Of Library Crushes, Literary Podcasts, and Social Software Policies

Someone recently mentioned to me that they have a library crush.

“A crush on a librarian?” I asked.

“No, a crush on a library,” they replied slowly, emphasizing a long ee sound at the end of the word.

I thought about this for a minute and I realized that I did as well. There was a certain library that I once had been close to but, as often happens, I moved away for work and it stayed behind. I kept my library card there for a while but I eventually started using a new library system. I sometimes think about it, though, and perhaps sometimes I unfairly judge the library I’m currently using by the one I left behind.

Since this is a blog, I guess I should name names: it was the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon, which was once featured in a Decemberists song with the line: “I figured I had paid my debt to society, when I paid my overdue fines at the Multnomah County Library.”

Anyway, as part of paying my own debts to society, I’ve already written about this library’s use of twitter.  As part of my library crush, I also wanted to take a closer look at its use of podcasting.  The MultCoLib puts out a new podcast almost every week and the topics they cover, according to their own description, include library events, information about books, and overviews of library resources.  However, it’s actually a lot more interesting than that.  Looking back over the last couple of months, they’ve had podcasts featuring poets, authors, journalists, zinesters, and librarians who covered such diverse topics as Alzheimer’s, bullies, books, and pet adoption.  They even have the occasional non-English podcast.  And that’s just the last couple of months, their archives go back to March 2008.  I wasn’t planning to, but I subscribed to their podcast rss feed.

A lot of these podcasts come directly from the events the MultCoLib holds.  They either record the event itself or invite the featured guest to contribute to the podcast.  I think this is a great idea that compliments the efforts that the library is already making.  Libraries are often home to hugely interesting events and broadcasting them via a podcast only makes the events more accessible.  People who can’t attend them directly can still take part.  Patrons can discover and enjoy cool things that took place in the past.  Libraries can feature and promote their events, resources, and relationships to the literary world (such as zinesters, poets, and authors).  Even a standard podcast that just reviews a book can make the library feel more like a community and less like an one-dimensional institution.  It’s good to hear the professionals behind the organization talking about some of their passions.

One thing that would improve the podcasts would be if they listed the running time on the web description of each individual podcast.  They could also make them slightly easier to find as the podcasts are not currently featured on the front page; instead they’re a couple of links deep.  To find them, a new user would have to go from the front page to the technology page, which does feature the podcast.  I think a new user could figure out how to listen to the podcasts and there is a podcast help page to make things even easier. Each podcast has a “share this” button which takes the user to an Addthis.com page that allows the user to add the podcast to any social networking or bookmarking site they use.

Finally, the MultCoLib is one of the few libraries I’ve seen that publishes a Social Software Policy page. The policy discusses the definition of social software, comment moderation, and what things will get a comment deleted.  However, it also features this line:

Library social software is intended to create a welcoming and inviting online space where library users will find useful and entertaining information and can interact with library staff and other library users.

Who wouldn’t have a crush on a library with that attitude?

Social Bookmarking as Online Reference Organization Tools

Recently, I was visiting a library reference desk when another patron asked for help locating a couple of forms on a government website. The librarian knew exactly what forms she was looking for but it still took her several minutes to find the proper page where the forms could be downloaded.

“These were bookmarked on the computers at the other branch,” the librarian told me.

Social bookmarking sites like delicious (sometimes spelled del.icio.us) allow users to store and share all of their web bookmarks online. If the library I was visiting had stored the bookmarks for the government forms on a site like delicious instead of a computer, the librarian would have been able to easily find them. Even more so, if the library made their collection of links accessible from their library website, patrons might be able to locate the resources themselves. Indeed, web savvy libraries have been using social bookmarking sites in exactly this way.

A specific library doing this is the San Mateo Public Library (SMPL) in California. I want to look briefly at the SMPL’s use of delicious mainly because I enjoy the way they have organized their links: by the Dewey Decimal Classification System (DDC).

