Library closure protest

A library in Stony Stratford near Milton Keynes in the UK has come up with a very unique way to communicate the message to the local council that the library is important to the community. (The library is currently facing 'severe' closures.)

The library sent out 6,000 letters to everyone in the community and asked them to check all of the books out of the library.

every
single
book

See, they wanted to show the council (who meet in the library) the 'gaping void' that would be left in the community if the library closed.

The above photo is a shot of the empty shelves. Brilliant

A great quote from a local resident: 'The library is the one place where you find five-year-olds and 90-year-olds together, and it's where young people learn to be proper citizens'. It's crazy even to consider closing it - they should be finding ways to expand its services and bring even more people in."

How awesome is this community??? (cross posted in INF206 Facebook page)

-AB


But if you want to see books on shelves check out Bookshelf Porn :)

Social Media Week

Social Media Week will be celebrated at New York Public Library the week of February 7, 2011. Nice to see a big public library get involved like this. The talks they have up at the moment are Future Library: Socializing History with Maps and The Inner Workings: Staffing for Social Media. Both sound pretty darn interesting to me. Well done NYPL.

Social Media Week events are being held around the world (sadly, none in Australia). But I think it is interesting how this falls just a week after the ALIA Information Online conference.

There are some interesting looking talks around the world. 10 Ways to Suck at Social Media, Hosted by Chemistry is on in London, Sustainable Flashmob, Hosted by Foodspotting and Whole Foods Market in New York, and Empowering Women Through Social Media in Hong Kong all sound like they would be worth attending. (cross posted in INF206 facebook page)

Now where did I put that worm hole....

-AB

Personal Learning Network

My Personal Learning Network on Prezi

Above is a Prezi I created to reflect my Personal Learning Network. It contains Web 2.0 sources, organisations I participate in and work (both current and past). It was created using Prezi. I found Prezi both powerful and frustrating at the same time. The end result is a reasonably slick presentation. It is a very interesting tool that could be a nice alternative to Powerpoint.

After collecting the information for my Personal Learning Network I was quite surprised at how many sources I have. I probably don't take advantage of them as much as I should, what with working full time and studying part time. I do collect and share information but I haven't been producing as much as I should.
Also, I probably need to be more involved in 'real life' connections, but again with work and study my time is very limited.

In regards to the Utecht’s 5 stages of PLN adoption, I am probably somewhere in the middle of stage 3 'know it all'. I have more than 30 blogs in my 'library' folder in Google Reader 10 or so library Twitter feeds I watch and a few libraries as contacts in Flickr. It gets to be a bit overwhelming at times. This exercise has helped me to see that I need to find ways to better organise the information coming in so that it is more manageable.

So for 2011 my New Years resolution (and I don't normally make New Years resolutions) will be to

1. Explore ways to better organize the information I consume
2. Find ways to connect with actual people in my industry in person
3. Produce and share more online

-AB

Virtual talks regarding Games in Libraries using 'guild chat'. (cross posted in INF206 facebook page)

AB

Arizona State University 'Library Minute' Videos

I had a look at 5 videos from Arizona State University‘s ‘Library Minute’ presented by Anali Perry. Over all they were entertaining and very informative. It's clear that ASU is attempting to communicate with students in a more informal way. ASU describes these as 'one minute peeks into services and resources at the ASU Libraries. At the time of this post there were 27 Library Minutes which have been viewed many times. The most popular of the series is the 'RefWorks' video which has been viewed 3,325 times.

· The 5 videos I watched were

• · Mobile web
• · Top 5 resources for online students
• · Meet your subject librarian
• · Academic articles
• · RefWorks (a citation manager for students)

The Library also has a 'Library Channel' on the university web site. This blog has links to the Library's iTunes page, Flickr page, Twitter feed and also links to previously mentioned videos. The Twitter feed communicates news from the Library answers student's questions and the Flickr photostream primarily contains photos from Library events

But do these satisfy the 4 C's of social media as set out in the class reading?

• · Collaboration- The Library Channel on You Tube includes videos made by other organizations and ASU students (see the Silent Dance video)
• · Conversation-The Twitter feed is definitely a two way conversation between staff and students
  
• · Community-The videos on You Tube invite students to be a part of the library community with their friendly tone
  
• · Content Creation- All of the sources I viewed (You Tube, Twitter, Library Blog and Flickr) contained content that could be helpful to students, staff and other libraries.
  

In conclusion, ASU library has embraced web 2.0 technologies in an effort to communicate with and received communications from students and staff. In this respect I find their efforts to be a success.

The story behind the huge 'Thank You State Library of Queensland' banner on the front page of Wikipedia (cross posted in INF206 facebook page)

AB

Reading Detectives

Reading Detectives combines crowd sourcing, geo tagging, local history and the love of reading to create a very interesting project (cross posted in INF206 Facebook page)

AB

National Archives, Social Networking and New Media (initial thoughts)

Below is a chart to compare how different the National Archives of the US, UK and Australia are using social media.




