Social Software Podcast

(This is the text for a podcast that is presently not available. This will be updated as soon as possible.)

Welcome to podcast #5, this is Verlene Schafer for IRLS 571 and today I will be discussing more types of Social Software and how they are being used in libraries today. I covered podcasting, bookmarking and wikis in previous blog entries and today I’ll be talking about blogging, sites like Facebook and MySpace, and Twitter. For those who aren’t familiar with this topic, then first I think it is important to define social software. In his article Social Software in the Library, K. Matthew Dames defines social software as “an umbrella term that applies to any tool that allows two or more persons to collaborate while each person is in a different location.” He adds that “the ultimate goal of social software is to build a community of practice or knowledge network in which participants constantly give and receive valuable information.”
Many libraries use types of social networking tools but they are often so commonplace anymore that librarians may not include them in the list of tools that are making waves amongst librarians today. Email, while not as immediately social as other applications, is ordinary by today’s standards of technology. Most library websites now feature an “Ask a Librarian” IM option as a way to answer ready-reference questions for users that is now considered commonplace. IM-ing is developing new multimedia applications too. Soon we will be instant videoing as we now instant message and instant image each other.

Another tool that is commonplace is blogging, although blogs are becoming more interactive methods of communication than the online journals they have been in the past. In the past, the majority of blogs were published in text only. Several blogs now feature an IM window also. There are even more changes as users add audio and video elements, bringing a multimedia trend to blogging. Librariesinteract.info, an Australian library blog site provides a short list of collaborative or group blogs which is also a new trend. This would be great for libraries since no single person would bear the responsibility of adding info and there would be many different opinions voiced in one blog, including users. This is much like a wiki, which is another collaborative tool that allows for group participation that I covered in an earlier blog entry.

The social networking tools that seems to be creating the biggest buzz, are sites like Facebook and MySpace. These types of sites have gotten some bad press because teens are posting inappropriate content. In her online blog, Information Wants To Be Free, Meredith Farkas touches on this topic. She states that librarians “can play a valuable role in educating young people about online privacy and the possible negative effects of putting too much of yourself online. If you want to prevent all the problems of MySpace and Facebook, the key is educating the parents,” which is another way librarians can have a positive influence on users.

Many of the major librarian blogs have covered this aspect of social networking and library profiles on MySpace and Facebook. The biggest problem seems to be the libraries that create profiles with no content. It needs to benefit the library users. Farkas notes that “some of the libraries in MySpace and Facebook have put a profile up, but they have not tried to make it useful to their patrons at all. Just putting up a profile does not make the library seem cool, nor does it make the library more visible.” The Librarian in Black feels that library profiles on these sites are improving as more users are responding positively to library profiles.
Farkas sums up this concern well as she states, “there is a big difference between ‘being where our patrons are’ and ‘being USEFUL to our patrons where they are.’” Her article contains many useful links with more valuable information on this topic. On the Library Revolution blog site an entry discusses using blog entries for FAQ’s adding “with the proliferation of library blogs, [the author is] always surprised to see how few libraries blog their reference questions… especially the common ones.”

One last application that occurred to me recently is a use for Twitter. Twitter asks the question, “What are you doing?” and allows you to send a small update (limited to just 140 characters) to your followers. For areas and people that don’t have easy access to libraries and other information centers, there is usually some type of mobile library available. Imagine getting bookmobile location updates sent to you as it travels its route. Or a library could set up book wait-lists with twitter so that when an item you have on reserve comes in, it lets you know. More info on Twitter, and how it is used is available on Caroline Middlebrook’s blog or on the Twitter home page.

The possibilities are limited only by lack of imagination. Anything’s possible.