I think organizing their collection of links by DDC really highlights how social bookmarking can be used by libraries: to organize and allow access to their virtual reference tools.  Librarians who have never used delicious before should easily be able to understand the value of such a system.  For example, instead of searching and browsing through the labyrinth of a government website to find a phone number for the IRS, a librarian using SMPL’s delicious account could just go to the link collection that encompasses the DDC number of 336 (income tax) to find a find bookmark for the IRS phone contact page.

By having the bookmarks stored online, it means that anybody can access them from anywhere and they are not tied to one machine or person. Another advantage of using social bookmarking sites is that, well, they’re social.  In a library system like SMPL, any librarian might be able to add a bookmark to their delicious account as part of their normal reference work.  In this way, librarians who find and tag and bookmark excellent resources make the resources not only findable for themselves in the future but also for their colleagues and patrons.   According to Melissa Rethlefsen:

Del.icio.us lets users bookmark web pages for themselves and others, check out what others bookmark, and organize bookmarks in one place for portability…When users tag a resource, that bookmark, the tags the library assigned, and any comments are part of the larger, hand-selected set of resources del.icio.us has become. For each link in del.icio.us, users can track who else bookmarked that link and how they tagged it. Tags are also browsable, both by user and through the whole del.icio.us system.

The disadvantage of organizing bookmarks on delicious by the DDC is that it might not be friendly system for patrons or non-librarians to use.  While it’s pretty easy to figure out and browse SMPL’s bookmarks, it’s probably not as intuitive as just having them tagged by their subject. Indeed, it doesn’t seem the SMPL necessarily intends for their patrons to use their delicious account as I can’t find a link on the San Mateo Public Library site that takes me to it.  This is a shame because they have collected some really good resources, including a lot of locally relevant links,  and if I lived in San Mateo I would be browsing them often.  The  SMPL’s database and article subpages might be an appropriate place to link to their related DDC link bundles.

(Image: Screenshot of San Mateo Public Library’s DDC organized Delicious bundles)

Patron 2.0: The UnOfficial Library Wiki

A funny thing happens when you google the words Bull Run Library:  the first item that pops up is not the official website for the library system, but instead a patron created and run wiki for the library.

When Michael Casey and Laura Savastinuk wrote back in 2006 that “the heart of Library 2.0 is user-centered change,” I wonder if they envisioned users not only interacting and participating more on a library websites but users actually creating their own library websites.  That is, did they ever see their idea of Library 2.0 being less about user-centered change and more about user-created change?  They should have because the Bull Run Library Wiki was around back in 2006.

The Bull Run Library is part of the the Prince William Public Library System, which is located in Manassas, VA. The patron created wiki is a pretty neat site.  It’s got the usual library website sections on adult programs, children programs, the library itself, and upcoming events. It’s updated several times a week and everything posted is current.

If fact, the wiki works so well as a library site that I thought it was the official library site when I first checked it out.  It was only when I couldn’t find a link to the actual catalogue (they do link to WorldCat) that I noticed the small disclaimer on every page that states “This website is not sponsored by nor associated with the Prince William County Library System or Prince William County.”  A further notice states “Bull Run Library Wiki is created by and for the patrons of Bull Run Library”.

Having an unofficial library website that is fascinating to me.  Normally when I see an “unofficial” publication, it’s usually dishing dirt or criticizing something.  But the Bull Run Library is doing what a normal library website does: promoting library services, resources, and events. Below are screen shots of both the wiki (one the left) and the official library site (on the right).  I’ve circled in red the two things that I most often look for when I go to a library website: the catalog and info about opening and closing hours.  In the case of the wiki, I’ve circled both its link to WorldCat and the official Bull Run Library Catalog.

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I compare the official library website and unofficial library website next to each other, I have to say I like the unofficial wiki better.  It’s, well, friendlier.   The official website is useful but it’s part of a county government site and its style reflects this setting. It has no really interactivity or Web 2.0 services built into it. The feeling I get when I look at the two sites is that there are people behind the wiki and there is an organization behind the county run site.

