wherever they are…

I’m following 51 people on Twitter. Today one of them “tweeted” that it was Shawerma Wednesday at Shaherazad, our local mediterrenean restaurant. I love Shawerma Wednesday, but I’d forgotten all about it.

When I signed up for Twitter it was an experiment. I looked for everyone at MSU and in Starkville–there weren’t many–and “followed” all of them. And then they “followed” me. I started getting updates about when exams were happening (and what people were doing to de-stress!). Then MPBOnline and the Clarion Ledger started following me. Mississippi Public Broadcasting is doing some pretty cool things, it turns out.

Then I went to ALA in Anaheim this year and found some friends to follow there. I roomed with warmaiden who was hooked in with lots of cool library-type twitterers. So now I’m following folks that are doing really interesting emerging technology library-type things. And they twitter about them. It turns out you can get a lot of information–or at least a tiny url–into the 140 character micro-blogging limit.

Now I get updates on emerging technologies, news from public radio in Mississippi, along with a peek inside the undergraduate’s mind. And I got my shawerma today for lunch for just $3.50 thanks to willbryantplz.

So now I have to figure out if it can work for our library. What kind of information would people want who are following a library’s tweets? Who would be following them? Or would it just be an RSS feed we could put on our site somewhere with updates? The Clarion Ledger and UIUC Undergrad Library both do that. But what would our patrons want to know? Here’s a list of potentially good information:

1. When anything is closing early or closed for a holiday, etc.
2. When the network is down.
3. When we have an event in the library (?).
4. When we have an interesting workshop in the library (?).
5. When we post pictures on Flickr (?).
6. When printers are down or other equipment.
7. News at the library.
8. When podcasts are released.
9. Major new resources/databases at the library.
10. New blog entries?
11. Hmmm…?

Next…who would keep up with it?

Amanda

Well we’ve been hearing about it for months, but it’s finally here–or at least a preview. The announcement came this morning on the Facebook Blog, and I’ve been checking it out. My profile is…well…it’s going to take me a minute.

Reactions anyone?

Amanda

The Tech Fair last week was lots of work, but very rewarding! They were expecting 150-200 people, and 380 showed up over the two day fair. They had lots of tech demos (and quite a Wii contest going at one point, I understand) and booths with adaptive technologies, self-checkout machines, and as many gadgets as you can imagine. I talked to TONS of folks, and my part was a mixture of formal presentations and informal discussions, depending on who attended each session (I was scheduled for five sessions each day). Everyone was very engaged and eager to know more about Web 2.0 applications for Libraries–and particularly about what we’ve been doing here at MSU. Most of the attendees were from public libraries or community colleges across the state, from Jackson County on the Gulf Coast to First Regional up in Hernando (near Memphis).

I learned a lot from several libraries who are doing very interesting things. For example, the Lamar County Libraries (particularly Lumberton and Sumrall) are heavily invested in Flickr–and they were very excited about hearing more. The teenagers in their summer reading programs have been particularly thrilled to see pictures of themselves on the web. They’ve also put up Flickr badges on their library web pages. AND they’ve got a MySpace account for the county library system.

I posted pictures of the sessions on Facebook during the Fair, and the one above is of the half of my Flickr workshop comfortable with having their pic online! I couldn’t have done any of it without Pattye Archer and our in-house Instructional Media Center who helped me put the booth and (seven!) handouts together in record time. I don’t know how I would have done this without them. I also put together a handout on libraryh3lp with help (!) from Pam Sessoms and Ellen Hampton. Pam has posted it on the libraryh3lp wiki and blogged about it on the libraryh3lp blog!

You can read more about the MLC Tech Fair on their blog. It turned out that the Fair was open to the public, and 10+ people from Mississippi Public Broadcasting Online attended. They were very interested in what we’ve been doing with emerging technologies, and they’ve got quite a 2.0 program growing at MPBOnline! They are using Facebook and YouTube to promote MPB, as well as Twitter (a microblog) where they “found” me originally.

A very successful event!

