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Web20 for libraries -2007
- 1. What’s New inTech and Web 2.0 Chris Peters Information Technology Specialist Library Development Washington State Library My Email: cpeters@secstate.wa.gov Presentation: http://tinyurl.com/26dlf8
- 2. Goals and Objectives •Trends and Catchphrases • We’ll discuss a few Web 2.0 tools • What are the best examples of Library 2.0 tools and websites?
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- 5. Plugins and Extensions •Almost all software can be “extended” with software plugins • Each plugin adds new features and functionality
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- 7. Technology Convergence + + =
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- 10. Go Where YourPatrons Are
- 11. Next Generation Networks (NGN)
- 12. Where Is theSoftware? • Fully web-based • Renting Your Web Space • Locally hosted
- 13. What are theMost Popular Web 2.0 Tools? • Blogs • Wikis • RSS • Social Bookmarks • Social Networking sites
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- 15. Sign Up foran Account • http://www.blogger.com • http://www.vox.com • http://www.tumblr.com • http://www.wordpress.com • http://www.typepad.com
- 16. Blogs take thecomplexity out of creating content for the web
- 17. Most blogs havea comments area to facilitate feedback and conversation
- 18. Blogs are organizedin reverse chronological order
- 19. Blog entries areusually short, chatty and informal
- 20. A Wiki isa website that facilitates collaboration by allowing multiple users to edit content.
- 22. Who’s the realauthor of a Wiki article?
- 23. Who maintains order on a wiki?
- 24. Wikis don’t preventmistakes – but mistakes are easy to correct
- 25. Wikis keep trackof changes so that it’s easy to backtrack
- 26. Old Way: YouGo Find the News
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- 28. RSS (Really SimpleSyndication) brings news and updates to one place
- 29. Sign Up forAn Account First • http://www.bloglines.com • http://reader.google.com • http://feedlounge.com • http://www.rojo.com
- 30. On Your FavoriteWebsites, Look for the Orange RSS button
- 31. Click on theSubscribe Link
- 32. Click Subscribe againto Confirm
- 33. Bookmarks are agreat idea…
- 34. …When You OnlyHave a Few Books
- 35. Social Bookmarking isan easy way to save and share websites
- 36. Sign Up forAn Account First • http://del.icio.us • http://www.furl.net • http://ma.gnolia.com
- 37. To get themost out of bookmarking, install the browser plugins
- 41. Social bookmarks alsoallow you to see what other people are linking to
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- 43. Other Web 2.0Tools • Instant Messaging • Podcasting • Photo sharing • Video sharing • Personalized homepages such as MyYahoo • Personalized search • Online Office apps • And 1,000 other websites
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- 45. Catalog 2.0 letsusers contribute reviews, ratings and keywords
- 46. Catalog 2.0 providesa lot of searching and browsing options
- 48. Catalog 2.0 providesRSS feeds
- 49. News, Marketing andOutreach
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- 54. Book Reviews andReader’s Advisory
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- 57. What Else? • Virtualreference • Checking out nontraditional items such as ipods and e-books. • Posting clips of library events on YouTube • Posting library photos on Flickr • Online storytime • Ad infinitum
- 58. Learn More: Websites •http://www.webopedia.com: short definitions • http://en.wikipedia.org: long definitions • http://del.icio.us: see what everyone else is looking at • http://www.libsuccess.org • http://www.sociallibraries.com/course
- 59. Learn More: Books • The Long Tail • Everything Bad is Good for You • Rule the Web • Convergence Culture
- 60. Contact Info • MyEmail: cpeters@secstate.wa.gov • Presentation: http://tinyurl.com/26dlf8
Editor's Notes
