Subject guides/Pathfinders/Library Guides and social media

I've been doing some reading around Subject Guides/Pathfinders/Library Guides, with a focus on their use of social media tools. My specific focus is on use in small/medium academic libraries.

Readings included:

Morris, S. and Del Bosque, D. (2009). Getting More From Your Subject Guides by Going 2.0: MPLA/KLA Annual conference 2009

http://www.mpla.us/documents/handouts/2009/morris.pdf
Yang, S. (2009).  Subject Guide 2.0: A Dream or Reality? Journal of Library and Information Science 35,1:90 – 98 April, 2009 http://jlis.glis.ntnu.edu.tw/ojs/index.php/jlis/article/viewFile/528/522 accessed 10 September 2011

Farkas, M. (2007). The long road towards subject guide 2.0

http://meredith.wolfwater.com/wordpress/2007/10/24/the-long-road-towards-subject-guide-20/. accessed 10 September 2011

Hamilton, B. (2009) Integrating Social Media as Authoritative Information into Research Pathfinders     http://www.aasl.ala.org/aaslblog/?p=595  accessed 10 September 2011

Lamb, A. and Johnson, L. (2010)  Pathfinders, Subject Guides, & Thematic Resources: http://eduscapes.com/earth/informational/path1.html

Subject guides have come a long way from when I first was first involved in creating some, nearly 20 years ago. The inclusion of social media to make them a two way, interactive conversation that allows for the expertise of the users to improve the end product, seems like a great thing! However, to do it efficiently for the ‘average’ librarian requires an investment in time to learn the tools to use, and a regular updating process to keep the conversation current (although this in itself is not different - guides have always needed that investment of time to keep them valuable).

Of particular interest is the concept of getting our guides to where people are - how is that possible when we host them (hide them) on our multi-layered websites. I’m always amazed at how many students are not aware of the LibGuides that we have available - and they’re generally amazed at what useful information they’ve been missing. As Farkas states, "I think the key is to focus on being where our students are, both physically and online. If we can understand their information-seeking behavior and put ourselves in their path, right at reach, we’ll be much more likely to have an impact." (Farkas, October 2007).

However, I’m also interested in some of the kinds of information that our LibGuides don’t include - subject wiki’s/blogs, social bookmarking and online chat (presumably with the specific subject librarian). It may be that our software (LibGuides) allows staff to use these items but that our staff don’t currently feel comfortable using them, or they simply aren’t aware of the options available. And I know that we can use video and presumably podcasts. But I think we can add in twitter feeds, and I love the ideas from Hamilton’s (2009) blog about mashups using Google Maps (especially for topical subjects with changing situations).

How will you apply what you learned?

Good question.
One day when the time is right I will return triumphantly to an academic library near me! Well, hopefully Murdoch and I will increase our involvement when I have more time and they have more money. I think this part of the outreach/increasing our value to our users is very important and useful when done correctly. And hey, I find it very interesting.

I’m hoping to put together a bit of a page of links on the Murdoch Library staff blog that has some of this information, for those who aren’t aware of what is possible...

I will continue to use the existing LibGuides as I find them invaluable as a casual librarian. And I will possibly look at mentioning to individual staff some interesting material that I find that may enhance their existing guides.

Update: I have had my hours extended, and I've been able to work on a LibGuide from scratch, so revisiting some of my readings has been very helpful. However, we have also had a change to the subscription (we now have more functionality) and a change to a standardised format to assist with branding. This has been both great, and a bit limiting. 
The guides are now more find-able and there has been talk of including them in the student's Unit information this may already have been done in some cases) so that it's all more integrated.

Wow. How could I not be inspired...

Just discovered a new blog through a link to the post:

Amy Buckland, “in forming thoughts » Blog Archive » the talk i meant to give,” blog, in forming thoughts, Retrieved June 26, 2011, http://jambina.com/blog/the-talk-i-meant-to-give/.

 I love the passion and vision. I'm very safe in many respects, and yet I agree with her - maybe I'm more of a revolutionary than I thought! I have to say that I like the concept of Libraryland. And the power that together we can harness. I do feel tied professionally in that I'm not in a position of any 'power'. Except the power of the one to one discussion, where I help one person find what they need, or change their mind about what libraries are, or what can be done by individuals.

I know that this CPD program is giving me permission to continue to learn, to be challenged and, when I re-enter the workforce and am (hopefully) in a position of influence I won't shrink back but step up, stand up for what I believe in, and help build the future I think we should have.

Favourite quotes:

true thought leaders, true revolutionaries, are willing to overthrow the system, or join it, if that’s what works best for their community.

I think we overlook the 'change from within' option too much. We see things as threats to be fought against, but sometimes we need to be willing to work with things, maintaining our core of separateness and 'right' if necessary, for a better outcome for our community. 

it’s a kickass time to be a librarian. so many opportunities to make society better. and that’s why we do this, right? we aren’t becoming millionaires. we aren’t going to rule the world (ok, maybe we will).

