social software in academic libraries

Social Software in

Academic Libraries

Ellyssa KroskiACRL/NY Symposium

November 30, 2007

What is Social Software?

• New Web 2.0 tools which are:– Social– Participatory– Collaborative– Easy to Use– Community Environments

What is Social Software?

• Social Software Tools enable people to:– Create– Contribute– Connect– Converse– Vote– Share

Why Social Software?

• Exploding Growth– MySpace has over 200 million users– Facebook has over 53 million users half of

which sign in daily– Over 75 million blogs– Wikipedia has over 5 million articles written in

over 200 languages– People view over 100 million videos daily on

YouTube– Flicrk has over 2 billion photos

Why Social Software?• Mainstream Adoption

– 85% of college students have a Facebook account

– Americans spend an average of 14 hours per week on the Web

– 85% of young broadband users have watched online video

– 51% of American teens have uploaded photos to the Web

– 55% of American teens have a social networking profile

– Over half of all visitors to MySpace and over 40% to Facebook are over 35 years old

The Social Tools of Web 2.0

Social Networking

SubjectGuides

Answers

Second Life

Microblogging

IM

Blogs

Social Bookmarking

Media Sharing

Wikis

Social Software

Wikis• Easy Web publishing• No HTML required• Collaborative online

spaces• Great tools for:

– Team projects– Knowledge bases– Remote collaboration– FAQs– Course instruction– Encyclopedias– Intranets

How are Academic Libraries Using

Wikis?

Wikis as Intranets

“The wiki allows us to keep staff content centrally located, consistently organized, and — most importantly —

easily editable by anyone willing to learn a few basics.”

Erin GeorgeAssociate to the University Librarian

University of Minnesota Libraries

Wikis as Training Tools

Wikis as Library Web Sites

“It has enabled all thelibrarians at USCA to share the

responsibility of updating pages. I really believe that it has created a sense of ownership and a commitment to the

website among those who contribute.”

Jane H. TutenLibrary Director

USC Aiken Library

Wikis as Subject Guides

“The Biz Wiki allows me to create and manage dynamic content at anytime and

anywhere, allowing me to address popular questions quickly, while promoting the use

of business resources.”

Chad F. BoeningerReference & Instruction Technology Coordinator

Ohio University Libraries

Wikis as Resource Reviews Collections

Wikis for Event Planning

Wikis for Best Practices

Social Bookmarking Tools• An online space to save

“favorites” or bookmarks

• Discovery tools

• Categorization by tags

• Portable & searchable

• Great tools for:– Resource collections

– Subject guides

– Reading lists

How are Academic Libraries

Using

Social Bookmarking?

Social Bookmarks in Subject Guides

Social Bookmarks in Subject Guides

http://del.icio.us/virtualref

“Using a del.icio.us account along with FeedDigest has made it much easier for

our librarians to automatically keep a web site up to date.”

Nicole HennigWeb ManagerMIT Libraries

Social Bookmarking Communities

http://tags.library.upenn.edu/

Social Bookmarking Communities

Social Bookmarking for Class Reading Lists

Social Bookmarking for Staff Resources

“It is a catch-all space for stuff I find interesting and want to share in a no-

hassle way. Much better than emailing everyone every time I find something nifty.”

Lisa SepaTechnical Services Librarian

Maui Community College Library

Social Bookmarks as Recommended Resources

Social Bookmarking for Keeping Current

http://del.icio.us/tag/library2.0

Social Bookmarking for Event Tracking

Media Sharing• Organize and share

photo & video collections online

• Easy Upload

• Great tools for:– Training

– Marketing & Promotion

– Teaching

– Digital collections management

– Online exhibits

– Tours


Using

Media Sharing?

Media Sharing for Historical Collections

Media Sharing for Spotlighting Library Staff

Media Sharing for Library Tours

“YouTube has really helped us market ourselves to the campus community. Some people say, "YouTube, really?"

but the undergrads get it.”

Nick BakerReference and

Web Services LibrarianWilliams College Libraries

Media Sharing for Research Recommendations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfsSGBraUhc&eurl=http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian/2007/science-learning-opportunities-in-second-life/

Media Sharing for Instruction

Media Sharing for Promotion

Social Networks• Online social hubs

• “Third Places”

• Environments to find like-minded people

• Great tools for:– Portals

– Networking

– Marketing

– Outreach

– Branding


Using

Social Networking?

Social Networks as Library Portals

“MySpace has been an a great avenue for connecting with other

libraries around the country and world and for sharing marketing ideas.”

