Using Social Media isn't everything

"Social networks are about ...being social"
that's the core message of this presentation - so: have a look. This presentation is inspiring (for libraries as well)!

Your Social Media Strategy Won't Save You 2

View more documents from Tara Hunt.

The new Library2.0-Manifest (by Zukunftswerkstatt - in english: future lab)

The project "Zukunftswerkstatt" (in english: future lab) names the objectives for the libraries' future. The librarians are called to go playing: playing with web2.0-services, playing within (information literacy) instructions etc. I fully agree with that, cos libraries are still seen as old fashioned institutions. Libraries ARE already online - they only have to show a bigger presence at multiple channels: The doors have to be open, librarians aren't the gatekeepers any more.
Please watch the presentation (unfortunately only in German) to get a better impression of what is meant with "go playing":

Zur Zukunft Der Bibliotheken

View more presentations from zw09.

Trend-spotting in Germany

Just a few weeks ago the Bibliothekartag took place. The most interesting german project in these days "Zukunftswerkstatt" was introduced there with lots of presentations and a discussion panel. ("Zukunftswerkstatt" can be translated as "hotbed of ideas" or "idea laboraty".) The slogan of "Zukunftswerkstatt" is "Libraries go playing". The vodcasts from the discussion panel can be found at youtube.





Here a few insights into the sometimes controversal but fruitful discussion:

Mrs Prof. Beger (director of the SUB Hamburg) asked the essential question - with which the whole panel dealt -

What do we have to prepare for?

In these days Google is standard. Whether we like it or not Google is the starting point.

Users do not see that libraries are innovative cos the libraries' rooms are old-fashioned and outmoded. The users only get to know this new breeze when the USE the library and its services.
With the focus on this facts Mrs. Beger asked provoking:

Should we entrust Google with our catalogs?

Albert Bilo (director of the UB Essen) underlined that there are people who want an old catalog room and there are people who want to have an OPAC with new features and user-generated content (OPAC2.0). In his opinion it will develop side by side. He highlighted that librarians have to master the task to fill the gaps. (Sometimes they fill gaps which turned out to be no gaps.)

I want to thank Prof. Hobohm for presenting our project at the stand of "Zukunftswerkstatt". The slides of this presentation can be found at slideshare. One year ago we did a survey among german libraries what their opinion is about innovation and how they deal with trends. The results can be found in the current issue of the journal Forum Bibliothek und Information BuB 06/2009.
Several other interesting presentations are online at Slideshare.

the (r)evolution of education and learning

Since the poll and the results offered via the video „A Vision of Students today“ I appreciate the work of Michael Wesch. By chance I discovered a new presentation given by Michael Wesch at the conference "Education Learning Initiative". The title of this amazing presentation is "From the Knowledgeable to the Knowledge-able". It describes the revolution(s) in education -
right now there is one taking place regarding the fast spreading of information by the means of new media tools like flickr, twitter etc. How can we use new media to foster the kinds of communication and community we desire in education? Michael Wesch presents both successful and unsuccessful attempts to integrate emerging technologies into the classroom to create a rich virtual learning environment.

His main points are:

• learning has to be fun!


• etwas Infrage-stellen muss das Bildungssystem zulassen, da es gut für die Kreativität und fürs Lernen selbst ist


• we have to teach HOW to think


• „it’s all about asking good questions“ => in Michael Wesch's opinion there is a a snificance-crisis for years now: the students ask "How much do I have to do to get my credits/ mark? (!)

But more important is:

• to learn is to aquire information,


• to learn is to SHARE, DISCUSS, CRITIQUING information and in the end CREATE new information: it’s about creating meaningful connections


• => to learn is to create … significance


Regarding the students' habit it's important to ask ourselves:

• How can we create significance? How can we create meaningful connections?
• How can we create students who can create meaningful connections?

The last one made me think of "Re-Brainwashing" ;)
In my opinion students forgot the significance of learning because they are not any more able to see the linkage to their lives caused by the more and more performance-oriented world.

To change students' habits we have to:

• engage real problems (that really matter to students)


• engage it with students


• recognize and harness the existing media environment so that students can recognize and harness them as well
  

Regarding the last point he stresses that there are no digital natives! (all the new services are at most only 4 years old)
To give a practical insight how to use new media tools he shows examples from his work as a professor at KSU.
After that Michael Wesch asks more critical questions

• how to get students to better work together on real projects?


• who is smarter: me or my students?

