Marketing your Library’s Facebook page

First of all let me say that I am absolutely pro-use when it comes to Libraries utilising social networking platforms to connect with their clientele in new and interesting ways. The Pew Research Center (http://www.pewinternet.org) reported that as of September 2013 73% of online adults use social networking sites. That is huge! I don’t even want to think of the numbers for kids with their smartphone access and their Snapchat and their Instagram… that is a scary amount of people who are socially interacting via the internet. It is imperative that libraries get in on this action.

I am Pro Social Media!
Image from http://kesocialmedia.com/

I myself will admit to Googling before pulling out the yellow pages, I will check an organisations website to look at the information they have available rather than calling them, if they have a Facebook page or Twitter I will most definitely check that out. The use of social networking sites to me also feels like the organisation is more available or approachable because it is in a different setting. The business might close at 5pm and I can’t call them before then because I too am working, but at any time I can leave them a Facebook message and they might get back to me the next day. Sounds like email you say? Well it is basically, but the difference is that it is in a much less formal setting and in the case of Facebook it is in a platform that 71% of online adults use (http://www.pewinternet.org) so they are more comfortable with it than the formality of email. Well that is my opinion anyway.

So you have put your Library on Facebook… fantastic, good for you! You have created your Facebook page, put a lovely picture of your Library up and have been posting Library information on there at least once a day for 3 months, amazing! However, you only have 25 followers… and most of them are staff members, not such great news. In my experience this seems to be a common problem which usually stems from one of two things – lack of marketing or boring content. What I found surprising is that the former is the most common problem, people will not magically find your Facebook page, even if you put the little icon link on your Library website. It is not enough, you need more! You need to think of your Library Facebook page as a new service, because it is. It is a new way of obtaining information and interacting with not only the Library staff, but also other clients and you need to treat it as such.

Start marketing your brand new service

So how do you market Facebook? Here are some ideas for an Academic Library:

• When you have Library stalls during Orientation or Student Services week have up flyers that encourage students to ‘Like’ your Facebook page, include a QR Code at the bottom of the flyer so that students can get there easily.
• You put up posters in the Library for everyone else, why not yourself? Put some up advertising the Library Facebook page. You could even have some bookmarks made up (an oldie, but a goodie) and give them out to students when they borrow.
• When you do Library tours or Orientation talks this is a prime opportunity, don’t just talk about the page, go there. Show them how great the information is, encourage them to connect and interact with you. I generally do all the ‘Contact us’ stuff at the end of my presentations, I go through the different ways clients can contact us and say to them that we have tried to provide as many avenues of contact as we can effectively manage so that they can interact with us in whatever way is most comfortable or suitable for them. I then show them the kind of information we have on the Facebook page and finish up by asking if there are any questions. Word of mouth is still a powerful tool, use it!
• You could target clients using computers, go around with some lollies or chocolate (always good motivators) or if you want to promote health perhaps you could take around a fruit basket and say that you are offering food as a bribe for people to ‘like’ your Facebook page. Be honest, they know what you are about so you don’t need to sugar-coat it!
• If you have the budget for it you could get coffee vouchers from the Uni café and give them to clients once they have liked the page. From experience I have found that people will do much for a free coffee J

If you are a Public Library you could still do many of the above suggestions, you could also try something like:

• If you have a Bookclub you could tell members that you will post information updates etc. on Facebook, encourage them to share their reviews of the book on Facebook too. Then you are actually marketing both your Facebook and your Bookclub.
• Come story time you are generally inundated with Parents, Grandparents and children, use this opportunity. Tell them you post information regarding story times and even photos from story times on Facebook, you could even post information that will be useful to parents such as, how to read effectively to your children etc.
• When you run competitions you could let entrants know that the winners will be posted on the Library’s Facebook page. If it is something like a poster competition you could even post pictures of the entries (make sure you let them know about this when they enter!).

There are so many options. Unfortunately the old Field of Dreams “if you build it, they will come” does not hold much water in the real world. You must put in the effort to reap the rewards.

Do you have any other ideas? Share them below.

Happy Facebooking!

Do it, you know you want to!

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Brand New Year

2013 was a crazy whirl-wind for me. I honestly kept trying to get to writing Libraries of the future – Part 2, but every time I sat down to do the research for it I got distracted or called away (let’s be honest, sometimes I was doing the research and kept finding interesting things and got carried away in my surfing endeavors) either way it will be forthcoming… eventually (kind of like George R. R. Martin’s next book haha).

