Exercise 11 - Local Library Recommendations for Library 2.0 Technologies

This post examines best practice Library 2.0 technologies in use around the world and seeks to make recommendations for the incorporation of appropriate technologies by my local library service. Before we examine the possibilities two things need to be understood: 

1. as noted in Exercise 10 - Kuring-gai Libraries are not a great user of technology; and
2. we will use the following definition of Library 2.0, extracted from an Adelaide City Libraries Report, to inform decision making-

“Library 2.0 is the next generation model for delivery of library services. It encourages user participation both in the physical and virtual services they want, while attempting to reach new users and better service current ones through improved customer driven tools and applications. This includes online tools and applications and an increased level of conversation between the user and the library service. The library user becomes a participant, co-creator, builder and a consultant.“

Library 2.0 for Children

This is perhaps a difficult area as many children will not interact with the library catalogue or website until they are almost in their teens.  Furthermore, most will be under the age at which social media platforms can be legitimately joined. 

However Christchurch City Libraries does this very well with a visual section just for kids.  Each icon is colourful and relates to the different ways the library reaches out to the children  - there are articles, reading lists, blogposts, and links to the website.  Comments can be left on blogs.

Adelaide City Libraries have embraced Library 2.0.  See this reference paper for a discussion of the 6 main ways they have incorporated 2.0 technologies into their catalogue interface.  The incorporation is not really clear from the general homepage, only once you have navigated to the catalogue does the transformation become clear – the catalogue even has a modern look and feel to it.  The menu down the left hand side, certainly helps to make the catalogue more approachable, and links to events etc are found on this page too. I loved the What to Read Next button which produced a page with links to interactive sites including the Little Big Book Club.  This is an external site with reading suggestions for children.  It not only suggests books but displays the catalogue information and allows reviews to be posted of each title.  admittedly tough, this would be done by adults as this site caters for younger children.

Once an item has been located in the Adelaide City Libraries, the catalogue contains a location which displays reviews and allows a logged in user to place reviews.  This feature would be accessible to computer literate older children   Reviewers can also sign in via their Facebook or twitter account.  Greyed out text indicates that the ChiliFresh app is also available through Adelaide’s SirsiDynix system.  Furthermore under each item is a link to allow you to like it in Facebook.  See the extracted image below:

Yarra Plenty Regional Libraries allows browsing by audience via a link from a menu bar on their home page.  This includes a Birth-5 years, and a Kids button. Choosing the Kids button brings up a colourful page with links the following:

·     news,

·     staff lists,

·     blogposts, 

·     new in books,

·     staff picks and

·     summer reading. 

Also, once an individual title is selected via the catalogue there is a wealth of information to tempt younger readers:

·     cover image,

·     book summary,

·     availability and locations,

·     place hold button, and

·     an opinion section which provides for community activity – comments, individual summaries and more which allows the possibility to post notices, quotes and videos.

I’d like to see Kuring-gai’s library website upgraded to be more than the merely functional site that is it at present.  It obviously isn’t well used because if you click on “Stuff for Kids” under the New Resources section the Children’s Book Council Awards Shortlist is from 2012!!

The library needs some quick drop down lists (like the ones from Yarra Plenty described above) so children’s information can be readily accessed rather than each item only being located via a traditional catalogue search. 

I’d also like to see some links to sites like Inside a Dog which is a Library 2.0 site established by the State Library of Victoria – it bills itself as “All about books – by young people, for young people.” Whilst the site is curated, all reviews and recommendations are posted by kids and teens.  The exception being content posted by authors themselves. 

Library 2.0 in Adult Fiction

Comments, ratings and quotations, summaries and blogs are the main ways that Library 2.0 is used in adult collections.  The text to the right is extracted from the Yarra Plenty Libraries FAQ section to illustrate the reasons libraries encourage user content.  Regular users of social media will not need this encouragement but the explanation can make it more comfortable for other members of the community to contribute:

I have reviewed the following library sites: Yarra Plenty (VIC), Christchurch City (NZ) Hennepin County (MN), and Seattle (WA).  All have great, Library 2.0 rich catalogues and it is very noticeable that they all use Bibliocommons software to achieve a modern, interactive feel and generate community contribution to the catalogue.  New York Public Library uses Encore, whilst Sydney City uses the adaptable Aurora software favoured by the ShoreLink libraries.  All of these libraries, without exception, maintain at least one library blog which draws interest and allows the community to comment and interact with their librarians.  Blogs are usually able to be subscribed to by RSS feeds.

I would love to see the Community Opinion Section that appears in both the Yarra Plenty Libraries and the Hennepin County Library (it’s clearly the same software) adopted by Kuring-gai, although for practical and economic reasons I expect this may not be possible in their near future.  The Yarra Plenty Libraries pages appear well populated by their local community – note that there are 16 comments on the extraction to the left.  I have not shown the actual community comments simply for reasons of length.

