LIBR 246-04/13 Web 2.0 (Spring 2010)

If any chapter of my book is evidence that technology is constantly changing, it is the chapter on Social Networking Software. Things have changed so much since I wrote that chapter in 2006. Even between writing it and sending it to my publisher three months later, I had to make substantial changes as so much had changed with Facebook and MySpace.

So, back in 2006, MySpace was king. This has changed as Facebook has gained a huge user base and has opened up its site to anyone who wishes to join. It has quickly eclipsed MySpace. MySpace has a lot of profiles, but that's mainly because it's been around longer. Some people still use MySpace, but most young people are members of Facebook and even people from older demographics are starting to use Facebook to connect with friends. Back then, Facebook was only open to members of specific networks. Now, anyone can join Facebook, which has made it grow like wildfire.

In the Fall of 2006, Facebook deleted all institutional profiles, including library profiles. Some libraries gave up on Facebook, while others created profiles in the name of a specific librarian. In Fall 2007, Facebook came out with Facebook pages, where organizations can create pages that others can become fans of. I'll go into more depth with Facebook pages when I talk about how libraries are using Facebook.
Finally, in the summer of 2007, Facebook came out with a platform for creating applications, which has really changed the way people use Facebook. This I will also talk about more later in the lecture.

MySpace and Facebook are centered around the individual profile rather than in most online communities which are centered around discussion boards, chat rooms and other collaborative spaces. Each individual has a profile and develops it as an online representation of their identity. They can include pictures, their interests and other facts about themselves. MySpace allows for a lot more self-expression than Facebook because, in MySpace, members can actually alter the style sheets on their site, tailoring the look to their own personality. This has actually led to some pretty terrible-looking profiles. Members can then start adding friends who are listed on their profile with links to the friends' profiles. Friends can only be added if they add you as well, so people can't just go around adding anyone to their profile regardless of whether they're really a friend. Once they've added all their friends, they are basically publicly displaying their social network online. From there, they can see who their friends of friends (and friends of friends of friends) are, in order to make new connections. Each profile has a message board, where friends can write messages and ask questions. Most of these sites also have collaborative spaces – groups, discussion boards, etc. – but the site is really centered around the individual's identity development as opposed to collaboration. Perhaps this is what has made it so appealing for young people, who often visit these sites ten or more times per day to see what their friends have written on their message board and who has changed their profile that day.

When you first come into Facebook, you can see your social feed. This includes what all of your friends have been up to in Facebook in reverse chronological order. You can also see any requests you may have

Profiles in Facebook have changed a lot since taking the screenshot you saw in my book. Instead of having everything located on a single page, now, different elements are on different tabs and they can be customized. At the top of the page, you'll see that people can post a brief update of what they're doing or how they're feeling. This is a lot like microblogging and there's a page where you can see the updated status of all your friends. The Wall has now changed. It used to be just being a space where people can send brief messages to you. Now, in addition to that, you can also see everything you do on it – when you join a group, comment on a friend's Wall, and more. Every action associated with you is displayed in reverse chronological order, so it's easy to follow. Other people can also post content to your Wall and people can comment on Wall posts.

Under boxes, you can see all of the applications a person has added to their Facebook profile. Facebook's applications now allow people to pull in data from other sites. On my profile, I use application to display photos I've uploaded to Flickr, slideshows I've uploaded to Slideshare, web pages I've bookmarked in del.icio.us, and posts I've written on my blog. In addition, there are lots of “just for fun” applications people can add to Facebook, like games and things that show off your interests.

Facebook also now has a chat tool where you can chat with your friends live when you're in Facebook. They also make it easy to set your status so that you can browse in peace.

So, what is the appeal of Facebook for students? I remember in college sitting in a large lecture hall and not knowing anyone. I didn't know if the guy sitting next to me liked the same music or if the girl sitting in front of me was from Florida like I was. With Facebook, you're never alone in a crowd. You can get to know everyone in each of your classes through Facebook and then know with whom you have things in common. It's also easier now to meet people before you even start college. While people are still in high school, they'll find that there are groups for their graduating class already being created in Facebook at the schools they're accepted to. Therefore, people will know their classmates when they get to school for the first time.

You can also keep in touch with friends from other schools more easily with Facebook. When I was in college, the only way to keep in touch with friends was to email each of them individually. With Facebook, you can keep in touch with friends just by friending them. It's much less of a commitment to visit the Facebook page of an acquaintance and see what they're up to. Back in college, I only kept in touch with the people from high school I was really close to. Now I'm friends with a lot of people from high school in Facebook whom I can easily keep in touch with.

