Northwest Interlibrary Loan and

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Northwest Interlibrary Loan and Resource Sharing
Conference Communication in the ILL Community Joe
Anderson, WJ Content Manager September 20, 2007
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What is WebJunction?

• A highly successful online community for library
  staff
• 30,000 members
• 70,000 unique visitors per month
• 13 state library subscribersand more on the way
• Roots in the public library community
• Expanding reach into academic library community
• Launched 2003
• Initial funding Gates Foundation
• Parent organization OCLC

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Some areas of focus

• Public access computing
• E-learning
• Virtual interest groups (Communities of Practice)
• Partnerships with library organizations
• State libraries
• Grant-funded organizations
• More on the way

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Resources Patron services Management Technology We
ekly tips Combines 4 previous WJ sections
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Courses Course Catalog and Clearinghouse E-Learnin
g Institute Resources for library trainers and
administrators implementing e-learning. Live
SpaceWJs web conferencing solution
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Community Forums Features Volunteer activities
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Access to WJ services

• Most services are freely accessible
• Free registration required for posting to
  discussions and taking courses
• Courses are free to members in partner states
• Some projects are limited to particular groups

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Course Catalog

• Over 250 courses
• Course providers including MindLeaders,
  University of North Texas, OCLC Western/OCLC
  CAPCON, WebJunction
• Wide variety of topics
• Continuing to add courses
• Access to courses is available one year from
  purchase
• Typical course price 25 - 50
• Bulk purchase discounts available

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WJ E-Learning InstitutePublications

• Trends in E-Learning for Library Staff
• Blended Learning Guide

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WebJunction Communities of Practice

• Online groups of practitioners in particular
  library disciplines
• A growing suite of available tools for building
  community
• A cohort of community builders sharing best
  practices
• Visibility within the WebJunction site

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Community of Practice features
RSS
Threaded discussions
Rich content
Courses
Community connections
People
Face-to-face meetings
Virtual meetings
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Other tools available

• Blogs
• Wikis
• Web conferencing tools
• Bulk email tools
• Listservs
• Calendaring

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WebJunction 2.0

• New funding from the Gates Foundation to improve
  the flexibility, functionality and ease of use of
  the site

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WJ 2.0 Highlights

• Emphasis on
• user-contributed content
• social communication tools
• Built on open-source platform designed for
  community-generated extensions
• Based on knowhow from four years of operation as
  an online community

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WJ 2.0 Highlights

• Currently defining product offerings, pricing,
  support
• Currently evaluating potential beta participants
• Beta spring 08, launch summer 08
• Long-term plans to broaden our reach

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Questions about WJ?
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What weve learned about building online
communities
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Its about people, not tools

• Start with strong program managers
• Recruit early adopters to help
• Provide incentives and programs for followers
• Reach out to latecomers
• Not everyone will get on board

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Balancing content, community, and learning

• Web 2.0 tools help you
• Build a shared professional knowledge base
• Searching and browsing are very efficient
• Build professional connections
• Peer to peer
• Mentoring and getting help
• Build skills
• Career development
• Organizational development

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Manage each tool appropriately

• Each medium has its own techniques
• File sharing
• Wikis
• Blogs
• Discussions
• Mailing lists
• Social interaction tools

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Integrate the in-person element

• Nothing beats face time
• Face time takes time
• Use online tools to extend,enhance, deepen
  F2Finteraction
• WJ Blended Learning Guidetells all

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Use the tools to get Real Stuff done

• Dont underestimate the power of connection
• but everyones busy!
• Focus on projects that address real problems

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Need more info?

• Us
• info_at_webjunction.org
• Me
• joe_anderson_at_oclc.org
• 206-351-5607

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