Hello
Many interesting points to consider on this and the Web2 list.
I was working with public libraries, both nationally and regionally, when the
encouragement to experiment with Web 2.0 tools started to take hold through
numerous courses, articles, books, etc. I myself was approached to write
such a book, largely of the similar type of exhortation, and because I did
believe that the Web 2.0 ethos, along with the tools themselves, had
something to offer public libraries trying to connect with communities, I
accepted the onerous task. But the book, while including many inspiring
examples, is mostly about hard lessons learned from the successes and
failures, and advice from public librarians which might assist their colleagues
in ‘getting it right the first time.’ (although I’m not sure if this ever truly
happens!)
Yes, there are the success stories (I had my pick of case studies and
examples to include in the book), but, I would say more often than anyone
would care to admit, there were failures, or perhaps an awful lot of sites
suffering from benign neglect. And some of the successes were near failures
because of the myriad challenges public libraries have to face, even to
implement a blog or a wiki that is hosted by a third-party supplier, never mind
their own IT departments. The librarians I interviewed were incredibly honest
about problems with their local authority IT, legal, and corporate
communication departments (because even if you are using third-party wiki
software, the local authority may discourage you from using branding that
associates it with the site!)
As others have pointed out, cost is not the only motivation behind the
pressure to get it right the first time. As someone who has had my fair share
of success and failures implementing public library cooperative services, I was
familiar with the catalogue of obstacles listed by librarians that are placed in a
library's path in the name of avoiding risk. The business case need not be a
paper exercise to please the masters: it can be a tool of self-discovery; to
evaluate whether a library is truly ready to be 'social'; to answer those
questions Phil posed as well as to change its manner of interacting with
communities.
The original question had to do with evaluation: there has been a
notable 'evaluation by-pass' in the use of these tools--most librarians I spoke
with said it was too early in the process for evaluation. But maybe it is the
difficulty of determining success: after all, how do most users of Facebook
and Twitter determine success, and is that an appropriate measure for
libraries? Do we really want to consider success based on number of visits to
social networking sites, when those visits have not resulted in social
interaction with librarians and other users? Ken spoke of the role of LMS
suppliers and the integration of Web 2.0 tools, which called to my mind the
current examples of social catalogues: BiblioCommons from Canada
(http://www.bibliocommons.com/) and SOPAC from the US (see
http://www.darienlibrary.org/catalog ), as well as LibraryThing for Libraries
(http://www.librarything.com/forlibraries/) . But, even with all this innovation
about, the challenge is still how to get users to not only visit and take in
information, but also to stay awhile, communicate with us and each other. It
was ever thus.
This has turned into a bit of a treatise for which I can only apologise and in
compensation leave you with some great sites I found:
StoryTubes http://www.storytubes.info/drupal/ (you’ve got to see the
chicken girl!)
Worthingteens www.myspace.com/worthingteens (I like especially the pop-out
music player)
Get It Loud in Libraries http://www.myspace.com/getitloudinlibraries
Worthington Libraries-Just Read It! www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqBl2lV6dEQ
(you’ll be rotfl!)
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