- #4 Crowdsourcing and Customer-created content: Customers are creating the graphics, videos, writing the book reviews and doing the research that sell products and services. For example, graphic designers submit their T-shirt designs to Threadless.com, and then customers vote on the best designs. Groups of people, “knowledge communities” are creating huge bodies of knowledge that individuals could never hope to amass. Information about software, TV shows, video games, businesses, causes, etc. Many to many communication Community and conversation “ Software that gets better the more people use it” E.g. Amazon, ebay, Delicious, wikipedia The average web surfer is no longer a passive consumer of the information on the web. More and more are creating their own sites and improving sites created by others. Examples include the user reviews on Amazon, Google’s PageRank system, and the “seller reputation” feature on eBay. Furthermore, users aren’t just contributing data and content, but more and more they’re creating the software functionality that they want. Software, such as Firefox, Wordpress and offerings from Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, makes it easier and easier for third party programmers with relatively little expertise to design plugins and extensions. Catchphrases used to describe this phenomenom include: Collective Intelligence Wisdom of Crowds The Two-Way Web The Read/Write Web social software and folksonomy
- #5 My Yahoo, Google’s Personal Home Page, hundreds of other websites allow you to determine what appears when you visit the site. If you want to see the weather, the news and movies for your location, all it takes is a few clicks. Or your view of the site could focus just on sports news and stock quotes. There are now over 1200 widgets you can add to your Google home page. Rich Internet Applications is the techie term for this type of website: it refers to Internet-based applications that have the features and functionality of traditional desktop applications Processing is done by the user’s computer, while data resides on the application servers. Another aspect of rich user experience involves tracking user behavior in order to provide recommendations and customized content. The widespread creation and adoption of RIA’s is being driven largely by the Ajax and Flash scripting languages. An offline example is “Build Your own Bear” a company that lets children create a custom Teddy Bear Photo by Tampen at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tampics/89442640/
- #6 It’s like buying a car or building your own pizza.
- #7 Software is no longer tied to a single computer, and a single hardware/operating system combination. I can sign up for an account and access the software and all my files from any location I don’ t have to do the installation or copy files to my USB drive and carry them around with me. Is there a difference between “software” and “a website”. So many websites are really just the front end for very powerful pieces of software, though you might not realize this if the site is well-designed.
- #8 This graphic shows some Web 2.0 logos, most of which feature bright colors, nonsense words, and a playful design sensibility. These characteristics are the first sign that a website thinks of itself as Web 2.0.
- #9 Ebay, person-to-person buying and selling Person-to-person lending and borrowing “bankless banking” Person-to-person microloans, such as Kiva.org
- #10 The fat head and the long tail When distribution was expensive, and retail space was costly, stores could only stock the “blockbusters” – records and books and movies that sold several copies a month. Cult favorites, and underground artists were squeezed out. Declining costs and a huge customer base have made it economical for online retailers to stock millions of books and songs and movies. And the Internet makes word of mouth marketing so much easier that these niche products are selling far more copies than they used to. The long tail is not only selling more, and providing real revenue for the fist time, but every year it gets longer and longer And the Fat head is losing weight. Every year there are fewer hits, and they account for a smaller percentage of total sales. Low cost of manufacture is being driven by personal computers, software and new technologies such as the 3-D printer. Low cost of distribution: e-bay lets you sell your products, Lulu.com lets you print your own book and they help you distribute it. Marketing and information: The Internet creates thousands of sites that will spread the word about what you’ve created
- #11 Technology convergence When functions that were formerly contained in separate devices come together in a single device, that’s an example of convergence Camcorder = camera and video recorder Camera phone = camera and phone Clock radio DSL router = router and DSL modem Multitool PDA phone Spork TV/VCR combo VCR/DVD combo Fixed / Mobile convergence. Services that allow you unlimited in-home calling (over wifi or CDMA plus broadband) combined with roaming service from the same phone. Airave from Sprint or TMobile@Home.
