Archive for the 'social software' Category

Giving users their privacy rights back.

Cliff August 14th, 2007

As librarians, we have taken our users’ privacy rights away. As part of our code of ethics,

III. We protect each library user’s right to privacy and confidentiality with respect to information sought or received and resources consulted, borrowed, acquired or transmitted.

In many cases, we are protecting the user’s right to privacy whether they like it or not. By shredding/deleting/anonymizing user information without the user’s consent, we are taking that right away. If a library user is unable to exercise their right to privacy themselves, do they have that right at all?

At the GGAUG Conference, several librarians expressed concern that the Web is evolving to slowly chip away at privacy, and that “Big Brother” is collecting information on us all. In response, I asked how many people in the room had Amazon.com accounts. Of about 100 people, only two did not have accounts. As a matter of perspective, I pointed out how Amazon.com has my current and former addresses and phone numbers, credit card information, and how it knows what books I read, CDs I listen to, woodworking tools I wish I could afford, and how I’m related to various friends and family members with similar wishlists. How did this corporate monolith gain all this information about me? I gave it away for the convenience of one-stop-shopping online. Many of our patrons are also willing to sacrifice a little privacy for the sake of convenience.

Booklovers are constantly discovering LibraryThing, and are sharing their reading lists with each other. WorldCat.org is developing social networking so that users can create lists of books and articles to share with friends. We are struggling to hold onto privacy that some of our users are actively trying to give away. So why not give the users their privacy rights back, and let them decide for themselves what to do with their information?

My recommendation to librarians as a whole is to give users privacy options–let them choose what information we keep or destroy. Let them pick who they will share their information with. In the post-USA PATRIOT Act world, we have become so scared as to destroy our patrons’ records “for their own good.” Wow. That sounds surprisingly familiar, no?

As a student, I would have loved to have gone into the library’s catalog to write reviews and share booklists with fellow group members from class. In my family, I would love to share booklists with my family’s book club. As a teacher, I would love to share what I’ve checked out of the library with my colleagues. But I don’t have the option to do that. I can’t choose. And therefore I don’t have the right.

Freshmen, Facebook, and not taking myself too seriously

Cliff August 9th, 2007

I prepared a low-key (and in some cases, low-brow), humorous presentation for freshmen on how to use social networking sites.  It’s available here: In Your Facebook! Managing Your Online Identity.

No one showed.  For either of the presentations. There could be several causes (foremost in my mind is timing), but it was not for a lack of marketing.  We’ll probably just set up to do it again later in the semester.

I note in my presentations that I’ve embraced failure as part of the creative process.  And after all, if I have to fail, I want to do it spectacularly.  I want to fall on my face in front of a crowd of people who point and laugh at me–just so that I can remember to laugh at myself.

So in that spirit, feel free to have a look at my cheezy-humored presentation (with a few facts thrown in for good measure), and laugh with me.  I’m sure that next time the room will be packed.  :)

Getting the Boss’ Buy-In

Cliff August 7th, 2007

A fellow librarian asked me for advice on getting buy-in from her library administration.  She presented a Library 2.0 project to the boss(es), but it was rejected.

My first words of advice were to read chapter 7 of Library 2.0: A Guide to Participatory Library Service by Michael Casey & Laura Savastinuk, and chapter 7 of Web 2.0 and Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software by Michael Stephens.  Both of these books give great advice for planning and implementing Library 2.0 projects.

Additionally, here were my few words of advice:

  •  For any endeavor, 10% of people already agree with you and 10% will never agree with you.  Aim for the other 80%–they are who you want to convince.
  • Anticipate the objections.  Think of every possible objection (no matter how crazy or off the wall), and include solutions/answers to them in your proposal.  If possible, back it up with evidence.  If there is no evidence already written up for your solution/answer, at least make sure it is logical, cogent and concise.
  • It’s hard to go back.  If you have already tried to get them to sign on to a project and it has failed, don’t re-try it right away.  Find something else that will be of use, and aim for that.  As you prove your successes, they may be more likely to reconsider previous rejections.
  • Document your successes & your failures.  Gather statistics whenever possible, any way you can.  If it goes wrong, you need to know why.  If it goes right, you’ll want to be able to reproduce it.

So let’s hear it folks–there are brave librarians out there trying to start up user-centric services all over the place.  What advice would you give them?

GGAUG 2007 Wrap Up

Cliff August 7th, 2007

Last Friday I attended the GOLD/GALILEO Annual Users Group Conference (photos here).

The conference opened with keynote speaker Diane Kresh, Director of the Arlington County Libraries. She was a powerful speaker, and explained many of the values that are driving users in our new information landscape. She explained the role that libraries need to play in terms of Content, Context and Community (as she said, she loves alliteration). I was very pleased to see her continually emphasize a user-centric approach to library services.

In the first breakout session, I presented Library 2.0.1: It’s All About the User. This presentation was geared towards the basics of the Library 2.0 idea, and helped to explain how it evolved from the Web 2.0 concept. Also, I showcased some of the social networking tools that libraries are using to get in touch with their users. As usual, I did a lot of meandering, made a few cheezy jokes, and got asked some great questions by a very inviting crowd of librarians.

