Phew! The last couple of days have brought up a number of interesting points. Blog titles of course can’t be copyrighted, but all the same, I’d rather not take the chance of stepping on anyone’s toes. Steven was very happy to share, but I wasn’t entirely sure based on his first posting. I admit: I incorrectly assumed the worst.

This brings me to the more interesting issue that Steven raised today about assumptions made over Web postings. He’s absolutely right – it is “the nature of the beast”. It’s also a fascinating topic given our increasing encouragement to library users to share their thoughts electronically.

As we promote social networking, it’s vital that we as librarians also think about educating users on how to communicate effectively over the Web, how to reduce the chance for misinterpretation, and how to better judge personal comments without assuming the worst (if that course comes about, I think I’ll be first to sign up!)

How do you make up for the loss of visual cues over the Web? Do you say things differently in the blogworld than you do with face-to-face chats? Do you promote the use of smiley face emoticons? Or is clear and effective writing enough in the blog world?

A big apology to Steven M. Cohen of the original Library Stuff blog. I goofed. This blog started out as a small test and was aimed towards the staff and board at my library. It was late one night and all I could come up with was Library Stuff. The blog was dormant for quite a while and then one day I added another posting, which seems to have made a few rounds (thanks to those that quoted it!). I certainly didn’t intend to offend anyone.

I hope you like the new title – I’m pretty sure it’s not yet taken (but let me know if I’m wrong!)

Now that I’ve finished my assignment, I have some time to breath before classes start again next week, which means I’m catching up on what I consider to be required reading. The article everyone seems to be blogging about, Library 2.0 by Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk was first on the list.

It’s a great overview of “Library 2.0″ concepts and though I have a few opinions about some of their points, I want to focus this post on smaller libraries (will get to the other points in a future post).

What makes a service Library 2.0? Any service, physical or virtual, that successfully reaches users, is evaluated frequently, and makes use of customer input is a Library 2.0 service. Even older, traditional services can be Library 2.0 if criteria are met.

A lot of libraries have always aimed to be “Library 2.0″. What’s new now is the abundance of technologies that help libraries further this aim. I work with a lot of small public libraries and though they may wish to keep up with these technologies, they very often don’t have the funding or resources to do so. They’re also usually far from highly populated centres that tend to attract techno-savvy librarians.

One way smaller libraries (and larger) can subscribe to the Library 2.0 bandwagon is to solicit help from the surrounding community: Plan a Technology Summit at Your Library.

Invite community members and local organizations (municipal staff, businesses, educational institutes…) to attend a meeting at your library where everyone brainstorms on technology ideas for the library.

You may be surprised by the number of people in your community who have a love for and great experience with “Web 2.0″ technologies. Some of these people are more than happy to volunteer their time offering advice and even implementing a few things for you.

The Squamish Public Library hosted such a meeting this earlier this year, and everyone came out of the meeting blown away by the ideas expressed. Those who attended the meeting were also impressed by the library’s desire to hear their ideas.

Certainly, implemention of ideas and the possible use of volunteers will require good planning and management on your part. However, not only does a forum advertise your library and provide an additional avenue for user input, but you’ll gain a better idea of what’s out there, what people want, and maybe some help in implementing a few things that will be of enormous value to your patrons.

Seeing as how it’s back to school time, I thought I should blog a bit about my school, Northumbria University, located in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. The strangest part about this MLIS program is that I’ve never actually seen the campus (well, I have seen a brochure of 18 year-old models decked out in the trendiest clothing hanging about campus – good thing I’m studying via distance education – I’d never fit in).

This is my third degree and I’m glad I chose to do it through an entirely online program. I felt I’d done my fair share of sitting in stuffy classrooms and I wanted to learn a bit more on my own terms. The other day, I spoke about this program with a recently retired, highly respected librarian. His reaction: “I don’t believe in those programs! You don’t learn how to discuss issues”.