I’m speaking at the Mississippi Library Commission’s Tech Fair on July 16th and 17th. They’ve got a great blog going (which I’m supposed to be contributing to–and I’m working on it…). It’s an unusal setup for me. I’m doing five 20-minute presentations throughout Day One, all on different topics regarding applying 2.0 technologies in Libraries. I’m focusing on the ones we have applied at MSU–20 minutes just isn’t that much time! So Facebook, Flickr, Podcasting, YouTube and a general one on RSS feeds (we’ve got one for our new books).

Anyway, just a quick update!

Amanda

This is me furiously blogging as Cindi Trainor talked about her experience with implementing LibGuides at Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, where she is the Coordinator for Research and Instructional Services. I hadn’t watched the Vimeo Presentation yet (all the BIGWIG presentations were recorded in advance–the meeting was just to ask questions, etc.–very cool), but I had lots of questions since MSU is in the process of implementing LibGuides.

Here are my notes from that session:

GENERAL INFORMATION:

• LibGuides is a tool that is being used to create dynamic subject pages for libraries. Using LibGuides it is possible to pull together content from many sources, including RSS from aggregators like Google Reader, Bloglines, or del.icio.us, making the content dynamic. Librarians are able to easily insert links to recently created and/or updated sites.
• LibGuides are built by assembling functional boxes. Some boxes can be created to have dynamic content that users can contribute to, adding comments or starring reviews for database links [WOW!]. It is possible to imbed links to any LibGuides page in other websites (including course management software!), as well as build links to jump to certain portions of the page. Additionally, LibGuides generates tagclouds which can also be embedded on other sites or tagclouds can be imported from del.icio.us.

IMPLEMENTATIONS:

• Scottsdale Community College is using LibGuides as it’s entire library interface.
• Eastern Kentucky University Libraries are also using it for other purposes or topics like “Copyright Basics.”
• Tagcloud (tags done by librarians in LibGuides) – didn’t work well at EKU because librarians were creating their own tags—they are working on creating a taxonomy so that the tag cloud will be an effective search tool.
• Several libraries have put a picture of a librarian on the main page which changes when refreshed—gives a sense of the library community for the user.
• EKU is creating course guides—it was suggested that they be attached to related subject guides, so that a student would have access to general information as well by linking to the guide. It is possible to link directed directly to the subject or course tab.
• According to Cindi, it is easy to generate statistics. Stats can be exported into excel, and it is possible to see stats on how many hits specific links are getting.
• Cindi reported display issues in IE6 on Windows
• Cindi (and others) reported that the developers are responsive to suggestions from librarians.

SUGGESTIONS:

• For implementation it was suggested that libraries create template guides for librarians to use (also to make guides somewhat uniform). It is very easy to take content from one guide and copy or move it to another guide, so standardized guides are useful for staff and can include pre-formatted boxes and canned content (videos, lists, etc.).
• Some libraries have made LibGuides about how to create LibGuides for staff. In some implementations of LibGuides they have done live training sessions, then supplemented with the how-to guides.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS:

• LibGuides is supposedly working on link-checkers, but right now content creators must check their own links.
• It is not currently possible to subscribe to a LibGuide via RSS–it would give too many updates if the guides were modified slightly. It may be something that could happen in the future.

Originally posted July 7, 2008.

Virtual Reference is a hot topic at ALA this week–maybe because I keep going to meetings about VR, lol… And the big news (which I have been spreading!) is about libraryh3lp–an open source meebo being developed by North Carolina librarians. It’s in beta right now, but UNC Chapel Hill and Baylor (among others) are using it. I met Ellen Hampton, the E-Learning Librarian at Baylor and got a look at the back-end. It’s Java-based and allows queuing sessions, multiple accounts (so you could transfer IM sessions to Circ or ILL if they wanted to have IM) and it’s an aggregator (like Meebo) for all your Instant Messengers. And, like Meebo, it’s got a widget you can put anywhere. Unlike Meebo, it’s ADA Compliant (!) and it has the ability to pop out of the browser so patrons can CHAT while searching without losing the session. You can also send files and patrons can have the transcript emailed to them. They are currently working for a way to integrate it into Facebook, too.

