OULS and Web 2.0 Jane Rawson Librarian-in-Charge Vere Harmsworth Library

OULS and Web 2.0

Innovators Up to 2007: various eg RSS newsfeeds (Law, SSL), wikis for projects (User Ed) Vere Harmsworth Library, November 2007 – (first concerted ‘web 2.0’ effort) o Facebook group and then page o Blog and feeds on website o Delicious links o LibraryThing for new accessions o Later: staff wiki and Meebo IM

Early adopters Report to Cabinet January 2008 (initial summary of potential) Oxford web 2.0 wiki set up Other libraries started to try things out: o (non OULS) Nuffield College (Facebook), Linacre College (Facebook, Goodreads.com), St Stephen’s House (Blog, Delicious, LibraryThing) o Continuing Education (Blog) o Social Science Library (Forum, YouTube)

Spreading the word Study day 27 March 2008 Presentations from external speakers, examples from Oxford (VHL and Linacre), hands-on sessions with training exercises Well attended and positive feedback

Early majority Bodleian Law Library (Blog, Delicious, LibraryThing, RSS, wikis) History Faculty Library (Delicious) Said Business School (SharePoint, RSS) Collections & Resource Description Department (wiki) OLIS RSS accessions feeds (in development) User education (WISER sessions, Web 2.0 for Historians guide, podcasting) Social Science Library (staff blog) Non-OULS: Wycliffe Hall (blog), Queen's (facebook)

Web 2.0 Working Party Set up March 2008 after the Study Day in response to issues raised there Remit: to explore issues and advise on best practice Evaluating specific applications: o Branding/third party concerns o Legal issues (accessibility, data protection, IP, copyright) o Integration with existing web services Guidance, training, user education

Current state of play Web 2.0 now established as a part of services in some libraries Also now generally accepted as an available tool Still not widespread usage Not much participation from users

What librarians think Enthusiastically embraced by a minority of staff, who are pushing forward and exploring the potential All happening at a local level (library/librarian specific) Most librarians adopting the ‘wait-and- see’ approach, as is OULS as a whole But positive attitude to it

What readers think Not that much take-up and lack of participation – no fulfillment of the web 2.0 ideal! Viewed and welcomed as additional/improved service for passive consumption in general though – positive feedback from the minority

What has worked well Blogs, RSS newsfeeds – effective way of communicating library > reader, efficient for staff, pushing news out to multiple places Wikis and blogs for internal/staff use – collaboration and information, forum for staff discussion

What has worked sort of well Delicious/social bookmarking – efficient for staff, reader usage unclear Facebook as a ‘presence’ (but not interactively), particularly for college libraries LibraryThing as a stop-gap for RSS accessions and visual promotion Podcasting for user education – technological hitches, yet to really take off

What hasn’t really worked Readers don’t contribute! Facebook as a discussion forum/communication tool Social bookmarking/wikis with the expectation of readers contributing/wisdom of crowds

The future Web 2.0 Working Party drawing up guidelines for staff Wiki developing into a longer-term resource for librarians More libraries giving it a go – becoming mainstream? OULS embracing web 2.0 centrally? SOLO – web 2.0 OPAC interface, personalisation, tagging Wider staff training and education?

Further information