Web 2.0 Tools and Services in Libraries

“The whole 2.0 thing in general seems to be about using the hive mind and the affordances of technology to synthesize newer, better and more useful systems that then become available for everyone. Libraries have historically been places to receive information but with some rare exceptions, less places to contribute information. Blogs and wikis and tag clouds, all the stuff we prattle on about are good for reading or reading about, but they really shine through use.”

 —- Jessamyn West. librarian

Seen from the five libraries websites examined earlier, blogs, supplemented with RSS feeds and tags appear to be a popular web 2.0 tool now used in libraries. Wikis, Podcastings and Meshups also have there places.

As noted previously, blogs are often used for library news, and they can also be used for presenting materials/resources, services to particular user populations (teens, seniors, faculty), and library marketing & promotion. Librarian’s Blogs are also a good option. Accompanied with RSS and tagging, the libraries can syndicate their own existing resources, display them as well as feeds from other places on the library’s site. In addition, this enables patrons to slice and dice library content and stay updated too.

Wiki is a good tool for projects / pages that need ongoing collective contribution to ensure a best result. For example, the subject guides, project planning, resource listing policy manuals, and etc.

For Academic libraries, there’re dual missions. Apart from being resource provider, they also have an instructional role for effective/efficient usage of their resources in study & research related activities. So tutorial is a very important part. Multi-medias using podcasting, video casting, screencasting and interactive flash for self-paced hand-on training are more attractive, impressive and thus could be more effective for education purposes. And in Public libraries, podcastings are perfect for augmenting a teen-driven website with online storytime, music programs, etc.

For Public libraries patrons, most of them are self-motivated readers reading selectively of popular books, and peer review or other reader’s comments can be a most valuable guide for book selection. In addition to comments and social bookmarks on the library’s website, a Mesh-up with Amazon may be an idea solution as it brings in views from a wider community, and the long tail of web 2.0, which has not yet been reflected in many library OPAC record, can be better traced down.

The Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) Website is a excellent blend of normal webpages and several blogs(Community Blog, Service Blog, | Events Blog, etc.). For example in the “About Us‘ part, static pages are used for presenting information such as “Who We Are” and “Employmnet”, while blog is used for “Library News’ postings where comments and RSS feeds are enabled. In addition, the common widgets of blog are also integrated into different parts of a webpage to organize the contents and offer effective pathways for people accessing information. For example, under the tab of “Events“, certain pages and RSS feeds for latest postings on the Event blog are presented at the title page for “Today at the Ann Arbor District Library”. And blog postings listed in “Exhibits” and “Contests” section should have been extracted by using the tagging tool.

In the “Catalog” part, although linked separately as “Audio Blog”, “Books Blog” and “Video Blog” on the side bar, I believe all of the three belongs to one larger Catalog Blog and was then divided using the “category” tool of blog, because the links offered for each posting appear to be tags, and for some of them (e.g. teens), relevant postings for audio, books and video are all listed so the “three” blogs obviously share same tags. In addition, some of the OPAC record themselves are tagged as well, enabling users to find catalogue records directly using such tags.

Whether it’s a RSS feed (a comprehensive list of all feeds according to categories for people to subscribe and syndicate using social bookmarking tools at Bloglines, My yahoo or Google available at http://www.aadl.org/syndication ), tag or other types of links, people can always find some pieces of interest that acts as access points linking to other related pages on a page @ AADL. A deficiency I can see at the AADL site about this is that there’s only a one way connection from Blog posting -> catalogue record -> Reviews and Summaries, if they’re all inter-linked and the reverse direction is also available, the blog tags can be used to find similar books as well. For the patron reviews seen on some catalogue record, I’m not sure if they happen via comment to related blog posting, since there’s nowhere on the record page indicating you can add a review, and we cannot trace a blog posting from the catalogue yet.

PictureAnnArbor is a service at the AADL for Image sharing. It gives everyone in the AADL community the opportunity to contribute and share digital copies of Ann Arbor and relevant documents. For example, “The Ann Arbor Street Art Fair” is one of the many collections in the Galleries now.

Same as Lamson Library we looked at earlier, the AADL website also has a Mesh-upwith Google Translate so that pages there can be automatically translatd into Arabic, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Russian. It meshes up with Google Map to show library locations as well.

The AADL site is one of the best examples of an innovative online presence I’ve seen up to now. It has created a thriving online community dedicated to interactions with patrons as well as among staff, and it does rival a physical community.

Unlike most of the other libraries, the Lamson Library of the PSU website is powered by Scriblio (formerly WPopac) , a free, open source Content Management System (CMS) and Online Public Access Catalog (OPAC) with faceted searching and browsing features based on WordPress, so it automatically inherited all the web 2.0 tools implemented in the WordPress, such as Blogs, RSS, Tagging and Social Networking. In fact, for each of the library page, people can bookmark and share it through a number of tools such as Delicious and Google Bookmarks, they can also subscribe to RSS feeds for posts on various topics, comments and search results in order to stay up to date.

One of the most remarkable things of this library is that it represents bibliographic collections, library catalogs and such as blog pages as well, so they are in an easily searchable, highly remixable web-based format instead of the traditional type. Therefore every cataloging record gets its own static, permanent link that can be indexed by non-library search engines such as Google, as well as tracking of new items in engines like Technorati. Also, each record offers comments, trackbacks and tags as a blog page. The advantages of dealing with the online catalogue in this way are obvious, however, if there’s not a hidden MARC record for each page, the library may encounter problem in sharing their record with other libraries, and they’ll always have to create their own record for each new item instead of importing one from the vendor or others.

