sharing. Creatively responsive to user wants/needs Are your patrons on…?

More than just an account

Read all of the tutorials, visit the discussion forums, be involved!

Understand culture for better planning Comprehension = setting aside library value

system thinking Like building a Web 2.0 reference shelf

First: Get out there and play!

Don’t implement blindly, educate yourself: 23 Library 2.0 Things:

http://plcmcl2-things.blogspot.com/ Week 2: consider WordPress.com as a blog option

15 minutes a day FREE Bite-sized, digestible bits of Web 2.0 Customizable for your library Add your own/adapt other Discovery Exercises for

Facebook, MySpace, Second Life, etc.

You know what… now how?

Plans are your friends: conserve time, money and resources.

Start with a goal, plan to get there Small, action-directed committee

(could just be you, but +1 minimum is nice) What do you have? What you want to have? What’s the best tool/site/service to use? What purpose will it serve? Can you implement & sustain it?

A word on tech staff

If you have them, make friends with them Involve from the beginning Make it attractive Offer to help

If you don’t have them Consider what you can do Can you/do you need to improve skills?

Plan: Sample Simple Timeline

Planning Form small “committee”Goal setting/planning meetingWho are your process staff?Timeline – Fill in this chart!

Assess Patron interviews/focus groups/surveyStaff interviews/focus groups /surveyWhich tools fit our goal? Who’s using it? What is the culture?Where will it go on the site? Or not?

Build Sign upConfigure settingsPlay with a sandbox version, tweakDevelop process & policies

Plan: Sample Simple Timeline

Train Process & policiesHow to use the tool/site/service

Launch/Promote

Newsletter, newspaper article, handouts, word-of-mouth, bookmarks, classes, tutorialsEducate public on new feature, as necessary

Track/Reassess

Keep track of service changes/new featuresCheck in with stakeholders: is it working?Tweak as necessaryNot working? Try something else.

Case study: Pretty Pictures

Goal: Show how much fun people are having at the

library by easily adding pictures to your web site Plan

Form small committee: Abby & Jeff Schedule Goal setting meeting: 30 - 45 mins

Case Study: Goal Setting/Planning Meeting

Adding pictures to the web site should: Be fast and easy with few steps Require low to medium tech skills Not cost a lot of money

Who can work on it? Abby - everyday Jeff - only occasionally A volunteer - comes in once a week

Case Study:Timeline

Stage Who? By When?

Plan Abby & Jeff Early October

Assess Abby, Jeff, Reference staff

Mid October

Build Abby, volunteer Early November

Train Jeff, Dept heads, volunteer

Mid November

Launch/Promote

Abby, Jeff, Reference staff

Late November/

Early December

Track/Reassess

Abby, volunteer (Reference staff)

Monthly

Case Study:Assess

Abby: “Hey, I saw Flickr at the NHLA workshop, maybe that’ll work?”

Jeff, Abby play with Flickr, 23 Things Discovery Exercises, look at other options.

Reference staff: informal patron interviews. Patrons would like more photos, some use Flickr, most don’t.

Abby: informal staff interviews. Not Flickr users, like the interface, willing to learn.

Case Study:Assess

How does Flickr help the goal? Easy remote photo storage, no FTP Automatic resizing Easy code cut-and-paste Easy image selection with tags, sets, collections

Happy side effects Easy to share photos with stakeholders Higher visibility for the library (worldwide!) Might bring in unpatrons

Case Study:Assess

Where will we use it? Home page: individual pics or badge? Blog posts Perhaps individual pages?

Special training/skills? A little image tag HTML training for volunteer

Decision: Start with a basic, free account, and see how it goes.

Case Study:Build

Abby creates the account, contemplates the settings.

Jeff & Abby briefly meet: Standard copyright Location/map setting: public Anyone can comment Only the library can add tags

Abby configures default settings on account

Case Study:Build

Abby: makes copies of home page and programs page Adds image and link code from Flickr to see how

it looks Shows Jeff mockups, they both like the look A few patrons and staff see it, offer feedback

Policies for photo taking/permission drafted Process developed for staff to follow

Case Study:Train

Process (everyone gets a copy) Departments responsible for uploading their photos, the

volunteer can help Pick at least your 5 best (15 pics tops) to upload Upload photos, add title, default tags, location Let Abby know, she’ll highlight them on the site

Actual how-to training on using the Flickr site Policies (published in web site Policies section)

When taking picture, ask permission to post online No names, except staff, without permission Pics removed at patron’s request

Case Study:Launch/Promote

Highlight in weekly newsletter Add an individual picture to home page with

link to Flickr photo page, to change weekly Reference staff can explain Flickr to inquiring

patrons “For more library pictures, visit…” bookmarks

Case Study:Track/Reassess

Abby and volunteer note new Flickr features Volunteer recommends creative ways to use

Flickr online tools Abby “friends” other libraries and librarians,

raising visibility Patrons love seeing library event pics online A few Flickr users who don’t normally use the

library stop by Lessons learned are noted for other projects

Plans are your friends!

Can be small & very simple Time, money, resources conserved long-term Focus on your real goal Implement without perpetual “planning” Increase comfort with “perpetual beta”

Questions? Comments?

Andrea MercadoReference & Techie LibrarianReading Public Library, Massachusettshttp://www.readingpl.org

See also: http://www.LibraryTechtonics.info http://www.PLABlog.org http://www.slideshare.net/andreamercado