Building the Social Library Online Meredith Farkas Norwich University.

Building the Social Library

Online

Meredith FarkasNorwich University

Web 1.0: Democratized

Access to Information

Web 2.0: Democratized Participation

What is social software?

My definition: To be defined as social software, a tool must meet at least two of the following conditions:

1. It allows people to communicate, collaborate and build community online

2. It can be syndicated, shared, reused or remixed, or it facilitates syndication3. It allows people to easily learn from and capitalize on the behavior or knowledge of others

Examples•Blogs

•RSS

•Wikis

•Social networking sites (MySpace/Facebook, etc.)

•Social bookmarking sites

•Other online communities

•Instant messaging / VoIP / Webconferencing

•Podcasting

•Video blogging/screencasting

•Multi-user virtual environments and games

Characteristics of Social Software

Easy Content Creation and

Sharing

Online Collaboration

Conversations: Distributed

Conversations: Real Time

Capitalizing on the Wisdom of Crowds

Transparency

Personalization

Portability

What Can Social Software do for

Libraries?

Disseminate Information

Get Feedback! Start a Conversation!

Provide Services to Remote Users

Provide Services Where our Users

Are

Capitalize on the Collective Intelligence of Colleagues and Users

Strategies for Implementing

Social Software

Avoid technolust

Will it improve library services? Will patrons

use it?

Involve staff at all levels in planning

Encourage staff to play (and kick the

tires!)

Consider barriers to use and break them

down

Seek out strategic partnerships

Consider maintenance and

sustainability

Must be able to integrate into staff

workflow

Training for staff and patrons

In marketing focus on the functionality

Be willing to experiment. Avoid analysis paralysis!

Start small and keep it simple

Questions?

[email protected]: librarianmer

Links and presentation at http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.co

m

Questions? Just Ask!

Building the Social Library Online Meredith Farkas Norwich University.

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Transcript of Building the Social Library Online Meredith Farkas Norwich University.