A director's brief for my Hyperlinked Library course (LIBR 287) . This brief explains digital content curation via services like Scoop.it and advocates for its implementation in a public library. Digital curation is a natural service in the Library 2.0 world.

1. Scoop.it for
Northbrook
Public Library
Director’s Brief
Susan Kelly

2. Director’s Brief: Scoop.it for the Northbrook Public Library
Curation is the new search.
Joyce Valenza
Introduction
With staggering amounts of information added to the Internet daily (Rosenbaum,
2012) separating the wheat from the kitty videos has become daunting for all who
seek information for pleasure, learning, civic engagement, work, and creating. Clay
Shirky considers this problem “filter failure” (Herther, 2013).
Yet our patrons need not feel lost or overwhelmed. With our skill in curation demonstrated
through a savvy use of Scoop.it, a digital curation tool, we can serve our patrons so they can
get the most out of the Internet. As Barthole notes:
The fact is that this [curation] phenomenon has the merit of putting people
at the heart of the selection information and its classification, a vision was
somewhat neglected human intervention in favor of all-powerful tools. . . .
We can only rejoice to see the return to the front of the stage a subject dear
to information professionals (2010)1.
In Library 2.0 Casey and point out that people’s expectations have changed. They
want more efficient service in a convenient form (2007). Scoop.it’s curating
platform offers a way to use our expertise to meet our community’s information
needs.
Literature Review
Our mission is to strive to support the community
through the “dissemination, exchange, and evaluation
of ideas and information” (n.d.). In an era when
people have begun to see that Google has its limits,
people are becoming aware their need for good
curators (Good, 2011, Rosenbaum, 2011).
1
Sample Some Scoop.its

Judy O’Connell on Social Networking

Robin Good on Curation

Susan Kelly on China

Susan Kelly on Libraries
Translated from French with all due apologies by Susan Kelly.
Director’s Brief: Scoop.it & Curation 2

3. Steven Rosenbaum offers an excellent definition of curation as “the act of
individuals with a passion for a content area to find, contextualize and organize
information. Curators provide a consistent update regarding what’s interesting,
happening and cool in their focus” (2012). Sources like The Huntington Post or The
Drudge Report offer curated news on numerous topics and platforms like Pinterest,
Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook allow users to curate whenever they post a link and
comment on it (Ovadia, 2013).
Moreover, Good offers curation approaches that vary in level of personal point of
view (2012). By featuring curator’s photos or having a topic curated by several
librarians offering diverse perspectives, libraries can determine and fine tune the
level of personality revealed in curation.
Understanding Content Curation and Scoop.it
Easy to learn with free and fee-based accounts, Scoop.it allows users to start
curating websites, within minutes of starting an account (Greenbaum, 2012). A
scoop features a link to the original document, an image, a space for comment, and
tagging. Scoop.it boards may be embedded on a blog, tweeted or posted on
Facebook. Sharing may extend far beyond our own social media and go viral. A
straightforward service, Scoop.it can be learned in a few hours (Greenbaum, 2012)
probably one or two when guided in a class.
School libraries have embraced Scoop.it, but my research yielded no use in public
libraries. Yet because Scoop.it offers a means of curating and sharing information,
I propose beginning by using it for:


Readers’ Services offering Scoop.it boards embedded in blogs and social
media on genres of interest to our patrons, e.g. mystery books, classics, scifi, YA literature or best sellers interviews and articles on important authors.
We can also curate for our book clubs to support them throughout the
month not just when they meet. If we use circulation data, we can spot
current interest.
Audio/Visual department offering scoops related to our collection, film
news, e.g. Oscar news, background information on films we’re about to
show.
Our librarians should follow Bouffard and Owen’s checklist (2012) to ensure that
our scoops are timely, pertinent and useful. After successfully launching the pages
above we should add pages on such topics as:

Parenting our patrons with children tend to be very concerned about their
children’s development, literacy, and academic success. Scoops on reading,
school projects (e.g. science fair ideas), developments in education and the
Director’s Brief: Scoop.it & Curation 3

4. 


college application process are likely to be popular. We should communicate
with local schools for better relevance, i.e. current academic or social issues.
Digital Developments in the age of information given our expertise in
technology, we should be one of the top sources of information on
technology use, trends and impact. By leading users to analysis, news,
reviews and how-tos, we can guide people through this changing landscape.
Information for recent immigrants and expats – Design a page with local
information and news from international sources in several languages. We
will need to partner with patrons from other countries, local schools and
government for language and cultural expertise.
World Languages – we should add information to our existing boards in a
variety of languages with the help of bilingual staff and community
members. By offering multi-lingual information we better serve all our
patrons.
Our patrons can access our scoops via our Facebook page, tweets, website and
(future) blogs.
We should train several staff members to use Scoop.it and coordinate how they will
contribute to internal and external topic boards. The chart below summarizes the
benefits and difficulties surrounding implementing Scoop.it use.
AFFORDANCES
CONCERNS
 Offer community information selected
with “humanrithms,” i.e. head and heart,
not just algorithms. Bring people the best
of the web using our insight and expertise.
 Do we have the resources?
This service is the heart of our
mission. Thus we should find the
resources.
 Use for internal professional
development. Curate the best of library
and technology news and analysis.
 What about copyright?
Our librarians are skilled in copyright
issues and can learn the simple
Curator’s Code developed by M.
Popova (n.d.). we can teach patrons
about copyright and these new
annotations.
 Market our expertise. Can be shared in
newsletters, blogs, & other social media.
 Teach our patrons to curate (Teach a
person a fish, rather than only giving him
a fish.)
 Supports learning everywhere, learning
always. Can curate articles, videos,
podcasts, images with annotations
containing text, links, images and tags.
 Develop community ties by engaging
bilingual speakers as volunteer curators.
 Will Scoop.it last? There’s no certainty
for any social media. The risk is
minimal. Our aim is providing people
with valuable Internet content in the
present, not preserving a collection of
internet documents.
 What about fairness? Curation isn’t
censorship because we are not denying
users information. (Herther, 2013)
Director’s Brief: Scoop.it & Curation 4