I have been finished my Professional Library cadetship for a year now so have been in the job market and I am recently officially graduated – hooray! I have to say after spending a year in the ‘I am awesome please hire me chair’ I have learnt so much about applications and interviews. I’ll be honest (and blunt) my first couple of applications were BAD, I knew I was right for these roles, but I wasn’t even getting to interview. I was completely frustrated and quite a bit desperate because who can afford to be out of work these days! Then one night as I was plugging away at yet another set of selection criteria I had a thought… what if I approached this like a Uni assignment. I looked at my previous applications and evaluated them, I found them to be at pass, maybe credit level – P’s might get degrees, but they don’t get you in the interview chair. Then I looked at the assessments I received HD’s for – BIG difference in language, layout, pretty much everything. So I wrote my next application as though I was writing an assessment and my goal was to fit as much vital information in there as possible in a small word count without waffle – I got to interview. The fit for the role wasn’t right for me or them and it wasn’t a Librarian role so it didn’t go ahead, but I was onto a winner. I contacted an agency that specialises in placing Information Professionals and I applied for one of the contract roles they had and was working a week and a half later 15 minutes from home!!! Dream come true! The contract which was initially 2 months was extended to 9 and I have had the time of my life here – even meeting a life-size working R2-D2!

R2-D2 and me!

With my contract ending at the end of January I had to get back on the application trail, the problem being as many of you would know that most people don’t do a lot of hiring at Christmas. So I set up all my alerts and RSS feeds for a variety of online job advertisers and one morning the tell tale *ping* of an email arriving held a surprise. The University quite close to my home (yes it is a good one) had a really good 12 month position available (long service leave fill – the role is retiring and will become available after this time). I wasted no time in applying using my new method, a week and a half later I was in interview, 3 hours after the interview they were calling my referees so I knew I had done well and 3 days later I have been offered the role of Liaison Librarian in a great University Library. A little side-note to this tale is that it was one of the Libraries on my ‘I want to work there’ wish list Woo-Hoo!

Now in my case with this role I got a fairytale ending, but it could have easily gone very wrong. Here is where the learning experience came in. Please make sure you know your referees extremely well, you need to know that no matter what is happening with them you can rely on them to give you a good reference. In my case I hadn’t spoken to one of my referees as they called so quickly after the interview and something was going on with them at the time (I have no clue what so I cannot comment on this, but their response was very out of character and I have never seen or heard of this person acting this way they have always been completely lovely!) and their response to the call was that they didn’t know what they were talking about and didn’t have time to talk. Queue the panel member calling me and asking what is happening, luckily I was able to contact another of my ex bosses and get her okay to provide her details within half an hour (she is a complete doll and totally saved my hide!). If they hadn’t have wanted me enough to call and advise me of what had happened with my referee (which most places WOULD NOT DO! I need to stress that fact!) I would not have got this job – because of my referee. When I called the person I apologised for not speaking to them before they were called, but they would not accept my apology and simply said, “I guess you have learned a harsh lesson today” – OUCH! Obviously they felt that after that I wouldn’t get the role either, while I understood that this person felt blind sided by the call I was also hurt that they were willing to cost me the possibility of a job (therefore an income) to teach me a lesson. This was someone I always looked up to as a boss – mental note: I never want to end up like that!

So here are my tips to ensure this never happens to you:
1. Contact the person you want to use and ask them if they would be willing to do it for you – most places require you to enter your references at the time of application now so you need their okay early.
2. If you get an interview, let the people you put down as referees know and send them the position description for the role you have applied for. This means that they will know the role you have applied for and will be able to talk to your strengths in this area.
3. After your interview, just give them a heads up. A quick email or message is fine, something along the lines of, “Just finished my interview, I think I went pretty well. Thank you for being my reference, I hope they contact you. Fingers crossed”.

Hopefully they will in turn let you know if they were called and how they felt it went. If anyone else has any tips in this area or applying for roles or wants to share their story please feel free!

This post didn’t really end up the way I had planned, but I think I like where it ended up. So in the spirit of ‘where the wind may take me’ I am not even going to go back over and edit this post before I publish it – this kind of makes me want to chew on my nails, but here…we…go…

Part 2 – Evaluative report

Part 2A. – Evaluative statement utilising OLJ experiences

I have chosen to focus on the three experiences in my OLJ that I gained the most from professionally. Interestingly, deciding which three entries which had been most beneficial proved rather difficult.

