It is a sign of these digital times that there is no dearth of material about Library 2.0. But what to extract from this for ourselves and our libraries?
We have to decide (again)what is our core purpose and use Web 2.0 Tools to achieve those goals. Our focus should be on adding real value to the user’s experience.
I know only too well (see last post) how easy it is to become sidetracked by the range of online stuff that one can do. How do we preserve the balance between enriching one’s life with online engagement and forgetting to have a life altogether?
So if our core goals are loosely based around notions of providing access to the resources and knowledge that people want and need, we need to focus on applications that contribute to those ends, not just do something clever because we can.
Be user centred – thinking about the tools that we have used so far on this course, I have become even keener to offer rss feeds from our catalogue, and the capacity for users to add their own tags to it and also to have the opportunity to engage with other readers via a blog or wiki.
I have been really impressed by what Dave Pattern in Yorkshire has done with his catalogue. Users can subscribe to rss feeds, email alerts, contribute ratings and comments and more. He uses the same Horizon Information Portal as do we so I emailed him to find out how we could do this but was crestfallen to hear that he used a second server, and some technical programming. Still I am pursuing the conversation with him.
And similarly with Library Thing for Libraries – they responded to my email query but again we do not have the correct database structure to easily do it. However, they are prepared to experiment with other ways.
So, the core goals can be there,and the will to change, but technology can let you down. The challenge is to try not to be daunted and to persevere.
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3 comments:
I recently read a comment somewhere (a mailing list perhaps) that basically said public librarians have to be sensible and even restrained re: 2.0 technologies because the average library patron is probably 15 years behind the technology. Thinking about the types of questions we get asked I think there's something in that. But I did love that Yorkshire catalogue although I think I accidently gave a book I've never read a bad (1/2 star) rating - oops!
I think the idea of people rating books is a good way to make the catalogue interactive.
Many thanks for the kind comments ...and the low rating! ;-)
I've got a bit more coding to do, but keep an eye on my blog for something I'll probably call "HIPpie" (HIP Patron Interface Enhancements), although if I can come up with a better name, I will.
The idea is to provide something similar to LibraryThing for Libraries, so that you'll only need to add a couple of lines of JavaScript to the OPAC stylesheets to provide ratings, comments, "did you mean" suggestions, RSS feeds, and email alerts.
By the way, Casey (who looks after LibraryThing for Libraries) knows more about SirsiDynix HIP/iPAC that probably anyone else on the planet (I think he also used to work for Dynix?), so I'm sure he'll come up with a way of adding their really cool stuff to your OPAC :-)
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