The library also provides online reference service using the MEEB as the IM tool, and the pages can be translated to several languages such as French, Spanish, German, Chinese etc. by Meshing-up with the automatic online translation tool – Google Translate .

The web 2.0 based services mentioned above are well presented and easy to locate, and they’re made easier to novices with outside links to various resources such as Wikipededia and WordPress Help page. And the library can add some tutorial stuff of their own of using podcasting, vediocasting or screencasting to make it attractive and efficient for educational purposes.

Library Website: http://www.asu.edu/lib/

The first surprise that I have had with Arizona State University Library is their 24/7 online reference service. I tried it very late at night, and it worked very well. The librarian offered very professional service. It reminds me of the fact that, even in a era of Web 2.0, service is still the the keystone and the ultimate goal of implementing technology.

The Library website is developed using XHTML and CSS. By separating the web content and style sheet, the website ensures visual tidiness, faster browsing speed, and better browser compatibility.

The Library website also provide Email subscription and RSS feed for library news, items, and events, a neat way to promote services and get connected with the users community. The Library Channel is probably the most Web 2.0-featured place. Here you can download podcasts, videos and audio tours to your iPod and play it whenever you want. Audio tours are most about the Library, its facility, collection and staff, while the content of podcasts and videos go far beyond the Library or the University. It covers history, education, politics, innovations, and so on. By doing this, the Library serves more than a place to keep books, but a university information center which raise the awareness of the users on a variety of issues around them.

The Library also offers valuable tools, such as RefWorks, for information management. RefWorks allows users to create personal databases and use them for a variety of research activities. References are quickly and easily imported from text files or online databases. The databases can then be used to manage, store, and share the information. Users can automatically insert references from their database into their papers and generate formatted bibliographies and manuscripts in seconds.

The Library, however, does not offer handy support to user input. For example, although library users can make comments on the library news indicated by a “comments” link on the index page of articles, when clicking on the link, it would only lead to the page of that full article without any further sign or reminder for adding a comment if the user is not spontaneously “logged in” yet. A university is where different schools of thoughts meet, and thus the Library should use technologies to accommodate and facilitate this exchange of ideas.

Westmont Public Library (WPL), located in Illinois of the Unitized States, is one of those public libraries which make use of Web 2.0 technologies to promote and extend library services among library users, particularly those Internet users aged 18 to 40. The Web 2.0 technologies involved include podcasting, Fliker, virtual reference, and MySpace. While the first three gives library users enhanced audio, visual and reference experience, the library blog, adding no extra technique burden to the Library, integrates the library service information and creates a new space, for library users to change their view points with the Library and among themselves.

WPL portraits itself as “female, single, 96 years of age” on its blog. The blog offers links to regular library services. For example, blog visitors will be redirected to the traditional WPL website if they want information on library catalogue, user account or collection information. Photos of WPL collections, facilities, activities and events are put on the Flickr, another feature of Web 2.0. Library patrons are allowed to browse and download photos on the Flickr site. The blog enhances communication. By updating messages on the blog, WPL can promote its services in an efficient manner, while library can simply left their comments and suggestions on the blog. The blog offers messaging function, and MySpace users can join the group of WPL, get to know other library users and send messages to each other.

Using blog has its advantages.It is a tool for WPL to market its services to the public, and offers a place where library visitors can get to know each other and exchange view points. It created a dynamic relationship between the Library and library users. However, developing a library does not always mean something cool. First, it is noticed that WPL does not update its blog frequently. No new information is posted in the past four months. Second, visitors without a MySpace account may not be able to enjoy full priviliages of the blog, such as posting comments and sending message, and thus are somewhat marginalized.

The UBC library incorporates a variety of web 2.0 tools in its online representation and service. It touches almost everything in the example list of library 2.0 tool from the LIRB 500 course, just as diverse as the widely scattered branches in the library system.

A Blog is used for the “Library in the News” for postings and comments regarding news about UBC library presented in assorted media and press. RSS feed is offered for this blog, as well as for the other two parts under the “What New” title on the library home page: New Resources and Announcements, in order for people to keep current to the updates in/about the library.

There is a UBC Health Library Wiki oriented as a knowledge base for Health librarians, and professional as well as anyone interested can have access and participate to make a contribution.

When patrons want to contact a librarian asking for something, an option of Instant Messaging is available both through the AskAway service or MSN Messenger. The IM accounts of each individual librarian are listed according to their subject focus, their real-time online status are also indicated from the same list which is available at http://toby.library.ubc.ca/libstaff/subjectlibrarians.cfm

UBC Library is also using “-casts” to help their patrons. This is typical in the Online Tutorial , for example, both videocasts and screencasts are used for the Refwords Tutorial .

The UBC Law Library has its page at Facebook for library-related activities and Social Networking. And Wayfinding at UBC Library has been Meshed Up with Google Maps. In addition, a virtual world of some digitized collections can be explored through the UBC Library Vault.

Since the web 2.0 tools are nicely integrated into the different kinds of service / functions of the library, people looking for specific services from the library’s website would easily find them and use them, probably totally oblivious to the 2.0 tools involved.

As an academic library with the mission to support the study and research activities of members at the parental institution, UBC library does a pretty good job in providing services using web 2.0 tools on the whole. Improvements can be made on using wikis for Subject Guide instead of the current static webpages, because selected links should be kept up-to-date and it’s a perpetual work in progress, good collaboration of group work is essential. In addition, the available time span for IM virtual reference service could be extended advisably.