The challenge of finding authentic information in a socially networked world

As an Academic Librarian, a large part of my role is connecting information; staff are trained to locate and critically evaluate information for clients as well as teach them these skills so they can perform their own searches. Lorenzo’s ideas surrounding “information literacy” are very interesting (2007, p.2), it is not too late to learn this at University, but ultimately it would be best if people learnt these skills at a younger age. Compounding this is the fact that relying on the words “peer review” might not be an option for much longer (Wittenburg, 2007) and also that places like Google and Wikipedia appear to now be the “go to” for information (Garfinkel, 2008, p.84). Whilst reading and learning about this was valuable, it took a query from a student attempting to reference a Facebook post to make me realise how vital and current this topic really is. This experience allowed me to suggest and be involved in the evaluation of my workplace’s current reference guides in order to include social media.

Building a market strategy for social media

Utilising various platforms of social media is gaining popularity with Libraries. Whilst this provides a slightly less formal and more social interaction with clients, it is important the organisation is not represented poorly. Building a marketing strategy and policy prior to implementing any social media technology is vital. As discussed in my post, the questions outlined by Brown (2009) provide a sound foundation when building a marketing strategy. Two of the most important I feel are “Does the organisation have a social media policy?” and “Who is the target audience?”

A social media policy provides comprehensive guidelines regarding appropriate behaviour as deemed by the organisation, particularly in outlining socially acceptable practices, and cultural and ethical matters. This document assists staff engaging with clients via social media and clearly defines what is suitable to be publicised in this arena, preventing any embarrassment to the staff or the organisation as a whole (Schrier, 2011). Previously I had no knowledge of social media policies. However, due to knowledge gained through my studies, my assistance was requested in the creation of a social media policy for my workplace. The resulting document covers all social media currently used and is suitable for application to any additional platforms the Library wishes to explore.

My newfound knowledge also resulted in being asked to contribute to the evaluation of the social media platforms the Library uses, regarding effectiveness, improvements and possible expansion to other technologies. I introduced Bernoff’s (2012) Social Technographics profiles to staff involved and all found these extremely intriguing, they were referred to during the evaluation of the platforms. Consequently, when evaluating information gained (for example from Facebook statistics) and looking at the profiles, we were able to provide meaningful, considered suggestions.

 What is a Librarian in a web 2.0 world?

Prior to undertaking this subject I engaged in social networking and felt I had a reasonable understanding of what constituted “Librarian 2.0”. However, this subject made me consider this concept afresh. The works of Harvey (2009) and Abram (2012) instilled realisation that one did not gain the title “Librarian 2.0” by simply knowing how to use a few social media platforms. To remain relevant, I feel it is vital for Libraries to attain “Library 2.0” status and this begins with the Library’s staff.

Originally for this post I provided what I felt were basic vital skills for Librarians to possess. I still agree with this list, however after further completion of this subject I believe it essential to include information fluency – the ability to unconsciously and smoothly move between the critical skills of finding relevant information, devising solutions, collaborating, creating and communicating (Lorenzo, 2007, p.2). Librarians not only need this skill, but also the ability to teach it to others.

Currently a large portion of staff at my workplace does not hold the skills discussed above. As a University Library this isn’t ideal, therefore I have dialogued with management and recommended they consider:

• engaging staff in professional development sessions surrounding these areas;
• raising the current accepted IT competency level for all staff;
• investigating ways staff who do not have one, could develop a Personal Learning Network (Klingensmith, 2009),
• encouraging staff to get their own RSS reader, subscribe to professional sites and spend 30minutes per day engaging in professional reading.

Part 2B. – Reflective statement on development

This subject was chosen due to personal interest in social media and my growing belief that knowledge of social media and its potential is vital to Librarians of the future. I was unprepared for the large impact this subject had on my skills in this area generally and in my workplace specifically. Multiple opportunities for involvement with projects have eventuated due to knowledge gained from this subject. These include:

• Creating a social media policy for the organisation:
  I liaised with the Marketing & Promotions Officer in the research and writing of this policy. This was my first attempt at policy writing; knowledge gained from this subject gave me the confidence I needed. This document is in draft form, but is close to completion.
• Being involved with future social media planning for the Library:
  I was involved in creating questions for focus groups with students regarding the Library’s social media presence. Subsequently, I aided in assessing the data collected and making suggestions to management in a report.
• Reviewing the Library’s current social media platforms, assessing their success and recommending improvements:
  I volunteered for a staff group formed to discuss the Library’s social media presence. This group reviewed the current situation (taking into account staff opinion and student responses from the focus groups mentioned previously) and discussed possible improvements and additions.
• reviewing and improving our website:
  As a result of exploring RSS feeds offered by other University Libraries, I realised our own RSS page was inadequate. The page was outdated and not easily locatable from the homepage even if searching for it. I approached my manager and received permission to update the page. Also flagged for 2013 is investigating ways to offer more via RSS than we previously have. This page still isn’t as visible as I would like, but it is still progress.
• In addition to the above, I am now a regular contributor to the Library’s Facebook content.

