Meredith Farkas says*:
. . . social software is defined as a tool that must meet at least two of the three following conditions:
- It allows people to communicate, collaborate, and build community online.
- It can be syndicated, shared, reused, or remixed, or it facilitates syndication.
- It lets people learn easily from and capitalize on the behavior or knowledge of others.
What else would you add to our list?
* Social Software in Libraries, p. 1.
According to reports by the Pew Internet & American Life Project:
Pew Internet & American Life Project: http://www.pewinternet.org
More than half (55%) of all online American youths ages 12-17 use online social networking sites, according to a new national survey of teenagers conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview
66% of those teens say their profiles are not visible to all internet users
- MySpace
- Facebook
- New rite of passage?
eVolver: http://myspace.com/denver_evolver | IUSB: http://simmons.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2215014895 (Facebook login required)
Library Thing Suggester & UnSuggester: http://www.librarything.com/suggest
- Hennepin County Public Library (Catalog)
- In-catalog Reviews
- Patron comments
- Ann Arbor District Library (Catalog)
I searched for the Da Vinci Code to get started | HCPL: https://catalog.hclib.org | AADL: http://www.aadl.org/sopac
Ann Arbor District Library's SOPAC (Social OPAC) has customer and editorial reviews, patron tagging, "patrons who checked out this book also borrowed . . ." etc. Also, they blog a lot. Check out this post from the director to get started:
aadl.org is Two!
Here's some more info on SOPAC from the guy who put it together, John Blyberg:
AADL.org Goes Social
AADL. org Goes Social: http://www.blyberg.net/2007/01/21/aadlorg-goes-social/ | aadl.org is Two!: http://www.aadl.org/node/4722
- Newspaper Blogs
- General Info
Political Intelligence: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/ | Consumerist: http://www.consumerist.com | Bostonist: http://www.bostonist.com
HCPL eBranch: http://www.hcpl.net/ebranch/news/ | From the Ashes of the Phoenix: http://www.phxashes.blogspot.com/ | Beyond Brown Paper: http://beyondbrownpaper.plymouth.edu/
Mostly powered by RSS. These aggregate all the info that I want to see in one place. Where's my library?
MyYahoo!: http://my.yahoo.com | iGoogle: http://www.google.com/ig
How many of your patrons are Flickr addicts? How easy/difficult is it to get photos from library events on your website?
Libraries on Flickr:
PCL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/piercecountylibrary/ | SMCL: http://www.flickr.com/photos/smcl/ | LibraryLoft: http://www.flickr.com/photos/libraryloft/
Not only are you out there, but you can pull the photos into your website or blog easily.
Make a Flickr badge!
Flickr badge: http://www.flickr.com/badge.gne
Commenting and tagging are showing up everywhere! At least some of your patrons are probably doing it.
Commenting and tagging are showing up everywhere! At least some of your patrons are probably doing it.
Links: http://tags.library.upenn.edu/ | http://www.aadl.org
Should you do this? Things to consider:
- Patrons
- Staff
- Current services/programming
Use it yourself first. Yes, really. Think about things like:
- privacy settings
- how you present yourself through the site
- how other users present themselves
- how you wind up using the site
- how other users primarily use the site
(And yes, also do some readings.)
Are your patrons out there?
- ask causally (or survey formally)
- talk to other community organizations
- Has your local high school had to block access to MySpace?
- Does your local senior center have a LibraryThing account?
- Is your local newspaper's blog really popular?
- Is the Chamber of Commerce on Flickr?
Get the info and think about it. A lot.
Consider doing a formal evaluation. It'll help you to:
- Stop and think—why?
- Get other staff involved (persepectives, buy-in)
- What other library services would this change affect?
- Should we even still be offering this service?
- Do we have the time/staff/interest to maintain this new thing?
More resources:
Technorati: http://www.technorati.com
More resources:
- The academic library and the net gen student: making the connections, by Susan Gibbons
- Library Technology Reports (ALA/LITA)
- Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software, by Michael Stephens (July/August 2006)
- Web 2.0 & Libraries, Part 2: Trends & Technologies, by Michael Stephens (September/October 2007)
- Library Success Wiki: http://www.libsuccess.org/
Library Technology Reports: http://www.techsource.ala.org/ltr/
Thanks! View this presentation at:
http://web.simmons.edu/~cody1/socialsoftware/
This presentation was created in HTML using CSS. There was no PowerPoint involved in this presentation except as a nagging bad example. The layout and stylesheet are available to borrow from Jessamyn West via a share and share alike creative commons license. See source code for details or click here.
http://www.librarian.net/stax/1286/presentations-without-powerpoint-how-i-do-it/
slides version | printable version
