social software in libraries workshop
DESCRIPTION
For conference in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.TRANSCRIPT
Social Software in Academic Libraries
Meredith Farkas
Wikis
What is a wiki?
•Content management system
•Allows people to collaboratively develop a website without any tech-savvy
•Wiki=quick (in Hawaiian)
•All community members can add to or edit the work of others
Wiki structure and syntax
•A tale of two wikis...
•Library Success Wiki
•Computers in Libraries 2008 Wiki
Wikis vs. Blogs
•No one owns content
•Anyone can edit other people’s work
•No specific organization (hyperlinks)
A person owns their post
Only author can edit their work (others can comment)
•Organized in reverse chronological order
•Perpetual work in progress
•Good for collaborative group work
•Posts are permanent
•Good for disseminating info/starting a dialog
Wikis vs. Blogs
Why wiki?
•Easy to use
•Web-based
•Anyone can make changes
•Version control
•Findability
•Many free and open-source options
Why not wiki?
•Too open (trust issues)
•Disorganized
•Vandalism and spam
Wikis aren’t for everyone. If control is a major issue with the site you’re developing, a wiki may not be the right tool for the job.
Community wikis•Roc Wiki (Rochester, NY)
•Davis Wiki (Davis, CA)
•Arbor Wiki (Ann Arbor, MI)
•A good start: Mac Library Experience
•A great start: Stevens County Rural Library District Wiki (WA)
Subject guides
•Ohio University Library’s Biz Wiki
•Norwich University Research Guides
Wiki is intranet for information
sharing•Most are behind the firewall or are
password protected.
•Albany County Public Library Staff Wiki
•Memphis Public Library Wiki
Collaboratively-developed manual
•Print manuals are really hard to update
•Antioch University New England Library Staff Training and Support Wiki
•North Metro Technical College Library
Wiki tips: Software
•Popular options for a wiki hosted on your server
•MediaWiki
• PmWiki
• Twiki
•DokuWiki
•DekiWiki
Wiki tips: Software (cont’d)
•Popular options for wikis hosted by the software company
• PBWiki
• WetPaint
• SeedWiki
• Wikispaces
• Wikia
•If you want control, no ads, etc., host the wiki on your own server
•If you don’t have server space, need the wiki for a small, time-limited project, or don’t want to maintain new tech, go with a hosted wiki
•Check out the WikiMatrix when thinking about which software to use
Wiki tips: Software (cont’d)
Wiki tips: Seeding the wiki
•No one wants to add to an empty wiki
•Also, people don’t know what to add
•Add some content to the major categories before going live
•Creating an organization scheme will prevent orphan links and chaos
Wiki tips: Education
•Wikis need lots of info for novice users
• What is a wiki
• What can you do with this wiki
• How to edit the wiki
• FAQ
• Whom to contact for more help
•Training is important
Wiki tips: Content development
• Do lots of marketing
• Focus on the functionality, not the tool
• If possible, offer trainings
• Partner with groups/people related to your mission
• Don’t do it all yourself!
• Give the wiki a grassroots feel, make it welcoming
Wiki tips: Management
•Security
• Should you require registration?
•Dealing with spam
• Bad Behavior plugin
• Monitor the wiki several times per day
• Get to know and love RSS
•Find lots of dedicated helpers!
How to deal with content you don’t
like•Guidelines
• Limit to on-topic posts
• Take a note from the
Wikipedia’s policies and guidelines or the Library Success Wiki
•Get a group of volunteers to patron a public open wiki
• If you need to delete something - use discussion area to explain why things were deleted
Let’s create a wiki!
RSS
Without RSS
•Visit every page separately
•Never know when a page will be updated
•Remember URLs for each page
What is RSS?
•Format for syndicating content on the web
•Makes the content portable so it can be syndicated
•Based on XML - content separated from presentation.
What is RSS?
•Often used for content that is updated
•RSS content is dynamically updated as soon as the content on the original page is updated.
Without RSS
With RSS
What types of content have RSS
feeds?
Ways to get RSS-enabled content
Personal homepage
SMS
Syndicated on a website
RSS aggregator
•Application used for displaying multiple RSS feeds
•Two types
•Web-based aggregator
•Desktop aggregator
Why should librarians care
about RSS?•Allows patrons to receive our content how and when they want.
•Allows us to put the same content on multiple pages and have it updated dynamically.
•Allows us to put dynamically updated content from other providers on our site.
Ideas for using RSS in libraries
Pull content in
Syndicate outside content
Bring content to courseware
New book feeds
New book feeds
Creating a virtual reading room
Let’s mix and display some RSS feeds!
Social Bookmarking
What is Social Bookmarking
•Just like regular browser bookmarks, but web-based and using tags instead of folders
•Tag - descriptive metadata
•You can assign multiple tags to anything you bookmark
•Your bookmarks can be public or private
Social Bookmarking
Options•del.icio.us
•Furl
•Connotea
•CiteULike
•StumbleUpon
Libraries Using Social
Bookmarking•The College of New Jersey
•University of Michigan Health Sciences Library
•Springfield Technical and Community College
Let's get del.icio.us!
Custom Search
•Allows you to search multiple hand-chosen websites in a single search
•Examples:
•Google CSE
•Rollyo
Personalized Home Pages
•Like “portals” in the 1990s.
•Create customized “start pages” for different constituents
•Popular home pages
•Netvibes
•Pageflakes
•iGoogle
Widgets•Little gadget that offers some
functionality on the page
•Examples:
•MeeboMe
•LibraryThing widgets
•Widgets are portable
•Can go on start pages, in Facebook, on any website, etc.
Planning for Social Software
Choosing a Project
•Avoid technolust
•Know your population
•Weigh your options through play
•Understand the culture of each technology
Selling ideas
•Have plenty of hard data
•Have a prototype
•Encourage staff to “kick the tires”
•Offer training for staff
•Be patient
Selling ideas to IT•Involve IT in planning
•Know your stuff
•Build relationships and find champions
Maintenance•Do you need a policy?
•Do you need maintenance procedures?
Partnerships
•Partnering with organizations with common goals
•Learning Support/Writing Center
•Academic Computing
•Student Life
•Industry, media, etc.
Promotion•Marketing
•Website
•All over campus
•Local media
•Faculty – build into a course
•Focus on functionality
•Training
Assessment
•How do you assess?
•Usage statistics?
•Surveys
•Most libraries aren’t doing any assessment of social tools