Wiki’s can be edited by large numbers of people (such as with Wikipedia) or by a single person. In this case, the Bull Run Library Wiki appears to be mainly a one person operation.  However, it does allow comments for each of its pages and this, at the very least, gives the community an outlet for interacting and communicating. I think it would be neat to see more people editing the wiki.  I know that if I was a patron of that library, I’d be interesting in editing it to make it more user friendly.

The wiki is a bit confusing to navigate.  Unlike a blog, a wiki software doesn’t necessarily have a structure with an easy to navigate table of contents built into it.  Instead, there’s often a link to a list of all pages in alphabetical order.  Unless, it’s directly linked, navigating this list is a bit hard because you kind of have to know where you want to go before you go there (rather than just browsing from one related page to another).  In this case, there are 72 pages on the wiki site and most are buried unless you click link labeled “pages and files”. Someone who has never used a wiki before might have trouble finding some of the more obscure sections.

I’m very curious what the official library position on the wiki is.  As far as I can tell, they don’t link to it nor mention it anywhere on their site.  The wiki has it’s disclaimer but it does link to the library website.  I think a wiki that is both library sponsored or endorsed but patron run would be very interesting.  I’m sure it’s out there.

Ultimately, the Bull Run Library Wiki represents one of the best arguments I’ve seen for a library to embrace Web 2.0: if you don’t, your patrons might just do it for you.

(Images: Screen shots of the Bull Run Library Wiki and the Bull Run Library Website)

VIRL: Wii Got Zombie Blog

Vancouver Island is is almost 300 miles long, 60 miles wide, and has around 740,000 people living on it.  While it is not exactly a tropical island, the southern region of the island is the warmest Canadian place in winter and the driest in summer. Outside of Victoria, one of the main library systems on the island is the Vancouver Island Regional Library (VIRL), which serves more than 400,000 people on Vancouver Island, the Queen Charlottes and the BC Central Coast through 38 branch libraries and a books by mail service.

VIRL’s website reflects anything but a sleepy island library – it’s impressive in both its design and the services it offers.  I particularly like the fact that VIRL can take payments for overdue fines via their website.  This service seems like it would be especially useful for a library system that is serving a spread out population.

Like any library which understands the importance of the Internet, VIRL is using some Web 2.0 services.  The have a flickr account with over 1,500 photos posted to it, they offer virtual reference services through AskAway (a chat-based reference service offered via a consortium of library in British Columbia and the Yukon), and they have a couple of blogs.  These services are fairly easy to find with their latest flickr pictures being on the home page and the blogs and AskAway on their online resources page.

I’d like to examine one of the blogs in particular simply because I think it’s a fun topic: video games in the library.  VIRL has a blog called Wii Got Game that specifically addresses their video game collection and gamer programming.  The writers of the blog set out their purpose for Wii Got Game on the about page:

This blog is the place to come to keep up to date on everything related to gaming that’s happening at the Vancouver Island Regional Library.  It’s the place to come if you want to know what gaming events are currently happening in our branches, or if you want to know what our future plans for gaming are.  The blog is also here so our customers and librarians can interact to discuss anything and everything related to games.

First, let me say what I always think when I read about libraries offering video games: cool!

Anyway, lots of libraries have blogs where library staff give book recommendations and promote literary based library events.  I think it’s great that VIRL is taking this approach and applying it to video games.  Such blogs go a long way to changing the perception that libraries are just about books.  I think I would read such a gamer oriented blog if I lived near a library that published one. To be honest, I’m not a gamer, but if I could play them for free via the library, I might become one.

Of course, though, there’s a major problem with this particular blog: it’s dead! It’s what I consider to be a zombie blog – a blog that was started and updated for a while but has been abandoned.  A zombie blog is still online and accessible, it just isn’t animate.  In this case, Wii Got Game hasn’t been updated since September 2008.   The danger of a zombie blog is that a reader might not pay attention to the publication date and think they’re reading current info.  Indeed, as I was reading Wii Got Game, I didn’t notice at first that the last posting was from over a year ago.