RSS feeds page

Through the completion of assignment two I gained many skills, including:

• Comprehensive project planning,
• Evaluating social media technologies against an organisation’s business plan or mission statement to ascertain which technologies could meet organisational needs.

• Research for this assignment also unveiled a technology called Hootsuite which allows pre-programming of Facebook posts (Hootsuite media inc., 2012). For social media to be successful it needs to be “active”; unless it is well maintained it will not be used by clients, therefore content needs to be regularly added (Brown, 2010). Previously my workplace did not post messages over weekends and holidays, but now utilises Hootsuite to make such posts.

Something really unexpected resulting from this subject was a personal issue of knowledge management regarding tacit knowledge. This subject provided me with new knowledge and skills and I was motivated to use them in my workplace. Some knowledge is easily imparted by providing staff with research to inform themselves or providing management with suggestions. Whereas, the tacit knowledge I gained from this subject is more difficult to impart and I am still seeking ways to effectively and successfully do this (Oye, Salleh & Noorminshah, p.72).

Prior to this subject I had a WordPress blog. Whilst I occasionally wrote a Library-related post it was certainly not a professional blog. Since posting professional content I have noticed a marked increase in visits to my blog  as well as comments. Initially I assumed that these were other students in the course, however my post titled “The challenge of finding authentic information in a socially networked world” was scooped by Joyce Valenza for her Scoop.it! toolkit entitled, “Information Fluency transliteracy research tools” (Valenza, n.d.). This was the first time I felt not like a student, but like a professional who has information worth contributing. Writing professionally has encouraged me to read widely and keep abreast of new trends, it pushed me to refine my RSS feeds to ensure I receive valuable, relevant content and made me think of myself in a wider context than just my workplace.

This subject has had a huge impact on my knowledge, skills and has opened up new avenues for me professionally. It has made me aware of the necessity of keeping abreast of developments in social networking technologies to be truly effective in my career. It is easy to become entrenched in the day-to-day workload and accept the status quo. However, for an informational professional, knowledgeable about developments and innovations in information dissemination and communication is essential. This should be easier for me in the future with the establishment of my PLN, Twitter account and RSS feeds instigated by this course. The success I have experienced with my blog has also inspired me to continue professionally posting.

 

References

Bernoff, J. (2012). The global social takeover. Retrieved fromhttp://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2012/01/the-global-social-takeover.html  on 15 September, 2012.

Brown, A. (2010). A to Z of social networking for libraries. Retrieved from http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/ on 30 July, 2012.

Brown, A. L. (2009). Developing an effective social media marketing strategy. Salt Lake city social media examiner, Retrieved fromhttp://www.examiner.com/article/developing-an-effective-social-media-marketing-strategy on 15 September, 2012.

Garfinkel, S. (2008). Wikipedia and the meaning of truth. Technology Review, 111(6), 84.

Hootsuite media inc. (2012). Social network management. Retrieved from http://hootsuite.com/features/social-networks on 31 August, 2012.

Klingensmith, K. (2009). PLN: Your personal learning network made easy. Retrieved from http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/ on 7 August, 2012.

Lorenzo, G. (2007). Catalysts for change: Information fluency, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the new education culture. (March). Retrieved fromhttp://www.edpath.com/images/IFReport2.pdf

Oye, N.D., Salleh, M. & Noorminshah, A. (2011). Knowledge sharing in the workplace: Motivators and demotivators. International journal of managing information technology, 3(4), p.71-84.

Schrier, R. A. (2011). Digital Librarianship & Social Media: the Digital Library as Conversation Facilitator. D-lib Magazine, 17(7/8). Retrieved from http://www.dlib.org/dlib/july11/schrier/07schrier.html on October 6, 2012.

Valenza, J. (n.d.) Information Fluency Transliteracy research tools: Helping learners perform more meaningful research. Retrieved from http://www.scoop.it/t/research-skills-and-tools on October 8, 2012.

Wittenberg, K. (2007). Credibility of content and the future of research, learning, and publishing in the digital environment. The Journal of Electornic Publishing, 10(1). Available http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;cc=jep;rgn=main;view=text;idno=3336451.0010.101

The challenge of finding authentic information in a socially networked world

The way in which users are connecting with information is constantly changing, new trends, apps etc. come out every day. Users are literally bombarded with information from an endless variety of places, but how are they to know what information is to be trusted? Lorenzo (2007, p.2) discusses people moving towards building “information fluency”, this refers to being proficient in three skills; “basic information technology skills (including computer literacy), information literacy skills, and critical thinking skills”. Wittenberg (2007) also discusses the credibility of information and what students need to accomplish this, she also posits the idea that the much-loved “peer review” system of the Academic world may be coming to an end. Garfinkel’s (2008, p.84) article supports Wittenberg’s theory through his discussions on Wikipedia being the primary source for information on the Internet. A large number of researchers cite it as background reading and Garfinkel confesses that the majority of the article was created using Wikipedia as the information resource (2008, p.84).