By asking the last question he puts himself in a neutral position. He knows he should be the expert but he notices that there is cumulative knowledge in front of him. It only needs someone who harnesses it and manages to draw everybody in.
Once more he presents an example out of his work where students were able to ask real relevant (world) questions: the World Simulation Spring 2007

After that he stresses that technology creates linkages between the real and the virtual world. Once more he asks several critical questions:

• have we prepared our students for this world? => Will students be able to create the information landscape of tomorrow? => have we prepared the students to CREATE this world?


• rethinking the Basics => what are basic literacy skills?

Web2.0 is going around the information (professionalists') world

Conferences for librarians about Web2.0 are common in the USA, in Great Britain and nowadays in Germany, too. Just a few minutes ago I found an announcement for a Web2.0-conference for librarians in Puerto Rico. In June there was the 11th EAHIL-conference that dealt with web2.0 and the possibilities for libraries. (Several papers and podcasts are here)
- I wonder which other parts of the world are infected with the virus "web2.0" and "library2.0"... (?) ! To get a picture of it I tried a search on google.maps:


Quelle: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=%22web2.0%22+OR+library2.0+AND+conference+AND+%22LIS%22+OR+librarians&mrt=all&sll=38.272689,8.789063&sspn=48.931466,78.75&ie=UTF8&start=0&z=4

By taking away "library2.0" out of the query I got only hits within the USA:


Quelle: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=%22web2.0%22+AND+conference+AND+%22LIS%22+OR+librarians&sll=44.746733,-97.822266&sspn=87.109472,157.5&ie=UTF8&ll=44.715514,-97.910156&spn=44.725872,78.75&z=4

That I got another part of the world with nearly similar queries (in the same search engine) is surprising! Why is there such a difference?!?
Furthermore these hits are not very satisfycing because not all hits have to do with the LIS-world. -Is there another geographical search engine that is more intelligent? (I only know from the european project SPIRIT in which the Institute Geographique National (IGN) takes part in.)

Well, I know: To get a picture about the virus "web 2.0" this way of using Google maps is not the best way, of course. It's better to use the Google API. (I never did that before but I will try to program sth. by using Google API)

The evolution of the web (by Prof. Dr. Rene Schneider, presented at Inetbib-conference 2008)

This presentation was one of the most impressive ones. (Other people are sharing this opinion as I heard.) It was a presentation concerning the impact that the Web 2.0 and the Web 3.0 will have on libraries. Prof. Dr. Rene Schneider believes that this evolution of the web won't leave the libraries untouched.
Several images were drawn that were impressive enough and presented in a way worth to keep in mind.
For each version of the web, Prof. Dr. Rene Schneider gave analogies (quotes of literary works):

Web1.0 = "the garden of paths that are branching out" (Der Garten der Pfade, die sich verzweigen)
Web1.0 consists of networks of portals, databases, websites and search engines. Web1.0 can be identified by its push-character. (slide 5) Libraries were going online. Libraries began to offer information portals. Moreover libraries started to administer the user accounts digitally. (slide 6)

After that Prof. Dr. Rene Schneider showed the transformation from the Middle ages to the modern times (slide 7). According to Slawterdyke (?) the modern information world is charaterized by pluralism of information sources. That means everyone can be his/ her own librarian, everyone can have his/her own library. (This reminds me of the workshop "Everyone's a librarian now" at Bobcatsss2008)

The techniques of the library1.0:

• Dublin Core
• catalog as a bibliographic ontology
• semantic federation
• automation of mash-ups

Web2.0 = "the castle, in which fates are crossing" (Das Schloss, darin sich Schicksale kreuzen"
Web2.0 contains of wikis, blogs + RSS etc (slide 8) . The tools are used to deepen ones sense. Furthermore it's possible to reroute the flow of information via RSS-subscriptions etc. Communities/Folksonomies serve as bundles of information (slide 15). Prof. Dr. Rene Schneider compares them to birds which at first fly in a chaotic way and then organize themselves in a streamline (slide 13). (- In management processes are streamlined, too.)
Web2.0 belongs to the pull-technology.

The techniques of the library2.0 (slide 9):

• RSS
• Folksonomies
• widgets

The theory is followed by some examples (slide 10, slide 12)

Web3.0 = the Taming of the Shrew (Der Widerspenstigen Zähmung) - Shakespeare
In Web3.0 everything is a question of semantic (slide 16). The goal is to define information that is understood by search agents/ robots/ spiders. It's the goal to make the search engines/ robots intelligent. That means libraries can serve in the information glut as islands (or life rafts) by building thesauri, taxonomies and ontologies (slide 17). Thus a very complex structure of metadata is required.