Anyway, the zombie status of this blog is a shame because I think it’s a great topic.  It has the opportunity to engage patrons who might not be interested in “traditional” library resources.  However, if VIRL is not committed to updating it, I think they should de-link the blog from their blog page.

Looking back over Wii Got Game’s postings, I noticed that most of them were about gamer tournaments and open play nights that the library hosted.   I would have like to have seen more reviews about games, postings about game awards, notices of newly acquired games…pretty much everything VIRL’s Cover to Cover blog writes about but, you know, for video games.

So, here’s the question I have: if there isn’t enough interest to support a stand alone blog for video games, would it be possible to add games as a topic to a more book centric blog?  Is there enough cross over between gamers and readers to make mixed content be of  interest to both groups?  My guess is that it would depend on the general audience of the blog.  A blog for teens, I imagine, would do very well with hosting content on both games and books.  A mixed content blog for adults, on the other hand might, might be a bit tougher project to sell.  A successful cross over blog might expose readers to new materials and programs that they would never have considered before, which is a good thing for both patrons and libraries. Ultimately, though, the success of such a blog would probably depends on how well the blog is written.

(Image: Screenshot of Wii Got Game blog header)

Falling for TPL’s Romance Residence in Writer Blog

The Toronto Public Library (TPL) is the largest library system in Canada, with 99 branches and 11 million items to borrow or use in the library.  Their Internet presence is also large – besides their website, they have also staked out territory on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.  Additionally, they publish an impressive amount of blogs on a variety of topics.   All of these Web 2.0 resources can be found easily from the bottom of their home page in rectangle marked “stay up to date.”

When checking out their blogs, one of the more interesting ones that jumped out at me was their Romance Writer In Residence blog.  The blog was written by Canadian author Deborah Cooke, author of over 40 romance novels and novellas.  Ms. Cooke was the “Romance Writer In Residence” at the TPL for the months of October and November 2009 and she wrote the blog for the TPL website during this time.  She updated it several times a week, usually focusing on practical advice for writing romance novels, such as this post on how to submit work for publication.   She also interviewed other writers and even had guest author posts.

This use of a blog seemed perfect to me.  Having resident writers create blogs is a great way for a library to promote both their “writers in residence” program and allow their patrons to interact with the writer.  Too often I hear of a library hosting a cool writer in residence but I’m never able to attend any of the live events and thus feel like I miss out on the value of having such a program at the library. At times it can feel like there is a wall between the writer and the patron of a library – I’m never too sure what value as a patron I can get out of such a program, especially if I can’t attend any events. However, being able to read a writer’s own words (especially in context of library program) on a blog makes such a program feel less abstract – a reader can actually feel like they get to know the writer a bit.

Furthermore, a blog doesn’t just have to entail passive reading.  On the TPL blog, I was especially impressed with Ms. Cooke’s willingness to read and respond to comments left on the blog.  This made it feel like the Ms. Cooke was having a bit of conversation with her readers.

The TPL blog could use some refinement in its structure.  As a limited blog that only ran for two months, I’d love to be able to sort it into a reverse chronological order, with the older posts first and the newest ones last.  This would allow a late comer to the blog to easily read the posts in the order they were written.  This might be especially nice for such a practical blog as Ms. Cooke’s, where she is offering instruction.  It might be helpful to access the posts in the order she created them.  Barring that, I would at least like to see a pagination function at the bottom of each page that would allow users to click a “next page” link to access older posts.  As it stands right now, users have to search for archive links if they want to find older posts (and I was never sure if I reached the first post or if the archives were cut off).

Overall, though, the use of blogs for writers-in-residence programs is an excellent idea that allows libraries to showcase these programs. Such blogs can allow for actual engagement and conversation between writers and patrons, which is a big added value as a patron.  From a writer’s perspective, I’m sure it gains them fans (although I’m not sure about sales – the new readers probably get their books from the library).  At any rate, I hope TPL continues to have blogs hosted by their resident writers.

(Image: Screen shot of TPL’s Romance Writer in Residence Header)

Is Web 2.0 Compatible with Library Accessibility?