From reading these three articles I believe the following two messages are important:

1) Find new ways: No longer does there seem to be a hard and fast “right” way to find authentic content. We need to develop alternative ways of identifying or critically analysing information, more important than identifying these alternate avenues is finding a way to provide our clients with these skills. We cannot always be there with our clients, but by providing them with “information fluency” skills (Lorenzo, 2007, p.2) we enable them to locate and analyse resources on their own.

2) What is authentic? Or what is being now accepted as being authentic? The majority of information seekers now use Google as their first source of information (Kaur & Singh, 2011, p.738). When users are googling for answers more often than not Wikipedia articles are the first or second listed results. That these articles are so high in the results means they are frequently used (Garfinkel, 2008, p.84).

As a staff member of an Academic Library it is important for me to know whether if a lecturer will accept a student using Wikipedia, particularly if they can verify the information in a second source. Recently a student came into the Library for assistance with his referencing, it turned out he was having difficulty referencing a Facebook post using Harvard Author Date as he could find no reference to Social Media referencing on the guide. It seems that in some subjects Facebook is now acceptable as a resource.

 

References

Garfinkel, S. (2008). Wikipedia and the meaning of truth. Technology Review, 111(6), 84.

Kiran Kaur, Diljit Singh, (2011),”Customer service for academic library users on the web”, The Electronic Library, Vol. 29 Iss: 6 pp. 737 – 750

Lorenzo, G. (2007). Catalysts for change: Information fluency, Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the new education culture. (March). Retrieved from http://www.edpath.com/images/IFReport2.pdf

Wittenberg, K. (2007). Credibility of content and the future of research, learning, and publishing in the digital environment. The Journal of Electornic Publishing, 10(1). Available http://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=jep;cc=jep;rgn=main;view=text;idno=3336451.0010.101

 

Building a marketing strategy for Social Media

Social Media is a form of online media that promote participation, openness, conversation, community and connectedness (Mayfield, 2008). A good example is Facebook which is the most popular social networking technology in Australia (Cowling, 2012). Facebook currently corners the social networking market and has also gained popularity as a marketing and client interaction tool by libraries (Jacobsen, 2011, p.79). Through Facebook organisations can promote themselves via posts, photos and sharing videos, they can interact with clients in a social space and, due to the popularity of Facebook, potentially enhance their online presence significantly (Myers, 2012). But how does an organisation ensure they make the impact they want with their target market. Marketing strategies are produced for all other areas of business and it is important that they be developed for social media also.

Brown (2009) posits some important questions to bear in mind when considering a strategy for marketing social networking technologies for an organisation, these include, but should not be limited to;

• Does the organisation have a social media policy?
• How much time daily is to be spent on social media?
• Who is the target audience?
• What is the marketing budget?
• What will you use the social media for?
• What sites will be used regularly.

This last question provokes deeper thought on whether there are sites that will not require constant upkeep, for example something like Pinterest could be set up initially and only reviewed once every few months. It is important to note that one marketing strategy will not suit all forms of social media as it is likely the organisation will be using them for different purposes. Brown’s questions should be considered for each individual social media platform used by the organisation.

When creating a marketing strategy another vital component is knowing your target market. There is no point to answering the questions above if the market isn’t going to use what you are marketing. Bernoff & Li introduced ‘Social Technographics’ (Bernoff, 2012) they provided profiles based on the social technology behaviour of the market. The profile takes us from “inactives” who never use social media at all through to “creators” who record their own podcasts, maintain their own blog, and tweet their day away.

Social Technographics profiles

The profiles are fascinating, but then I questioned it. How could we be ensured that this related to the majority of University Students in Australia? The answer is relatively simple if you want it to be. Academics have referred to people born after 1993 as the ‘Google Generation’ (Rowlands, et al., 2008, p.290), this generation are now entering as Undergraduates. Therefore if there is not enough time or budget to do further research it would be reasonable to assume that the Google generation would fit into the profiles the ladder puts forth.

                                                                               
                                             
                                                                                          

 

 

References

Bernoff, J. (2012). The global social takeover. Retrieved from http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2012/01/the-global-social-takeover.html  on 15 September, 2012.

