Library PR 2.0 - 10/15/2008 - Library Journal. 2.0 or and bust. Since before my brain was hijacked by baby stuff, I’ve been thinking a lot about how many third party Web 2.0 vendors libraries are dependent upon (not to mention all the ones we’re dependent on personally!). I actually wrote a column for American Libraries on the subject, but 600 words could not reflect the whole of my concerns.
Nor probably can this email since I will most certainly be interrupted a half dozen times by an adorable baby who I find even more fun than blogging (so give me the benefit of the doubt if I write something that doesn’t quite make sense). In just the past few weeks, I’ve received two emails from companies whose services I’ve tried out who are now shutting their doors. Another one is changing its focus and will no longer be hosting the very thing I was using it for. While going with hosted solutions for one’s 2.0 services is cheap or free and is often the only option for a library with a tight budget, it’s not always the prudent way to go. Generating Ideas and Inspiration From Social Media | LifeDev. Photo by dhammza.
Sites like Digg, Reddit and Delicious are great for generating ideas. There is no shortage of creative ideas and ways to frame information than what makes to the front page of these sites. Most people think that social media sites are only useful for finding what the latest news is. While that is one of the main functions of these sites, many times a pretty creative thought or article lands on the homepage. What’s Popular People don’t want to talk, argue, or debate about a boring topic. What’s popular isn’t necessarily news. So how do we find the inspiration? View it as a filter The key difference between social media sites and search engines is that humans are making the recommendations. Instead of letting a piece of software or an algorithm decide what I’m looking for, I can use a friend (or group of friends) to filter the information for me. Frequently popular sites are usually places of inspiration an awesome writerusing creative, interesting titles Inspiring titles.
Library Innovation Requires Regularizing the Irregular. To move towards a move innovative organization requires experimentation, trial and error, doing new things, and breaking rules. Libraries looking to become more innovative are confronted with reality: it takes 100 crazy ideas to find 10 worth funding experimentally in order to identify 1 project worth pursuing. As it has been said, it takes a lot of acorns to grow an oak tree. The challenge is that most library organizations are structured and managed to continue current practices rather for than for innovation. Both strategy and resource alignment are focused on supporting short term missions and goals. This holds library organizations captive to a culture that is antagonistic toward innovation. Such a culture kills most attempts at innovation and can eventually drive innovative individuals away. Gary Hamel notes that that the bottleneck within an organization that ultimately throttles innovation is almost always located at the top.
Other interesting quotes from Hamel: Future-Proof Your Library - 8/15/2008 - Library Journal. Riding the Shift. Libraries/June 2008. Internet Librarian 2007: Presentation Links. Library 2.0 Debased. Kate Sheehan makes some interesting observations about the cultural awareness of librarians. She also touches on an unfortunate truth about Library 2.0: It’s easy to become enamored of social networking sites and Web 2.0 toys to the point where they seem like a panacea for everything that’s wrong with your library or your job.
Slap a wiki on it and call me in the morning. The most successful uses of the newest tech tools have recognized that they’re just that: tools. I’ve been feeling, for awhile now, that the term Library 2.0 has been co-opted by a growing group of libraries, librarians, and particularly vendors to push an agenda of “change” that deflects attention from some very real issues and concerns without really changing anything. It’s very evident in the profusity of L2-centric workshops and conferences that there is a significant snake-oil market in the bibliosphere. Ignoring the information ecology You can’t buy Library 2.0 …And vendors, you can’t sell it.
The Cult of Twopointopia. Earnest, humorless librarians should never read the AL. I only say this to save the time of the reader, which supposedly I'm obliged to do, since it's a "law" of library "science" (perhaps I put the quotes in the wrong places; repunctuate to suit yourself). The earnest humorless folks just don't get it.
Wait. No, the earnest and humorless librarians should read, because then they comment and give me something humorous to read while occasionally providing me with blog fodder. Earnest, humorless librarians, read on! My favorite responses to the AL are from those librarians who just can't seem to believe anyone would write this stuff. They are shocked, SHOCKED, that anyone would disagree with them or make fun of this pompous profession. But the twopointopians definitely do. [Note: I should state for the record that not everyone who advocates "user-centered" services or the use of social software is a twopointopian. Take one comment from last week, for example. Hmmm. Oh, okay. Ouch! Library 2.0 Spectrum. Transformation Lab - Prototyping the Future. Main Page - Social Software Showcase. Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us.
