TWU Librarian Greg Hardin, was a presenter for the session, The Social Web: Why It Matters to Librarians with Lilly Ramin, University of North Texas Librarian and Virtual Reference Coordinator, and Shaun Seibel, Library Specialist & web designer for the UNT Discovery Park Library.

1. The Social Web:
Why it Matters to Librarians
Greg Hardin (TWU libraries)
Lilly Ramin (UNT, Willis Library)
Shaun Seibel (UNT, Discovery Park Library)
Presentation for TechNet Conference (5-7-09)

2. Web 2.0 blah
• When people think of Web 2.0, they think
social (networks). It is you on the web! How
you interact with new and existing
applications.
• “The Social Web” is about identity, reputation,
presence, relationships, groups, conversations,
and sharing (From Shaun Connolly blog:
http://connollyshaun.blogspot.com/2008/05/7-key-
attributes-of-social-web.html)

3. RSS in Plain English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0klgLsSxGsU

4. Types of Information
RSS Can Bring to You
• News Headlines • Web 2.0
• News Search Results – Blogs
– Blog Search Results
• Organizational News &
– Delicious
Updates
– Flickr Groups
• Clinical Guidelines
– Wikis
• Grant Opportunities – Youtube
• Journal Table of Contents – more …
• Web Searches

5. Examples of RSS Feeds:
NIH Grants

6. Examples of RSS Feeds:
Blogs

7. Examples of RSS Feeds: Ebscohost
Search

8. Examples of RSS Feeds: Table of
Contents

9. Google Reader
• http://www.google.com/reader

10. RSS Feed: Subscribing
• 1. Find a feed.
• 2. Find the RSS link .
• 3. Copy the URL or link.
• 4. Go to Google Reader.
• 5. Click on Add Subscription.
• 6. Paste in the link.
• 7. Organize the new feed into your folders or
subject structure.

11. Subscribing
• Some pages offer
buttons you can just
click on to add a feed.
• This allows you to skip
steps 2-6!

12. Step 1 (Find Webpage)
• Google News Search

13. Step 2 (Find RSS Link)

14. Step 3 (Copy Link)
or

15. Step 4 (Sort Feed)
The feed
might look
like this
Manage
subscriptions
allow you to
group feeds

16. Step 5 (Sort Feed)
• Choose a topic folder or create a new folder.
• TIP: When you view a folder, you see the newest
items for the topic all integrated together.

17. ticTOCs
http://www.tictocs.ac.uk/

18. Helvetireader
http://helvetireader.com/

19. Other Neat Things to Do
With RSS
• Feed from social bookmarking sites like
http://delicious.com
• Wikis
• RefWorks – RSS
• ticTOCS - http://www.tictocs.ac.uk
• Helvetireader - http://helvetireader.com/
– Firefox greasemonkey userscript
• TWU Libraries’ journal alerting service page:
http://www.twu.edu/library/alerting-service.asp

20. Twitter
http://vimeo.com/757146

21. Twitter
Ways librarians may use Twitter
• Twitter reference
• Customer service & outreach
• Broadcast your announcements, news & events
• Ask for feedback
• Broaden your network & reach users
• Locate locals
• Know it first

22. Twitter Reference
Ex. http://twitter.com/ESClibrary

23. Twitter Feeds
http://rsstotwitter.com/

24. Twitter
• Considering Twitter as part of your library’s
service? Some best practices to consider:
– Profiles
– Standards
– Consistency
– Service
– Staffing
– Evaluation

25. Wikis
• Used in academia and libraries for projects
• Collaborate with colleagues by sharing files:
PDFs, Word Documents, JPEG images, etc.
• Most wikis can be made private or public
• Library success: Best practices wiki:
• http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=Main_Page
• Pbwiki/PBWorks e-portfolio is an UNT project
Ex: http://porfoliotemplate.pbworks.com/

