Web 2.0 Tools – Outreach & Community Building

Chad F. Boeninger, Reference & Instruction Technology Coordinator, Ohio University Libraries

Brian C. Gray, Librarian - Engineering, Math, & Statistics, Case Western Reserve University

OLC's Outreach and Special Services Division August 1, 2007

EXPECTATIONS FOR TODAY

• Blogs• Wikis• RSS• IM/Meebo• Screencasting

• Podcasting• Facebook/MySpace• Second Life• del.ici.ous• LibraryThing

LETS PLAY!

BLOGS

• Today’s “publishing platform”

• Allows patron ownership in their web experience with the organization

• Continue conversations after events

• Allows more staff to participate in the external voice of the library

• Share more, build participation

http://technorati.com/weblog/2007/04/328.html

Blog Based OPAC

• Casey Bisson

• WPopac: An OPAC 2.0 Testbed

• WordPress based, so already have access to more programmers than the ILS vendors combined

Blogger is FREE

Patrons Blogging About Libraries

WIKIS

What is a Wiki?

• A website in which content can be created and edited by a community of users

• Strength of the resource is often dependent on the strength of the community

Wiki as technical documentation

http://codex.gallery2.org/Main_Page

Wiki as fan site

http://lostwiki.abc.com/

Wiki as a web site

http://executiveplanet.com

Wiki as professional organization

http://www.libsuccess.org/

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/refwiki/index.php/Group_Study_Room_Scheduling_Software

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/refwiki/index.php/Video_Reference

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Regional_Encyclopedia_of_Business_&_Management

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Category:Country_and_Culture

Do you recognize RSS?

RSS

• RSS drives the data transfer in most web 2.0 tools

• Efficient way to share news and data, plus support research

• User initiated subscriptions to a “web address containing data”

KSL RSS Feeds

RSS in Databases & Publisher Websites

• Create a RSS alert directly from a result lists, a search history, or a publication’s table of contents.

RSS and OPML

• OPML can be shared so everyone has access to the same content

• Promote to instructors as a tool for creating reading lists

• Library recommended sites

RSS Changing Our Patrons

• Moving away from email & listservs• “PULL” rather than “PUSH”• Sharing everything - Privacy?• Speed• Few years ago…”If not on the Internet, it

is not legitimate” - Is RSS the next thing patrons use to judge products & services?

IM

Why do it?

• 75 % of online teens and 65% of all teens (16 million) use IM

• 48% of teens who use instant messaging use it daily, 30% use it several times a day

• 42% of online adults reported using instant messaging

Source: Pew Internet Report: Teens & Technology http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/162/report_display.asp

More on IM Use

• 46% of teens said they choose instant messaging most often when communicating by text with friends, compared with 33% who choose email

• Teens view email as something you use to talk to “old people,” institutions, or to send complex instructions to large group

Source: Pew Internet Report: Teens & Technology http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/162/report_display.asp

How Students Access

Individual Staffing Model

SCREENCASTING

• A screencast is a web-based demonstration

• Usually incorporates Flash

• A variety of commercial and free tools– Adobe Captivate– Techsmith Camtasia– Wink

Screencasts in action

http://www.debugmode.com/wink/

YouTube

• The Process– Record video with

Camcorder– Capture screen

video with CamStudio

– Edit with Windows Media Maker or iMovie

– Upload to YouTube

http://www.camstudio.org/

• Records screen movements to AVI format

• Also converts AVI to Flash (.swf)

• Linear recording process

Another software option

Podcasting as Simple as Making a Phone

Call

Podcasting

• Announcements

• Book reviews

• Guest speakers

• Gaming

• Poetry

• Commentary

• Teen & youth

• New Resources

• Training

• User submitted

• Music

• Library tours

• Technology

• Story telling

Podcasting

SOCIAL SITES

• MySpace and Facebook offer excellent outreach tools

• Put the librarian/library in the user’s space

• Don’t be pushy with your presence

http://www.libsuccess.org/index.php?title=MySpace_%26_Teens

http://www.myspace.com/askalibrarianfl

http://www.myspace.com/teensatapl

Second Life

Conference in SL

Meeting in SL

del.ici.ous

LibraryThing

LibraryThing

QUESTIONS

• Chad Boeninger: boeninge@ohio.edu

• Brian C. Gray: bcg8@case.edu

• Presentation at: http://www.slideshare.net/bcg8 or http://www.libraryvoice.com/presentations