Meg BurgerLearning Commons Coordinator

University LibraryUniversity of Illinois at

Urbana-Champaign

Social Networks for Promotion

Social Networks as Extensions of the Library Website

Social Networks for Outreach

Social Networks for Catalog Search

Social Networks for Database Search

Social Networks for Professional Networking

Social Networks for Keeping Up

Blogs• Online journals or

websites• Articles posted in

chronological order• No HTML necessary• Great tools for:

– Breaking news– Staff communication– Subject resources– Course materials– Media reviews– Publishing


Using

Blogs?

Blogs as Library News Vehicles

“The KSL News Blog generates comments with surprising swiftness–

from our campus, and beyond, we are reaching people in different ways.”

Karen Oye, M.L.S.Head of Customer Services

Kelvin Smith Library Case Western Reserve University

Blogs as Subject Resources

Blogs to Support Library Instruction

Blogs for Staff Communication

Blogs for Accessibility

"My blog and myFacebook profile allow me to

communicate in new ways with our students and faculty and in ways that

they themselves communicate"

Jeff TrzeciakUniversity Librarian

McMaster University

IM• Real-time online text

chat

• No technical skills required

• Great tools for:– Virtual reference

– Staff communication

– Remote meetings

– Collaboration


Using

IM?

IM for Virtual Reference

IM + Voice for Virtual Reference

“In providing services via Skype we're continuing to expand the range of

access options available to our users, many of whom already rely on the web

calling client for much of their communication.”

Char BoothReference & Instruction Librarian

Ohio University Libraries

IM + Text for Virtual Reference

"Since expanding the AskAULibrary service from AIM to all major IM

providers through Meebo, our statistics have doubled."

Melissa Becher Coordinator of AskAULibraryAmerican University Library

Microblogging

• Online text communication tool

• Short messages of up to 140 characters

• Great tools for:– Event announcements

– News updates

– Making Web resource recommendations

– Promotion


Using

Microblogging?

Microblogging and Promotion

Microblogging as a Library Portal

Second Life

• Virtual World

• 3-D MMORPG

• Created by inhabitants

• Great tool for:– Remote education

– Training

– Virtual events

– Conferencing

– Marketing & Promotion


Using

Second Life?

Second Life for Subject Guides

Second Life for Virtual Reference

Second Life for Education

“We noticed that students find the most pleasure – and thus motivation to learn - by being challenged with constructionist activities in Second Life. They have a blast building our campus and running

events on it.”Jeremy Kemp

Assistant Director for Second Life Campus

San Jose State University SLIS

Second Life for Database Searching

Second Life for Exhibits

Second Life for Conferences

Answers Communities

• Social Q&A

• Wisdom of Crowds

• Great tools for:– Virtual Reference

– Outreach

– Promotion


Using

Answers Communities?

Answers as Promotion

Subject Guides Tools

• Social Tools to create interactive subject guides

• Multimedia & Multiformat

• Great tools for:– Subject guides

– Pathfinders

– How-to guides


Using

Subject Guides?

Subject Guides as Research Guides

"The best thing about LibGuides @ BC may be how liberating it's been for

librarians, carrying many into the world of Library 2.0 not kicking and screaming but excited and energized by the opportunity at last to shape and manage their online presence and interaction with students."

Ken LissLibrarian

Boston CollegeUniversity Libraries

Subject Guides as Reading Lists

Social Software in Academic Libraries

• Enhance library services

• Outreach• Marketing &

Promotion• Training• Instruction

• Asset management• Staying Current• Communication• Collaboration• Networking • Community Building• “Going where the

users are”

Social Software DIY Tips• Jump right in• Start to learn what's possible with these

tools• Learning for personal use will lead to ideas

for professional applications.• Set up some social software accounts,

most of them are free!

Additional Resources• Library Emerging Tech Labs

– Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) — MIT Libraries’ Betas

– University of Michigan — MLibrary Labs– University of Minnesota —

Digital Library Development Lab– University of Pennsylvania — PennLabs– University of Virginia — Library Lab– Vanderbilt University — Test Pilot

http://libraries.mit.edu/help/betas/

http://www.lib.umich.edu/labs/

http://www.lib.umich.edu/labs/

https://wiki.lib.umn.edu/IT/DigitalLibraryDevelopmentLab

http://labs.library.upenn.edu/

http://lab.lib.virginia.edu/index.html

http://testpilot.library.vanderbilt.edu/

Ellyssa [email protected]

Blogs:

InfoTanglehttp://infotangle.blogsome.com

iLibrarianhttp://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian

mailto:[email protected]

http://infotangle.blogsome.com/

http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian

http://oedb.org/blogs/ilibrarian