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Class Pages :: Web 2.0 Workshop Day

 

This is YOUR workshop day! A day to work on whatever technology project you want to pursue and to share ideas, challenges and inspirations with your colleagues.

 

In other workshops and on your own, you've been exploring how Web 2.0 tools can help you:

 

• work smarter and get more done more efficiently
• expand how you communicate with library customers
• encourage input and have conversations with your community
• involve your community in share  their experiences and knowledge

 

Today, you'll "kick it up a notch" (forgive us Emeril). Take something you're already working on and expand on it or try something totally new. You decide!

 

Agenda (if we can call it that?)

• Share what projects you've been working on - your successes and challenges too.
• Review examples of what other libraries and schools are doing
• Decide on one or two things that you want to accomplish today
• Do it, shere it, discuss it, revise it.

 

How we'll get there

We have lots of resources to help us accomplish our goals today:

• Handouts - if I have a handout for something you want to work on, we'll print them out
• Online tools - lots of good help files and tutorials online. Don't forget to look for video and audio tutorials that can help you learn a new tool quickly.
• Each other - we can all help each other. I hope there will be lots of talking and collaborating today.
• Sharing ideas - as Harvey Mackey said in his weekly business column today (paraphrasing) If I give you a dollar and you give me a dollar, we each still have a dollar. If I give you a good idea and you give me a good idea, we both have two good ideas.

 

 

Some ideas to get us started

 

Make what you're already doing better and maybe even easier

 

1: Save time by making your subject guides delicious (examples: MIT Virtual Reference Collection  - compare it to their del.icio.us account)

We all have them, web pages full of links that we recommend to our customers. And we all know how out of date they get and how annoying it can be to add new things. Use an online bookmarking service like del.icio.us to store all your favorite links an you’ll be able to keep your web pages of links up to date automatically.

• Set up a del.icio.us account
• Add the sites you want your customers to know about.
• Give them subject tags that you can use to retrieve them. For example: 
  • ref-consumer
  • ref-health
  • ref-business
  • etc…
• Add an annotation in the Notes section for each site. Briefly explain why is the site useful? What should your patrons be using it for?
• Use the link roll feature to lets you create lists of links based on the tags you’ve used.
• The link roll service will give you a short bit of code to paste into the html for your web page. Every time that web pages loads,  your list of links will show up automatically.  And best of all, when you add something to your delicious account, it will show up on your web page without any extra effort.

 

2: Highlight the new links from your del.icio.us account too.

• Make 2 linkrolls for each topic. One showing just the 5 or so most recent additions to a particular tag. And another showing all your links for that tag sorted in alphabetical order. Put both of those linkrolls on the same page. Voila, no more having to go through and add those litte “NEW” icons next to the latest stuff.

 

3: Take it further with RSS feeds from other sources (example: Biology News)

If a journal, web site, blog or database has an RSS feed, you can put the latest information from that service on your web page.

 

Some examples:

• List the latest business news from the Wall Street Journal
• List of books from your catalog
• Results from a database search on a hot topic from EBSCO
• Book reviews from the New York Times

 

How to do it?

• Use feed2js to convert an RSS feed to javascript you can put on your page. (sounds hard, it's not!)
• Use a SpringWidget , SproutBuilder or WidgetBox to create a widget (a little box full of content) you can put on your web page.

 

 

4: Tired of updating your web site? Use a blog instead. (eg: Troy Public Library & North Plains Public Library)

Wordpress isn’t just for blogs, it’s a great content management system. Easy to add content and edit. Ask your web hosting service if you can run Wordpress and use it to replace your web site.

 

 

Give them what they want and more

 

Studies say that people don't bother with library web pages when they're looking for information and it's easy to see why. Many of our web pages don't have any information finding search boxes on the main page. I think that main page should have lots of search opportunities.

 

5: Give them what they want, but add value

 

We all use Google and Yahoo to look for information. Our customers do too. Why not put a Google search box right there on your main page along with your catalog and database search boxes.

 

6: Added value - meebo chat box (example: Oregon State University Library)

Some people struggle to find good information because they don’t know how to search effectively or how to decide if a site is a reliable site or not.  So why not add a give them so help in the form of a meebo chat box. This gives them an instant way to get in touch with you.  And do put that chat box on all your web pages and in your catalog too.

 

7: Meebo in the catalog (example: Topeka & Shawnee County Library Catalog and Santa Barbara City College)

 

If you can customize your catalog a bit, add a meebo chat box to the catalog. Especially helpful on pages where patrons get the dreaded “no results” message. Give ‘em help when they need it. 