It looks really exciting, but still in early stages. Ellen has requested that they have a way to download IM sessions in batches (currently they are stored online individually), and they are also working on statistics. It’s being developed by Pam Sessoms, a librarian at Chapel Hill, and her husband, who is a programmer. You can host it for free on their servers, too…or download the code.

Again, it’s still in Beta, but it’s worth taking a look at. They’ve got a wiki and a blog that I’ve been following…

The consensus seems to be this is one to watch. They are still in development, but there hasn’t been an IM solution designed for libraries–and we need one.

What do you think? Is anyone beta-testing it? Pros/Cons??

Originally posted June 30, 2008.

Originally posted on June 16, 2008.

Well, I’ve been working hard on productivity issues related to 2.0 technologies, in part for my “steal-this-idea” session on Friday (Where Do We Go From Here: Managing Your Identity in Social Networks). A part of managing your identity turns out to be managing information overload. So many 2.0 applications and social networks are pushing information to you–which is better than having to go and ferret it out. However, the time it takes to go through all the blogs, and tweets, and friend updates, and News Feeds, and now Friend Feeds, is daunting. Even keeping up with my own activity–the blogs I’ve shared and want to file or re-read, the articles I’ve tagged to file for projects, the research I need to return to–is overwhelming. As I mentioned, FriendFeed has been great in tracking my own activity. For others, it’s been great keeping up with friends or colleagues. As I mentioned in my previous blog, Steve Rubel has been ruminating on how FriendFeed may replace traditional news feeds as a way of getting selected, trusted information.

It appears that a step in that direction may be RSSmeme, which primarly aggregates shared items from Google Reader (for those who have “registered” their feed). This tool gives you sites that have the highest number of “shares” in a certain period of time (now, today, this week, etc.). I’ve registered my Google Reader feed, and I’m now in the mix. RSSmeme will give you stats on the top share-ers, as well as the top authors being shared, top sources and top tags.

Additionally, it will aggregate your Friend Feed, showing you just the top stories tagged by your friends. This allows you, of course, to create that nirvana Steve Rubel was pointing to in his posts…perhaps. I don’t have enough friends to make that data meaningful, but knowing the top stories tagged in RSSmeme is still helpful. Perhaps because the people being aggregated share my interests. Like Digg, it’s rating stories, but unlike Digg, this is a passive process. Which makes it (in my mind anyway) time-saving and possible to be part of my information flow, rather than an addition to it.

I’m not sure what it all means yet, but it’s in my sandbox.

Another fun thing I’ve run across in my blogs today is Wordle. I love a tag cloud–I’m a very visual person and love visual representations of all kinds. For this you can cut and past documents into it, or select a del.icio.us username (mine is acp_lex) to create a cloud representing the central ideas in the text. You can imagine having students cut and paste their papers into Wordle to see in a graphic representation the ideas (and/or repeated words!) in their papers.

Can’t wait to see you Friday!

Well, along the lines of both my conference topic of managing your identity in social networks, and revealing the contents of my 2.0 sandbox, here are my initial thoughts on FriendFeed. So the way it works–you can set up an account for yourself by putting all your personal RSS feeds in it. I’ve put all of my work-related RSS streams in it–from Google Reader, this blog, another blog, Twitter, Flickr, LibraryThing, etc. And after I’d done it, I liked the idea of being able to see everything I was doing. But, as with most things, I didn’t really get it right away…

Until I read Steve Rubel’s blog today, I didn’t realize that you could subscribe to other people’s “lifestreams”… Instead of reading Steve Rubel’s blog, he suggested that we just subscribe to his FriendFeed. Wow. You can subscribe to someone’s FriendFeed and follow everything they are doing on the web–their twitter, their blog, their del.icio.us bookmarks, items they’ve shared on Google Reader, articles they “digg”, books they add to LibraryThing, YouTube videos they upload or comment on, etc. Of course, it would have to be someone pretty interesting to want to know all of that about them. Like maybe your best friend. Or Steve Rubel, who is certain that FriendFeed will “Change Journalism, PR and Marketing.” Over the next several days he’s going to discuss his ideas about how FriendFeed offers an alternative way to get information from a trusted source–potentially replacing traditional news venues, etc.