- #13 Trans-media, cross-platform Sounds, images, music, text – none of these have a home any more. Music used to have a “home” – the stereo or the radio. You needed a special device for each type of media, and the devices didn’t play well with each other. Now you can transfer a sound file or a video file any where in the world in a few minutes, and at core, each file is just a series of ones and zeros, so with the right software, you can splice photos, sound, video and text. Multiple distribution channels are good for companies and good for customers Customers participate in the creation of brands and products, especially those that involve stories, such as the Matrix and Harry Potter. They create videos, design costumes and write stories. They hold neverending, involved online conversations. The buildup to the second and third Matrix included video downloads, anime animations, live recreations, video games, comic books, discussion forums, , When they’re treated with honesty and respect, they spread the word and provide free marketing. Whey they’re angry, they can create fast, highly visible negative publicity
- #14 Websites don’t live alone anymore in “information silos” The services provided by major websites are freely available to other websites Most of the information from Flickr, Amazon, Google, delicious, and other sites can be searched, imported, repurposed, mashed-up, and reused. Data and software can now reside on several different servers at different locations around the world and be seamlessly combined on a single website. Deep Integration: This type of site is often referred to as a mashup. Reusability and mashups are made possible by Open API’s An API is an application programming interface. An API is an interface that allows one piece of software to request services from another piece of software. For example, you can write software that asks Amazon.com for pictures of book covers. The Google Maps API lets you pull maps into your website and reuse them in thousands of different ways “ Mashup” is the common term for software and websites that combine functionality and data from several different sources. Examples include the Chicago Crime Map, Seattle Busmonster, Frappr, and a whole variety of tools and websites that pull data off of Amazon, Google, del.icio.us and Digg and present it in new ways. RSS feeds are also driving a lot of this reusability. www.programmableweb.com
- #15 How many patrons use your website each day, and how much money and effort do you spend on improving your website? If 30, 40 or 50 percent of your library visits happen online, why do we spend 2, 3 or 4 percent of our effort there? We also have to bring our services and our marketing to the places that patrons already hangout, both online and in person Facebook groups and applications, MySpace profiles, Flickr accounts, Flickr groups
- #17 The room knows the temperature that you like The refrigerator knows it’s contents and presents you with a grocery list, or a list of recipes that use your remaining food items. Buildings and businesses have RFID tags that transmit menus, reviews, ratings, videos. Clubs transmit audio files for upcoming artists. Your phone can notify you when a friend or acquaintance is in the area Your phone can notify you when someone with common interests is in the area There are already numerous “Location Based services” that are providing context-based real-time information: Mologogo, Sociallight, Dodgeball Barcodes, RFID and GPS allow us to easily find contextually-relevant, location-specific information Ecash and e-wallets (security and anonymity issues; legal protections aren’t in place like they are for credit cards) http://telecompk.wordpress.com/2007/04/15/mobile-wallets-case-study-of-m-commerce-from-japan/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash http://research.microsoft.com/displayArticle.aspx?id=160 http://www.cardtechnology.com/article.html?id=200704131WCTISI9
- #18 The average IQ has been climbing for the past 80 years Though it’s difficult to prove, there’s a good chance that this increase is due to the increasing complexity of our culture and technology. The number of characters and relationships in modern TV shows and video games is two or three times greater than it used to be Problem solving, complex systems, social and emotional intelligence
- #19 Fiber, Copper and Wireless Trade-offs between cost, bandwidth and range For instance, wireless and copper offer high bandwidth over short distances, but right now, fiber is the only technology to offer high bandwidth over long distances But fiber is expensive, and right now only 10% of homes have fiber So wireless and copper may still have a role to play Still lots of competition between different standards, but IP standards and Wimax are in the lead
- #20 When the software lives entirely on the web, it’s “fully web-based” or “3 rd party hosted”.