I recognise that it difficult for many NSW public libraries to even create an interesting webpage, let alone address Library 2.0, as many simply run off the local council’s website (as Kuring-gai does).  This seems to create a number of constraints and leads to a rather boring and uninspiring online interaction.  Even Adelaide City Library suffers from this until you open the catalogue.  It does not have to be the case though.  Coffs Harbour City Library has a stand alone web page which has a format that is immediately more attractive and interactive, and nav bar tabs that are quick to use and relevant to the way a community would seek to use the library.

As a priority I’d like to see Kuring-gai make a more interesting library website which softly began to introduce Library 2.0:

1. At minimal cost the library could ask staff to create a blog or two, each aimed at a different demographic, and allowing patrons to comment on the blog entries. 
2. It should really reformat the MyLibrary webpage so things such as new books, and links to the blog/s could actually be located without a half hour search.  A more modern format would be via the use of icons or buttons rather than a list. Also a column on the my library page to either the library’s existing facebook or twitter account (as Coffs Harbour has done) may help to generate more traffic and interest. 
3. If possible, it would be nice to reformat the OPAC slightly so that the links to LibraryThing and Google Books are actually visible – its hard for patrons to find and use this service that the library is subscribing to.

Library 2.0 for Youth

This is perhaps the most obvious use of Library 2.0 platforms as teens love to use social media, and libraries are able to attract teenagers by providing spaces to hang out together with casual seating areas near charge points for chatting and quieter, designated study areas.  Homework help is a popular service provided by libraries around the world.

Seattle library has a comprehensive calendar of homework help times and locations online.  It is interactive allowing you to subscribe to an RSS feed and download selected sessions to your calendar.  

Yarra Plenty Regional Library has a great visual section for teens but lacks some of the obvious links; the Staff lists are done by individuals who can be followed through the website – it would be great to link these to Twitter or perhaps Instagram where the teens can subscribe to get updates of new reading lists or events in their social media platform.  In Kuring-gai, the main library at Gordon is a popular hang out for teenagers and has areas furbished in a way that is attractive and welcoming to them.  It even hosts some great events, but these are almost impossible to locate on the webpage - who would know about them and what teenager would bother to search for some time to find them?

It would be great to see some blogs and social media feeds created on the MyLibrary page to attract teens and make the online space as welcoming as the physical location.  The HSC and other teen events should be sent out via an Instagram feed, but the existence of the feed needs to be advertised in the appropriate section of the website so that the students can subscribe to it. 

Exercise 10 - Local Library Evaluation of 2.0 Technologies

My local library is Kuring-gai.  I looked on their Home Page and found large icons to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn at the base of the page.  However, when I followed these, each belonged not solely to the library but to Kuring-gai Council in general. 

When I went to the My Library page, and scrolled to the very bottom there was a link to a Kuring-gai Library Facebook page.  However only 453 people (out of a total population of 120,978 in the LGA, according to the ABS ) have liked it!  Perusing the Facebook site shows me that there are very few reviews, comments or likes and that the local community is not engaging with the Library’s Facebook page, despite the Librarians colourful and interesting posts. 

There are really no discernible Library 2.0 technologies employed under the given headings:

·     Local Studies;

·     Children’s;

·     Teenage/Youth;

·     Adult Fiction; or

·     Information/Reference.

The library catalogue was updated in July 2011 to contain interactive links via LibraryThing and Google Books for catalogue items but to find either you need to locate the individual item on the catalogue then select it.  Once selected either Google Books or LibraryThing (or both) may come up as a link in the ‘More Information’ category.  This is not available for every title in the catalogue, and appears to be pot luck when you select individual items.  See the screen shot of a catalogue item below indicating the availability of LibraryThing and Google Books for the classic children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

I think the image the Library/Council chooses to put on the My Library navigation page tells the story as to why the poor uptake of Library 2.0.  Note the age demographic illustrated in the extracted image below:

The ABS web page consulted in Exercise 5 also revealed that within the Sydney SD, the Ku-ring-gai Statistical Local Area has the highest median age at 40.8 years.  Ku-ring-gai also had the highest median age for males (39.5 years) and second highest for females (41.7 years).  I decided to investigate this further and looked at the more detailed ABS National Regional Profile: Kuring-gai.  The following table extracts data from this site to summaries the population by age. 

