Comments on: An Unformed Thought

By: In Support and Extension of "An Unformed Thought" by Mick Jacobsen | The Corkboard

Tue, 04 May 2010 00:56:25 +0000

[...] Mick Jacobsen’s post, “An Unformed Thought,” in which he discussed the possibility of libraries acting as a hub for information [...]

By: Melissa

Melissa — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:05:17 +0000

Yes, SkokieNet was part of NorthStarNet, a major part. And each library handled their involvement differently. For example, La Grange PL was like a community IT department (or web dev team). I think that Mount Prospect and a few others also operated in this manner. Other libraries provided resources and support, but the actual development was done by the organization. And then other libraries set up accounts, pointed organizations in the right direction, and that was that.

Cecily and Jeff both have good points … the library needs to be committed to this long-term and hire staff to do the work on an ongoing, developing basis.

Like newspapers — which also used to offer community web hosting and development services — libraries are continuing to try to find our best place in this ever-changing world of information flow.

By: Helene

Helene — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:30:06 +0000

Melissa is correct about North Star Net. Actually, I believe that SkokieNet came into existence after the demise of NSN. Here at Highland Park we had about 40 community organizations that were hosted by NSN and we gave lots of techincal assistance to help them build and maintain these sites. We even hosted the local school district’s website before they moved to their own server. Sadly, NSLS had to discontinue this program due to lack of funding several years ago.

By: Cecily

Cecily — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:16:13 +0000

I can think of two very good reasons why we shouldn’t do this: we’re not web developers, and we’re not designers.

While we may know a great deal about the organization of information and how that relates to information architecture, and while we understand user behaviour and user needs, the fact remains that web development isn’t really a core competency that is stressed in most LIS curricula at this moment.

I believe in using the best, most competent, well-trained people for the job. So while it may be a good idea to have a web team that includes developers, information architects, graphic designers, and server administrators, the reality is that in most situations, librarians will be doing this kind of work from the side of their desks, on top of an already overcrowded portfolio of responsibilities.

I love the idea of libraries being curators of content for community organizations. But a situation like the one proposed in this post would put a huge drain on resources. Maybe if libraries were going to provide push-button websites where users dump their content into a pre-formatted template, it could work, but developing a well-built custom website from scratch that reflects the user’s needs generally takes more than a week to pull off.

By: Jeff Scott

Jeff Scott — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:32:36 +0000

That’s a great idea and I think many libraries act as a community IT place where there is nothing like it in the community or reasonable near it.

It’s a question of whether the library is going to be serious about providing this service or not. This is the kind of service a community would love, but could seriously suck up library resources.

By: Mick Jacobsen

Mick Jacobsen — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:49:20 +0000

Melissa,

Thanks for the comment.

Fran and I work closely on lots of projects and I know SkokieNet quite well. SkokieNet is an outstanding project, but different from what I am proposing. SkokieNet is like an online community bulletin board while what I am suggesting is something like a community IT department… if you will.

I don’t want to them to fit in the framework that we build – no matter how cool, but for us to create a framework they want.

By: Melissa Henderson

Melissa Henderson — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:52:38 +0000

Mick … talk to Fran Roehm at your library. She can tell you all about NorthStarNet and other community information networks provided by public libraries. NSN offered a range of services from webhosting to web development. Fran is / was a leader — and cheerleader — for this initiative.