Final Project

Create a Proposal for Implementation

For the final project, each participant will write a proposal to implement one of the social software tools covered during the Five Weeks to a Social Library Project at their library or organization.

The proposal should include:

• The name of the technology you would like to implement.
• A brief description of this technology.
• An explanation of the service you would like to create with the software.
• An explanation of how this service will fill a need at your library, including benefits (also indicate if the service will be helping staff, patrons, or both).
• Evidence that this technology would be useful in libraries. This evidence can take the form of libraries that are successfully using the technology or articles that extol the virtues of using this software in libraries. We would like to see a minimum of four success stories/examples or articles on the subject with appropriate links and brief (1-3 sentence) annotations.
• A list of possible roadblocks to implementing this technology, including institutional culture, staff knowledge and training, getting buy-in, technology issues, support of the technology, monetary concerns if they exist, etc.
• Ways that you believe you or your organization could overcome the issues raised above.
• At least one (or up to three) suggestion(s) of specific software you would use to implement this program in your library. For example "I would suggest using Wordpress for our blog software because it is open source and is one of the most popular software options for blogging."
• A plan for the ongoing maintenance of the software and any policy issues you think are important to address.

The end goal of this activity is to create a proposal that you could give to your library administration, therefore the formatting of your proposal should be appropriate to your organization. Since this is designed to be read by your fellow participants and colleagues at your library, it would be wise to keep your proposal relatively brief so as to keep your audience's interest, a one page minimum is suggested.

You can post your proposal to the blog or to the wiki. Just please post the URL of your proposal to this page on the wiki so that all of the proposals will be easily findable. 

Due date: End of day on Monday, March 12, 2007.