Tuesday, 24 July 2007

Libraries, Web 2.0...Session One: Helene Blowers

Please note the sessions will appear on INFONET.
This is a record of jottings to be looked at later and pondered.
And it is appropriate to put these notes on the blog, though I suspect that there may be better formats. But at least you can comment! You may have to visit other websites to see the examples and I'll get the links put in later.
They really do show what things can be done with all the 'theory' you are learning.

Helene Blowers- designer of the Learning 2.0 ( or 23 things).

Key points for me were:
Web 2.0 is a state of mind, not a thing
Connect/Engage
Collaborate/Share

She showed us what was being done at other leading-edge libraries in the States under the following areas.

1. Cultivating communties - for library as a whole or for small sections
check out Darien Library which has library blogs, Pikes Peak Library District - an online social networking tool, Mint Hill Stitch in (for knitters) was a small community example)

2. Invite Users to Participate - eg Allen County - photo program of the County where users were given a camera; Princeton - booklovers wiki - check it out, it's great (I created BaysideReadersGroup as a test wiki whilst doing Learning 2.0); Hennepin - create own booklists.

3. Human Conversations - aadl.org - everything is a blog where community can respond (nb gaming sites mainly); parma teens hrttp://parmateens.wordpress.com

4. Collaboration - Loudon County - loudonpedia; Hennepin County - allows comments on the books in catalogue; Danbury Library - user generated tags for searching in the catalogue; Wester Springs - history project of phots of even individaul houses and people can add comments about whe they lived there etc

5. Being in their space eg some libraries have their areas on MySpace. Crossett Library has an account on facebook (as does Trevor); Second life is another space and libraries are on InfoIsland. Imaginon - combined library/ theatre space for children and teens - Fabulous photos - see Flick'r.

5. Small pieces loosely joined - the examples here were small widgets (applications) which users can take and add to their own blogs, webpages and toolbars etc . Lander Uni has a library widget, Hennepin - at your library widget, Harris County - users can take toolbar

6. Shifting the focus - use other people, spaces to promote the library. Users saying WHY they love their library. Some libraries have used these as promotional and motivational posters. Foto-fun Gallery. Another example was Denver library had a YouTube contest - videos were made in the library and posted by the creators.

7. Letting Go - this can expand the community, empower individuals and engage users.

She finished with the exhortation TO DO - be a PLAYER. The best way is to be involved.
* 15 mintues per day to just read the literature/ mags/blogs etc
* subscribe to some library blogs
* use your own blog tyo reflect
* tag some play items in del.icio.us
PLAY

A very enthusiastic presentation and some great ideas to follow up.

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