Online Communities

Although I have attended WebJunction webinars in the past, it wasn’t until this class that I realized WebJunction is an online community. 

 

WebJunction is OCLC’s online community dedicated to the emerging technology and training needs of librarians and library staff. It features articles, handouts, online courses, webinars and forum discussions on current, relevant and practical issues. (OCLC.org/WebJunction)

 

Webjunction was created by OCLC in partnership with other organizations and with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The focus of this successful online community is “on library technologies, management, and services, along with public access in small and rural libraries.” Joining Webjunction is free—I just created my account!

 

The American Library Association also offers an online community called ALA Connect which is a “virtual, collaborative, workspace online” free for ALA members. Non-members can create an online account for free, but it will only allow them access to public materials. ALA Connect offers its users ways to find and connect with other members around professional interests, issues, advocacy, their jobs, the work of the Association, and more. (Connect.ALA.org)—I just also created my ALA Connect account! 

 

I wanted to share an excellent definition of online communities I found on the website SocialMediaToday.com, taken from the book Online Communities by Jenny Preece.

 

Online Communities - People, who interact socially as they strive to satisfy their own needs or perform special roles, such as leading or moderating. A shared purpose, such as an interest, need, information exchange, or service that provides a reason for the community. Policies, in the form of tacit assumptions, rituals, protocols, rules, and laws that guide people’s interactions. Computer systems, to support and mediate social interaction and facilitate a sense of togetherness.

Hennepin County Library

The genealogy department of the Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis created the video Genealogy Research: An Introduction to Immigration & Naturalization Resources through 1930, which highlights the local genealogy research resources that are available for patrons interested in researching their ancestors’ immigration history. The video is posted in the library’s Vimeo page.

The content of the video is definitely relevant and helpful and it is explained in a clear and easy-to-understand way. The librarian who wrote and narrated the script did a wonderful job in providing an overview of each of the resources. Each explanation is supported by appropriate images and includes a display of the web address where the resource can be located. 

Overall the video was well made. It is not a state-of-the-art production, but it has a decent level of quality suited to the purpose and to the audience. My only observation is that I would have added more visual information about the resources directly available in the library’s website.

Collaborative Filtering: Douglas County Libraries

Today I attended Power to the Patron, a Library Journal’s Virtual Technology Summit. The third panel, ILS Role in Empowering Patrons, included the participation of Monique Sendze, IT Director for Douglas County Libraries in Colorado. During her presentation I learned about how her library has recently implemented collaborative filtering in the catalog. 

Douglas County Libraries’ new catalog gives users the option of rating materials with a star rating system. It also allows them to keep track of what they have read through reading lists that can be downloaded and shared. Patrons are now able to write book reviews and read reviews by staff and other users. Most importantly, when patrons access catalog records, they now see recommendations of similar titles and recommendations based on what “people who viewed this also viewed”. 

Sendze also shared that so far the new catalog features have been a success with their patrons. 

My Experience Using Google Docs

Of all the internal collaboration tools discussed this week, Google Docs is the one I am more familiarized with. Google Docs is a free web-based collaborative tool that allows users to easily create/upload and share a word processor, spreadsheet, form, or presentation with others. The creator can assign permission levels that would let others just view or edit the document.

I have used Google Docs in the past for group work and it has been an effective tool for creating, sharing and collaborating with multiple people in a single document. It has been like having a meeting to work on a project, without leaving home and without the need of having everyone working at the same place, at the same time.

Here is a great “In Plain English” YouTube video on Google Docs.

Exercise 6: Screencast

Wiki Software in Libraries

Private internal wikis are a great way to use wiki software in libraries and other types of organizations. This is an application of wiki software that I am familiar with and one I use on a regular basis. 

My library uses the web-based wiki application Tiki Wiki. There are several wikis set up for librarians and staff use: for adult librarians, young adult librarians, children's librarians, branch services, special projects, and others. They all require the creation of an account and password log in, and these wikis can only be accessed from the library network, not remotely.

The following are advantages of using the wiki as an internal collaboration tool drawn from my personal experience as part of a committee working on a special project at my library:

* Relatively easy to use--once you get used to it.

