RBMS Web 2.0 Workshop

Web 2.0 Basics for Special Collections Librarians RBMS Preconference Workshop June 17, 2009 Kate Theimer Lynne M. Thomas

Workshop Overview
Schedule – we will shoot for wrapping up by 4:30, one break around 2:30
Topics:
“ Web 1.0” - History and Characteristics
“ Web 2.0” – Definition and Characteristics
Overview of Specific Web 2.0 Sites/Tools
What they are, how to use them, how special collections are using them
Important things to consider – copyright, metrics, preservation, etc.
Introductions - Where are your from, what is your experience, what do you want to get out of this?

Characteristics of “Web 1.0”
Roughly, circa 1994-2004
Websites largely one-way communication, with publisher-driven content
Users had to come to content: ex: library portals, online newspapers
Controlled, static information, little or no interactivity with users
Bandwidth limitations on users (most everyone on dial-up connections) meant little use of complex graphics, large images, audio or video files

Video: The Machine is Using Us
From Kansas State University’s Digital Ethnography Program
[link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE]

What is meant by “Web 2.0”?
Term commonly agreed to have been coined by Tim O’Reilly in conjunction with O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.
Wikipedia definition: “A trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”
Characteristics:
Network as platform – “cloud computing” – applications run on the Web, not your computer – frees you from your desktop
Users share control with publishers - Based on user expectations, not publisher expectations; users control how they receive content, users contribute content along with traditional publishers, users can customize their experience on sites
Openness – open architecture, open standards, open source, open content
Sharing – people and organizations sharing content, users sharing opinions, tags, rankings
Explosion of ways to connect – people connecting through social networks, communities around blogs, wikis, Flickr groups; and people connecting information sources through tags, RSS feeds, mash-ups . . .

Overview of most common Web. 2.0 tools/sites
RSS – makes it all possible
Blogs
Microblogs (Twitter) ‏
Podcasts (video and audio) ‏
Image sharing sites (such as Flickr) ‏
Video sharing sites (such as YouTube) ‏
Wikis
Social Networking sites (such as Facebook and LinkedIn) ‏
Tagging and social bookmarking
Advanced topics: widgets,"mashups," Second Life

RSS = Really Simple Syndication
Web format used to publish frequently updated content
Specified through XML formats
RSS documents can contain either partial or complete content
Contain wide variety of formats: text, photos, audio, video
Aggregators collect RSS feeds
Some client based, some web based
Made possible a revolution – content now “pushed” out by providers, not “pulled” out individually by users
Content delivered by RSS:
Blogs
Podcasts (Audio/Video) ‏
Twitter (Microblogs) ‏
Updates to social networking sites (Facebook, Blogger, LiveJournal) ‏

What is a blog?

Creating and maintaining a blog
Technically, easy to start via Blogger or downloading Wordpress software.
Before you begin, define what the blog is for—know what you want to say. Figure out what kind of “voice” you want to have.
Identify how often you’d like to post and who will be responsible for writing posts. Writing posts takes time—make sure this is understood.
Will you accept comments? Who will monitor them? Who will respond?
Provide links back to your main site. Provide a contact email on the blog.
Your blog can evolve; it's ok to change your mind.
Building an audience takes time, be patient. And remember, your audience may never get very big . . .

Types of special collections/archives blogs
General repository:
Historical Notes from OHSU
Mudd Manuscript Library Blog ‏
University of Chicago SCRC blog: ‏
Beinecke's room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities ‏
Processing blogs:
Processing the Chew Family Papers ‏
A View to Hugh ‏
Event-based
Abner Jackson Journal 1858-1867 ‏
WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier
“ Catablogs”
UMarmot
Other resources (news, practice, and aggregators) ‏
ArchivesNext listing (http://www.archivesnext.com) ‏
Rare book news blog (http://www.rarebooknews.com/ ‏ )
Confessions of a Curator (http://niurarebooks.blogspot.com) ‏

Web-based RSS aggregator - ArchivesBlogs

Interacting With The Blogosphere
Read other blogs!
Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes, etc.
Good source of content ideas
Read outside of your comfort zone/specialization
Start a conversation
Comment on other blogs
Write responses on your blog and link back
Promote other blogs
See something you like? Promote it, steal toys (but give credit), get guest bloggers!