The techniques of library3.0 (slide 18):

• Dublin Core
• catalog as a semantic ontology
• semantiv federation of digital libraries
• automatic mash-ups

So, what's the essential difference between web2.0 and web3.0? (slide 19)
Web2.0 is about people. In the world of web2.0 everything is miscellanious. Web3.0 is about agents. Thus, in the world of web3.0 there is no space for miscellanious.

Web4.0 = It - Stephen King
Web4.0 is the mixture of web2.0 and web3.0. According to Prof. Dr. Rene Schneider it's not possible to put web4.0 into practice.
But at least we should try to make improvements for the customer.


Hopefully the libraries do not ignore these developments but are adapting.

Apart from the technical perspective on this issue there is a personal perspective on it. Something additional to how librarians view themselves comes from Mark Clowes, who compares librarians with DJs:
http://ealn.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-can-librarians-learn-from-djs.html

Workshop "Everyone's a librarian now" at Bobcatsss2008

At the workshop "Everyone's a librarian now" the audience was able to get some insights into how to operate in the context of an explosion of user-generated content and new, informal channels of information distribution. During the workshop several problems that are facing the librarians were discussed seriously and lively.
The workshop was held by Mark Clowes and Matthew Borg (both working as Information Advisors at Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom) at Bobcatsss2008 in Zadar, Croatia (http://bobcatsss2008.org).

The workshop was well-structured and designed in a vivid way. At first the authors Mark Clowes and Matthew Borg gave a short, but good overview of web2.0 trends. This overview was followed by provoking slogans. After that the audience was asked to think in groups about several web2.0-technologies. Each group was asked to select two examples of web2.0-technology that was favoured for specific services. This should be done by thinking about following questions:

• What skills or expertise does the librarian bring to the use of these tools?
• What issues might arise in implementing them?
• What will happen if librarians do not engage with them?
  

After this consideration the results were presented to the whole audience.


I will give a short summary of the workshop's most important facts and results:

In the world of librarianship there are several concerns about web developments such as tagging, social bookmarking and informal ways of information distribution such as blogging.

When the new dew developments arose there was (and sometimes there is still) a great surprise:
"two point OH"
-> with web2.0 you have for the first time in the history of the internet tools that enable real interaction

Until now there is confusion about what web2.0 really is. A concise and accepted defintion is still missing.
"two point what?"
-> It depends on what you are reading and talking about

More and more we as librarians realize which great role web2.0-technologies begin to play in our information society.
"two point, oh."
-> this leads librarians to considerations such as:
What do these developments mean to us?
Where does web2.0 leave us?
Are librarians still important? and if: how can we use these tools? how can we make these tools working for us, or rather, for our library?

For librarians these developments are scaring. With the new tools it's possible to collaborate, to comment, to rate, to mashup, even to catalogue...!
So, we librarians have to refocus on our core functions. To put it in John N. Berry's optimistic words:

"The young and the old, the digital and print, the techie and the traditional—whatever you call them, there are two cultures now. [...] Because of the two cultures, the librarian must take on a new, complex role as nonpartisan bridge builder, spanning the canyon between them to find and deliver accurate information, truth, to a world overwhelmed by misinformation, spin, and distraction." (http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6261430.html)

In Berry's eyes a librarians is a "seeker and deliverer of truth in a world of partisans and liars". To survive in future we have to meet this challenge. That means we have to refocus on our core functions:

1. collection development
2. cataloguing and classification (/custimizing)
3. circulation
4. reference work
5. preservation, conservation and archiving

These core function's of the library leads us to our traditional tasks:

1. selecting
2. describing
3. disseminating
4. being an advisor
   
5. preserving

Except for the latter task, all of these tasks can be fulfilled with web2.0-tools. (In web2.0-era it's quite hard to preserve information)
"role: over?"
-> So, once again: where do these developments leave us? What is our role in this changing environment?
Furtunately, there is a task left for us. Our primary task is (and will be) teaching, especially in a world of digital divide and a world of a (more or less) restricted access to information.
Regarding to the tasks that are met by the web2.0-tools: these tools are not perfect until now. Thus, one of our tasks from now on will be to complement these tools to create better tools for searching, selecting, describing and providing information. If we succeed in improving the tools and the skills of our customers we will be able to convert libraries into centres of information and knowledge.
But our customers are in some ways better informed (e.g. in terms of new developments) or more skilled than us (e.g. programming). That's why we should be willing to learn from our customers.