 Can't help but love the way that this is put.

That's it for now...

And from the Daddy of the Web...

On the  20 years anniversary of the web, Tim Berners-Lee has writen a piece for Scientific American. It's a bit of a review of where we are now, and some of the potential issues.

Berners-Lee, T. (2010). Long live the web. Scientific American, 303(6), 80-85. Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=long-live-the-web&print=true25 June 2011.

Some of the key issues that he sees are not new, but how they will be worked out is yet to be defined, and requires discussion amongst the users - not just governments or those in big corporations.  It may be that many of the freedoms that we enjoy and take for granted now, may be eroded. Or there may be potential for the freedoms to impinges on the rights to privacy that we now enjoy.

Universality  - is the ability to access regardless of age, gender, religion, disabilities but also physical location and interface being used.  This is under threat in some cases where providers are limiting access to certain sites (slowing download speeds to sites outside of the company's domain etc.) There is also the more obvious threat where certain governments have tried (with varying success) to limit the access of their people to non-approved sites. It's linked to Net Neutrality.

He also sees a threat to this as being silos of information - people being (intentionally or not) stuck using just the subset of information that they are comfortable with. Perhaps only using Facebook with it's chat, organisational pages and advertising. Or only using Google products because they are comfortable with the interface. This is something I hadn't considered as a threat and I can see that there will be more people in this situation. The innovators and tech savvy will move to new products that better meet their needs, but many people don't have the time or inclination to spend learning a new interface or working out the quirks of a new product. I'm not sure how much of a problem this will be in the short term, but if it reduces innovation long term then it is a definitive concern.

Another issue that I hadn't considered is the huge increase in smartphone apps threatening  access to information.  I do know it's painful if you can have a fantastic app on Iphone for example and not on Android and move from one to the other. Or have both platforms in one family and cannot share as you should... He makes an argument for the apps to be web apps that also run on phones. I don't know enough about the technology behind to make an informed judgement - I'm just a user who is happy when it all works & syncs across my phone, desktop & ipad.

Net neutrality

Network neutrality (also net neutrality, Internet neutrality) is a principle proposed for user access networks participating in the Internet that advocates no restrictions on content, sites, or platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and on the modes of communication allowed, as well as communication that is not unreasonably degraded by other traffic. Wikipedia, accessed 28 June 2011

This is another big issue in relation to free access, regardless of your personal, economic, geographic position. Given some recent situations (Google and Verizon are mentioned in the article) Mr Berners-Lee suggests that government legislation is required to protect net neutrality. I can't see this going down well in certain quarters, and it would be challenging to do so in an internationally acceptable way, but I can definitely see his argument. As we have seen in the last 12 months, neutrality of technology can play a key role in allowing political dissent and freedoms to blossom!

Also linked is the issue of snooping, particularly by government agencies. Web freedom overall is the general thrust of this article. As he concludes:

Now is an exciting time. Web developers, companies, governments and citizens should work together openly and cooperatively, as we have done thus far, to preserve the Web’s fundamental principles, as well as those of the Internet, ensuring that the technological protocols and social conventions we set up respect basic human values. The goal of the Web is to serve humanity. We build it now so that those who come to it later will be able to create things that we cannot ourselves imagine.

Can't argue with that!

 

Keeping up with the Jones's

I'm trying to catch up on some of the readings I've been doing lately, and keeping my information in the one place. So, here's another one. Thanks to Kathryn Greenhill for pointing me towards it.

Sheehan, K. (2010, August 3). Keeping Up with Keeping Up. ALA Techsource. Retrieved June 20, 2011, from http://www.alatechsource.org/blog/2010/07/keeping-up-with-keeping-up.html

Very interesting article - clarifies some of my thoughts and gives guidance on what really are appropriate actions to do to try to keep up with technology and changes. It can feel so hard with limited time. And I feel like I'm really not doing very well compared with the people who's writing I follow. I need to target my work/reading/development because I can't hope to do it all (as Kate Sheehan points out clearly).
However, when I compare myself with many of my collegues (not that I intentially try to benchmark, just what comes up in conversation) I realise that other people are struggling even more than me, or have less interest/see it as much less of a priority. Again, as pointed out by Kate Sheehan.

Soooo, how will I implement this new knowledge? Well, although my current work is in Higher Education, I still have a passion for public libraries, and a growing interest in school libraries.
The areas that I find easier to keep up with and most interesting are more social networking - Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, etc. The areas that I find more difficult are the issues around DRM, ePortfolios and some of the content creation areas (Vimeo etc.). So the areas that I am less confident with are probably the ones which aren't focussed on in public and school libraries as much (although of course they are still relevant). And I do read enough to know of the basic issues/that there are issues with DRM, that there is a variety of ePortfolio platforms and software and that there are some absolutely amazing content creation applications out there.And where to go or who to talk to, to get more information. Which means that (according to Kate) I'm doing ok.

