I was just getting ready for the start of class tomorrow and think this is going to be a blast!  Although I am a tepid blogger already and have spent quite a bit of time on web pages, the thought of seeing how everyone else is using these tools is great.  I would love to package a suite of these tools for my faculty members to use in their classes, both to spice things up a bit, and break them out of the lecture/discussion/Blackboard mode. 

See you all around the Web!

“Library 2.0 Theory: Web 2.0 and Its Implications for Libraries” (one of our introductory readings) is simply the best article on this topic I have read to date. And I don’t say this because I instantly agreed with everything Maness says (sometimes, when I read Web 2.0 articles I feel like the converted being preached to). This is what makes this article so great – it is challenging and thought-provoking. I instantly disagreed with several of Maness’ statements only to be convinced to accept the ambiguity and possibility of all his comments.

Particularly gobsmacking were his suggestions: “While Librarian 2.0 might act as a facilitator and provide support, he or she is not necessarily primarily responsible for the creation of the content”, and “(blogs) are nonetheless integral productions of a body of knowledge, and the absence of them in a library collection could soon become unthinkable.” Will we see such changes to our roles? It seems that in Library 2.0, we are expected to facilitate discovery, not evaluate, approve, and direct users to good sources. In our 2.0 roles, we will need to foster critical thinking, since “no information is inherently authoritative and valid”. This is the most eye-opening article I’ve read and I’d love to hear other people’s comments.

I am having trouble finding blogs that document student research projects. (The idea to have students post topics, resources, informal writing, etc. was listed in one of the articles.)

I was hoping that someone out there might have some knowledge of a project that has done this. Obviously I am using the wrong key words, because I keep getting articles rather than the real deal!

Thanks!

tamara

One of the tenets of Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 is the Open Conversation. A conversation is open when anyone can participate, when anyone can read it, when people are honest, and when people respond to others' honesty.

Five Weeks to a Social Library is a rider of the Cluetrain. We want to be a good example of the Open Conversation. This is a learning experience for everyone, the participants, the presenters, the watchers and commenters from afar, and especially the planners.

We may be steering this adventure, but we by no means have all the answers. If there is something you hate about the course, software you would like to critique that we use in the course, or any other comments you would like to put in this space, somewhere else, or simply send an email, please do it. Five Weeks to a Social Library will only be successful if we all learn from each other and strive to build something better in the future.

We are now one week away from the official start of Five Weeks to a Social Library! We hope that you will watch the introductory screencasts and do the introductory exercises before the start of the class. One great piece of the introductory content is a screencast created just for this class by Helene Blowers, Technology Director at the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County. This past year, she developed a program called Learning 2.0 to introduce staff at her system to new technologies in a collaborative online environment. It's a very similar concept to what we are doing in this program. Helene found that staff got great benefits from blogging as well as reading and commenting on each other's blogs. It gave participants the opportunity to reflect on what they're learning, learn from each other and to share their thoughts in a friendly and collaborative atmosphere. We hope that you will find the blogging experience similarly valuable. The key, I think, is to really see this as a community. You're not just blogging about your own ideas -- you're sharing ideas, learning from what other people have written, and reflecting on what you've learned from them. In that way, it's much more of a conversation.

I just added a page to the wiki to build a list of the people in the course (presenters, participants and organizers) who have accounts on Flickr. That way, if you want to see other participants' photos, all you have to do is visit their page (or even add them as a contact if you have a Flickr account). Just visit the People on Flickr page, click edit (remember, you need to be logged into the wiki first) and add your name and username to the list! It's just another way for us to get to know each other better.

Create a Proposal for Implementation

For the final project, each participant will write a proposal to implement one of the social software tools covered during the Five Weeks to a Social Library Project at their library or organization.

The proposal should include:

• The name of the technology you would like to implement.
• A brief description of this technology.
• An explanation of the service you would like to create with the software.
• An explanation of how this service will fill a need at your library, including benefits (also indicate if the service will be helping staff, patrons, or both).
• Evidence that this technology would be useful in libraries. This evidence can take the form of libraries that are successfully using the technology or articles that extol the virtues of using this software in libraries. We would like to see a minimum of four success stories/examples or articles on the subject with appropriate links and brief (1-3 sentence) annotations.
• A list of possible roadblocks to implementing this technology, including institutional culture, staff knowledge and training, getting buy-in, technology issues, support of the technology, monetary concerns if they exist, etc.
• Ways that you believe you or your organization could overcome the issues raised above.
• At least one (or up to three) suggestion(s) of specific software you would use to implement this program in your library. For example "I would suggest using Wordpress for our blog software because it is open source and is one of the most popular software options for blogging."
• A plan for the ongoing maintenance of the software and any policy issues you think are important to address.

The end goal of this activity is to create a proposal that you could give to your library administration, therefore the formatting of your proposal should be appropriate to your organization. Since this is designed to be read by your fellow participants and colleagues at your library, it would be wise to keep your proposal relatively brief so as to keep your audience's interest, a one page minimum is suggested.

Just reading particpants blogs, etc. I have been inspired with some many ideas. So far, I practiced setting up a Flickr account and created a catalog list on Library Thing of the books we have already discussed this year in my book discussion group!

Thanks to all for such Great Ideas!

All of the introductory content for the course is now linked from the Introduction page so if you haven't already started, you may want to get going on the screencasts, activities and more. We expect that you will be finished with all of this by the first week of class. I created an introductory screencast for the course that offers information about using Drupal and the wiki as well as what you will be expected to do each week. I noticed that the timing is a little off with some of the video (depending on the speed of your Internet connection) but hopefully you'll get the gist of things. :) Also, we now have a terrific screencast on blogging from Helene Blowers of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenberg County. I'd love to hear your impressions on what she is discussing in this screencast.

As you know, each week you will be taking part in a small group chat. Chat groups will consist of five participants and one facilitator. We will be offering eight groups, all at different times during the week.

You can now sign up for the group you would like to be a part of here on the wiki. Put your name down for the group that best meets your needs time-wise. Please note that once you are in a group, this is the group you will be chatting with throughout the five weeks.

Once a group is full, we will not be able to add additional participants to that time slot. If one of the time slots has no interest or little interest, we may consider changing the time that group is offered.