- #24 In theory, you should be able to configure your blog once, and never again have to think about the software. With the most basic blogging software, such as Blogger.com, this is definitely the case. It takes 15 to 30 minutes to set up a blogger account and create your first blog. After that, you more or less just type in your latest blog entry and click “Publish”. The more serious you become about blogging, the more complex the software becomes and the more likely it is that you’ll need to get your hands dirty tweaking html, css, php and other types of code. WordPress and Movable Type are examples of complex but powerful blogging programs. Easy blogging software: www.blogger.com; www.vox.com and www.tumblr.com Intermediate: www.wordpress.com Hard: Your own WordPress installation; Movable Type
- #25 Most blogs have a comments area to facilitate feedback and conversation, though some sites have had to moderate or disable comments due to the prevalence of spam. Comments let browsers respond to the initial blog post, but also lets them respond to other comments, so you can have a conversation with dozens or hundreds of participants. Most blogs also have permalinks and RSS feeds. The homepage of a blog has multiple posts and changes constantly, while a permalink sends folks to static, unchanging copy of a single post. We’ll discuss RSS feeds a bit later.
- #26 The newest entries appear at the top of the home page, and older entries move down the page, eventually disappearing from the home page altogether. All posts are automatically archived by date so that visitors can still access older posts. Links to the archived posts can usually be found on the left or right-hand side of the home page.
- #27 The characteristics of good blog writing are similar to the characteristics of good web writing in general. Keep paragraphs short and make frequent use of bulleted or numbered lists. Make the title of each post as descriptive as possible. Draw people into your blog by discussing your own feelings and experiences. Popular blogs reveal the individual voice and personality of the author.
- #28 With a wiki, a group of people can work together to create a website. Anyone with the edit permissions can change or remove the work done by someone else In this sense, Wiki’s are probably the best test case for the idea of “collective intelligence” or the “wisdom of crowds”.
- #29 A screenshot of the famous Wikipedia home page on September 12 th , 2006.
- #30 There is no individual author A single article, or page, on a wiki could have hundreds of authors
- #31 The community is the final arbiter There are dozens of rules and guidelines Editors are promoted by their peers and have special privileges, such as the right to lock a page or ban a user.
- #33 But how do you make a site available for editing to everyone, and still prevent deliberate or unintentional misinformation? Rather than trying to prevent every mistake, wiki software focuses on making mistakes easy to detect and undo. It’s easy for an editor to see exactly what changes have been made recently, and to compare different versions of an article. It’s also easy to revert to a previous version. And since the number of responsible users far outweighs the number of troublemakers, mistakes are usually noticed quickly. However, this isn’t always the case.
- #36 That “one place” is usually called an aggregator, an RSS reader, a feed reader, or just a reader. These terms all refer to a piece of software designed especially for displaying RSS feeds. I usually use the term “feed reader”. The changes and updates that RSS brings you could consist of timely content (e.g. news stories), or an RSS feed might inform you of any and all changes to a particular website. As we’ll discuss later, RSS could also inform you of changes to an online catalog.
- #38 There are several ways to find RSS feeds, but traditionally, you go to a blog or website you like and look for a small orange button that says RSS or XML.
- #43 The most famous bookmarking site is del.icio.us, which I’ll be using as an example (see above). The first advantage of bookmarking sites is the ability to access your favorite websites from any computer that has an Internet connection. The second advantage is the ability to share your bookmarks with anyone, anywhere who has an internet connection. Online bookmarks are organized and arranged by the “tags” that you provide for each of your websites. A tag is really just a user-provided keyword. Rather than using LC subject headings or some other form of controlled vocabulary, users are free to include whatever keyword matches their own internal organizational scheme. Social bookmarking is really the more accurate term. Tagging refers to a broader phenomenon of attaching keywords to all sorts of resources, not just websites. You can tag books, movies, people, etc. However, tagging and social bookmarking are often used synonymously.
- #45 Del.icio.us provides toolbar buttons for both Firefox and IE. When you’re at a site you like, just click on the TAG button….
- #46 … .and a popup window appears. Choose some keywords, or “tags”, from the list, or type in your own tags. Delicious shows you the tags from your tag set that are most relevant to the site, and shows you the tags that other people have been using. Click Save.