Bernoff, J. (2012). Social technographics: Conversationalists get onto the ladder. Retrieved from http://forrester.typepad.com/groundswell/2010/01/conversationalists-get-onto-the-ladder.html  on 15 September, 2012.

Brown, A. L. (2009). Developing an effective social media marketing strategy. Salt Lake city social media examiner, Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/developing-an-effective-social-media-marketing-strategy on 15 September, 2012.

Cowling, D. (2012). Social media statistics – July 2012. Retrieved from http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-july-2012/ on 2 August, 2012.

Jacobsen, T. B. (2011). Facebook as a Library Tool: Perceived vs. Actual Use. College and Research Libraries, 72(1), 79-90

Mayfield, A. (2008, August 1). What is social media? Retrieved from iCrossing: http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/eBooks/What_is_Social_Media_iCrossing_ebook.pdf on 15 September, 2012.

Myers, J. (2012). What is Facebook? Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-facebook.htm on 15 August, 2012.

Rowlands, I., Nicholas, D., Williams, P., Huntington, P., Fieldhouse, M., Gunter, B., Withey, R., Jamali, H. R., Dobrowlski, T. & Tenopir, C. (2008). The google generation: The information behaviour of the researcher of the future. Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives, 60(4), 290-310. doi: 10.1108/00012530810887953

Second Life

This technology has grown in popularity for use by learning institutions, Librarians have also had a growing interest in Second Life, although in some cases; such as University Libraries there have been barriers such as permissions, authentication and limits due to the security restrictions of the institution (Swanson, 2007, p.79).

I would generally consider myself pretty good at picking up and learning new things, particularly where social networking technologies are concerned, but I must admit that Second Life had me totally stumped. I followed all the instructions and named myself ‘LibraryCat’, I looked at the help guide and visited some forums that promised help, but nothing could explain why the entire world appeared to be pink. I was attempting to interact with the Charles Sturt University ‘CSU-SIS Learning Centre’ which was developed in 2009 (Hay & McGregor, 2010, p.20). Here is a picture of what I should have been seeing…

CSU SIS Learning Centre

And here is what is looked like when I went there…

Same place… different colour scheme

I thought perhaps that particular area was experiencing difficulty, but to be sure I checked all plug-ins that could possibly affect it and even had my husband who works in IT program support to have a look at it, all to no avail. The world remained pink, even more disturbingly when I went to another area called Bear Lodge not only was everything pink, but others Avatars seemed to be in various states of undress.

Oh my…

So I tried another area, everything was still pink, but thankfully people were fully clothed. I struck up a conversation with a fellow ‘newbie’ 5 mins later he started asking inappropriate questions so I located the friends I was supposed to, added them then logged off. I have been on since after encouragement from my Uni Facebook group, but the pink remains.

Currently for my position in an Academic Library we do not foresee use of Second Life. Due to my recent research work in the field of Web 2.0 technologies they are considering implementation of other social networking technologies, but Second Life is not of interest at this point in time. So for now I will concede defeat, but only for this battle. I am determined to win the pink war that Second Life has waged.

References

Hay, L. & McGregor, J. (2010). CSU’s Second Life. Incite, 31(1/2), p. 20.

Swanson, K. (2007). Second Life: A science library presence in virtual reality. Science & Technology Libraries, 27(3), p.79-86.

What is a Librarian in a web 2.0 world?

Librarian 2.0 – I fully embrace this term. I believe it is the way of the future and I think all Libraries need to get on the 2.0 train.

In the past libraries didn’t market themselves, then with all the alternative avenues for obtaining information opening up they had to. Then came web 2.0 and they began using web 2.0 technologies to connect with their clients. However, in some cases (such as the Library I work for) the Librarians do not do the work with the web 2.0 technologies. A marketing or liaison officer is behind the curtain rather than a Librarian. To me this is NOT Librarian 2.0, clients are expecting to connect and interact with Librarians on the Facebook or Twitter feed not a promotions person. This is also not encouraging Librarians to go inside a technological cocoon and emerge a Librarian 2.0 butterfly.

Librarians need to immerse themselves in this ever expanding web 2.0 world and be a part of it, there should not be a middle man between Librarian’s and their patrons.

What I believe Librarian 2.0 should have – the basics:

• A working knowledge of a significant range of social networking tools
• A passion to investigate how different social networking tools could be effectively harnessed by the library (Harvey, 2009).
• The ability to accept change whether small, big or ongoing as this is the future environment of Libraries, forever evolving.
• Passion, dedication and interest in continuing professional development.
• A “guru of the information age” (Abram, 2012).