Accessibility is a core value of librarianship. The American Library Association (ALA)’s code of ethics promotes the concept of equitable access. This ethic applies not only to the physical library but also to libraries’ websites. In 2005, the ALA interpreted its Library Bill of Rights to say that “electronic information, services, and networks provided directly or indirectly by the library should be equally, readily and equitably accessible to all library users”.  Additionally in July 2009, the ALA adopted a resolution urging libraries to comply with web content accessibility guidelines that become widely accepted as standards of accessibility evolve, so that people with disabilities can effectively use library websites to access information with ease .

According to the W3C’s Web Accessibility Initiative, as the Internet becomes more dynamic, web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, interact, and contribute to the web. However, as libraries embrace the greater use of Web 2.0 technologies, are their websites accessible to disabled people who use assistive technologies? For example, is a library’s podcast accessible to someone in the deaf community? Can library’s google map mashup be understood by by a blind person using a screen reader?

Mary Zajicek, in a report entitled Web 2.0: Hype or Happiness? [pdf], writes that worrying trends in web accessibility include:

• An increased use of video.
• The use of more graphics heavy interfaces.
• The need for high bandwidth for sites to function properly.
• The use of of Ajax, which is inaccessible to screen readers, to create interactive applications.
• The use of Ajax on an increasing number of sites.

Zajicek also writes that, ultimately, the accessibility of Web 2.0 relies on the motivation of web developers to create accessible sites. As libraries embrace the use of new web technologies and services (like twitter or youtube), they should take time to assess if those services are accessible to everyone. Libraries that embrace an accessibility strategy for their website will be ensuring that their values and ethics regarding equitable access are truly met.

A trio of good web resources for creating accessible websites are WebAIM’s Principles of Accessible Design, WAI’s Quick Tips to Make Accessible Web Sites, and the online book Building Accessible Websites by Joe Clark.

Multnomah County Library’s Timely Twittering

Multnomah County Library (MultCoLib) is the main library system in Portland, Oregon and it has really embraced the use of Web 2.0 technologies. They have blogs, they’re on facebook, they publish rss feeds, they podcast, they make videos and upload them to Youtube and Blip.tv. The library has various links to their accounts on these services from their homepage, plus they have a centralized technology page with links to all their web 2.0 efforts.

In this post I want to look at their use specifically of the microblogging platform twitter (I hope to look at their use of other social media technologies in later posts).

I must admit that I’m slightly suspicious of twitter because I’ve never seen the advantages of limiting the amount of information one can publish. This goes doubly for libraries and other organizations. So with that in mind, I wanted to see what sort of information the MultCoLib is actually getting out there via twitter. Here’s what I found when I informally surveyed the Multnomah County Library’s last 40 tweets (using the format “general description: number of tweets”):

• Promotion of upcoming library event or program: 14
• Promotion of specific items in library catalogue: 6
• Promotion of other library resources: 7
• General library news: 4
• External news items focusing on the library: 4
• Links to local events/news: 2
• Links to non-local events: 4

So, it seems to me that the MultCoLib is really using twitter to promote services and resources that are timely in nature. Almost all tweets about upcoming events were for something, such as an author reading, happening a day or two after the tweet was made. The promotion of specific items in the library catalogue were likewise tied to current events. For example, one of my favorite tweets mentions that Charles Schulz’s birthday is on November 26th and links to all the Schulz and Peanut items in their collection. General news items were almost all about library closures and holiday hours.  The micro nature of microblogging seems perfect for a quick notice about an event and a link to more info.

The MultCoLib’s use of twitter enables the library to broadcast and promote their services and resources as well as put out timely news. It has 643 followers on twitter at this time. I can imagine subscribing to their twitter feed if I lived in Portland and wanted to be reminded about their various upcoming events. I’d also enjoy learning about stuff in their catalogue and how it relates to any given day.  However, if I wasn’t on twitter or following twitter feeds already, I doubt that I’d go out of my way to read what MultCoLib is publishing on twitter.