 

8: Specialized searches

Google Custom Search, Rollyo and some others let you create your own specialized search boxes. Pick your favorite sites for history, consumer information, medical resources, business news, whatever might interest your patrons and give them a Google like search box that searches JUST those sites.  Put it on your subject links page. Or put a bunch of these on your main page. Or both!

• Examples

• Country Information Search (Rollyo)

  
  Select Search Engine...Country InformationSearch The Web

  Powered by Rollyo

 

• Travel search from Google CSE 

 

 

Can we make it easier?

 

9: Make your databases easier to use (example: iConn.org)

Our databases aren't the easiest things to use. And making it hard to get into them with having to enter our library card over and over just makes it worse. Talk to your systems folks, see if there's a way to drop a  'cookie' on users computers that will remember who they are the next time they log in.

 

10: Expose your databases! (example: Biology News)

Vendors are adding RSS feeds to the databases. For example, if you do a subject search in an Ebsco database, you’ll find an RSS feed for that search. I can put that RSS feed in my Google Reader or on my PageFlakes home page and be kept up to date on new articles on my topic. Great for students doing research. 

 

 

Bust out of your borders

 

 

11: Get your content out to the people

Think of all the community organizations in your town or region. What information do you have that would be useful to the people who visit their web sites?

• Do you have new astronomy books that the local amateur astronomy club might be interested in?
• Gardening videos that the gardening club members would love to know about?
• Environment news from one of your databases that would help the local recycling organization?
• Business sites in your del.icio.us account that could help the local business council?

 

Through the magic of RSS you can get that information onto THEIR web pages.

 

• Use tools like SpringWidget , SproutBuilder or WidgetBox or feed2js to create snippets of code that can be pasted into someone else’s web site.

 

We all win. Library content is out ‘in the wild’, the organizations have useful, up to date content on their web pages, the public gets good information in places where they’re likely to see it.

 

12: Got a blog? (example: NYS Summer Reading)

Your blog headlines can go anywhere! Don't make them come to your blog to read about you.

• Put your headlines on the web pages of other community organizations using tools SpringWidget , SproutBuilder or WidgetBox or feed2js
• Make your blog's RSS feed available through iGoogle, PageFlakes, NetVibes.
• And put the headlines on your own web sites as well.

 

13: Help your customers organize & customize their web experience  (examples: Library page - Dublin)

 

Hold a class on how to set up an iGoogle, PageFlakes or NetVibes page. Teach how to add just the content they want. Set up a library page too, fill it with content and make it public. Your customers can add the content they want from your page.

 

14: Google Gadgets anyone?

 

Create a catalog search box using Google Gadgets. Anyone with an iGoogle page can add your search box to their page. Try creating other gadgets for library news using your blog's RSS, search box for databases, RSS feed for library events. Lots of possibilities.

15: A Facebook or MySpace page maybe? (example: Half Hollow Hills Community Library)

Libraries and library staff are experimenting with providing news and access to information from within social networks like Facebook and MySpace. Is it right for you and your library community? I don't know! You'll have to give a try and see what it's all about. Set up a your own page, look for friends/colleagues who are already there. Test it out and see if it works for you.

 

16: Tons more "Online Outreach" - from Sarah Houghton Jan

Check out Sarah Houghton Jan's presentation from the 2008 Computers in Libraries. It's full of great ideas to get your library out into the digital world. PDF of the presentation  Also, links to the sites/services mentioned in her slides can be found at:  CIL2008: Online Outreach for Successful Digital Marketing

 

 

 

 

Get to the heart of it

The heart of your community that is. Create opportunities for them to share their knowledge and experience.

 

 

17: Community Memories

• Take photos of your historic buildings/homes and post them to flickr. Let the public comment on the photos to gather memories. (eg: Historic Photos Town of Ogden, NY)
• Put those photos on a blog and have patrons contribute their stories in the comments section. (eg: )
• Set up a wiki for patrons to post their own photos and tell their own stories. (eg: Remember When - Memories of Ipswich  )
• Interview people in the community and record their memories. Create a series of podcasts and/or videocasts. (eg: )
• War veteran photos on flickr. (eg: Mechanicville PL)

 

18: Be a community hub

• Start a flickr group for your town and encourage people to join and add photos. (eg: A Day in Allen County)
• Start a community wiki with local businesses and organizations. Great place to gather information about your community for residents and tourists alike. (eg: Stevens County WIki)