I believe we are the gatekeepers of information. There is scope in the future for Librarian’s to aid clients to develop their RSS feeds to locate information surrounding their topics of interest rather than aid them finding online journal articles or physical items. I believe information literacy classes will soon include social networking technologies and personal learning networks. I feel that a Librarian’s function or role will have to be much more flexible, Librarian’s will need to be more multi-skilled than ever before.

References

Abram, S. (2012). Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and Librarian 2.0: Preparing for the 2.0 World. Retrieved from http://www.imakenews.com/sirsi/e_article000505688.cfm/ on 8 August, 2012.

Harvey, M. (2009). What does it mean to be a Science Librarian 2.0? Retrieved from http://www.istl.org/09-summer/article2.html on 8 August, 2012.

Personal Learning Network (PLN)

What is a ‘Personal Learning Network’ (PLN)? Klingensmith (2009) has a definition on her blog which I quite like, “the entire collection of people with whom you engage and exchange information, usually online” to me this is a simple, straightforward and accurate definition.

Utech (2008) has proposed 5 stages of personal learning networks adoption on his blog The thinking stick, these are; Immersion, evaluation, know it all, perspective & balance. He created the below diagram to display the stages effectively along with a short description of each stage.

Stages of PLN adoption

Looking at Utech’s stages I realise I remember stages one and two fondly, but I have well and truly rounded the corner into stage three. Particularly with the addition of Uni work and some projects I am involved with at work currently. I believe at times I have gone into stage four and even paddled in stage five, but I seem to have back peddled recently. Currently my PLN looks something like this…

My current PLN

… rather messy and out of control. Definitely a stage 3 in serious need of reviewing to gather some perspective. Utech (2008) suggests cutting oneself off from technology for a week; this is not an option currently (particularly as one of my subjects at Uni is ‘Social networking for information professionals’) so perspective must come with continuing use of the technology. Smith’s (2008) presentation provides information on how to build a PLN, it shows effective use of RSS feeds to keep yourself connected. Using my RSS reader more effectively and having more of my information come through this feed would be a good way to feel more in control of my PLN. I could also set up different feeds for university work/work learning and general interest so that my feeds are more concentrated to what I require. During this process it would also be valuable to evaluate what I am subscribed to in order to lose anything that doesn’t provide me with value. Hopefully this will go some way to providing me with balance.

References

Klingensmith, K. (2009). PLN: Your personal learning network made easy. Retrieved from http://onceateacher.wordpress.com/2009/05/05/pln-your-personal-learning-network-made-easy/ on 7 August, 2012.

Smith, B. (2008). Creating an online personal learning network. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/bethanyvsmith/creating-an-online-personal-learning-network-presentation on 7 August, 2012.

Utech, J. (2008). Stages of PLN adoption. Retrieved from http://www.thethinkingstick.com/stages-of-pln-adoption on 7 August, 2012.

Creating Library websites – some criteria

After reviewing literature by Mathews (2009), Lazaris (2009), McBurnie (2007) and Governor et al (2009) which discuss criteria for the creation of websites I have devised some of my own for creating effective library websites. I have then evaluated a library website against this criteria.

1. If the library is part of a bigger organisation such as a University, the website design should not be divorced from the style of the other websites of that organisation. It should be recognisable as part of that organisation and not sit apart from it.
2. Content should not be overcomplicated, out-dated or over-crowded. This could confuse users and give them a frustrating or negative experience (Mathews, 2009).
3. Navigation and call-to-action areas should be clear, concise and easily recognisable (Lazaris, 2009) if a website is hard or confusing to navigate clients may abandon their efforts.
4. Searching the catalogue should be accessible from any page on the Library’s website, clients should not be required to stumble around attempting to search the Library’s catalogue (Mathews, 2009).
5. “Clearly define the audience” (Governor et al, 2009) there is no point proceeding with development of a website if you do not know the wants and needs of your clients and build your site as a response to that.
6. Carefully consider scripting. CSS offers the ability to change templates across the entire site simultaneously rather than the tedious exercise of editing each page. When building consider sustainability and staff time for upkeep/editing (Governor et al, 2009).
7. Incorporate web 2.0 technologies: there is no shortage in options so look at your needs vs. what the platform is capable of vs. how popular it is. For example if you need video sharing and vimeo offers more editing options than YouTube you would be inclined to use vimeo. However, YouTube might be more popular which increases the discoverability of the Library’s videos and therefore helps build the Library’s online identity (McBurnie, 2007; Cowling, 2012).
8. Clients should have positive experiences using the website. Use bright colours effectively to highlight areas of your page and positive focal points such as pictures of people enjoying themselves in the Library space (Lazaris, 2009).

