I am so glad that I took this class, and would recommend it to anyone. I learned so much, and my perspective on Web 2.0 technology has certainly changed. Whereas I used to laugh at anyone who had a Twitter account, I can now see the benefits of the service and I have enjoyed blogging far more than I could have imagined. Also, learning the positive and negative aspects of Content Management Systems (I keep wanting to say "CMS systems" but that's redundant) has really helped me appreciate the work of all staff members at my libraries and other facilities as well. For my final project, I liked learning about how different libraries employ these services, and my group members Amy and Carol were top-notch, and anyone who works with them in the future will be quite lucky. Below is my final assignment, and in the words of the great Porky Pig: "Th-th-th-th-that's all folks!" Thanks for a great Maymester....
Libraries 2.0: Technology and
Connectivity in Four Libraries
Amy Ellison, Carol
Waggoner-Angleton, & Amy Willard
As libraries move forward with technological
changes, they must also move according to societal needs and demands. Emerging
Web 2.0 technologies address both technical and social requirements, as
connectivity requirements increase not only for hardware and software, but also
for the realm of social networking. For this examination of libraries using
both web and library 2.0 technologies, we interviewed four libraries: Ingram
Library at the University of West Georgia, Forsyth County Public Library, Aiken
Technical College and South Carolina Political Collections, University of South
Carolina. Overall, we found that while these libraries differ in approach, they
all aspire to achieve connectivity for--and communication with--their patrons.
Ingram Library at the University of
West Georgia employs blogging (including an RSS feed), Facebook, and Twitter
feeds to reach their patrons. The library additionally offers a “Live Chat
Help” component so that patrons might request instant virtual assistance. In
some cases, such as Twitter and Facebook, the library did not require research
since the popular demand for those social services was so apparent; similarly,
blogging became another obvious social extension for the facility(Carol
Goodson, personal communication, May 29, 2012). Goodson estimated that they
have more than tripled the numbers of student involvement in scheduled library
activities, simply as a result of using the technology of their patrons. “Live
Chat Help” remains the most often used virtual program, with an average of
30-50 assistance requests per day, although this number greatly increases
during the midterm and final weeks of the semester.
Academic libraries are not the only
ones benefiting from social media sites, and Donna Fowler (personal
communication, May 30, 2012), programming specialist for the Forsyth County
Public Library (FCPL), knows firsthand about the impact of these services.
Presenting programs and special events, as well as assisting with technological
upgrades at the library, has helped her bridge the gap between understanding
how patrons interact with the facility in a physical and virtual way. Since
FCPL’s Facebook page was created in early 2012, patrons have mentioned how
convenient it is being reminded of programs on the newsfeed of a site they
frequently utilize rather than having to refer to an outside source. There are
only 600 or so members of the library’s group on the social media site, but the
numbers are growing as the page is regularly updated and increasingly includes
links to popular and newsworthy articles. Fowler mentions that the facility’s
blog, created just a few months ago in conjunction with the launch of the
library’s new website, still seems to be a “work in progress” because the
facility is still deciding what direction they want the blog to take. To
improve, librarians are researching what other libraries offer their
communities on their blogs, analyzing and incorporating patron feedback in
relation to the service, and training staff to update the blog and keep the
information current and appealing.
Forsyth County is not alone; in
fact, some academic libraries greatly struggle to employ web 2.0 to its fullest
extent. South Carolina Political Collections, for example, does not use all of
the social media outlets at its disposal. While policies allow Twitter and
YouTube, SCPC solely posts information about upcoming events and collections
developments through their blog site (http://library.sc.edu/communications/socialMedia.html, accessed May 29, 2012). Facebook
alerts followers about new blog posts rather than duplicating content (Dorothy
Walker, personal interview, May 31, 2012). Similarly, Aiken Technical College
Library participates in social media technology with a Meebo Me widget that
provides instant messaging service between the library and users. While ATC
uses a blog, Facebook and Twitter to connect with students, and the library
supports these efforts by the prominent placement of icons on its homepage,
there is no indication that the library itself has plans to deploy these tools
(Newkirk Barnes, personal interview May 31, 2012).
For strictly informational purposes,
some libraries are creating collections of information for quick public access.
Ingram Library elected to create closed staff-created LibGuides, but makes
certain to involve subject-specific faculty and graduate students in building
these resources. Since the website is powered by Springshare, a fairly user-friendly
and extremely library-oriented Content Management System (CMS), publishing and
reviewing the content takes very little effort. While there was a slight
learning curve, the information was extremely simple to input and edit and the
staff is encouraged to freely build resources and contribute to the guide
(Goodson, 2012). Most staff members seem happy to use the website, and the
library has received positive feedback from departments and individual
students.
