Social Software in Libraries Workshop

Slide 1: Social Software in Academic Libraries Meredith Farkas

Slide 2: Wikis

Slide 3: 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

Slide 4: Wiki structure and syntax • A tale of two wikis... • Library Success Wiki • Computers in Libraries 2008 Wiki

Slide 5: Wikis vs. Blogs • No one owns  A person owns their content post • Anyone can edit  Only author can edit other people’s their work (others work can comment) • No specific • Organized in reverse organization chronological order (hyperlinks)

Slide 6: Wikis vs. Blogs • Perpetual work in • Posts are permanent progress • Good for • Good for collaborative group disseminating work info/starting a dialog

Slide 7: Why wiki? • Easy to use • Web-based • Anyone can make changes • Version control • Findability • Many free and open-source options

Slide 8: 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.

Slide 9: 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)

Slide 10: Subject guides • Ohio University Library’s Biz Wiki • Norwich University Research Guides

Slide 11: 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

Slide 12: Collaboratively- developed manual • Print manuals are really hard to update • Antioch University New England Library Staff Trainin • North Metro Technical College Library

Slide 13: Wiki tips: Software • Popular options for a wiki hosted on your server • MediaWiki • PmWiki • Twiki • DokuWiki • DekiWiki

Slide 14: Wiki tips: Software (cont’d) • Popular options for wikis hosted by the software company • PBWiki • WetPaint • SeedWiki • Wikispaces • Wikia

Slide 15: Wiki tips: Software (cont’d) • 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

Slide 16: 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

Slide 17: 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

Slide 18: 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

Slide 19: 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!

Slide 20: 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

Slide 21: Let’s create a wiki!

Slide 22: RSS

Slide 24: Without RSS • Visit every page separately • Never know when a page will be updated • Remember URLs for each page

Slide 26: 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.

Slide 28: What is RSS? • Often used for content that is updated • RSS content is dynamically updated as soon as the content on the orig page is inal updated.

Slide 29: Without RSS

Slide 30: With RSS

Slide 31: What types of content have RSS feeds?

Slide 39: Ways to get RSS- enabled content

Slide 40: Personal homepage

Slide 41: Email

Slide 42: SMS

Slide 43: Syndicated on a website

Slide 44: RSS aggregator • Application used for displaying multiple RSS feeds • Two types • Web-based aggregator • Desktop aggregator

Slide 45: 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.

Slide 46: Ideas for using RSS in libraries

Slide 47: Pull content in

Slide 48: Syndicate outside content

Slide 49: Bring content to courseware

Slide 50: New book feeds

Slide 51: New book feeds

Slide 52: Creating a virtual reading room

Slide 53: Let’s mix and display some RSS feeds!

Slide 54: Social Bookmarking

Slide 55: 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

Slide 56: Social Bookmarking Options • del.icio.us • Furl • Connotea • CiteULike • StumbleUpon

Slide 57: Libraries Using Social Bookmarking • The College of New Jersey • University of Michigan Health Sciences Library • Springfield Technical and Community College

Slide 58: Let's get del.icio.us!

Slide 59: Custom Search • Allows you to search multiple hand-chosen websites in a single search • Examples: • Google CSE • Rollyo

Slide 60: Personalized Home Pages • Like “portals” in the 1990s. • Create customized “start pages” for different constituents • Popular home pages • Netvibes • Pageflakes • iGoogle

Slide 61: Widgets • Little gadget that offers some functionality on the page • Examples: • MeeboMe • LibraryThing widgets • Widgets are portable • Canwebsite, etc.pages, in Facebook, on any go on start

Slide 62: Planning for Social Software

Slide 63: Choosing a Project • Avoid technolust • Know your population • Weigh your options through play • Understand the culture of each technology

Slide 64: Selling ideas • Have plenty of hard data • Have a prototype • Encourage staff to “kick the tires” • Offer training for staff • Be patient

Slide 65: Selling ideas to IT • Involve IT in planning • Know your stuff • Build relationships and find champions

Slide 66: Maintenance • Do you need a policy? • Do you need maintenance procedures?

Slide 67: Partnerships • Partnering with organizations with common goals • Learning Support/Writing Center • Academic Computing • Student Life • Industry, media, etc.

Slide 68: Promotion • Marketing • Website • All over campus • Local media • Faculty – build into a course • Focus on functionality • Training

Slide 69: Assessment • How do you assess? • Usage statistics? • Surveys • Most libraries aren’t doing any assessment of social tools