My Top-ten Library 2.0 “No-brainers” for Public Libraries « The Other Librarian. This is fairly straight-forward post. I was thinking about Library/Web 2.0 applications, hearing about projects that seemed to some to be a bit dubious or misguided and occassionally finding people being a bit dismissive in general about Web/Library 2.0. I have sympathy with some of the Web/Library 2.0 skepticism. Not everyone has the resources, inclination or knowledge-base to develop high-powered services on Second Life or to design library based mash-ups and the like. So, I thought I’d distill library 2.0 into 10 projects that I say are pretty much “no-brainers.” Low riskLow costLow effortSure to provide added benefit to a good number of userspretty much just common sense service enhancements ANDnot likely to ruffle [needlessly] many technophobe feathers In my view, if you do these 10 things (or some reasonable facimile) you have satisficed the Library 2.0 moniker sufficiently to say you are “L2.”
Here they are: 1. Why is it L2? Why would my users want it? 2. Why is it L2? 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Alternative Teen Services » Library 2.0 Services to Teens - A listing. Going Virtual: Technology and the Future of Academic Libraries. David Lee King » Blog Archive » Making Time for Web 2.0. On Friday, I gave an “Introduction to Web 2.0″ presentation to about 100 children’s librarians at the ALSC conference in Pittsburgh, PA. It was a blast! Attendees really seemed to appreciate the presentation (judging by the many questions and thank-you’s I received throughout the rest of the day). I even met (and ate lunch with) Mary Ghikas , Senior Associate Executive Director at ALA (and blogger, too) … and I found out she reads my blog! Hi, Mary – it was nice to meet you! People attending my presentation asked some great questions, including this one: “how do I have time for this new stuff” (i.e., blogs, wikis, IM, and other social networking things)? I answered the question, then realized an expanded answer would make a good blog post.
So… How can I possibly have time for all this stuff? I’ll answer in two ways – one for library administrators, and one that’s more for front-line staff (but you admins should read it, too). What does that mean, practically? Time: Equipment: Training: 1. 2. Library Journal - Library 2.0. By Michael E. Casey and Laura C. Savastinuk on May 21, 2010 Service for the next-generation library Libraries are changing. Funding limits and customer demands are transforming staffing levels, service models, access to resources, and services to the public. Administrators and taxpayers are seeking more efficient ways of delivering services to achieve greater returns on financial investments.
Enter Library 2.0. The heart of Library 2.0 is user-centered change. While not required, technology can help libraries create a customer-driven, 2.0 environment. Tapping new users through the “long tail” In the current library world—particularly in public institutions—we are accustomed to focusing our services on those customers we already reach. No matter how hard we try, many of the services we offer are not being used by a majority of our population. This keeps some traditional customers satisfied, but non-users might be better served if librarians consider what’s called the long tail.
Michael E. More than just faith: Radical trust. Yes, it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything. I’ve been so turned around by a number of things at work and at home that have all but monopolized my time, leaving very little left to do any writing of any kind. I really haven’t even been able to do what I really love at work: coding. I fear that June may be even worse, so I expect that this blog may not bear as much fruit as I’d want over the next several weeks–let me apologize in advance for that. In a former iteration of my life, I was very involved with a non-profit organization whose mission was a dedication “to helping people grow individually and in community with others by providing educational experiences that foster an understanding, appreciation and stewardship of the natural world and that emphasize the power of focused, collective effort.”
The many years I worked at this organization predated the web, let alone Web 2.0. Leadership Radical trust does not inherently require leadership, but organizations do. Innovation Faith. Steal this Idea: Learning 2.0 at PLCMC. Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries. Jack M. Maness MLS, University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries, 1720 Pleasant St., Boulder, CO, USA. Email: jack dot maness at colorado dot edu Received June 19, 2006; Accepted June 29, 2006 Abstract This article posits a definition and theory for "Library 2.0".
Keywords Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Blog, Wiki, Streaming media, Social network, Tagging, RSS, Mashup Introduction While the term is widely defined and interpreted, "Web 2.0" was reportedly first conceptualized and made popular by Tim O'Reilly and Dale Dougherty of O'Reilly Media in 2004 to describe the trends and business models that survived the technology sector market crash of the 1990s (O'Reilly, 2005). The implications of this revolution in the Web are enormous. Most writers on Library 2.0 would agree that much of what libraries adopted in the first Web revolution are static. Library 2.0 According to Miller (2005a), "Library 2.0" is a term coined by Michael Casey on his LibrayCrunch blog. It is user-centered. Synchronous Messaging. 165. See Also: A biblioblogger visits the local branch library. Eltuo.