* The information you are working on is easy to organize and to separate according to the different stages of the project.

 * You can read others' opinions and ideas about a certain subject as well as make changes, additions, and comments. You can also upload documents and graphics.

 * When you log in you can see the latest changes in the wiki since your last log in.

There is a feature I believe my wiki is missing, and that is email notification when changes have been made or new content has been added.

New York Public Library

The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a privately managed public and research library system with 90 locations throughout the boroughs of Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island in New York City. According to ALA Library Fact Sheet Number 22, NYPL is the third largest library in the United States with over 16 millions of volumes held.

New York Public Library has a significant online presence beyond their website that includes Facebok, Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, YouTube, iTunes, Flickr, Blogs, and Voice Thread. NYPL makes use of a well-rounded mix of social software that incorporates location-based, video, audio, photos, collaborative-educational, social networking, micro-blogging and blogging.

These choices are comprehensive and reflective of the actual social networking scene. They also reveal an effort to select the most significant or popular social networking software in each category. For example: Facebook instead of MySpace; YouTube instead of Vimeo.

Some of the NYPL choices of social networking software were unfamiliar to me, specifically Tumblr, Foursquare, and Voice Thread. Tumblr is a micro-blogging software with a regular blog look and feel. Foursquare is a location-based networking site that uses mobile technology. Voice Thread is an interesting collaborative and educational tool that combines audio, pictures and videos.

Generally speaking NYPL social networking sites offer attractive content that is updated frequently and that engages users. Their sites are filled with likes, shares, comments, tags, views, retweets, and followers.

On Facebook, 41,817 people like NYPL [as of today]. After a quick search of “public libraries” on Facebook and scrolling down the list many pages, I could not find a public library with as many likes as NYPL. On Twitter, NYPL has 161,573 followers; on YouTube, 1,786 subscribers; on Foursquare, 37,576 followers.

Joan Petit used NYPL as an example of great social media use by a library in his article Twitter and Facebook for User Collection Requests published in Collection Management, Volume 36, Issue 4, 2011.

“In April 2011, the social media–oriented New York Public Library began recruiting volunteers to help transcribe 10,000 digitized menus from its historical restaurant menus collections to make the materials fully searchable. The library promoted the project solely through Facebook, Twitter, and the Web site MetaFilter. As of three months later, thousands of volunteers had already transcribed more than 450,000 dishes from more than 8,500 menus. The New York Public Library menu project thus has become an outstanding example of how a library can use social media first to promote a collection and then also to build and improve that very same collection.”

Past April, Mashable.com published the article “New York Public Library Invites 500 to Overnight Scavenger Hunt” by Lauren Indvik, reporting that NYPL “which became the first public library to launch a Foursquare badge this week, is going one step further in mobile innovation by inviting 500 people to compete in a smartphone-based challenge for a library game night.” During that successful event 500 people spent the night at the library playing the scavenger hunt game titled Find the Future and writing a 600-page book that is now part of the library’s permanent collection. Read more about it here.

A simple Google search of “NYPL social media” revealed a vast amount of online articles praising the creative and innovative ways NYPL is using social media to engage patrons and offer original, interesting content adapted to the features each social media software have.

NYPL not only has taken the lead among public libraries nationwide in using social media to promote the library and to offer new value to its users, but has also managed to maintain a consistent branding throughout the different social media platforms, making the open source softwares look and feel like another NYPL web page.

If NYPL would hire me as a social media marketing consultant, I would have to admit they have done a great job thus far, and I would encourage them to keep innovating and finding ways to use current and emerging social media technologies for the library and its patrons’ advantage.

Social Networking [Facebook] and Libraries

Our textbook’s chapter on social networking talks abundantly about MySpace and briefly about Facebook. Back in 2006 Facebook was relatively new, but so much has changed since then in the social networking world. According to a recent Pew Internet report, Social Networking Sites and Our Lives, “Facebook is the nearly universal social networking site and it has the highest share of users’ daily visits, while MySpace and LinkedIn are occasional destinations.”