What is Twitter (microblogging)?

Twitter: It's Not Just What's for Breakfast
140 characters may not seem like much space, but...you’d be surprised. What can you do with it?
Share news and links in real time
Breaking News
Newly Digitized Materials (@ksadiglib) ‏ [note—this account is no longer active]
Follow trends (and create them) with #hashtags
#rbms09 to follow this conference or comment on it.
Collection development: where are your donors? (Some of mine are on Twitter)...
Library notices (Party! Printing Down! New Digital Content!) ‏
Promote your blog
Connect with your user community (see Nova Scotia Archives)
Share collections content
Genny Spencer Diary
Tweeting History

What is podcasting?

Creating and maintaining podcasts
What kind of content do you want to share (digitized collections or recordings of your public programs, for example)?
Do you want to have an ongoing series, a short series, or just share occasional files?
Consider how you want to promote your podcasts (iTunes, Podcast Alley, other directories) ‏
Make your podcast interactive
Refer to more resources on your website
Provide ways for users to contact you, send in comments, provide ideas for future shows
Include user feedback in your show

Examples of archives podcasts
Digitized historical content
Presidential Libraries podcasts
StoryCorps (oral histories) ‏
Los Alamos Historical Society podcast
Florida State Archives
Recording public programs
National Archives of Australia
National Archives (UK) podcast series (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/rss/podcasts.xml) ‏
(iTunes only) Tampa Library, Florida, Special Collections
New programming
Kansas Memory Podcast
Maynard Historical Society podcast ‏
Note: RBMS Preconference will be podcasting recordings of some sessions

What is Flickr? (Photo Sharing) ‏

Using Flickr
Free account: you can upload 100MB worth of photos each calendar month. This is a bandwidth limit, and not an amount of space that you have on Flickr servers. Some other limitations, but fine for beginning.
Pro account - $25 per year. Unlimited uploads (practically), and other expanded features.
Tags, link to maps, collections & sets, user groups
Make sure you include links and contact information
Check your comments

Archives on Flickr
“ The Commons” (http://flickr.com/commons) ‏
“ The key goals of The Commons are to firstly give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer.”
Groups: ArchivesOnFlickr, Archives & archivists on Flickr, etc.
Long listing on Archives 2.0 wiki of archives and special collections on Flickr

What is YouTube ? (Video Sharing)

Using YouTube
Consider what kind of files you want to share (digitized collections or recordings of your public programs, for example) ‏
Different ways to create original content (creating a film or creating video by animating still content with an audio track)
You can post single videos or a series
Provide additional resources on your website
YouTube provides ways for users to contact you, add tags,make comments.
One advantage—you can post a video on YouTube and then link to it from your blog without having to host the video on your own server. (And others can link to it as well.)

Archives & Special Collections on YouTube
Posting “about us” videos
New South Wales State Records
Purdue University Archives
National Archives of Australia (very short)
Posting videos of talks or events
Auburn University
National Archives (UK) (with audio podcasts) ‏
Posting digitized video content
National Library of Scotland (Scottish Screen Archives) ‏
Michigan State Archives
Creating topical videos
George Eastman House (video podcast series) ‏
Hofstra University (Thomas Coffin collection)
Northwestern University – History of the Wildcats
Posting “how to use the special collections/archives” videos
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

What are wikis?

Creating and maintaining a wiki
Consider if you want to host your own wiki (using free software like MediaWiki) or you can have a hosted wiki on a commercial site (PBWorks, WetPaint, etc.)
Some rudimentary knowledge of coding is useful, but not mandatory
Decide how much public participation you want/expect -- wikis can be open (i.e. public can edit or comment) but it will require monitoring to prevent spammers or other malicious types.
Set reasonable expectations for participation—it takes work to build up a user community. Wikis can be more intimidating to users. Don’t expect Wikipedia overnight!

