Why bother with social media and LIBR 559M?

A glance at social media for information professionals

LIBR500 – Student librarians November 18th, 2009

Dean Giustini, Adjunct faculty member

Overview of our discussion

• New online course LIBR 559M• Discussion of information literacies not technologies• What are the effects of being social?• Librarians & archivists 2.0

• some examples of online performance• digital identity formulation

• What are the benefits? • Quantitative impact: Metcalfe's law or the ‘network effect’• Should librarians and archivists be ‘in the cloud’?• Future

Giustini – LIBR500

Me 2.0 My use of social software since 1998

My (evolving) digital identity & reputation

Giustini – LIBR500

?

You 2.0

How has web 2.0 affected you? What tools do you use?

Turn and tell your neighbour (3-4 mins)

Giustini – LIBR500

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) Canadian media critic

http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/

“All media is an extension of some human faculty…”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7GvQdDQv8g

Giustini – LIBR500

Obama 2009 – the 1st social president?

Are you social?The Social Media Revolution

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVXKI506w-E

Giustini – LIBR500

Start ‘in the cloud’ in 2010

• Wikis/blogs» create new knowledge» share information & breaking research» organize documents

• Calendars» Organize milestones & important dates

• Bookmarking » Citations, knowledge objects, web resources

• Network» Communicate, communicate, communicate» Synchronously & asynchronously

• Document-writing» Create projects together

Giustini – LIBR500

LIBR 559M bloggers – Social media for information professionals (Fall 2009)

• Allan's Library blog (Allan Cho) - http://www.allanslibrary.com/ • America's Next Top Information Professional (Kelly McElroy) -

https://blogs.ubc.ca/mcelroy/ • Grace Space (Deirdre Grace) - http://blogs.ubc.ca/grace/ • Internet Explorer (Rob Cosco) - http://blogs.ubc.ca/rcosco/ • N. McKay's Library blog (Nathan McKay) - https://blogs.ubc.ca/mckay • Online Social (Alicia Yeo) - http://blogs.ubc.ca/ayeo/ • Roving Librarian (Erin Rickbeil) - http://blogs.ubc.ca/erickbeil/ • Social Librarian (Daniel Hooker) - http://blog.danielhooker.com/ • Social Media Butterfly (Roen Janyk) - http://blogs.ubc.ca/roen/ • (Two) 2.0 and Beyond (Bryan Carnes) - http://blogs.ubc.ca/carnes • Virtually Libraries (Scott Marsden) - http://blogs.ubc.ca/marsden/

Giustini – LIBR500

Emerging Technologies Librarian (2008-present)• Implemented significant design changes to the library website to enhance usability • Maintained and updated library website • Designed and taught numerous information literacy and library instruction sessions • Trained staff in use of various types of emerging technologies • Increased the hours and prominence of instant message reference service • Organized events to increase visibility and social capital of the library

Giustini – LIBR500

Andy BurkhardtInformation Tyrannosaur

blog

• LIBR 559M student Fall 2009• LIBR 594 directed study student Fall 2009• Published article: “Social cataloguing” (with Allan Cho, UBC Program Services Librarian) • Speaking to UBC librarians about Twitter in December 2009

Giustini – LIBR500

Daniel Hooker, MLIS candidate

blog: Socialibrarian http://blog.danielhooker.com/

Cloud computing 2.0

The “2.0” element adds:• Distributed network• Computer platform• Global ‘cloud’• Asynchronous

Internet = cloud of data

PC = thin client

No data storage (backup?) http://bit.ly/7hL56

Connect to ‘cloud’

Collaboration happens ‘out there”

Giustini – LIBR500

What are the social benefits ?

Digital contact involves active ‘exchange of information’

• Participation • Pervasive socializing & information-sharing• Augmented intelligence• Crowdsource, wisdom of the crowd• Smart mobs, smart crowds, swarm creativity• Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs)

In the long history of humankind those who have learned how to collaborate and improvise effectively have prevailed --- Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

Giustini – LIBR500

What is ‘Metcalfe’s Law’?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe's_law

Also known as: The Network Effect – why is it important?

What is collaboration?

Collaboration is:

“…to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor”

- Merriam-Webster Dictionary

“…a working together: the act of working together with one or more people in order to achieve something” – Encarta

Collective intelligence is:

“ ….a shared or group intelligence that emerges from the collaboration and

competition of many individuals.”

Giustini – LIBR500

Where did the idea of social software originate?

• Allen's 2004 essay ‘Tracing the Evolution of Social Software’ • discusses"groupware" and "computer–supported collaborative work" and "social software"

• What are the long-term benefits of collaboration?

• Are there examples in history where this can be shown?

In the context of social media, collaboration across organizations, networks and time-space barriers cannot happen without open, transparent and egalitarian processes in place

• Encourage collaboration between librarians & researchers to generate ideas, to work on research & teach students

• Play role(s) in exchange of research-based information

• Refine library mission, its services & systems• Visibility, Findability, Searchability, Accessibility

• Embed librarians in research processes online

• Collaborate, facilitate, participate, create, aggregate

See Collaborative Librarianship http://collaborativelibrarianship.org/

Other benefits of being social

Giustini – LIBR500

Discuss how archivists and librarians might be better able to collaborate Create a BLOGPOST, WIKI ENTRY, YouTube VIDEO

Include: who, what, where, when why - how

For inspiration, see http://collaboration.wikia.com/wiki/Collaboration

LIBR559M – Discussion forum topic

Giustini – LIBR500

• Short, Williams, and Christie (1976) defined ‘social presence’ as • the salience of another person in a mediated environment

» true online/in digital contexts • communicator’s sense of awareness of interaction partner • property of the medium

» i.e., the degree of visual, physical contact it affords• degree of social influence• communicator’s perceptions, appreciation, participation

Short, J.A., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976). The social psychology of telecommunications.

New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Importance of social presence in telecommunications

Giustini – LIBR500

Immersive, virtual spaces, ‘augmented’ collaboration may move us towards new levels of interaction

• In situ virtual libraries, archives & museums (LAMs)• spatial relationships in virtual environments

» if approximating the physical world, why have bricks-and-mortar libraries?? • proximity to researchers is changing

» librarians need to be where they are• communication synchronicity• other potential?

Giustini – LIBR500

The future of social media in information professions

• Will social media promote or inhibit interdisciplinary collaboration?

• How will we measure social media’s ‘impact’? • our focus should be on collaborative partnerships• need to evaluate media best suited to information work

• How will we evaluate new tools? • Do we create guidelines? policies, strategic plans• What do you think should change for optimal collaboration in libraries/archives

• Case studies in information science • How can we move to research 2.0?

Information professionals should be embedded in research & teaching

Giustini – LIBR500