You can also create “rooms” where folks of like interest share info about specific topics. A great one (especially for this blog!) is the FriendFeed Newsroom, where I discovered a way to get FriendFeed on your mobile device at FF-to-Go. (I’ve finally gotten a smartphone–though not the new iPhone 3G, which I may be regretting…)

So, I’ve got a FriendFeed, and you can follow it.

I’m not promising anything earth-shattering…I’m just playing in my sandbox for now. Looking for library applications…maybe a creating an “imaginary friend” feed for a subject librarian???

originally posted June 11, 2008.

Almost every speaker I’ve heard on the subject of training staff on how to use 2.0 technology for libraries talks about the need for a “sandbox”—a place for library workers to play, to learn about the technology, and then to imagine how it might be useful for the library. As the reference librarian at MSU tasked with exploring Emerging Technologies for Public Service applications, I realized yesterday that I’ve made my own sandbox. Or I’ve collected toys to play with anyway. I’ve added a “sandbox” section to my whiteboard of stuff to do (I’m a visual learner…lol). Looking at it, I thought that I could start a sandbox-ish meme in this blog to explore and share some of the technologies/ideas currently on my list.

The first idea on my list came because I learned recently that you could migrate your Facebook Group to a Facebook Page without losing subscribers (the Academy of American Poets sent a notification about this to their Facebook Group).

The MSU Libraries have a fairly successful Facebook Group, but Facebook Pages have advantages such as tracking page hits, directed advertising, etc. We made a Facebook Page for our annual Ragtime Festival this year, so we’ve dipped our toes in that water already. A transition like this is like an appealing prospect to consider. And in staying true to the sandbox idea, it is possible to create and work on a Facebook Page without making it public.

I haven’t yet started playing around with it, but I have started considering whether it would be useful and how it might work. I’ve emailed the information to our Library 2.0 Committee to get it on everyone’s radar. If we did something like this, planning for a transition like that would take careful consideration. We don’t want to lose any of our subscribers—we’ve worked hard over the past nine months to grow the group to its current level (200+ members!). Also, we would want to be sure we would not be losing any functionality. So far, it looks like we would be able to do everything we can currently do with a group. One feature of the Groups that has become important in the way we use Facebook is the ability to create events and invite the members of the group. From our experience with the Ragtime Festival, I know this feature remains largely the same.

In going forward, we would want to be sure we were also taking full advantage of what Facebook Pages have to offer. One advantage I’d like to explore is the ability to add RSS feeds to a Facebook Page. The Library maintains several RSS feeds, including those for our Podcasts. It would be great to find another location to promote our podcasting program. It is also possible to add some (though not all) Facebook Applications to a Page, which has a significant appeal, too.

Anyway, it’s on my list…anyone have any thoughts?!?

Originally posted May 15, 2008.

I’m reposting blogs I have been doing on our library website, just because this blog looks sad and lonely and I don’t have time or inspiration to blog separately.

I’ve been thinking a lot about creating identity–and re-creating identity online. And about managing information as part of all of that. I presented about it at our MS Library 2.0 Summit. If you follow the links to the 2008 Agenda, you can even find the podcast, my slides and a handout. I haven’t listened to the it–I’m afraid my voice was cracking at the beginning…so embarrassing.

One of the central models for creating identity in social networks came from all the new(ish) Facebook privacy tools, particularly the ones using Friend Lists. You can create a system of relationships as complicated as you have in real life–if only you had time to go through and tag everything and then remix it all to give info to some and keep it from others. But it is possible to do. And so I’ve been mincing my way through it, realizing that I’ve been sending out info to everyone’s NewsFeeds from my applications that I didn’t necessarily want to (can also be controlled under Privacy)–among other social gaffes.

So in thinking about all of this as a developmental theory–I’m moving into some sort of adolescence, I think. Becoming an adult? And I guess that means figuring out what to blog about here, on my personal blog. So I’m going to be working on that. And upgrading my WordPress (remembering where those files are and how to do that…lol). And in the meantime, what follows is a sample of what I’ve been writing about–pretty dry, but think of it as evolving.

