The Many Facets of IPL Community Building

Building Communities through LibrariesALA's Social Responsibilities Round Table Hunger and

Homelessness Task ForceALA Annual Conference June 28, 2008

Eileen G. Abels, Denise AgostoLily Rozaklis, Shanshan Ma, Elana Marian

Drexel University

IPL: History and Background

• Created by 35 students at the University of Michigan under the guidance of Dr. Joe Janes

• Consists of a collection of vetted resources, many links and some resources created for the IPL

• Offers a question-answering service• January 2007 moved to Drexel University with the

support of a consortium of partners

IPL Partners 2008

• Drexel University• Florida State University• Rutgers University• Syracuse University• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign• University of Michigan• University of North Carolina• University of Washington

The Internet Public Library:Teaching/Learning Environment and a Public Service

http://www.ipl.org

IPL’s Mission Statementhttp://www.ipl.org/div/about/mission_and_vision.html

The Internet Public Library is a global information community that provides in-service learning and volunteer opportunities for library and information science students and professionals, offers a collaborative research forum, and supports and enhances library services through the provision of authoritative collections, information assistance, and information instruction for the public.

How we will meet our goals:http://www.ipl.org/div/about/mission_and_vision.html

• Creating and supporting new learning experiences for students and volunteers,

• Serving as a research forum and as a technological test-bed, • Serving the public by finding, evaluating, selecting, organizing,

describing, and creating high quality information resources, and

• Connecting members of the public to high quality information resources through the IPL question answering service.

Teaching/Learning:LIS Education Community

• LIS faculty• LIS students

– Answering questions– Providing administrative assistance

• Volunteers

IPL Learning CommunityLed by Lorri Mon, FSU

IPL Learning Community

IPL and Social Networking

• Facebook and MySpace pages were created• Regular updates were sent out to its fans,

including new collections, news from the IPL, and etc.

• Fans can start discussions on the page, upload photos or videos, and connect with other IPL users.

The IPL Facebook Page

IPL Facebook Statistics

• Page was launched on March 15, 2008• 462 fans as of June 24, 2008• The number is still growing.

The IPL MySpace Page

IPL MySpace Profilehttp://www.myspace.com/internetpubliclibrary

• Page was created on October 9, 2007, and revamped to coincide with Facebook launch

• 210 friends as of June 18, 2008– 201 libraries and 9 individuals

• Content added as blog entries, including:– Improved IPL search feature– Collection of resources on web technologies– Events such as Virtual Library Legislative Day

IPL Users

• Educational organizations• Community organizations• Non-profits• Members of the general public from around

the world

Educational Organizations (1)

Educational Organizations (2)

Community 0rganizations

Non-profit organizations

Geographic Distribution of IPL Visitors

Visitors by Countries

Source: Google Analytics

Users of the Ask a Question Service

Most Frequent Countries of OriginUSCanadaIndiaQatarUKPhilippinesAustraliaGhanaItalyNew ZealandNigeriaSouth AfricaEgyptIranJamaciaMalaysia

Nature of Queries (1)• Large breadth

– History and Politics• Definition of colonialization “so I can better understand

my own country” ~Mauritius• Relationship between the US state of Georgia and

nation of Georgia ~Georgia

– Science• How a submarine functions ~India• Nutritional value of animal protein ~Taiwan

Nature of Queries (2)

– Literature• Biography of a poet ~India• Online Dictionaries ~Canada

– Business• Management styles ~Romania• Internet notaries ~Brazil

IPL Community Building

• Become part of the IPL community– Visit the website at www.ipl.org– Become a volunteer!