- #47 Everything I’ve bookmarked will show up as a link on my del.icio.us homepage.
- #48 To navigate my links, I click on one of the keywords (or tags) listed on the right-hand side of the screen.
- #49 For me, the greatest effect of the tagging or bookmarking phenomenon has been the changes in search and retrieval. Rather than browsing through the hundreds of sites returned with a Google search, I now do a search on del.icio.us and look for the sites that have been bookmarked most often by other users. I’ve found that the relevance of the sites that I find through del.icio.us is much higher, and my overall time spent searching is much lower. Of course, del.icio.us searches work best when you have a technical topic. It can be useful for other searches as well though.
- #50 It’s all about the social graph. The social graph is all of your friends, family, co-workers and acquaintances, and your relationships with them.
- #51 And on and on and on. See Web 2.0 List at www.web2list.com.
- #52 “ What makes a service Library 2.0? Any service, physical or virtual, that successfully reaches users, is evaluated frequently, and makes use of customer input is a Library 2.0 service. Even older, traditional services can be Library 2.0 if these criteria are met. Similarly, being new is not enough to make a service Library 2.0” Browser + Web 2.0 Applications + Connectivity = Full-featured OPAC Harness the library user in both design and implementation of services Library users should be able to craft and modify library provided services Companies wanting to do business with public or academic libraries should not be creating proprietary software; Library 2.0 is not a closed concept. Constant change is replacing the older model of upgrade cycles Beta is forever Harvest and integrate ideas and products from peripheral fields into library service models Continue to examine and improve services and be willing to replace them at any time with newer and better services. Rigidity breeds failure Harness The Long Tail
- #53 I haven’t yet seen an example of a catalog that fully implements the potential of Library 2.0, but there are a few that have made a good start. For example, the latest version of WorldCat allows users to add their reviews, their ratings, and other information about each item. These reviews and ratings become a permanent part of the catalog record. And you don’t have to be a librarian in order to post your review. In other words, OCLC is taking a page from the Amazon playbook.
- #54 The latest catalogs are moving away from keyword and boolean searching as the sole means of access, and allowing new search and discovery capabilities, such as faceted searching, visual searching (e.g. Aquabrowser) and online browsing of shelves. The NCSU catalog offers an amazing faceted search, allowing you to narrow your results by call number, topic, genre, format, region, era, author, language, availability and library branch
- #55 A continuation of the NCSU catalog screenshot
- #56 Some catalogs have begun to implement RSS feeds of catalog searches and patron accounts. In other words, I can do a traditional keyword, subject or author search and then receive notification whenever a new item arrives related to my search. I can also receive notices via RSS whenever a book I’ve reserved is available or whenever a book I have out is due to be returned.
- #57 Great examples of blogging from public libraries include Darien PL, Papercuts at Topeka Shawnee PL and Champaign PL in Illinois. Dozens of libraries are using 2.0 technologies, especially blogs and RSS feeds, to send out news and announcements. Of course, the communication flows both ways, so some library blogs are receiving a large number of comments, especially the Ann Arbor Public Library’s blogs. There are several flavors of library blog, including: blogs for news, blogs for events, blogs targeted at a specific audience such as teens or seniors, blogs for new materials, and blogs surrounding a particular service, such as reference or teen game night.
- #58 Arborwiki draws on the knowledge and expertise of the entire community to create a resource that covers local politics, culture, food, neighborhoods, schools, commerce, etc. Although Arborwiki is not maintained by a library, it’s an example of the type of site that would be a natural fit with the traditional library mission.
- #59 The Western Springs history website, which is a joint project of the local public library and the local historical society, focuses on historic homes in the community. It was created with the WordPress blogging software. Each home has its own page with comments enabled. Therefore, local residents can add their information and reminiscences about the unique history of each home.
- #60 Here’s a screenshot of some of the comments on the Western Springs site. Three past owners of this particular home have posted their reminiscences about the house and its history.