Amanda
So, here we go again…

So, I’m giving a talk at the MS Library 2.0 Summit on Managing Your Identity in Social Networks, and it’s something I think about all the time. Not just privacy, though that is a huge part of it—choosing how we want to be in public (online) is so important and there are lots of great tools to make that easy to do. But daily, I’m also faced with the headache of just managing so much information. Not extraneous hilarious cat videos on YouTube, but information I need to do my job better. Or at all.

I think part of the problem is me as a human being. I really have a vision for how these tools will help me provide better public service to our patrons here at MSU. I see that we’ve put all of our resources online, but we haven’t followed them there. In CHAT and over email, I see where our patrons get stuck and lost looking for peer-reviewed articles or trying to find a book. If they were here in the library, I could just watch them wandering through the Indexes or at the Card Catalog and call out from the Reference Desk. Or maybe one of them might screw up the courage to wander over and ask a question. But where are we now? For me, the 2.0 technologies are a means to an end. And that end is providing reference service to the Mississippi State University community. I am absolutely passionate about that and occasionally overwhelm myself with my earnest attempts.

Really, the human being part of me would like to be able to cut off from the world. I miss the time before cell phones when you could really be unavailable. Or away. I’m still on a primitive Motorola plain-Jane phone they don’t sell anymore. It does take pictures, but that’s about it. I’m reluctant to upgrade to a piece of machinery that will compel me to remain connected without interruption. Instantly uploading pictures to Flickr, blogging from the bathtub, twittering from the movies, facebooking on the beach, etc. Well, maybe I’ll still be able to take a bath.

Anyway, in trying to “manage my social networking identity” this week I’ve jumped into FriendFeed and Google Reader this week, sort of at the same time. I love Google Reader so much more than Bloglines. SO much more. And FriendFeed has the potential to be very interesting. Right now my only friend (imported from the Facebook App) is David Lee King. He’s quite the twitter-er it turns out. FriendFeed is a foot print of what you are doing in all your social networks—what you’ve bookmarked on del.icio.us, what you’ve shared on Google Reader, your twitter status, your blogs, your comments, etc. It’s interesting. And Google Reader has so far made it much easier for me to keep up with those blogs I always intend to read but haven’t been able to work into my daily routine.

It’s been a while since I had anything to say, but since I’ve started blogging at the conference website again, I’ve got overflow that needs to go somewhere. Try again if you can’t get to the site. Our Wordpress doesn’t like our Server.

Amanda

I’ve been working on getting IM Reference up and running at the MSU Libraries and one sticking point has been supporting the service and making those people covering the desk feel supported. We have several folks who are not IMing yet who would be expected to provide IM reference during their desk shift (at least that’s how the proposal is currently written).

So I’ve been thinking about Twitter. If Twitter was on the aggregator at the desk then the librarians on the desk could send IMs to twitter if they got into trouble. And if the Desk twitter was my friend, then I could get the posts to go to my cell phone. And they would be recorded on the Twitter “blog” too, sort of as a troubleshooting guide.

I haven’t hashed it all out yet–I’ve been put on ice as far as this proposal goes, with the Facebook Group going up and our Flickr group getting started. I’ll post again as I get it worked out.

Amanda

I’m deep into writing the paper. The running title is Social Networking as Ethical Discourse: Toward a Practical and Normative Ethic for Librarianship. I stole the subtitle from John Budd’s amazing paper in The Library Quarterly, which has guided and inspired me. It’s due to the editor on the 31st, and I promised a draft to my readers on Monday. So it’s nose to the grindstone. Well, except that after a rocky day yesterday, my Kris took me out to karaoke. I don’t sing but he does, and if you ever get a chance, I highly recommend going to hear him. Really amazing. So I have his pic up on this post in tribute to his friendship.

We’ve launched the Libraries’ facebook group. I’m pretty much beside myself about it. We’ve already got 89 members, and we haven’t even got all the posters up in the dorms yet. The news story just went up on the page yesterday. Everyone in the library is really supportive of it–and I’ve become our Facebook Librarian.

Back to the paper! But more to come….

Amanda