I realize a lot of people agree with him and I knew I’d be risking their lack of respect by attaining my MLIS in this fashion. I don’t believe this program is for everyone – I definitely miss crying on my fellow students’ shoulders about too big assignments due in too little time. And I do think classroom discussion is a valuable skill that everyone should learn. But, like I said, I felt I’d been there, done that. And, there is a lot to learn from this method of study that you just don’t get in the classroom.

Pros

• I don’t have to commute 3 hours/day to attend the closest MLIS school.
• Studying on my own time (which usually ends up being all the time when I’m not working).
• Learning how to discuss in a virtual world. Let’s face it: our world is becoming increasingly reliant on technology for communication and I want to know how to use it. Interestingly, online discussions can often be more effective than face-to-face communication. Ever been part of a discussion where everyone just seems to repeat the last person’s point, but with different words? It makes me want to tear my hair out. In an online forum, comments are visibly saved, so if you repeat too much, it’s very obvious. Instead, and I’m generalizing here (but that’s okay, this is my blog ), online meetings tend to be more efficient. More points are covered in less time. I like that.

Cons

• Time differences make it difficult to call profs when you want to.
• Hanging out at the pub with classmates.

Differences Between Canadian & UK Schools

• Spelling differences: organisation vs. organization…
• Words:
  • a course in the UK is the actual program, e.g. the MLIS degree. A course is made up of “modules” which are the equivalent of courses in Canada.
  • “exploiting” resources in the UK vs. “advertising” resources in Canada (I don’t know – exploiting sounds like an evil thing to do to our resources!)
• The grading system.
  • This was a shock. I’m used to the Canadian system where, if you work really hard, you’ll get a mark over 80%. Mediocre work is generally in the 70-80% range. A pass is 50%. Not so in the UK. I only found out after my first assignment that “the grading system is often harder in the UK that in other countries… students have a shock when they get the grades for their first assignment” (Bournemouth University). Class averages are usually around 65%. A pass is 40%. 70% is considered a mark of “distinction” and worth an A. My prof told me that in 10 years, he’s only ever given one mark over 90% and that he normally only gives 2 or 3 papers in a class marks of over 80%.

Some Inspirational Library Student Blogs I’m Reading

• Life as I Know It (Jennifer Macaulay at Southern Connecticut State University)
• LIS :: Michael Habib (UNC-Chapel Hill)
• What I Learned Today (Nicole C. Engard at Drexel University in Pennsylvania – great resource for technical info)

I just stumbled across this great blog: TechEssence.Info – its contributors (a group of highly-regarded librarians and techies) post ‘easy to understand information about information technology’.

They have a very informative post about Tagging written by Jenn Riley. It’s a good overview of the concepts of tags and how libraries could and should make use of them. I’m about to start a cataloguing course this fall and I doubt it will be covering the nitty-gritty of MARC records. Instead, I hope it will be covering more interesting topics such as those covered in this post, including the concept of combining subject headings from a controlled vocabulary with user tagging.

One of my favourite bloggers, Michael Casey, has a new article in Library Journal all about Library 2.0. I can’t wait to read it, but it’ll have to wait as I have a gigantic assignment due in a couple of days (wish me luck!).

Also on the reading wishlist: Web 2.0 and Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software, by Michael Stephens (another cool blogger). I’m trying to convince my local library to buy it ($63 USD) so I can borrow it to read.

I start work on my thesis in January, and though I haven’t nailed down exactly what it’ll be about, I know it’ll have something to do with social software and libraries. Any suggestions?

In the latest issue of Library Journal, Steven J. Bell shares his disappointment with librarians for participating in a Google infomercial. While I don’t agree with all he says, he did bring up some things that hadn’t occurred to me – things I probably should have thought of.