These are some of Facebook statistics:

·         More than 800 million active users

·         More than 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day

·         Average user has 130 friends

·         On average, more than 250 million photos are uploaded per day

·         More than 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)

·         Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events

·         On average, more than 250 million photos are uploaded per day

·         More than 70 languages available on the site

·         More than 75% of users are outside of the United States

·         Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application

While researching for this assignment I came across the article Twitter and Facebook for User Collection Requests by Joan Petit, published in Collection Management, Volume 36, Issue 4, 2011. The author talks about the advantages of using social networking for libraries and gives examples of libraries and business using Facebook and other social networking site. One of the examples involved NYPL, the subject of my marketing critique paper.

“In April 2011, the social media–oriented New York Public Library began recruiting volunteers to help transcribe 10,000 digitized menus from its historical restaurant menus collections to make the materials fully searchable. The library promoted the project solely through Facebook, Twitter, and the Web site MetaFilter. As of three months later, thousands of volunteers had already transcribed more than 450,000 dishes from more than 8,500 menus. The New York Public Library menu project thus has become an outstanding example of how a library can use social media first to promote a collection and then also to build and improve that very same collection.”

Libraries presence in social networking sites shouldn’t be in question; or would you question if a library should have a website, or a phone number, or an address? Social networking sites are an important part of the mix of efforts libraries should make to serve and reach their patrons.

RSS and Public Libraries

After learning about the many advantages of using RSS in library services as a tool to communicate and engage users, I decided to take a look at how the five largest public libraries (by population) in California incorporate RSS in their service.

I was amazed to discover that not only these libraries do not have an RSS icon on the homepage, but also they do not offer RSS subscriptions at all, except for Los Angeles County which offers RSS subscriptions for library events.

I also wanted to compare how the five largest academic libraries in California (by volumes held, according to ALA's Fact Sheet 22) are using RSS in their websites. I found out they all offer RSS for their users to subscribe to updates in research guides, new acquisitions, news and/or events.

While working on this assignment, I came across the San Jose Public Library website--which was redesigned recently. It has an RSS icon in the homepage that leads to a web page listing all the RSS subscriptions the library offers: videos, podcast, blog post on different subjects, events for different audiences, and new titles on several categories. I like their approach!

Destination Web Era

This topic caught my attention because honestly I did not know what “Destination Web” was. Now I know I already knew what it was, although I was not familiarized with the expression.

I found an article by Steve Rubel titled Up Next: The Data Decade retrieved from forbes.com, with a definition of destination web: “The 1990s were all about browsing. In the dial-up days we would navigate from site to site--either to fulfill a certain goal or just for serendipity. Thinker Om Malik calls this The Destination Web Era.”

I was thinking about this subject just this week. I thought about how things have changed and how I would turn to Twitter or Facebook to find out the most current information about a company (events, promotions, coupons, news, etc.). However, I believe having a website is still important and necessary. For example, if you look for a big company/brand/product on Facebook you will find several pages, the official page plus others created by fans or by people dissatisfied with the company. Confusing! I tend to go to the company’s website first and from there find the official social media sites.

I know I have to meet my friends where they are: the coffee shop, the night club, the library… but I still need a home where my friends can come visit me. This is how I see social media vs. destination websites.

David Lee King talks about Steven Rubels’ article, and contends that instead of ending, the destination web era is morphing. Read more here.

More to read:

Introducing the New Net by Om Malik

Exercise 2

Overall the first five blogs touch on current issues related to libraries and/or the library professionals. However, I did notice differences between the blogs.

In the Library with the Lead Pipe

This blog focuses on the library as a profession; the blog posts are lengthy and more than blog posts are essays. There are several authors.

Librarian’s Commute

Uses the Google Blogger platform; the posts are regularly a few paragraphs in length; the blog posts are usually about the author’s personal comments about library issues in a community library setting.   

The Distant Librarian

This blog is basically about technology in general, technology related to the library field (with a focus on instruction) and general library including book reviews. The lengths of the posts are a few paragraphs.

Librarian by Day

This blogs touches on current subjects related to technology and libraries (the latest post was on how to checkout and return Kindle books at public libraries) and also just books. The posts are lengthy compared to the Librarian’s Commute and The Distant Librarian.

