1. Future of Libraries: Social Software Sarah Houghton-Jan Information and Web Services Manager, San Mateo County Library Librarian in Black: http://www.librarianinblack.nethttp://www.librarianinblack.net

2. What is social software? Social software enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form online communities. --from Wikipedia entry, revised 04.25.06 Social software is the driving force behind Library 2.0.

3. Examples of social software Instant messaging Internet forums Blogs / RSS / podcasting Wikis Social network services Social guides Social bookmarking Social citations Social libraries Virtual worlds and multiplayer online games

4. Why should libraries care about SS? There is a great potential for new and enhanced services There are free marketing opportunities just waiting for us Our patrons are there—where are we?

5. What is instant messaging? Instantaneous, simultaneous text chat Add-ons like video, audio, file sharing Type here Transcript

6. IM client software: the holy trinity AOL Yahoo! MSN They’re all free—to you and users Other Software ICQ IRC Jabber Google Talk MySpace

7. IM aggregator software Trillian: http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/http://www.ceruleanstudios.com/ Gaim: http://gaim.sourceforge.net/http://gaim.sourceforge.net/ Both let you monitor multiple IM accounts (AOL, MSN, Yahoo!) through one interface. Oh yeah…they’re both free!

8. Web-based IM with MeeboMeebo Completely web-based—no installations Sign in with multiple accounts at once Even if IM is blocked, this still works MeeboMe—web-based anonymous IMing

9. Why use IM for reference? Traditional web-based chat has technical and service problems Your users are here already It’s free Easy to use for both the librarian and the user You’re right there on the user’s buddy list Did I mention that everything is free? For many users, not having IM is like not having a phone.

10. Example of Library IM webpage

11. Internet forums Website bulletin boards for discussion Feedback and recommendation engines Examples:  Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/http://groups.google.com/  Reviews and ratings on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com http://www.amazon.com  Gnooks.com: http://www.gnooks.comhttp://www.gnooks.com  Storycode: http://www.storycode.comhttp://www.storycode.com

12. Sample Internet Forum: Storycode

13. Blogs Websites frequently updated with new content Examples:  Lansing Library Teen News Blog: http://lansinglibraryteen.blogspot.com/ http://lansinglibraryteen.blogspot.com/  St. Joseph County Public Library Game Blog: http://www.libraryforlife.org/gameblog/ http://www.libraryforlife.org/gameblog/  Framingham Public Library Teen Blogomatic: http://fplya.blogspot.com/ http://fplya.blogspot.com/  Marin County Free Library - What’s New: http://www.marincountyfreelibrary.blogspot.com/ http://www.marincountyfreelibrary.blogspot.com/  Waterboro Public Library H20boro: http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blog.htm http://www.waterborolibrary.org/blog.htm

14. Sample blog: H20boro

15. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) RSS is more than just blogs  New books and other items  News at the library  New content in subscription databases Examples:  EBSCO feeds for new articles (favorite searches)  Hennepin County Library feeds for all types of things  Edmonton Public Library feed for new teen books  Seattle Public Library feeds for favorite authors and subjects  FirstGov feeds for government information

16. Sample RSS feeds: Hennepin CL

17. Podcasting & Vidcasting Creating audio and video content and pushing it to users through an RSS feed Has nothing to do with iPods Examples:  Thomas Ford Memorial Library audio teen book reviews: http://www.fordlibrary.org/yareviews/ http://www.fordlibrary.org/yareviews/  Manchester Public Library video book reviews: http://feeds.feedburner.com/primesboxlive http://feeds.feedburner.com/primesboxlive  Cheshire Public Library - audio of local teen magazine: http://www.cheshirelib.org/teens/cplpodcast.htm http://www.cheshirelib.org/teens/cplpodcast.htm  University of Sheffield Library audio library tours: http://www.lbasg.group.shef.ac.uk/downloads/mainlibrary.html http://www.lbasg.group.shef.ac.uk/downloads/mainlibrary.html

18. Sample podcasts: Thomas Ford ML

19. Wikis Collaborative resource creation Multiple authors, ongoing creation and revision Examples:  Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page  Wiktionary: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Pagehttp://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page  St.Joseph County Library’s Subject Guides: http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_ Page http://www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_ Page  University of Minnesota Libraries Staff Website: http://wiki.lib.umn.edu/ http://wiki.lib.umn.edu/

20. Sample wiki: St.Joseph CL’s Subject Guides

21. Social network services Places to meet people and communicate Examples:  Friendster, Dogster, MySpace, Facebook Libraries with MySpace accounts  Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh (Teens)  Denver Public Library  Hennepin County Library  Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library  dozens of others

22. Library MySpace Page: Denver PL

23. Social bookmarking Putting your favorite websites in a web directory to share with others Examples:  del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/http://del.icio.us/  furl: http://www.furl.net/http://www.furl.net/  La Grange Public Library’s del.icio.us ref links  Thomas Ford Memorial Library’s del.icio.us ref links  San Mateo City Library’s del.icio.us ref links

24. Library del.icio.us: La Grange Park

25. Social libraries Keep track of collections Often include recommendation engines Uses tagging, user-created metadata: Folksonomies Examples  Flickr.com for photographs  discogs.com for music  LibraryThing.com for books  Stuffopolis.com for everything else

26. Social library: Reading PL on Flickr

27. I have all of these cool ideas now. But how do I convince our IT Staff that doing this is okay?

28. Working with IT Staff Ask Questions. Are IM, MySpace, or other sites/services banned or blocked? Why? The boogeyman of network security? “It’s a time-waster”? Ban behaviors, not technologies. Be enthusiastic. Do your research ahead of time.

29. Again…why should we care? Get our knowledge, helpfulness, and information expertise out there where the users are Get people to think of us as the “go to” resource for their online information needs Make us findable in an online environment

30. For more information about social software in libraries: The Library Success Wiki: http://www.libsuccess.org/ http://www.libsuccess.org/ Web 2.0 and Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software by Michael Stephens

31. Questions? Contact Sarah any time. E-mail: houghton-jan@smcl.orghoughton-jan@smcl.org IM: LibrarianInBlack (AOL, Yahoo!, MSN)