Transcript Web 2.0 - Bodleian Libraries

Changing Information Environment
Seminar
23 January 2008
Facilitators: Judy Reading, Jane Rawson and Eric
Howard
Outline of session:
 Overview of context
 Discussion in small groups
 Short group presentations
 Vere Harmsworth Library experience of Web 2.0
 Summary and discussion
Context
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Dramatic speed of development and
proliferation of tools and online resources
available to librarians, researchers and
students
Changing attitudes to information and access
Changing role of librarian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1415830,00.html
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Challenge and opportunities
Web 2.0
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Web 2.0 = “an attitude not a technology?” (UKOLN
presentation at OULS staff conference)
COLLABORATION
“The long tail” – many sites with low popularity =
more popular than few sites with high popularity –
PERSONALISATION
Democratization of information?
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
 See the UKOLN website – esp briefing 92
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefings/print-all/web/
Topics:
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Wikipedias and WIKIS for collaborative
working
Weblogs/Blogs especially Library blogs
Social sites like Facebook
Social tagging and http://del.icio.us
Podcasts eg Youtube
Virtual reality sites like Secondlife
For each topic:
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What is it?
When was it invented/developed?
How might it be used by both users and
library staff?
What are its pros and cons?
Wikipedias and Wikis
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Wikipedia – http://www.wikipedia.org/
Also Citizendium
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Main_Page
Wikis allow collaborative content to be placed online –
useful for projects and group work of all kinds eg
http://www.writeboard.com/
http://traineeshowcase2007.wetpaint.com/
http://socialouls.wetpaint.com
Wikipedia and wikis – use in libraries
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See Ariadne Issue 49 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue49/guy/#18
Used more frequently in USA: below is an
example from University of Bath:
Wikipedia and Wikis
Issues
 Balance between quality of information and
freedom of editing – who edits, why, how?
Wikipedia’s ‘cleanup’/’stub’ policy,
Citizendium –’expert Wikipedia’
 Consensus/leadership?
 Currency – can become obsolete if not
updated regularly
Blogs
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Weblog – again connected to Web 2.0
Online diary/advertisement for events
Drawing together information from various
sources into one place
Angela Newton's Information Literacy blog,
University of Leeds,
https://elgg.leeds.ac.uk/libajn/weblog/
Issues relating to Web 2.0!
Social Networking Tools – for example, www.facebook.com
Many examples – but all have similar features
Interest groups
Social networking tools – uses?
Open “Events” –
training,
inductions, etc?
•Generic library profile
•Invite students to join’ a library network?
•Schedule ‘live’ time where questions will be answered?
Social networking sites
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Advantages
Embedded in many people’s lives (25000+ members in Oxford) – users can
do as much or as little as they want to their individual profiles
Quick way to communicate with wide audience
Requires little-technical know-how
Disadvantages
Many different social networking sites – monitoring popularity/deciding
which site to use for library
“Granny dancing at disco!” effect!!
Scholarly literature
Articles appear on CSA Illumina, for example:
“My My Space Comment” – Woody Evans Library Journal Vol 132, Issue 3,
P. 44.
The results of a two-year evaluation of the effect of Facebook on facultystudent communications is available at
http://www-static.cc.gatech.edu/~aforte/HewittForteCSCWPoster2006.pdf.
Social tagging.
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Allows users to classify information in the way they want
Sharing their classification with others – www.librarything.com
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Tag clouds:
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Social tagging - use in libraries
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De.lic.ious – tagging of documents on web
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See Pen Tags - http://tags.library.upenn.edu/help/
Tag cloud
Social tagging - advantages and
disadvantages
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Collaboration with other library staff and users online reading lists
Tailored information to the needs of a particular user
group (yourself and/or others!) – as opposed to ‘one
size fits all’
Disadvantages
Mutability of language – terms may become quickly
outdated
Preservation issues – fixed vs fluid organisation of
information?
Podcasts
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www.youtube.com
Effective ‘shop front’’ to entice people into using your library
service.
One of the more well-known is “Ray of Light" St. Joseph County
Public Library Version – see
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrtYdFV_Eak.
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
Podcasts - issues
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Advantages
Little technical know-how needed
Appealing to ‘visual’ generation and different learning
styles.
Fun???
Disadvantages
Credibility issues?
Currency of podcasts – visual media may need
updating more frequently?
Definitions
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life
Virtual world – interactions using avatars (virtual
representations of the self)
6 576378 members (21st May 2007)
Uses in library situations
Alliance Library Systems – see
http://www.infoisland.org/.
TALIS review – see http://www.talis.com/tdn/node/1506 .
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Advantages
Reaching out to many users simultaneously
Opportunities for different forms of interactions (e.g.
Renaissance Island – a educational ‘roleplay’ island’)
Disadvantages
“Most accounts are inactive” (Wikipedia)– out of 6,576,378
accounts, only 1,734,041 were used in the last 60 days - high
time investment needed by users and library staff
Backlash? – www.getafirstlife.com
Is Secondlife a ‘sustainable’ web development (like RSS feeds)
or a fad?
The Librarian fundamentalists
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/meetings/emuit-2006-11/
Brian Kelly UKOLN
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Think they know better than the user e.g. they don't like people using
Google Scholar; they should use Web of Knowledge (who cares that
users find it easier to use Google Scholar & finds references they need
that way?)
Think that users should be forced to learn Boolean searching & other
formal search techniques because this is good for them (despite
Sheffield's study).
Don't want the users to search for themselves (cf folksonomies)
because they won't get it right.
They still want to classify the entire Web - despite the fact that users
don't use their lists of Web links.
Want services to be perfect before they release them to users. They
are uneasy with the concept of 'forever beta' (they don't believe that
users have the ability to figure things out themselves and work around
the bugs).
Hope you found this interesting
Email for any follow-up ideas to:
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/information_skills