For the second session I attended “Library 2.0.5: It’s All About the Input.” Three presenters discussed different ways in which they were getting user feedback, and using it to improve services. Jasmine de Gaia from OCLC is the Senior Project Manager for Social Networking initiatives. She talked about the ways that WorldCat.org is including social networking tools, and what to expect in the future. Currently they allow the creation of lists (only for items in WorldCat–not the un-cataloged Web), and hope to include more social connections between users in the near future. Next, Debbie Holmes discussed the development of tutorials for GALILEO at a system-wide level. This is a University System of Georgia initiative to improve the information literacy tools available for all users. Last, Mike Rylander showed some of the cutting-edge stuff that is going on with PINES/Evergreen, the open source ILS for the Georgia Public Library Service. I was very impressed with the way that they are letting users dictate their own information finding behavior, and then enhancing the catalog to reflect that use (and just not making tools and forcing users to jump through hoops to use them).

For the last session, I presented Library 2.1: It’s All About the Future.  Since the library world is changing so quickly, it doesn’t hurt to look ahead to possible changes we may see in the years to come.  Looking at the Semantic Web (Web 3.0) and Web4 (Web 4.0), I discussed the possible implication for librarians and library users.  Again, the crowd was awesome, asked some tough questions, and put up with my attempts at humor (”We must CONTROL the vocabulary!  CONTROL IT! You!  User!  You can ONLY use THESE WORDS! Of course these words don’t make sense!  That’s the point!”).

All around it was an excellent conference.  I met some very cool librarians, got to hang out with friends from across the state, and learned about some new developments in Library 2.0.  Plus, I finally got to eat at The Grit!

Religion & Social Networking

Cliff July 26th, 2007

With hundreds of social networking sites out there, it’s no suprise that a few will be dedicated to religion. Ones that I have seen before (such as MyChurch, Schmooze, MuslimSocial, and CovenSpace) typically center around a single faith.  Today I happened upon CircleBuilder, which is open to all faiths.  I was interested to see the two categories “Pagan & Earth-based” and “Reconstructionist.”  Reconstructionist Pagans (if they use the term “Pagan” at all) are typically not represented in the larger religion community.  After that pleasant surprise, I was half expecting to see a listing for “Amish.”

According to Mashable, it only appears to have around 100 members at this point in time.  I’m curious to see if it remains a small niche network, or if its inclusiveness will allow it to expand and/or serve as a space for interfaith dialogue.  Like all social networking sites it revolves around people, so only time will tell if it catches on via word-of-mouth.

Speaking to Students About Social Networking

Cliff July 24th, 2007

In a couple of weeks, I’ll be speaking about Social Networking Sites to that other crowd–students. I have two workshops set up for Fall Explosion (our freshmen orientation) in which I’ll be teaching how to manage your online identity.

I’m actually finding this more challenging than speaking to librarians about social networking. Most of the time when I give Library 2.0 talks, the majority of the crowd is being introduced to it for the first time (beyond what they hear in the media). So after I do a little damage control regarding predators (with the data to back it up, of course), I explain how these tools can be useful for libraries. That’s the other defining characteristic–I’m telling librarians how to use these tools for work, not fun (although I personally find them a lot of fun). So I start from the basics and then talk about libraries. Piece o’ cake.

Not so with talking to freshmen. How many of them are already embedded in SNSes? I’m sure that many of them have been using MySpace (and perhaps Facebook) for some time. And yet some may have not. And for those who have, their various degrees of experience will mean that for some I will be teaching a lot of new material, and for others I’ll be rehashing stuff they’ve known for years. The solution? Tap-dance. If you have to rehash stuff, do it in a way that’s entertaining and innovative. I’ll try to throw in as many jokes, comics, pictures, etc. as I can to keep it light and entertaining.

Second, I’ll be speaking about how freshmen can manage their online identities (i.e. privacy). Not the sexiest of topics. I’m sure some of them have had their authority figures try to scare the crap out of them in the wake of the MySpace Predator scare (since fear is an easier deterrent than education). So I’ll be informing them about the instances of true predation, the statistical likelihood of predation and stalking behavior, and how to protect themselves (so that they don’t become that one-in-a-million). I’ll also need to educate them about the long-term effects of having an online presence (insert WayBack Machine here). I can’t wait to show them my web pages from college!

If you have any great ideas of what college freshmen should know about SNSes (or more ways to make it entertaining) let me know!

edit:  I changed the title because it was non-descriptive (in an attempt to be poetic).  Bad, librarian, bad!

The perils of deleting accounts

Cliff June 25th, 2007

Looks like I’ve been cited–somewhat accidentally.

A couple of months ago the Librarian In Black discovered a video that I had put up on YouTube for my Tantalizing Technology workshop. It was designed to show how faculty could use online videos for their classes or departments. My original response to Sarah is here.