  

Age Group	% of Kuring-gai population per year
	2009	2010	2011
0-14	19.7	19.8	20.0
15-24	14.2	13.9	14.4
25-34	8.3	8.3	7.9
35-44	13.0	13.1	13.1
45-54	15.8	15.8	15.8
55-64	12.2	12.1	12.0
65-74	8.0	8.2	8.3
75-84	5.9	5.9	5.8
> 85	2.9	3.0	3.1

The table illustrates that Kuring-gai has a low proportion of the population as young professionals (25-34 years).  Living here, I can attest that once children gain an independent income they often leave to live in the busier suburbs closer to the city, to work and nightlife (Three early 20's newly minted professionals have left our small cul-de-sac in the last few months for the bright city lights!).  They may return later in life when they are seeking space to raise a family – hence the higher proportion of 0-14 year olds.

The elderly nature of much of the population, together with the very low proportion of younger working age people (ie those more likely to engage with Library 2.0 technologies), and the conservative nature of the area, means that uptake of Library 2.0 technologies is likely to be more limited.  It is also a reflection of Council, that in seeking to serve an area with a population concentrated at both end of the age spectrum (ie young and old but not middle) they have not embraced those technologies that are most likely to appeal to those in that middle spectrum.  The references I looked at in Exercise 5 and the Sensis Report data all point to younger people moving away from Facebook to the more visual Web 2.0 mediums such as Instagram, Snapchat and the like.  Perhaps these would be more appropriate Library 2.0 technologies in my local area...

Exercise 9 - Social Media & Me

I am a very sparse user of social media.  I have firmly resisted joining Facebook as I’ve absolutely no desire to share the minutiae of my daily life with the world.  Nor, rather meanly (I admit), do I wish to be updated with the boring daily details that I know my siblings post – enough is enough in my books.  I still prefer one on one conversations where details are shared between two (even if that does sometimes take place by text rather than phone).  

I’ve also resisted Facebook and the like as I am unwilling to share (or have shared) tagged photos of my children on the internet.  As they age, I know the time is coming when they will establish their own social media profiles, however, I think they have the right to create (and curate) these profiles for themselves.  They don’t need baby and childhood photos preserved in eternity for the world to view – they are more than capable of creating their own embarrassment without me starting it for them!     

I do however use the review functions of social media – for example I use and contribute to TripAdvisor.  I find this type of site very useful to filter and screen for bad experiences when booking accommodation in places I have never visited.  I also know its power – as I have a sibling who is in the restaurant trade and am often hearing of the consequences of a bad review, and the steps restaurants will undertake to mollify an unhappy patron BEFORE a negative review is posted.

I also have a LinkedIn profile, but only because a sibling bullied me into it.  I was informed – in no uncertain terms - that it was necessary if I wanted to be gainfully employed in the modern world that I have an online presence a potential employer could search, rather than being invisible!!  We compromised at LinkedIn as it is professional rather than personal.  Although I do admit that I rarely look at it, and have really only tinkered around the edges of the profile that I established when I started the LIS course in 2014…

Exercise 8 - Current Awareness Post

Both of these videos (Filter Bubbles and Privacy Matters)  drew a strong response from me – and my reactions to both issues over the years has already somewhat framed my answers to the next exercise entitled Social Media & Me.

However, in this post I will address the issue of the filter bubble.  To me this is one of the big social/civic issues of our time.  We live in a world which is constantly affirming us and our personal life choices; social media, through the use of filtering does not challenge us but holds up a magic mirror, so our choices, whatever their merits, are always reflected positively.  It’s easily tested - send out a post or group text to your friends decrying the driver who cut you off at the intersection this morning, and the responses will roll in empathising with you and supporting your frustration/angry response.   The fact that the incident wasn’t witnessed by a single person who responds won’t be relevant – it’s the affirmation from those around us – justifying our choices and role in a situation that will matter – the facts will be left lying, unexamined, where they fell.

At a larger scale, this filtering affects our sense of ourselves, our importance and our sense of social justice.  If all the news we receive is filtered to be either a certain type of story, or commentary slanted towards our own world view, then we will begin to see the world as an homogenous place, leaving open the door for scorn or mistreatment of those whose ideas, opinions and backgrounds do not match our own.  A whole, robust society supports diversity.  A challenge to an ingrained way of thinking can help a person to grow and create a desire to understand the full complexity of life and its myriad of choices.  Decades ago, this was firmly the role of the editorial or the opinion piece in the major national newspapers.  The reviews often examined complex economic, social or political issues in depth.  If they presented only one side of the argument, another journalist would present the alternative.  Together this created open, public debate. 

  Many in the western world today decry the censorship known to be imposed by totalitarian states, and are quick to present the negative consequences of both the censorship and the harsh regime needed to allow it to succeed.  Meanwhile, quietly but surely, corporations are achieving the same ends of social homogeneity by the application of filter bubbles. 

