Thanks - Gary Green

Technical Librarian
Virtual Content Team
Surrey County Council

Tel. 01306-881499

Fax. 01306-743240

Surrey Libraries blog: www.surreylibraries.wordpress.com
Website: www.surreycc.gov.uk/libraries

An outstanding council making Surrey a better place
Forward thinking - responsive and reliable - working with others - value for money
-----Forwarded by Gary Green/COM/SCC on 02/03/2010 04:12PM -----

To: [log in to unmask]
From: Phil Bradley <[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: "Web 2.0 use in libraries" <[log in to unmask]>
Date: 02/03/2010 03:18PM
Subject: Re: Fw: Evaluating use of Web 2.0 in Libraries

You've asked a sensible question - from a Web 1.0 perspective. Let me
try and explain what I mean. When using tools in the past they were
going to cost a lot of money, so you had to make sure that you got the
right tool for the right job - not only did the thing have to work,
you'd then need to train staff on how to use the thing. If you got it
wrong, it was a really big deal and bad error. Moreover, the
expectation was that not only would you get things right, you'd get
them right the first time around.

Web 2.0 resources are generally free or so cheap as to be free, and
they're designed to be simple to use. Very importantly these tools are
designed to fit together in a variety of different ways. Consequently
it's possible to look at these resources in a rather different way. In
my experience (having written about and used Web 2.0 tools for the
last eight years) the best thing to do is to actually just try them
out. No-one expects you to get things right first time; part of the
Web 2.0 'experience' is exploring what's out there.

Don't focus on the tools. The tools are in fact the least important
element - unlike the Web 1.0 world. There are multiple tools, all of
can be expected to do pretty much the same job. What I'd suggest that
you want to do is look at the question from another angle. What do you
want to achieve with your library service that you're not currently
doing? What are you doing poorly, and want to do better? For example,
if you want to reach out to people that don't currently use the
services you offer, you need to seek them out, and this means
exploring Facebook, finding if there's a local group, introducing
yourselves, adding to the conversations and so on. If you offer a
printed newsletter, you may feel that it's really not as current or
responsive as you'd like, in which case you want to consider if
something like a blog would work. Maybe you want to update your
website more quickly and effectively, in which case I'd suggest using
a microblogging service like Twitter.

Measurement is of course important; but in many respects measurement
will only work within the confines of the resource you're looking at.
How many people read your blog? How many more people look at a page on
your website by following a link from Twitter? How many people join
your fan page on Facebook? Think of it in promotional terms - if
you're a company selling a product you can't simply view the success
of an advert in terms of the increased number of cans you sell, you
have to also take into account people becoming familiar with the brand
over time.

You're only going to get the answers to a lot of these questions by
trial and error, and this is where I would say that evaluation (rather
more than measurement) is certainly worth doing. Which home/start page
works best for you, your staff and clients? Is it Pageflakes or is it
Netvibes for example. You'll only get the answer by using both and
seeing which works best in your circumstances. If a tool doesn't do
what you want - throw it away. The activity is important, the tool -
not so much. Now, for this to work you're going to expend time and
energy playing around with these things and seeing how you can use
them in combination with each other - your Twitter 'tweets' can get
posted to your blog and to your webpage. Your blog entries can get
posted to your Twitter feed and your site. You'll need to play around
- there's no right or wrong answers here.

People are probably sick of it by now, but Web 2.0 is not tools, it's
a state of mind - looking at information flows differently,
considering different ways of interacting with your public. If you
need examples of Web 2.0 tools that work well within a library setting
I'd encourage you to take a look at my categorised and annotated
listing of over 1,100 at http://www.philb.com/iwantto.htmand there's
also a link there to my Web 2.0 applications weblog as well. Finally,
at the risk of self promotion (but I'm a consultant, it's a necessary
part of the job), I also run training courses on Web 2.0 tools and can
advise further if necessary.

Marieke has already listed some really good tools and examples which
are worth spending time with, but nothing beats having a go at it
yourself! :)

Phil.

On Tue, Mar 2, 2010 at 2:26 PM, Alison Barlow
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> -----Forwarded by Alison Barlow/cs/nottscc on 02/03/2010 02:21PM -----
>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> From: "Sinar, Glyn" <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent by: "lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 02/03/2010 12:54PM
> Subject: Evaluating use of Web 2.0 in Libraries
>
> Like many public library authorities, we in Lancashire have for some time
> been considering the development of library services using social networking
> and Web 2.0.  There are many arguments and much circumstantial evidence to
> support this usage (why do the BBC put such store in blogs and RSS feeds,
> for instance?) but the difficulty for us remains in establishing links,
> other than anecdotal ones, between the levels of activity, time and effort
> put into maintaining the Library 2.0 presence, and practical effects on
> resultant service take-up.
>
>
>
> I would be very interested to know if any public libraries have carried out
> actual formal (or informal research) into the effectiveness of using
> Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, blogs and other similar vehicles by the library
> service?  Is this something that we can really measure, or is the
> overwhelming evidence of its status in society and communications now so
> extensive that the need for such quantitative measurement can be
> overlooked?
>
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
>
> Glyn Sinar
>
> Applications and Systems Senior Manager
>
> Lancashire County Library and Information Service
>
> Lancashire County Council
>
> Adult and Community Services
>
> East Cliff
>
> PO Box 162
>
> PRESTON
>
> PR1 3EA
>
>
>
> Tel: 01772 534006
>
> Fax: 01772 534880
>
>
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
>
>
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Phil Bradley: Internet Consultant, Trainer, Web designer and Author.
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