26. • PBworks example at UNT: Sidebar
e-portfolio page definitions

27. PBwiki e-portfolio: Student example
1. Posted on Blackboard
2. Shared link to her e-
portfolio which served as a
great example for students
3. Librarian received
reference question about
PowerPoint , so she
pushed UNT Tech Skills
tutorial:
http://www.library.unt.ed
u/library-instruction/news-
events/tech-skills-
workshop-power-point-
2007/
Building trust with students so
they ask you anything

28. Many wiki platforms
• PBworks
(The wiki formally known as PBwiki )
• Mediawiki
a. Good example:
http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.ph
p/Main_Page
b. Requirements include:
Coding knowledge and server space
c. See Wikipedia
• Wikidot
a. Add widgets
b. no advertisements on free account
c. User-friendly
• Compare many more wikis:
http://www.wikimatrix.org/
http://ask-academic.wikidot.com/meebo-widget

29. Facebook: library tools
Ex. Penn State Catalog search
application
For more applications:
1. Go to facebook
2. Search for library _
3. Click on application tab
4. Funny and practical results
For custom applications, need the “developer key”
See: http://developers.facebook.com/

30. Facebook for marketing and outreach
UNT Library examples:
“Club Willis” (created by students)
“Denton Reads”
“Facebook Live!”
“Librarians On Location” / “Librarians
Squared”
Discovery Park, and RIS pages.
Denton Reads:
One book one community project
events advertised, discussion
Librarians on Location (TWU & UNT
board enabled, and events photos
librarians met on campus, outside
libraries

31. Facebook: library oriented groups
.

32. Facebook tips for librarians
Faculty and librarians Students
 Some students don’t want to be your
 Keep dialogue with patrons or friends/fans get over it
students professional
 Let students come to you = no stalking
If your account is both professional for friends
and personal; keep audience in mind
Advertise events and groups
 Don’t pressure people. 1. Supplements other marketing efforts
Be consistent with your “friending” 2. Utilize features (ex. event pictures)
practices (some patrons or colleagues 3. Best practices (ETG group task)
but not others? )


33. Flickr, the Nudist in Your Library
• Market Your Library Events
• Book displays
• Promote Services/Collections
• Connect users
• Create community
• Virtual tour
• Marketing/outreach
• Wayfinding Map
• Expanding Instruction
• Storytelling

34. Events & Digital Collections
Thomas Memorial The Library of Congress
Book Sale Visual Collection

35. Storytelling & Displays
Bret Arnett’s The Mosquito Shawnee Public Oct Displays

36. Tools & Features
• Flickr Uploadr
• Email
• Flickr Toys
• Annotations
• Tagging
• http://www.flickr.com/tools/
• Flickr widget

37. Make your Library delicious
• “Best of Sites”
• Site Sharing
• Collection Development
• Subject Guides
• Manage online resources
• Project/idea lists

38. Delicious Subject Guides
http://www.swissarmylibrarian.net/2007/07/28/library-subject-guides-using-delicious

39. Virtual Delicious

40. Tools and Features
• http://delicious.com/help/tools
• http://delicious.com/help/thirdpartytools

41. Blogs
TWU Libraries Blog (Blogger) Beta Phi Mu Blog (Vox)
Features: Features:
Flexible templates Flickr uploads
Well known platform Snap (page preview)
Turn comments off/on Turn comments off/on
RSS RSS

42. Other social tools
• Tinychat (cool way to create a chat room in
seconds—good for patrons and meetings)
• LibraryThing
• Friend Feed
• YouTube
(http://www.youtube.com/ucberkeley)
• Itunes
(https://itunes.unt.edu/)
Many more…

43. How do you use the social web?
Discuss…

44. Thanks for attending our presentation!
*********************************
Questions/Comments? Please contact us!
Greg Hardin Lilly Ramin Shaun Seibel
Texas Woman’s University of North Texas University of North
University Lilly.Ramin@unt.edu Texas
ghardin@twu.edu Flickr, Meebo, Twitter: Shaun.Seibel@unt.edu
lillylibrarian