And this, I think, is one of the dilemmas of using Web 2.0 technologies.  You reach the communities of people already using a particular social media service, but your efforts might not reach into the “general public”.  Still, as in the case of the Library of Congress using Flickr, reaching specific communities can be enough.  It would be interesting to see how many people are following MultCoLib’s twitter stream in a year or two.

(Image: Screen shot of MultCoLib Twitter Logo)

Library of Congress Sails with Flickr

In January of 2008 the Library of Congress (LOC) added their first picture to the photosharing site Flickr.  A little over 9 months later, their photos on Flickr had been viewed over 10.4 million times.  Why did the LOC join a social media photosharing site? According to their FAQ on the topic they had three main goals:

• To share photographs from the Library’s collections with people who enjoy images but might not visit the Library’s own Web site.
• To gain a better understanding of how social tagging and community input could benefit both the Library and users of the collections.
• To gain experience participating in Web communities that are interested in the kinds of materials in the Library’s collections.

The LOC choose Flickr because it had a vibrant and large photosharing community with built in tagging, comments, and notes.  The community conversations were focused on photos and photography; and, it offered APIs that allowed for batch loading of photos and extraction of community provided information.

The LOC’s experiment with Flickr is considered a pilot project and they have published a report [pdf] on their first nine months of the project.  Their reporting indicates that they accomplished their goals: by October 2008, their photos on Flickr were averaging 500,000 views a month.  Interestingly, 82% of this traffic was referred from within Flickr; only 3% came from search engines.  Traffic to their own web site increased as well.  During the first 5 months of the pilot project, average monthly visits to the LOC’s own Prints and Photographs Online Catalog rose 20% compared to the same period the year before.  I think it would be interesting to also know how much traffic came to their flickr stream via the links on the LOC site, which seem to be a bit buried on the Prints and Photographs Reading Room page.

The LOC’s Flickr project helped their staff gain experience with Web 2.0 conventions as well.  For example, LOC let the Flickr community tag their photos.  During the first nine months, there were 67,176 community added tags, of which 14,472 (21%) were unique tags.  The data they are generating from this project is helping them research social tagging as a method of organization.

I think this is a great project and an amazing way for a library to open up its digital photos. Indeed, the LOC believes that their Flickr project has opened new avenues for making the Library’s visual collections not only available but also useful.  You can read more about the project on the LOC’s Photos on Flickr page.

(Image: Zeppelin Passenger ship from LOC Flickr stream – no copyright restriction)

Libraries at the Divide

Does the digital divide impact libraries as well as people? Let’s take a look at the concept of Library 2.0.  According to Michael E. Casey and Laura C. Savastinuk, Library 2.0 is:

a model for library service that encourages constant and purposeful change, inviting user participation in the creation of both the physical and the virtual services they want, supported by consistently evaluating services….While not required, technology can help libraries create a customer-driven, 2.0 environment.

Casey and Savastinuk are incorrect when they say that technology is not required for Library 2.0. While the concepts of user participation, evaluation, and change are very much a part of Library 2.0, they are also a part of Library 1.0 and the earlier beta versions.  It’s why libraries have had patron surveys and public steering committees since the early days.

No, Library 2.0 really is all about technology.  Specifically, it’s about the Internet.  Indeed, a library that has no web presence would never be considered to be 2.0 anything.   However, just having a web site and online catalogue is not exactly Library 2.0 either. According to Jessamyn West,

the digital divide is becoming about much more than people who have computers/email/web sites and people who don’t. The difference, to me, is people who have folded the web into their day to day lives and those who haven’t.

I would expand her comment beyond people to include libraries (and other organizations) as well.  Libraries that have embraced concept of Library 2.0 are those that have folded the web into their daily existence.  It’s not just about evaluation and change and user participation, it’s about evaluation and change and user participation through the Internet.  It’s about the librarian taking their place in collective dialogue that the Internet enables.  It’s about being on the right side of the digital divide.

This blog will examine how libraries are folding the Internet into their daily existence.  It will explore library websites and the types of web 2.0 technologies they are using.  It will attempt to find out what works and what doesn’t.