David Lee King

I love this blog. The author shares his own experiences working at a public library and talks about other topics such as technology, web 2.0, vendors, web design, etc. The lengths of the posts vary.

My favorite of the five blogs was David Lee King. His posts have a positive feeling. I like how he shares his experiences working at a library and the variety of the topics he covers.

The three extra blogs I picked were:

Tame the Web

I love Tame the Web. The author is a SJSU SLIS professor; the blog is mainly focused on technology for libraries, but includes a variety of topics that range from interesting YouTube videos to iPhone apps recommendations.

Librarian in Black

This is the only blog from the list provided I have read in the past. The author focuses on technology in general and technology for libraries, in addition to experiences related to her professional career and personal life. Her posts are easy to read and include some humor.

ACR Log

This was my least favorite blog. The blog posts have different authors. The topics refer to academic and research library issues.

Based on what I liked and disliked from the eight blogs discussed above, I think a combination of the following three characteristics could make a library blog successful:

*Right length, not too long or too short

*Frequently updated

*Interesting, current topics; not only one subject

To the three characteristics you could add a conversational writing style, a positive overall feel (not an outlet for complaining), and patrons interested in following a blog.  

Tweet, Tweet!

Quick Facts

• According to a recent Pew Internet report, 13% of online adults use Twitter. 
• According to Bing Visual Search, the top 3 Twitter users are: Lady Gaga with over 13 million followers, Justin Bieber with more than 12 million, and Barack Obama with over 10 million. 
• According to the web information site Alexa, Twitter.com is one of the top ten global websites.

So, what do I think about Twitter?

Well, to start I am not a Twitter user, although I have an account. I don't Tweet or Follow. But I must admit people love Twitter and it has become a great way to connect, communicate, and promote. If I were a celebrity, a business, or a library I would be tweeting.

I wanted to look at the Twitter page of three libraries in the Los Angeles area to see what they are tweeting about. I found out that the LA County Public Library, USC Libraries and LA Law Library use Twitter. County of LA PL tweets about their news and programming; USC tweets about additions to their collections and today in history; LA Law tweets about their news and classes they offer (but they don't tweet frequently).

To get some ideas of advantages and disadvantages of using Twitter in a library I browsed an interesting article, Using Microblogging Tools for Library Services by Mary Hricko, published last year in the Journal of Library Administration. Here she talks about different micro-blogging platforms--not only Twitter--and gives an overview of their features. She also talks about the different ways libraries and librarians can use micro-blogging to "interact within the workplace and with patrons."


In addition, Hricko talks about the challenges (disadvantages) of using these tools, including the fact that open source technologies can easily disappear, and the challenge of assigning the task of keeping posts current and interesting to library staff members.

Exercise 1

Red Robin was my for-profit company for Exercise 1. My daughter and I love this restaurant and we always look forward to having our favorites: Turkey Burger and Corn Dog—my daughter also looks forward to getting a helium balloon after our meal!

Red Robin has an online presence through a website, an official Facebook page, a YouTube channel, Twitter, and LinkedIn. There are also several non-official Facebook pages about Red Robin featuring local restaurants, menu items, and check-in pages. 

The official Red Robin social media sites are updated frequently and clearly provide interaction between the company and its clients, especially in Facebook and Twitter. For example, a person complained in their Facebook page “never got my free burger when me and my wife registered we both have birthdays in september nothing happened” and the restaurant replied “Happy Birthday Month to you and the wife! Email us at guestrelations@redrobin.co, and we'll get you squared away!” 

In their Twitter account a person tweeted “Nothin like @redrobinburgers and @Starbucks for breakfast. @teeH0 http://lockerz.com/s/138658069” and Red Robin replied “@Steph_Funni No judgement here!” 

I believe Red Robin is using their official social media pages in an effective way. The content is frequently updated, and the followers are acknowledged and engaged. However, I believe Red Robin could do a better job tracking and engaging costumers at non-official social sites. For example, I checked my local Red Robin restaurant in Yelp (Lakewood, CA), and found several complaints. This situation could be an opportunity for the company to connect with costumers, listen to their praises and complaints, and find a way to make them happy and keep them coming back.

I also tried How Sociable? And found out that Red Robin has visibility score of 246.