So I will leave you with my new favourite quote:

“Keeping up with technology” seems overwhelming and huge and ridiculously hard if it’s presented as a monolith that must be scaled. Keeping up doesn’t mean knowing every single tech trend that’s out there. It means being engaged with your community and knowing what your patrons are using. ... Just like the rest of librarianship – it isn’t about being an expert; it’s about knowing where to look.

Technology and Learning

I really enjoy reading blog posts by Judy O'Connell and others working in the Education system. Having a sister who is a literacy consultant to small independant schools (and who finds technology frustrating) and also having two children now in Primary school, I find myself viewing it with different perspectives. So it's good to see someone championing technology and using it in innovative ways.
Today I read in one of her posts:

We use technology to think and learn.  We don’t use technology because it’s a cool tech tool, and because our syllabus says we need a certain percentage of technology in the curriculum. http://heyjude.wordpress.com/2011/06/25/leaders-can-make-magic-happen-too/ Accessed 25 June 2011

 I like the concept, but I don't think we are there in my children's school, or in the schools where my sister is an educational consultant.
In the former, the Library Officer (untrained but fantastic) is also expected to assist teachers with the bank of computers in the library. These are (to my knowledge) the only bank in the school, although there are individual machines in most classrooms, and electronic whiteboards in a few. The teachers and other staff are moving on the continuim towards using technology as a basic part of their toolkit, but for many there is a long way to go.
And in my sister's schools, many are remote and have limited net access, and very few staff  at each location. If the teachers aren't passionate about using technology, then the machines will sit in the corner and gather dust. It's all just too hard, just trying to teach the kids the basics of literacy and numeracy with all of the issues of ESL, cultural issues etc.
Hmm, now I'm slightly depressed. BUT it is a continuim, and as new teachers move through the University system we should continue to move to Judy's world!

And this is my problem....

"It’s very easy to buy all the bestselling business books and read everything novel that comes up on Twitter or your favorite blogs but, your competitors probably do the same and… this will only lead to information overload.
The real goal with knowledge – and where you can out-learn your competitors – is to internalize learnings and let things you learn change you. After all, you can know the name of all the tools in the shed but, if you’ve never learned to use any of them, your knowledge isn’t worth very much.
By actively seeking opportunities to learn, absorb and reinterpret knowledge, you build the thinking that will allow you to out-learn and, eventually, out-teach your competitors.
Make sure you have the best learning process in your market. Reading is only half the battle."
 How I Managed to Out-Learn the Competition. (n.d.). . Retrieved June 23, 2011, from http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/how-i-managed-to-out-learn-the-competition.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LifeHack+%28lifehack.org%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Although I am not in a competitive situation in a business sense, I am trying to compete with my memory! I tend not to internalise the information that I take in or, when I do, I don't keep appropriate or detailed enough records. So, yet again I am planning to come back to this blog to keep myself on track.

Future job musings part two.

Whilst thinking about what area I would like to head into, so that I can get my skills together in that area, I thought I would keep an eye out for relevant job specifications with interesting bits. And pull them together here, in the one place. So, in no particular order, and in the knowledge that this will be added to and modified over time, I present:

• Investigation of emerging technologies relevant to materials' management and customer services.
• Improved awareness and use of a wide variety of technological solutions by library staff and customers.
• A planned and integrated approach to the use and deployment of technology that will enhance library services and facilities in conjunction with corporate strategies.
• Proven expertise and experience in the application of information technology in the library environment, including the ability to develop and implement innovative programs, effective actions within broad policy guidelines and a commitment to quality improvement practices.

My dream job...

I've been thinking that I need to get more organised with regard to my Professional Development. So, the first step I'm undertaking is completing the PD kit from ALIA (available for ALIA members from http://membership.alia.org.au/lib/pdf/education/pd/kit.fulltext.2005.pdf)

The first thing that I decided to do is to look at what is my "dream" job... This is something that I've suggested to other people, but not recently looked at for myself. And it has changed since the birth of three children! So, here goes (and not in any particular order)...

• Flexible hours (both the number and the timing)
• Decent dollars (money is not a major driving force but I'd like to be paid what I'm worth, and enough to be able to justify working :))
• Constantly learning/challenging myself (but self paced)
• Helping people (that's part of my job satisfaction)
• Using 'new' technologies (and having decent technology to work with)
• Working in a team but responsible for my own 'stuff'
• Passing on knowledge/adult education
• Recognition by peers would be nice, but from 'clients' is more important
• Flexible location (ie possibilities of telecommuting) would be nice :)

I'm sure there are more things that should be here and that I'll be adding to this list but that's what springs to mind right now.

Interesting that there isn't anything that screams 'library' as such. But that's still where I feel drawn to be, if possible. And my current weekend reference shifts at Murdoch University library tick quite a number of these boxes - just not all :)