Here’s a great quote which neatly illustrates the nature of the world created behind those filter bubbles…

I've built a network that curates interestingness. In my universe, it encompasses thousands and thousands of filters and people, each person being a filter. So it's kinda cool. Like I've created my own utopia, removing the boring stuff and showing only the amazing stuff.  Jason Silva

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/filter.html

These quotes represent the situation as it could be:

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.  George Orwell

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3706.George_Orwell

Because if you don't stand up for the stuff you don't like, when they come for the stuff you do like, you've already lost.   Neil Gaiman

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1221698.Neil_Gaiman

And these last quotes indicate the consequences of a lazy acceptance of the censoring nature of filters:

Submitting to censorship is to enter the seductive world of 'The Giver': the world where there are no bad words and no bad deeds. But it is also the world where choice has been taken away and reality distorted. And that is the most dangerous world of all.  Lois Lowry

Source: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/censorship.html

The fact is that censorship always defeats its own purpose, for it creates, in the end, the kind of society that is incapable of exercising real discretion. In the long run it will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.  Henry Steele Commager

Source: http://www.goodreads.com/

Exercise 7 - Podcasts

Given that the last post reviewed Wikipedia’s increasing reliability, I thought we’d draw on their services for the following definition of podcast:

A podcast is an episodic series of digital media files which a user can set up so that new episodes are automatically downloaded via web syndication to the user's own local computer or portable media player.

The word arose as a portmanteau of "iPod" (a brand of media player) and "broadcast". Thus, the files distributed are typically in audio or video formats, but may sometimes include other file formats such as PDF or ePub.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast)

In other words, it’s like serialised radio.  Content is saved in ‘episodes’ and distributed (usually) freely via a website.  The content can be fiction – like the radio serials of old, or it can be factual.  A commonly recognisable podcast in Sydney would be Richard Fidler’s “Conversations”.  The series of hour long pre-recorded interviews is broadcast on ABC 702 Radio at 11am daily, and each episode is then placed on the 702 website for downloading as a podcast.  The range of topics is broad as it is a collection of interviews with interesting people, and stories from around the world.  Here is the link to these Richard Fidler’s podcasts: Conversations

The podcast from an Australian library I have decided to link to is part of the  Blacktown City Libraries Podcasts.  These podcasts are recordings of author talks and discussions hosted by the Library.  The link is http://www.libraries.blacktown.nsw.gov.au/Digital_Library/Digital_Library/Podcasts

The podcast I listened to was entitled “Dianne Bestwick (March, 2015)”.  Diane lived in the Blacktown area with her family for two years whilst she finished writing and researching her book And a Bird Sang (published by Createspace, 2014).  The book is a fictionalized account of a woman pregnant with her second child.  It explores the problems she faces with the difficult choice of continuing her pregnancy or having a forced abortion as required by Chinese law.  

The podcast provides the background to the novel, as Diane speaks of her life experiences and her interest in writing.  She also tells the story of how she comes to be in China, and how her interest in the lives of the students she teaches (all from one-child families) leads her to develop trust and relationships with the local families.  Diane feels strongly the inequality and the anxieties of the women’s lives where the state controls the very nature of their families.  She became active in areas of social justice seeking to help the abandoned babies of the one-child system – mainly girls and disabled children – by volunteering in local orphanages.  Indeed sales from the book are being donated to some of these orphanages so that children have the medical assistance they require.

Exercise 6 - Wikipedia

I will admit that I often use Wikipedia as a quick reference point, especially if I am after information in a subject not completely foreign to me.  My kids usually object to using it as a source because their teachers have taught them the unfortunate phrase “wiki it up”. 

Much to the kids disappointment though, I have been aware of Wikipedia’s reliability issues for many years.  In 2009 I was researching Andorran cuisine and wine preparing to host a Tour de France party as the race traversed Andorra.  It was not the easiest subject to research, and when hunting for suitable party recipes with an Andorran (read cabbage and smoked ham) flavour, I came across the Wiki entry for Andorra in my digital travels.  I clearly remember the article discussing Andorra’s Navy and its coastal access – interesting assertions for a country isolated atop the Pyrenean Mountains!  Clearly a mischievous entry…

     +      =    ?!

          

I think the library initiatives to improve Wikipedia are great.  Having read the suggested articles, I checked the Wikipedia entry for the First Fleet and did find references to documents and data held in the State Library of NSW, so clearl;y the efforts to improve things are paying off.  The information as to how contributions to Wikipedia articles can increase traffic to a library’s website (via linkages) was an interesting eye opener for me and must be a temptation for libraries with great local history collections or digital repositories which could be usefully shared and could attract additional patronage of the library in question.

In many ways, particularly for speed and ease of access, Wikipedia has replaced the ubiquitous sets of World Book or Britannica Encyclopaedias that were once found in homes, school and libraries.  It provides and quick and convenient reference source for general information on a specific topic.  I love the dream of Jimmy Wales, one of the founders of Wikipedia, in which we are urged to “Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge.” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:About)