Examples of how archives can use wikis
“ Your Archives” wiki at National Archives (UK)
DuBoisopedia (UMass Amherst) ‏
Coroner Case Files Wikis
Montana History Wiki
Example from a library: Biz Wiki ( http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page ) ‏
ALA Wikis for section and committee work

What is Facebook? (Social Networking) ‏

Getting started on Facebook
Create an account. You can’t access Facebook unless you have an account and fill out your profile
Get yourself some friends, join groups, look around.
Filters/security settings: use them!
It’s easy to waste a lot of time on Facebook, but it’s not necessary.
If it’s an organizational account, take a look at some other organizational pages to get ideas for the things you can do. (Ohio and UK are good ones).
Organizations have Facebook pages, and people can become “fans” (National Archives-UK, Ohio Historical Society, University of Wisconsin -- Eau Claire Special Collections & Archives, Friends of the Northern Illinois University Libraries, etc.) ‏
Or you can create a “group” and people can become “members”

Rare Books, Special Collections, Archives & Archivists on Facebook
Groups for archivists on Facebook (Archivists on Facebook, Archivists Without a Cause, The Lone Arrangers, etc.) ‏
Groups for archival organizations (MARAC, MAC)
Rare Book School on Facebook
Rare Book Professionals Group
RBMS Preconference 2009 Group
ACRL, ALA, various sections have groups too.
Subject-based groups (collection development, alumni relations) ‏

What is Social Bookmarking?

Social Bookmarking
Your links are stored in the cloud—no need to copy when using multiple computers (work, reference desk, home) ‏
Share links with friends and colleagues
Organize links with tags and groups; semi-controlled vocabulary
Create class-specific, user specific tags (i.e. ENGL104, HIST300, RBSC) ‏

“ Advanced” Web 2.0 tools
Widgets
Mashups
Second Life

Widgets

Mashups

Second Life

Copyright 2.0

Copyright 2.0
Copyright law has not yet caught up with our technology.
Expect unexpected uses of your content
Focusing on public domain materials and using Creative Commons licenses keeps copyright nuisances to a minimum
Assume goodwill in re-use until proven otherwise

Important things to consider
Develop policies (how to respond to questionable comments, wiki contributions, what to do about “friending,” etc). Make 'em public.
Want to preserve your content? Plan for it.
Think about how to measure what you’re doing. Know how you define success.
Check with your lawyers . . .
Don't do anything online you wouldn't do in person.
Keep in mind this is public! Act accordingly.

Things to do
Find some “2.0” news sources
Set up a GoogleReader or Bloglines account and subscribe to a bunch of archives and library blogs. For libraries, LibrarianInBlack, Free Range Librarian, Library Stuff, and librarian.net are good. Go to ArchivesBlogs and look around for archives ones.
Join Twitter and start following people (@archivesnext or @lynnemthomas or @rbms09…..) and then look at the people we’re following.
Play with some of this stuff.
Whatever you are thinking about doing, play with it. Subscribe to lots of podcasts or edit a wiki. Set up a blog or wiki using Blogger or one of the free wiki services. Join Facebook or Delicious and look around.
Use the ALA and RBMS wikis
Talk to others who have done it!
Find a comparable institution who has done something you like and talk to them about their experience. Most people will be happy to answer your questions, really.
Look at examples of how 2.0 is being used by accessing the list at the Archives 2.0 wiki: http://archives2point0.wetpaint.com/
(Ahem, buy our books . . .)

Final Thoughts/Questions/Discussion
It’s ok for things not to be perfect. None of this is ever finished.
Don’t fear failure. Everyone is trying things out. That’s what 2.0 is.
But, on the other hand, you are publishing information . . . be aware of that.
This stuff is actually fun. That doesn’t mean it’s not work. But it is fun.
You may get unexpected results.
Contact us if you want more information.

RBMS Web 2.0 Workshop

by Kate Theimer on Jun 27, 2009

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RBMS Web 2.0 Workshop — Presentation Transcript