A couple of months ago I was consolidating my online identity, and decided to delete the YouTube dummy account that contained the solitary video, since it was intended to just be an example, and was not formally “adopted” by the library. Today, I received an instant message from Heather at DePaul University, who pointed out that the video had been cited in a College & Research Library News article. Uh-oh! When she typed in the URL, it says the account was deleted due to terms of use violation (which is untrue, it was just plain deleted).

Sarah’s original response to the video raised questions about where information desks should be placed. This new development raises new questions for me:

  1. How will we manage our online identities throughout our lifetimes?
  2. What do we (as librarians and indexers) do about media that is constantly being updated/moved/deleted?
  3. Where is that darn video?!?

If it still exists at home somewhere (I’ve searched all my work stuff), I’ll repost to my “official/personal” YouTube account, and link it here. Otherwise, it may just be lost forever.

Gearing up for WPWVC/ACRL

Cliff May 30th, 2007

I’m flying out tomorrow morning for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to speak at the West Pennsylvania/West Virginia chapter of ACRL. My speech is entitled Connect, Collaborate, Create: Making Sense (and Use) of “2.0”. I’ll post the powerpoint in a few days.

I’m really excited about this trip, since:

  • This is my first time to Pittsburgh,
  • I’ve already met some cool librarians via the Interwebs, some of whom I will be dining with tomorrow night at Bravo. I’m drooling in anticipation!
  • This is my first headlining gig (w00t!)

A huge thanks to Sarah for recommending me for this conference!!! Sadly, it will be a bit of a whirlwind adventure since I will be coming back Friday evening, but I’m looking forward to being out of the smoke. I’ll take pictures of the trip, and post them as soon as I can. Being sans laptop (they finally gave me a refund) makes me realize just how plugged in I am–I’ve been using my jump drive for portable computing, but traveling is the one time that I feel I need a laptop. Oh well, if I get all twitchy on the trip, I’ll just buckle down and buy another laptop. Any recommendations for a good all-purpose laptop with superior customer support?

Dreaming about MySpace

Cliff May 10th, 2007

Last night I dreamt about MySpace and Libraries.  I’m writing a book chapter for an upcoming book on NextGen reference services, and for the past week I’ve had writer’s block.  I didn’t think that this was something that a technical writer could get, but sure enough, the words I wrote sounded strained and contrived.  After three days of writing and deleting, I had a paragraph.  Singular.

So I wasn’t surprised this morning when I woke myself up dreaming about brilliant things to say about MySpace and libraries–I often dream about stuff that’s on my mind.  Rather than scuttle about in a stupor trying to find paper, I just rolled over and let more brilliant thoughts come and go.  Of course they’re all gone now, but I’m hopeful that they were prophetic and I will have some insight as I settle down to write in a few minutes.

I’m sure that in our modern world, one of the Muses must preside over technical writers of all kinds.  Let’s hope that was her handiwork this morning.

What the Millennials (aren’t) learning

Cliff February 23rd, 2007

This semester I’m teaching a class of 17 freshmen, who are taking Information Society as a “required elective,” designed to broaden their horizons. They had no idea what they were getting into. They are my “2.0″ guinea pigs

Since the class started, I have completely rewritten the course content (without changing the syllabus or objectives! contract is honored, administration!), changed my approach and attitude, and asked a lot of questions. Yesterday, I bluntly asked them about the college experience, the course I’m teaching, what they care about, etc. I tried to be upfront and honest, and make sure that I wasn’t talking down to them. Here is what they told me in the course of the hour (and amidst talking about Mass Media).  In their own words:

  • We are lazy. It takes a lot to motivate us, and only then if something is interesting and can be shown to immediately affect us. Our laziness bothers us a little bit, but not enough for us to do anything about it.
  • We are not learning anything in college. We are being forced to learn the same things in our classes that we learned in high school. It’s not interesting. College is a social experience. We make good grades to keep HOPE and to appease our parents.
  • It’s already paid for. The government and our parents pay for almost everything. Some of us have to work menial jobs to help contribute. We don’t feel like adults.
  • We are uninformed. We spend a lot of time on entertainment and almost none on self-education.
  • Make it personal. We pay more attention when content is personalized. We see that it relates to us, which makes it more interesting and easier to understand.

In studying Mass Media, I had students read a selection from McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage (1967). The central point of the book is that we can’t approach the society of today (and it’s problems and young people) with the solutions and institutions of yesterday. TV has changed us. The Web has changed us. Web 2.0 is changing us.

Education has to keep up, or these students will not have learned anything.

The thing that struck me more than anything else was that noone seems to be listening to these students. They’re consumers, they’re offspring, they’re tomorrow’s future, yes. But it seemed that none of them had been asked what they wanted, what they were passionate about, or what they thought of themselves or their education.

I’m angry for them. I’m sad for them. I feel like we as a society have let them down. But I’m determined that I will help them see themselves as part of the Information Society, and give them the tools to make informed decisions about their lives. (which means that I’ll spend more time re-writing lesson plans and less blogging this semester!)

Wish us (all) luck!

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