Changing Information Environment Seminar 23 January 2008

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Changing Information Environment Seminar 23
January 2008

• Facilitators Judy Reading, Jane Rawson and Eric
  Howard
• Outline of session
• Overview of context
• Discussion in small groups
• Short group presentations
• Vere Harmsworth Library experience of Web 2.0
• Summary and discussion

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Context

• Dramatic speed of development and proliferation
  of tools and online resources available to
  librarians, researchers and students
• Changing attitudes to information and access
• Changing role of librarian
• http//www.guardian.co.uk/uk_
  news/story/0,3604,1415830,00.html
• Challenge and opportunities

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Web 2.0

• Web 2.0 an attitude not a technology? (UKOLN
  presentation at OULS staff conference)
• COLLABORATION
• The long tail many sites with low popularity
  more popular than few sites with high
  popularity PERSONALISATION
• Democratization of information?
• Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
• http//youtube.com/watch?v6gmP4nk0EOE
• See the UKOLN website esp briefing 92
• http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefing
  s/print-all/web/

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Topics

• Wikipedias and WIKIS for collaborative working
• Weblogs/Blogs especially Library blogs
• Social sites like Facebook
• Social tagging and http//del.icio.us
• Podcasts eg Youtube
• Virtual reality sites like Secondlife

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For each topic

• What is it?
• When was it invented/developed?
• How might it be used by both users and library
  staff?
• What are its pros and cons?

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Wikipedias and Wikis

• Wikipedia http//www.wikipedia.org/
• Also Citizendium http//en.citizendium.org/wiki/Ma
  in_Page
• Wikis allow collaborative content to be placed
  online useful for projects and group work of
  all kinds eg http//www.writeboard.com/
• http//traineeshowcase2007.wetpaint.com/
• http//socialouls.wetpaint.com

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Wikipedia and wikis use in libraries

• See Ariadne Issue 49 - http//www.ariadne.ac.uk/is
  sue49/guy/18
• Used more frequently in USA below is an example
  from University of Bath

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Wikipedia and Wikis

• Issues
• Balance between quality of information and
  freedom of editing who edits, why, how?
  Wikipedias cleanup/stub policy, Citizendium
  expert Wikipedia
• Consensus/leadership?
• Currency can become obsolete if not updated
  regularly

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Blogs

• Weblog again connected to Web 2.0
• Online diary/advertisement for events
• Drawing together information from various sources
  into one place
• Angela Newton's Information Literacy blog,
  University of Leeds,https//elgg.leeds.ac.uk/liba
  jn/weblog/

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Issues relating to Web 2.0!
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Social Networking Tools for example,
www.facebook.com
Many examples but all have similar features
Networks (geographical /work)
Interest groups
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Social networking tools uses?
Open Events training, inductions, etc?

• Generic library profile
• Invite students to join a library network?
• Schedule live time where questions will be
  answered?

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Social networking sites

• Advantages
• Embedded in many peoples lives (25000 members
  in Oxford) users can do as much or as little as
  they want to their individual profiles
• Quick way to communicate with wide audience
• Requires little-technical know-how
• Disadvantages
• Many different social networking sites
  monitoring popularity/deciding which site to use
  for library
• Granny dancing at disco! effect!!
• Scholarly literature
• Articles appear on CSA Illumina, for example
• My My Space Comment Woody Evans Library
  Journal Vol 132, Issue 3, P. 44.
• The results of a two-year evaluation of the
  effect of Facebook on faculty-student
  communications is available at
• http//www-static.cc.gatech.edu/aforte/HewittFort
  eCSCWPoster2006.pdf.

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Social tagging.

• Allows users to classify information in the way
  they want
• Sharing their classification with others
  www.librarything.com
• Tag clouds

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Social tagging - use in libraries

• De.lic.ious tagging of documents on web
• See Pen Tags - http//tags.library.upenn.edu/help/
  

Tag cloud
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Social tagging - advantages and disadvantages

• Collaboration with other library staff and users
  - online reading lists
• Tailored information to the needs of a particular
  user group (yourself and/or others!) as opposed
  to one size fits all
• Disadvantages
• Mutability of language terms may become quickly
  outdated
• Preservation issues fixed vs fluid organisation
  of information?

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Podcasts

• www.youtube.com
• Effective shop front to entice people into
  using your library service.
• One of the more well-known is Ray of Light" St.
  Joseph County Public Library Version see
  http//www.youtube.com/watch?vvrtYdFV_Eak.
• Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us
• http//youtube.com/watch?v6gmP4nk0EOE

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Podcasts - issues

• Advantages
• Little technical know-how needed
• Appealing to visual generation and different
  learning styles.
• Fun???
• Disadvantages
• Credibility issues?
• Currency of podcasts visual media may need
  updating more frequently?

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• Definitions
• See http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Life
• Virtual world interactions using avatars
  (virtual representations of the self)
• 6 576378 members (21st May 2007)
• Uses in library situations
• Alliance Library Systems see http//www.infoisla
  nd.org/.
• TALIS review see http//www.talis.com/tdn/node/1
  506 .

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• Advantages
• Reaching out to many users simultaneously
• Opportunities for different forms of interactions
  (e.g. Renaissance Island a educational
  roleplay island)
• Disadvantages
• Most accounts are inactive (Wikipedia) out of
  6,576,378 accounts, only 1,734,041 were used in
  the last 60 days - high time investment needed by
  users and library staff
• Backlash? www.getafirstlife.com
• Is Secondlife a sustainable web development
  (like RSS feeds) or a fad?

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The Librarian fundamentalistshttp//www.ukoln.ac.
uk/web-focus/events/meetings/emuit-2006-11/Brian
Kelly UKOLN

• Think they know better than the user e.g. they
  don't like people using Google Scholar they
  should use Web of Knowledge (who cares that users
  find it easier to use Google Scholar finds
  references they need that way?)
• Think that users should be forced to learn
  Boolean searching other formal search
  techniques because this is good for them (despite
  Sheffield's study).
• Don't want the users to search for themselves (cf
  folksonomies) because they won't get it right.
• They still want to classify the entire Web -
  despite the fact that users don't use their lists
  of Web links.
• Want services to be perfect before they release
  them to users. They are uneasy with the concept
  of 'forever beta' (they don't believe that users
  have the ability to figure things out themselves
  and work around the bugs).

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Hope you found this interesting

• Email for any follow-up ideas to
• judy.reading_at_ouls.ox.ac.uk
• eric.howard_at_ouls.ox.ac.uk
• jane.rawson_at_ouls.ox.ac.uk
• http//www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/information_skills