In May 2007, Facebook came out with an application development platform. This allows people to create applications that work within Facebook. People have taken the opportunity to create an amazing array of Facebook applications – some fun, some useful, some completely frivilous. You can pull in content from your blog and flickr accounts, you can play scrabble online with other Facebook members, and you can infect your Facebook friends as a zombie. There have a been some great library applications created for Facebook. At first, it wasn't possible to create applications that searched things like the catalog, databases or even Google, because Facebook didn't want any applications that made people leave Facebook. They've since softened their stance greatly.

Now, let's look at some library applications of Facebook and MySpace. I left out a more thorough description of MySpace mainly because it hasn't changed that much. MySpace opened an application platform in February of 2008, but it hasn't made as much of a splash as Facebook's, mainly because MySpace isn't the wildly popular destination it once was.

Why would a library want to have a presence in MySpace or Facebook? Well, one good reason is to build presence where our users are. If this is where our users are, it doesn't hurt to create a presence that lets our users know what we have to offer. Better than merely providing a storefront is to create a portal to library services with links to the same things found on the library website. Because of the high level of interactivity, MySpace and Facebook are great spaces for soliciting feedback from our users as well.

Some libraries have created profiles that are mere “storefronts” with nothing concrete and useful to offer. It seems like the goal of these sites is to make the library seem cool and relevant to young people. A profile that offers nothing but a picture of the library, a blog post or two and a cutesy note about how “we won’t shush you” probably makes the library look more uncool than if it wasn't in social networking software at all. There is a big difference between “being where our users are” and “being USEFUL to our users where they are.” Some of the libraries in MySpace and Facebook have put a profile up, but they have not tried to make it useful to their users at all. Just putting up a profile does not make the library seem cool, nor does it make the library more visible.

Now, libraries can create their own pages in Facebook. You can put in applications like links to subject guides, posts from your library blogs, images from the library, and catalog search boxes. Each page also has a discussion board and a Wall where conversations can take place. Instead of friending an organization's page, you become a fan of the page. It's a lot like joining a group. When actions are taken on the Facebook page, they are published to the social feed of each fan. I think Facebook pages have a lot of potential for outreach if people really think about how to make it part of an integrated web marketing plan.

There are quite a lot of library-related applications out there now. Most of them search the catalog. Some also search other databases as well. Others even have links to additional library resources. A few libraries have been nice enough to share the source code they used to create their search applications so other libraries can modify them for their own needs. These search applications can go on the library's page or on anyone's profile. It puts the library resources at the fingertips of students. There are also a number of other useful tools that librarians could be using on their profiles or pages. You can syndicate your blog content, display instructional videos or display power point. There are new applications coming out all the time that could possibly be adapted for library use.

So, I was thinking, with all these applications that pull in content from other places, you really could crate the ultimate academic liaison profile. So, let's say that you are a liaison to an academic area. You could display a catalog search tool or one that searches your databases as well if you have federated search at your school. If you have the blog, you could display the content on your Facebook page. You could even syndicate RSS feeds of major journals in that subject area. You can bookmark items in del.icio.us for students and faculty in that area and display it on your Facebook page. If you have an RSS feed of new books by subject, you could display that, or you could manually load the new books into one of those book-sharing Facebook applications or LibraryThing. You can use the MeeboMe application to put a chat box on your page that people can use to contact you. And finally, if you have instructional content in video or power point format, you can display that on your Facebook profile. You could essentially make your Facebook profile a one-stop-shop for people doing research in your subject area.

Some libraries have made their MySpace profile or Facebook page an extension of the library website with a catalog search interface, links to their chat reference service, research guides, calendar of events, and even a news blog.

Facebook can also be used as a feedback mechanism, which I discussed in the book chapter with reference to the Crosset Library at Bennington College. Their head librarian recently was honored in New York City as a winner in an I Love my Librarian campaign, so her outreach has really had an impact.