 

The University of Wollongong Library page does embrace some of the above criteria. The website has similar branding to that of other UOW sites, colours are bright and cheerful without overwhelming the page and the focal points include drop down menus, a cheerful photo of a student in the stacks and the navigation buttons. It does embrace Web 2.0 technology and it’s Facebook and Ask-a-Librarian pages are easy to locate from the homepage. They do use CSS scripting to style their page and it is obvious they have considered their target audience whilst building the page from the options available e.g. support for researchers.

One big negative for this website is the fact that there is not a catalogue search bar on every page. There are search bars for other purposes which could be confusing as they are sometimes in the same spot as other search bars have been.

UOWL homepage

References

Cowling, D. (2012). Social media statistics – July 2012. Retrieved from http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-statistics-australia-july-2012/ on 2 August, 2012.

Governor, J., Hinchcliffe, D, & Nickull, D. (2009). Web 2.0 architectures (1st ed.). Sebastopol, Calif.: O’Reilly Media. [ebook] Available http://proquest.safaribooksonline.com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/9780596514433

Lazaris, L. (2009). Designing websites for kids: Trends and best practices, Smashing Magazine, (27 November). Retrieved from http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/11/27/designing-websites-for-kids-trends-and-best-practices/ on 2 August, 2012.

Mathews, B. (2009). Web design matters: Ten essentials for any library site. Library Journal, (15 February). Retrieved from http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6634712.html?industryid=47126 on 2 August, 2012.

McBurnie, J. (2007). Your online identity: Key to marketing and being found. FUMSI, (October). Retrieved from http://web.fumsi.com/go/article/share/2510 on 2 August, 2012.

University of Wollongong (2011). University of Wollongong Library Homepage. Retrieved from http://www.library.uow.edu.au/index.html on 2 August, 2012.

Vimeo(2012). Vimeo homepage. Retrieved from http://vimeo.com/ on 2 August, 2012.

YouTube (2012). YouTube homepage. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/ on 2 August, 2012.

Brown’s A-Z List of web 2.0 technology for Libraries

AnnaLaura Brown (2010) wrote an article on her blog listing ways in which libraries can utilise social networking technologies to benefit their clients. Below is just a couple of her points and how I feel they could be applied to a University library, this library has begun use of some social networking technologies, but does not appear to be using them to their full potential.

“F-Facebook, having a presence on facebook with a fan page or a group is a must. Facebook is so popular now that it is expected” (Brown, 2010).

The library posts once a week or so, mostly concerning services. These posts are just general informative posts with a stock picture. Comments on the Library’s posts are few and far between and the ‘likes’ have sat at 621 for months. This page needs a total refresh, include content that students are interested in, engage using information and questions that are interesting, e.g. today is Charles Dickens 200^th birthday, what is your favourite tale?

“H-Help- relying on only one or two people to build your library’s social networking presence will not work. It needs to be a whole team effort on behalf of your entire library staff.

Z-zeal, is your library staff exciting about the possibilities that social networking can offer your library? If not, you will struggle to make it work for you” (Brown, 2010).

In a lot of ways H & Z go hand in hand, if staff aren’t excited about it, they will not help whole-heartedly. Getting staff familiar with these technologies will go a long way to getting them excited about it. Perhaps at an all staff meeting encourage your staff to tweet and have a screen up displaying the live twitter feed. Create a storify later on so staff can come back and revisit the events of the day.

“M- Mobile, more and more your library’s social networking needs to be able to be accessed via mobile devices. There are also more options than ever for making this a reality” (Brown, 2010).

Almost everywhere has a mobile version of their website now, to not be well and truly in this sphere is a bad place to be. Currently the library has released a mobile site only last year and it is still working out bugs. Their needs to be a concerted effort to have this website running flawlessly by the end of 2012. Right now not only is the library far behind its competitors, but also behind it’s vendors.

yourlibrary.edinburgh.gov.uk

“V-Video whether on youtube or elsewhere, use video to enhance and engage with your users via social networking” (Brown, 2010).

Video sharing sites like YouTube can be embedded in most other social networking platforms. If the library were to create its own youtube channel it could promote it via the libraries facebook or twitter page. It can be used to connect with students, for example rather than book suggestions from Goodreads, you could tape interviews with library staff about books they recommend.

References

Brown, A. (2010). A to Z of social networking for libraries. Retrieved from http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/ on 30 July, 2012.

OnceUponaTingle2. (2012). Library role play #1: YA Recommendations (ASMR). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eCwdhpyqYQ on 30 June, 2012.