There have been a few posts on Web 2.0 (that group of web technologies that
extent the original web) recently, so I thought I'd make this post.
A patron today asked for English murder mysteries. Not being a reader of
this genre, nor knowing anyone who is, I took to the web. The best answer I
could find was this list of 99 titles from LibraryThing:
http://www.librarything.com/tag/english%2Cmurder+mystery
So I guess the social web has its uses! If anyone can comment on the actual
content of this list I'd be interested. I guess I could have sort answers
from related Internet groups and message boards on the subject area as well
(if I could actually find the groups in the first place). (Amazon also has
an analogous genre, so there turned out to be quite a lot of coverage of the
genre.)
The patron by the way was seeking books for her disabled mother, who had
given her the simple instruction, 'English murder mysteries'. She hadn't a
clue what to look for, accept that her mom head read all the Agatha Christie's.
Waffling on about Web 2.0 and in particular social media... I'll ask in the
following paragraphs what is social media, and what does it mean to libaries.
"A good way to think about social media is that all of this is actually just
about being human beings. Sharing ideas, cooperating and collaborating to
create art, thinking and commerce, vigorous debate and discourse, finding
people who might be good friends, allies and lovers – it‟s what our
species has built several civilisations on. That's why it is spreading so
quickly, not because it's great shiny, whizzy new technology, but because it
lets us be ourselves – only more so.
"And it is in the 'more so' that the power of this revolution lies. People
can find information, inspiration, like-minded people, communities and
collaborators faster than ever before. New ideas, services, business models
and technologies emerge and evolve at dizzying speed in social media."
From 'What is social media? An e-book from iCrossing'[1].
So what does this mean to libraries. Let's put our thinking caps on, look
at our interests, and plan.
A quick paragraph on libraries and purpose. Information and equity![2][3]
(the classical approach); '...to offer everyone the opportunity to achieve
their full potential'[4]; 'the world would be all the poorer without them'[5].
There is evidence that Libraries are finding some uses for social media:
"Unlocking information with social intelligence"[6]
"We want people to tag, comment and make notes on the images, just like any
other Flickr photo, which will benefit not only the community but also the
collections themselves. For instance, many photos are missing key caption
information such as where the photo was taken and who is pictured. If such
information is collected via Flickr members, it can potentially enhance the
quality of the bibliographic records for the images."[7]
To anyone researching this I'd suggest look through the technology themed
articles at LibraryWeb[8].
Some books on the topic while I'm at it:
Social Software in Libraries by Meredith Farkas[9]
How to use Web 2.0 in your library by Phil Bradley[10]
[1]
http://www.icrossing.co.uk/fileadmin/uploads/eBooks/What_is_social_media_Nov_2007.pdf
[2] Equity and Excellence in the Public Library, Bob Usherwood (2007)
[3] http://www.webjunction.org/forums/message.jspa?messageID=43938#43938
[4] TESSA BLACKSTONE, Framework for the Future report
http://www.mla.gov.uk/programmes/framework
[5]
http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/independent/archive/2007/11/29/why-do-we-need-professional-librarians-and-information-managers-when-there-s-so-much-available-online-tim-buckley-owen-discovers-the-real-value-librarians-deliver.aspx
[6] http://blog.iwr.co.uk/2008/04/unlocking-infor.html
[7] http://swashford.blogspot.com/2008/01/libraries-and-flickr.html
[8] http://www.libraryweb.info/articledir.php#8
[9] http://www.sociallibraries.com/
[10] http://www.hw.ac.uk/libwww/irn/irn152/irn152.html#bookreview
Gareth Osler
Editor and admin, http://libraryweb.info
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