- #61 St. Joseph Public Library is currently using wiki software to create collaborative subject guides. Currently staff are the only ones allowed to edit these guides, thought the results can be seen by the general public. Butler University Library has created a reference wiki and they’re allowing staff and faculty the ability to edit their pages. Regardless of whether a subject guide wiki is open to the public, or just librarians, it uses the collaborative potential of new technology to overcome the limitations of the traditional pathfinder. Wikis can be updated more quickly and more frequently. Also, wikis can draw on the expertise of a wider array of contributors. The traditional pathfinder exists on the hard drive of one or two reference librarians, and all updates have to flow through them. Kansas City public library now offers RSS feeds for their web subject guides so that users can notified of new events, materials and resources related to subjects of interest.
- #62 The Washington Summer Reading blog and the Book Lover’s Wiki at Princeton Public Library are two examples of online, collaborative book review websites. There are some criteria for participation in both sites, and all posts on the Washington Summer Reading blog are moderated. Again, though there are some restrictions on who uses each site, both sites are opening the process of reader’s advisory beyond a small handful of professional librarians. Dozens of sites across the country let teens and adults (though mostly teens) post reviews to the library website.
- #63 So far, most of the Library 2.0 activity has focused on professional development. There are hundreds of library blogs, as well as RSS feeds, wikis, pages of bookmarks and dozens of other websites and tools. Library Success Wiki and Lis Wiki are two good examples of wikis, A full list of library blogs can be found at http://www.libdex.com/weblogs.html or the Blogging Libraries wiki http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/index.php?title=Welcome_to_the_Blogging_Libraries_Wiki. Conference wikis are useful and popular
- #64 Make it appropriate for the audience Include links to events and services, not just a description of the library and its hours
- #71 Data and software can now reside on several different servers at different locations around the world and be seamlessly combined on a single website. Deep Integration: This type of site is often referred to as a mashup. Reusability and mashups are made possible by Open API’s An API is an application programming interface. An API is an interface that allows one piece of software to request services from another piece of software. For example, you can write software that asks Amazon.com for pictures of book covers. The Google Maps API lets you pull maps into your website and reuse them in thousands of different ways “ Mashup” is the common term for software and websites that combine functionality and data from several different sources. Examples include the Chicago Crime Map, Seattle Busmonster, Frappr, and a whole variety of tools and websites that pull data off of Amazon, Google, del.icio.us and Digg and present it in new ways. RSS feeds are also driving a lot of this reusability. www.programmableweb.com
- #72 Increasing range and increasing bandwidth = one account that reaches you everywhere Last mile connectivity = compete with cable companies and phone companies Don’t have to dig up everything (Fiber to the home could cost billions) Broadband build out in rural areas Some controversy about the real range of WiMax and the real throughput Wifi versus Wimax, versus cellular broadband 2 to 4 MBps from Xohm by Sprint One account that covers all of your Wimax devices.
- #76 User-centric libraries involve patrons in the planning, the implementation and the evaluation of library services.
- #77 This is true in virtual space and physical space If patrons communicate via Instant Messenger, provide reference service via IM. If they use RSS feed readers, provide RSS feeds of their holds and checked out materials. If they can’t or won’t leave home, mail books to them. Bring resources, classes and presentations to schools, community centers and senior centers.
- #78 Are libraries a space for quiet, solitary study? or a space for team meetings and conversation? Or both? Is cooperation with colleagues inside and outside the library seen as a luxury, or as a necessity? Are patrons and community stakeholders consulted on a regular basis? For the sake of time I won’t get into all of the ways that Web 2.0 ideas of collaboration, trust, user participation, etc. can be applied to traditional, non-technical library services. However, one suggestion that arises repeatedly is to encourage conversation and groupwork in libraries.
- #79 Adapted from a list created by Michael Stephens that I can’t find the citation for right now.
- #81 And what makes them Library 2.0? I’ve arranged this part of the presentation by type of service rather than focusing primarily on the tools and software.