5. In addition to our providing scoops via social, we should offer lessons on Scoop.it to
patrons. Going beyond our beginner technology courses, we’ll meet the needs of
people who want to become savvier in their use of Web 2.0 tools, coding, apps and
software. By offering higher-level live classes as well as online learning modules
(such as curated YouTube playlists embedded on our website,) we can serve more
members of our community.
A lesson would cover:
1.
2.
3.
4.
searching and browsing Scoop.it,
starting an account,
creating and sharing, and
learning some basic concepts in tagging.
If we teach users something of library science, tagging, we enlighten those who
don’t understand our expertise, thereby market the library.
To introduce our Scoop.it presence we can have librarians use iPads and smart
phones to show patrons it. We can have a librarian by the circulation desk or near
the reference desk offering Scoop.it demonstrations and invitations to live or online
classes. During these encounters, librarians should ask people to follow the
library’s pages. When we launch our Scoop.it service, we could host an ice cream
social. Patrons would learn about Scoop.it and get scoops of ice cream in the
circulation area.
Conclusion
"The value of curation in a crowded Web is thus rising as more and more people
publish at a higher rate. This creates both an opportunity and a value. (Herther,
2012). Northbrook Public Library should begin to offer curated content to our
patrons and to teach them how to curate their own digital content for personal and
professional use. Scoop.it offers a free (or low cost), convenient, attractive
platform for us to implement a new and better curation service.
Annotated Bibliography
Anderson, K., Popova, M. (n.d.). Curator's Code. Retrieved from
http://curatorscode.org. This website explains a simple annotation system
designed for content curators.
Barthole, C. (2010). Scoop.it : la curation à la Une. (French). Netsources, (89), 5-7.
An article that argues that librarians are in an ideal position to curate for the public
and explains how to use the beta version.
Casey, M. E., & Savastinuk, L. C. (2007). Library 2.0: A guide to participatory library
service. Medford, NJ: Information Today. A must-read book for librarians in the
Director’s Brief: Scoop.it & Curation 5

6. Web 2.0 era, Casey and Svastinuk illuminate the change in philosophy and practice
needed to maintain and develop greater relevancy for libraries today.
Greenebaum, H. (2012). Exploring Scoop.it. Collected Magazine, (6), 10-11.
Retrieved from: http://issuu.com/slanza/docs/may2012/1/ A narrative of a new
user testing out Scoop.it over a three hour period.
Herther, N. K. (2012). Content curation: Quality judgment and the future of media
and web search. Searcher, 20(7), 30-41. Herther offers a wide-angle look at
curation touching on a variety of approaches to taming Internet chaos. Most of the
experts cited work outside libraries.
O’Connell, J. (2012)Content curation in libraries: Is it the new black? Collected
Magazine, (6), 4-5. O’Connell links traditional library’s mission to content creation
and illustrates due to Web 2.0 school librarians must re-think their role and realize
engaging with information demands we move beyond old boundaries of time and
space.
Ovadia, S. (2013). Digital content curation and why it matters to librarians.
Behavioral & Social Sciences Librarian, 32(1), 58-62. Aimed at academic librarians,
Ovadia considers how accessing information has changed in the era of smartphones
and social media. He describes how by curating digital content, librarians can
capitalize on a new opportunity.
Popova, M. (2012, March 23). The Curator's Code. Interview by B. Gladstone
[Digital file]. On the Media. Retrieved from
http://www.onthemedia.org/story/193718-curators-code/ Popova explains how
digital curation is a form of creation which lacked a means of attributing credit to
curators. Her system features a “Via!” icon that indicates a direct link, and a “hat
tip” icon indicating an indirect source which provided additional insight or
information.
Rheingold, H. (Producer & Host). (2011, June 11). Robin Good on Curation [Video
file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtu.be/o1leOzloRDs. Good asserts that to
move beyond the limits of Google’s fast food-like service, people are starting to
crave better information delivery. Curation tools offer a human alternative to
Google. Curators should be curious and passionate about a topic. Moreover a good
curator is like a good D.J. who can assess the public’s need or desire and provide
the appropriate content. He ends by asserting that curation should be a
fundamental skill for all.
Rosenbaum, S. (Speaker). TEDxGrandRapids (Producer). (2011, June 6). Innovate:
Curation! [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtu.be/iASluLoKQbo
Similar to Robin Good’s argument, Rosenbaum summarizes how curation will grow
as a search behavior. He asserts that curation can be more powerful than
Director’s Brief: Scoop.it & Curation 6

7. filmmaking and elicits audience reflection on their own Internet use behavior and
it’s almost constant activity. He suggests we choose our digital persona carefully,
realize that listening is more powerful than speaking and understand that we’re not
watching a horserace with Facebook, Google, Twitter, Instagram, etc. It’s not about
power players. It’s about us.
Valenza, J. (2011, September 30). Curation is the New Search Tool [Web log post].
Retrieved from Never Ending Search at
http://blogs.slj.com/neverendingsearch/2011/09/30/curation-tools-are-alsosearch-tools/ An article that succinctly discusses curation tool use in K-12
education and introduces online curation tools.
Director’s Brief: Scoop.it & Curation 7

8. Appendix
Clickable example of a Scoop.it page.
Director’s Brief: Scoop.it & Curation 8