Earlier this year, Forsyth County
Public Library launched a new website, which included a Content Management
System aimed at increasing staff productivity and efficiency, as well as made
the facility’s page more accessible and user-friendly for patrons. The CMS does
not have a specific name because it was created by a committee composed of IT,
programming, and administration participants to fit the facility’s needs, and
therefore is not powered by an external site. Fowler (2012) mentioned there has
been some confusion over maintenance responsibilities or material being
accidentally deleted, but the positive aspects of the CMS decidedly outweigh
any negative factors. The greatest benefit is that patrons can now
self-register for programs online and librarians handling the events can
maintain those records, streamlining a great deal of the necessary work. In
addition, with more library employees controlling the website, strained IT staff
now has a greater amount of time to focus on other endeavors.
For other libraries, social
networking represents their attempt to overcome information control issues and
appear more technologically connected, and they have not yet attempted CMS or
Wiki projects. SCPC began their blog in 2008 to obtain direct control of their
outreach content and address difficulties in updating the webpage and avoiding
a long chain of command in order to institute content changes on their webpage.
Aiken Technical College Library deployed the Meebo Me widget after consultation
between the Learning Resources Director and the Public Services Director.
Although the widget has a more streamlined web appearance and a natural
learning curve, staff constraints only allow the service to be live two hours a
day.
However, the common theme between
2.0 libraries, no matter their level of usage, resides within their focus on
outreach. Ingram Library employs 2.0 technology in order to better connect with
the Millennial student population. They recognize the desire for instant
research assistance and believe that students will more readily seek virtual assistance
than in-person guidance due to library anxiety. Students appear more willing to
ask for help online, and they are definitely more likely to attend an event if
the details are accessible through social networking sites. The ability to
connect to both students and faculty on the patrons’ terms far outweighs the
resource expenditure, particularly since maintaining a virtual presence
typically requires very little time.
Forsyth County Public Library also
uses online outreach to draw in patrons, and Fowler (2012) attributes much of
the success of in-library programs to their publicity on the facility’s
Facebook page. Instead of children and teens simply reading a flier with a
basic description of upcoming events, they can now view photos of recent programs,
including images of peers participating and crafts that are created, and decide
whether they want to sign up for the next session. These pictures greatly
boosted the youths’ enjoyment as well as made parents more comfortable leaving
their children at the library because they can actually see what each session
entails. A single click on FCPL’s Facebook page can take patrons to the library
website, where they can register online for any of these programs.
SCPC uses their blog as their
primary outreach tool, posting news on upcoming events, collection development,
donor acknowledgements and archival issues. Not only does the blog provide SCPC
news to patrons, donors and the other University Libraries, it also allows
staff to teach students the importance of public relations in archival
management (Walker 2012). While Facebook is primarily used for the notification
of blog content updates, it has the advantage of reaching a different
demographic and eliciting discussion on items the SCPC brings to their followers.
In the same light, the ATC Library looks at their Meebo Me widget as a way to
be more approachable to students’ questions--especially their distance
education students. They also feel that their demographic finds the Meebo
widget friendlier than a “formal” email (Barnes 2012).
All four libraries attempt to meet
their mission and vision statements by employing Web 2.0 and Library 2.0
technologies. While the wording of these statements differs, all outline the
desire to provide a range of services to meet the increasingly diverse and
technologically driven needs of their patrons. Ingram Library specifically
attempts to become an important point of contact and resources for students,
both on-campus and off, just as Forsyth County Public Library provides service
on the patrons’ terms. Even emerging 2.0 libraries such as South Carolina
Political Collections and Aiken Technical College Library also desire to be
accessible to patrons, although they still work to discover how to best
integrate such technologies into established librarianship. Each of these
2.0-oriented libraries recognizes, to some degree, the necessity of meeting the
needs of their patrons through technology, interconnectivity, and both physical
and virtual outreach.
Appendix
Group Interview Questions
1. What kinds of virtual presence does your library
maintain?
2. What system do you find most integral to your
library's mission?
3. What was the motivation or rationale for starting this
social media project?
4. Was this a project intuitively started by an individual,
designed by a committee or assigned by a
senior administrator?
5. Did the library follow a hunch or conduct market
research?
6. Were several different tools for this service
evaluated, or was this tool recommended by peers or colleagues?
7. Is this a first-time project or a replacement for a
project? If it is a replacement, why move to another service?
8. Which departments receive the most benefit from this
project?
9. Who is your average user?
10. Do you keep user statistics on the service? If so,
what type of statistics do you collect?
11. What services have been affected by these statistics?
12. How do you assign workflow to keep the services
updated?
13. Why does this particular workflow best achieve the
service or project?
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