When I first saw Google’s video highlighting four librarians promoting Google by talking about how they use it with their patrons, my first reaction was “hmmm, a little strange”: a movie supposedly geared towards librarians (it was a feature at the ALA conference) which describes how Google can be used for patrons’ benefits. Strange because most librarians I know already know about these fancy gadgets. And then, without thinking further on it, I continued surfing…

Steven’s article gave shape to my first reaction:

After all, what librarian needs to be informed that Google is a great search engine for helping sixth graders find transcripts of TV shows? With an infomercial, I can quickly ascertain the target audience. But just who did Google have in mind when it created this program? A Google booth attendant told me the movie would be added to Google Video and that it might be on display at other professional conferences, leading me to believe that Google would eventually use this movie to promote its product to the masses.

He goes on:

Used as a promotional tool for the general populace, i.e., our patrons,
the movie portrays librarians as unabashed promoters of Google as the
one and only best discovery tool, when our top priority should be to
promote to our communities the incredible range of information options
from which they may choose.

We should be careful about our public image and the corporations we may promote. And I would like to see a more balanced video delivered to the public that shows librarians talking about EBSCO, RSS, podcasts, Google, and all the other cool tools that are available in the library (both physically and remotely).

But I guess in this case, I don’t take the Google video too seriously – after all, there are some benefits. If the general public does see this video, they’ll probably be surprised – after all, aren’t librarians supposed to be kind of old, hair in a bun, hiding behind spectacles, saying “shhh”? Librarians certainly aren’t exactly what you’d call techno-saavy, right? A video like this at least helps to squash that image. Let’s face it: the whole world seems to think Google is cool – if librarians sing its praises, maybe the whole world will have more faith in us and think about using libraries and librarians in their quest for information.

But let’s take up Steven’s challenge and outdo Google: let’s make a better video highlighting all, or at least, some of the many tools we use.  In that vein, check out David Lee King’s video.

What are they?

• Web log
• An informal, frequently updated Web site that allows visitors to leave comments about what they read (comments can be moderated).
• The semi-recent introduction of free, easy-to-use Web site content management software (e.g. WordPress, which was used to create this site) has led to an explosion of blogs.
• The line between Web site and blog is a bit fuzzy: despite the above definition, traditional, static Web sites can be created using blogging software – you usually have the option to turn off blogging features such as comments, RSS feeds, etc.

Why would a library be interested?

• Online book discussions (reaching those who are unable to visit the library).
  • Cheshire Public Library Teen Book Blog
  • Student Reflections on Night by Elie Wiesel
  • Brampton Library Teen Blog
• Internal communications (between staff, board…) – post news, items of interest – gives staff a chance to discuss issues online.
  • Library Circulation Staff
  • Zondervan Library Staff

What is it?

• Really Simple Syndication
• Instead of surfing to each and every one of your favourite Web sites to check out the latest headlines, you can subscribe to the sites using RSS.  A piece of software on your computer (called an 'aggregator'), scans all the sites for the latest headlines and posts the first few lines for you to read (with links to further reading). 
• Start by signing up for an aggregator (see below) or downloading a commercial one.  Then go to your favourite sites and see if they provide RSS (you'll often see an  button) – click on it to sign up.
• The postings at right (Information Wants To Be Free, Library Journal News, ALA TechSource) are using RSS to grab headlines from those sites and posting them here.

Why would a library be interested?

• Patrons can subscribe to our site and automatically receive updates about what's happening at the library (e.g. latest news, event, job postings, staff recommendations…)
• Libraries could have live RSS feeds on its Web site (e.g. from book review sites, news sites…)

Libraries that offer RSS feeds:

• Edmonton Public Library
• Denver Public Library
• Red Deer Public Library

Free RSS Aggregators

• Bloglines – check out my Blogline feeds
• Newsgator
• Google Reader

More info on RSS

• Yahoo's white paper: RSS White Paper (PDF file, 505 KB)

Why digitize library materials (e.g. historical photos)?

• Preservation
• Accessibility (especially if photos can be searched by keyword)
• Expectations from the public
• Potential Revenue
• Advertisement for other library services

Example Web Sites

• Vancouver Public Library's Special Collections