All three are quite involved by having RSS feeds, are on Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, do podcasting, allow some sort of tagging and have email newsletters.

Welcome Home

This video from T-Mobile UK has been making the rounds in the blogosphere:



It is so clever on so many levels. It all at once tugs at our collective heartstrings with the experience we have all had (coming home), plugs in some very talented singers with songs we all know and creates this space that makes us all stop and wish we would have been there too.

But the really clever thing about this ad (and lets not forget it IS an ad) is the use of social media. What do many people do these days when they see something interesting happening? They whip out their phones to capture the moment. They ring a friend to tell them about it. They add it to Facebook, Flickr, and yes, Youtube. And this ad engages those people. Look at how many watches this ad has had. (Over 5 million at the writing of this post) Then you can also follow the whole campaign on Facebook or Twitter. The whole campaign is interconnected and very popular.

But what can libraries learn from this? We obviously don't have the budgets to pull of something like this but I keep thinking about how interconnected this campaign is and how it allows the public (fans?) to participate, share and discuss the brand. Two things to note on their Facebook page; how many fans they have and how often they post on their own wall. If you think about it, those 32,000+ fans get an reminder of the T-Mobile brand at least once a day.

I keep thinking about how the whole idea is very simple, basically people want to be a part an exciting experience and then share it with their friends. And in 2010, the way many of us share is with a mobile device connected to our online social network. T-Mobile has really tapped into their market with this campaign.

(sorry, this post isn't really part of my normal OLJ task list for class, but I kept thinking about the video since I saw it and how they used social media in really exciting ways so I wanted to reflect on it)

-AB

RSS feeds (initial thoughts)

I'm a big fan of the RSS feed. I collect information from a variety of sources and with RSS i can have it all in one one place. (I currently use Google Reader)

But how can libraries use RSS?
I found this interesting blog post from The Moxie Librarian who covered some of the basics (new additions to the catalogue, upcoming events, local interest stories) but then suggested some note worthy ideas. What about having an RSS of library media releases? Or library closings? Or job openings? Hold notifications?
The Library of Congress in the US has an extensive RSS page. I was surprised at some of the topics on offer. They have the sections about news and events, but there are also feeds for librarians and teachers, digital preservation, poetry, copyright news and the latest additions to the Library's gift shop.

I guess the lesson is to not limit to your thinking and to talk to the different departments. Each department knows what their customers are asking for on a regular basis.


Public Library RSS Brainstorm:
Here are a few ideas that came to me after reading through some of the RSS information
1. Teacher feed- new books related to the curriculum, author talks, summer reading programs
2. HSC feed- new additions, local talks, pod casts, study tips
3. Parent feed(s)- information about new books, events, and news just for parents. These could be tailored for particular age groups
4. Book group feed- what's happening with the Library's book groups, books they are reading, groups that have openings, reviews from book group participants
5. Staff pics- books selected by the staff with links to the catalogue

-AB

Podcasts

After reading the Module 2 I found out that the CSU library has a series of its podcasts. The very first podcast is about how students can access library services while doing a prac. That's so handy because I'm hoping to do my prac this year. Nice when things come together.
A podcast that I am particularly fond of is Adventures in Library Instruction. It is light hearted but so very informative. (I laugh and learn every time I listen) It is because of this podcast I now have a QR code on my business cards.

-AB

Delicious (initial thoughts)

I have reactivated my Delicious account. My first thought about how this type of bookmarking service

1. Tagging could be powerful for groups. A library could encourage staff to tag interesting articles with an agreed library tag to share with the group.
2. The cloud computing aspect means that if you find a great link at home, it can still be shared at work.
3. Links can be emailed to colleagues
4. searching by tags can lead to new information sources


-AB

Mythbusting in Social Media Marketing is a talk being presented by the Social Media Club Sydney. Sadly I can't go to this one but I've been to their talks before and they are worth going to.

AB

Entry 1

A. What is social networking:

In 2010, social networking consists of a variety of technologies that allow people to connect and share (although I would argue that the backyard BBQ is also a form of 'social networking'). Some of these spaces have a theme or topic like Flickr (for photography) or LinkedIn (for professionals) while others Facebook and My Space are for general socializing.

B. Social networking technologies and sites I use:

Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Linkedin, You Tube, delicious, Google chat, Google Reader (which I would consider 'social networking' because you can share links with others), Windows Messenger and I have a Wordpress blog (but it has been pretty quiet at my blog since I've gone back to Uni).

Over the years I have been on a number of social bulletin boards (craft ones, a wedding one and one for ExPats). I have also contributed to Wikipedia and have used wikis for work and other personal projects.

C. What I expect to learn in INF206:

I'm very interested in technologies and how we in the library industry can use them to our advantage. In INF206 I am hoping to gain a deeper understanding of social networking tools by looking at them with a critical eye. I'm also hoping to learn about the future of social networking and connect with others who are interested in this subject.

-AB