There are a few critical things to consider before building presence in social networking software. First, figure out which services your patrons actually use. There's no reason to be in MySpace if everyone's in Facebook. You could probably figure this out anecdotally or through surveying them. It's also important to understand the culture of your community online in social networking software. Some communities would welcome the presence of the library in Facebook or MySpace. Others would see that as intrusive. When friending people, libraries need to walk a fine line between being useful and being intrusive. Some libraries friend users first while others just accept friend requests from users. Also, some libraries may feel tempted to push information out to their “friends” in the form of bulk messages. Before you consider friending your users or sending them messages in MySpace or Facebook, it's important to consider whether or not your users will view this as useful or an invasion of their privacy. Being too forward in these spaces can result in alienating your users. This is why it's important to really understand your patrons and how they use social networking software. You don't want to look like a librarian who thinks they can do outreach by showing up at the local bar students frequent. Definitely not cool. Some libraries have teens or college students create and maintain the library's web presence to make sure they are creating something that fits into the culture. This is a terrific idea in many cases.

Before you create a profile for your own library, consider what your goals are. Do you want to solicit feedback from your users? Do you want to provide them with useful news and information? Do you want to provide library services and links to collections from right inside of these spaces? Make sure that you are creating a site that will be useful to your users; your only goal should not be to make the library look cool. Next, look at how you can pull useful things from your already existing library web presence into Facebook or MySpace. There are a lot of useful things you can pull into your presence.

Next, think about marketing strategy. It's not like most students are going to stumble upon your presence on their own. You can market a presence in Facebook or MySpace just as you can market any other library services. Maybe even have some sort of contest where students can win an iPod if they do something with your presence (submet a design for a logo, etc.). Once they've found you and friended you, you will be at their fingertips the next time they need research help.

Finally, think about how you will deal with the issues that typically come up when you have a presence in social networking software. Will you friend patrons or wait for them to find you? If students invite you to join groups, will you do so? How will you deal with inappropriate messages on your Wall/board? This is even more an issue in MySpace where people can post inappropriate images on your message board. You may not need a policy to govern these things, but it's something to consider.

Libraries in Online Courseware

Another place a lot of our users are in is online courseware. I recently read that by 2014 the majority of all students will be taking at least one course online, so it behoves librarians to consider how to serve patrons in these virtual spaces.

So, what is online courseware? It's basically the software that enables course management and delivery, something you should be very familiar with as an online student. Courseware is also known as course management systems and learning management systems. Popular products include Blackboard, WebCT, Moodle and Angel.

For online learners, the course management system is basically the online equivalent of a campus for them. It's where their academic life takes place. So, if the library isn't embedded in that online campus, it's like having to drive to another town after class to visit the library.
At Norwich, we have embedded library services into the course management system. In every classroom, there is a link marked Library Access. Clicking on that will take them to a library presence designed specifically for the needs of online learners. Online learners have different needs and face different challenges. As a result, it makes sense to have a portal designed specifically for them. In addition to creating a portal for distance learners, we have specific pages geared towards each online program with unique news items and resource links.

There are various levels of involvement librarians can have in online courseware. They can simply put a link from the classroom to the regular library website. This certainly requires the least amount of work, but also provides the lowest level of service. Like we did at Norwich, libraries can create a portal to library services from inside the online courseware. This means more work because the librarians have to maintain two parallel web presences, but the web presence in courseware is designed to better meet the needs of the students. Finally, some schools are designing individualized course pages within each classroom. Providing services at the course-level obviously requires the greatest time commitment, but it also provides the greatest benefit to the students because the material is really tied to what they're learning.

Here are a few issues to consider when getting involved in online courseware. The first is the importance of building rapport with faculty and the technical staff who maintain the online courseware. You need to get the approval of faculty to be able to embed the library in the classroom and you will need to gain the trust of the instructional designers to get the necessary permissions to be able to design content in the courseware. While this may sound at first like a purely technical task, it does require a lot of relationship-building. The next thing to consider is time. It may not be too difficult to create the pages, but maintaining them is another kettle of fish. The more pages you create, the more you have to maintain. As you saw, the services that provide the most benefit to students require the greatest time commitment from library staff. It's important to find the happy medium between providing good services and providing services you have time to maintain. Finally, you need to make sure you have the technical skills to make this happen. I had to design all of the pages in WebCT myself. If I didn't know CSS, HTML and a little JavaScript, I would have been up a creek. Make sure there are people on staff who can do this. Otherwise, you may need to depend more on instructional designers who are usually busy enough keeping the courseware running.

I would assume that most of you have experience using Facebook or MySpace, but if you've never been in either, I highly recommend that you create a profile in Facebook and get yourself accustomed to the space. The most quickly growing demographic in Facebook now is women over 50, so it's a medium that has tremendous potential for providing outreach to patrons of all ages, not just young college students.