1. The adventures of LASSIE: libraries and social software Dr Jane Secker Centre for Learning Technology, London School of Economics and Political Science Energy Institute: Web 2.0 for the Library & Information Profession Wednesday 28 th May 2008

2. The LASSIE Project  Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 were ‘happening’  Social software surely offered potential to enhance the experience of distance learners using the library?  Funding provided by University of London’s Centre for Distance Education Lassie filming on location in Florida. Photo courtesy State Archive of Florida

3. Project partners

4. Project Overview  Literature review of libraries and social software and distance learners (draft and final version) Literature review  Review of web 2.0 tools and what libraries are currently doing  Five case studies using social software to investigate how these technologies might enhance the experience of the distance (and full time) learner?  Students were on UoL External Programme  Tried to provide real evidence about what works and what is useful

5. The Literature review  What is social software, Library 2.0: definitions  How do you carry out a literature review on social software and using it?  What are the current issues in supporting distance learners and how might social software help?  Are libraries a social space and can virtual libraries replicate this?  Available online from Project websiteProject website

6. Social software that we used Social Bookmarking Podcasts / Screencasts Blogs Social networking Media / resource sharing RSS / Feeds

7. Some features of social software  Services rather than software  Hosted remotely / not locally  Social interaction  Inclusion of ‘user generated content’  Tagging  Re-usable data  Syndication / feed enabled  Easy to use….

8. What is Library 2.0? From Michael Habib’s Flickr site (Licensed under Creative Commons): http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=222296001&size=o http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=222296001&size=o

9. Some examples of using social software from LSE  London School of Economics and Political Science Use of RSS for news on CLT website CLT website Using RSS feeds for bringing together training events across the schooltraining events Using wikis and blogs for staff development Added ‘rich content’ to catalogue for an Amazon appearance

10. LSE’s training portal

11. Examples from elsewhere  Social bookmarking Penn Tags Subject guides in del.icio.usdel.icio.us  Libraries using blogs: Madison-Jefferson County Public library Ohio University Library Business Blog Kansas State University library blogs Library of Congress Blog University of Worcester ILS Matters  Librarians also love to write blogs!

12. Stanford University

13. Madison-Jefferson County Public libraryMadison-Jefferson County Public library blog

14. Worcester: ILS Matters

15. Other examples  User comments & reviews in the catalogue Hennepin County Library University of Huddersfield  Libraries using social networking sites MySpace and Facebook library accounts Groups for libraries and librarians Useful for professional networking for example Ning and LinkedIn  Library Success WikiWiki

16. Hennepin County Library

17. Other examples of Library 2.0…  RSS feeds for searches in databases such as Ebsco, Web of Science, and now in COPAC COPAC  Journal table of contents delivered as RSS feeds – also useful ways for researchers to keep up to date  Social bookmarking tool quick links added to BBC website and other sitesBBC website  Library applications in Facebook such as catalogue searches, book sharing etc.

18. The case studies  These aimed to gather further evidence of what might work  Also offer best practice advice  All available on project website  Explored five key areas: Presenting reading lists to students Resource sharing with students Podcasting for teaching information literacy skills Blogging and libraries Facebook and libraries

19. Case Study 1: Reading lists and social software  Used social software to present reading lists to students as an alternative to paper lists and commercial reading list systems  A reading list for LSE external programme students was selected for inclusion  Tested out CiteULike, H20 Playlists, Bibsonomy and LibraryThingCiteULikeH20 Playlists BibsonomyLibraryThing  Piloted with distance learners and feedback gathered  Students liked online reading lists with book jackets!

20. CiteULike

21. LibraryThing.com

22. Case study 2: Social bookmarking  Exploring social bookmarking as a way of creating a subject guide of internet resources for students using del.icio.usdel.icio.us  Created a list of resources for distance learners on the TRIUM course at LSE  Created a list for PGCE students at IoE which they could add resources to  Del.icio.us very flexible and easy to use  Could be problematic to add library resources to this type of list  Highly valuable as a personal tool and easy to embed into other websites / services e.g. Facebook and Moodle

23. Using del.icio.us

24. Case Study 3: Podcasting  Literature review revealed information literacy is a key challenge for distance learning librarians.  Podcasting offers a new way of developing training materials  Created an online ‘screencast’ including powerpoint and audio on citing and referencingscreencast  Feedback from students gathered through a survey  Attracted considerable interest from other libraries

25. The screencast

26. Case Study 4: Blogging and libraries  Maintained LASSIE Blog since March 2007 and now addicted to writing a blog!  Highly valuable for publicity, documenting progress, reflecting and getting (some) feedback  More readers than the departmental blog!  Informal posts get more responses  Still difficult to gauge who is reading it  Features such as using RSS to push content onto a website most valuable  Includes best practice for bloggers

27. The LASSIE Blog

28. Case Study 5: Facebook and Libraries  Based on experiences of the team using this social networking site for past 10 months  Largely a social networking site, but difficult to predict how valuable it might become in the future  Identified many library related groups and applications  Looked at best practice for librarians using Facebook  Certainly the communication tool of choice for the Google Generation

29. Library pages in Facebook

30. Key lessons from LASSIE  You can teach an old dog new tricks!  Social software has the potential to reach out to users in new ways  Libraries and librarians need to continue to experiment with emerging technologies and many are keen!  Way ahead not clear but social software is important and not just a passing fad  “The wiki way and beta is good!”

31. Further research  Project finished: January 2008  Project team meeting in August 2008 to discuss where next  Possible developments in Moodle course for LSE External Programme focusing on using library resources / information literacy  Now delivering ‘web 2.0’ training sessions using lots of these tools – people really like hands-on!  Limited places available at event at LSE on 3 rd July – contact me for details.

32. Thank you and any questions? LASSIE Blog: http://elearning.lse.ac.uk/blogs/socialsoftware/http://elearning.lse.ac.uk/blogs/socialsoftware/ LASSIE website: http://clt.lse.ac.uk/Projects/LASSIE.php http://clt.lse.ac.uk/Projects/LASSIE.php Check out the resources for today’s talk on del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/lse_lassie/Energy_Institute08del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/lse_lassie/Energy_Institute08 E-mail: j.secker@lse.ac.ukj.secker@lse.ac.uk