Implementation of Social Software
Posted by jfobert on January 25, 2008
I think our library is ready to implement social software. The hurdles will be how and when. We are very interested in having a feed with updates on the library. At this point that utility is being used so students can gain easy access to our library website and there is reluctance to change the information on this feed. When placed on a patron’s webpage, they will have direct links to our search tools for books, journal articles and videos. I guess you could say the hurdle here is what is the main purpose for this feed. Also, since all the public terminals on campus default to a University webpage, I think it would be better to place news on the library in a general news feed. Why segregate the library from the rest of the campus? If you want to be the central meeting place of an institution, you need to be part of it to begin with.
Resistance to change as we have read is always an obstacle. Librarians need to be conscious on how to approach change and difficult situations if they want to be successful in the profession. When we first introduced a blog for the library staff it met with resistance. I myself was not clear why we were going to create the blog. Since it was centered in reference, those of us in technical services felt uninvolved in the concept. Also the fact that it was another site we would have to sign into to read did not encourage use. Involvement during the development of the blog would have resulted in better buy in. After learning what I have in this course, I have made a link to it on my igoogle page and using google reader, it is much more attractive to look at. I can easily see what new postings there are there and access the information quickly. This is an internal blog only yet the information here would be useful to all. This brings us to a point made in the “Technology Trends for a 2.0 World” article. Openness, sharing and transparency are the new guiding concepts we need to follow. Why keep information on what resources a class will need for their assignments on an internal blog? The goal is for the student to complete his assignment and less on how to use the library so access to this information makes sense.
The library is preparing to unveil our new Encore interface for our III Opac. I think it will be very interesting as there will be tag clouds and social tagging. Belonging to a consortium, I notice librarians at some other libraries are wary of this idea. I’m glad to say we are approaching the project in a very positive manner.
Kimberly Giedd said
Even though I have had minimal experience working in a library, I do agree that it is so difficult for library staff to implement changes because they are often met with resistance. Even college students are reluctant to change and adapt to new web pages and such. As a fairly recent college graduate and current graduate student, I do like the idea of having a feed for library news, especially if it contains important links. I also think including it in the school’s general web page makes a lot of sense, since more students are likely to encounter it there, rather than taking the extra step to go to the library page.