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Web 2.0 & Libraries Parts 1 & 2 Available Free on Hyperlinked Library Site

Michael — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 18:21:10 +0000

I am happy to announce the full text of both of my ALA Library Technology Reports are available now at the new TTW companion site The Hyperlinked Library.

The rest of the site is currently under construction, but for now you’ll find:

Web 2.0 & Libraries: Best Practices for Social Software (2006) - http://thehyperlinkedlibrary.org/libtechreport1/

Web 2.0 & Libraries: Trends & Technologies (2007) - http://thehyperlinkedlibrary.org/libtechreport2/

Special thanks to my SJSU SLIS grad assistant Patrick Siebold who worked very hard the past few weeks inputting the content. I know the examples from ’06 and ’07 may seem out of date and quaint in some ways, but I’m very proud of the framework we used for the works back then. Conversations, Community, Connections, Collaborations – all those great C words Jenny Levine and I used throughout our early social software roadshows in 2005 & 2006 provide a useful context for looking at Web 2.0. I hope these works are still useful to some of you. Comments are open for adding more to the chapters and I plan on doing some types of updating as time permits.

The site will also serve my course Web sites and other items related to my teaching.

TTW Nominated for Edublogs

Michael — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 19:58:54 +0000

I am honored that Tame the Web has been nominated for Best library / librarian blog 2011 at The Edublog Awards site. The other nominees are some stellar blogs within our field and I’m knocked out to be among them.

However – I must note that TTW is much more now than just me, it’s also our TTW Contributors and TTW Guest Authors. You may have recently read posts by TTW Contributor Justin Hoenke or guest contributor Dr. Troy Swanson that generated a lot of discussion and interest. As I mentioned on the recent podcast, Jessamyn Wests’s sage advice to “use your blog powers for good” is one of the driving forces behind everything we do here at TTW. Sending out the voices of our contributors and guests is important to me.

If you enjoy the content and conversation here, I would really appreciate it if you would consider voting for TTW this year.

Don’t Miss: Using WordPress as a Library Content Management System

Michael — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 22:34:57 +0000

I am thoroughly enjoying this issue of Library Technology Reports by Kyle M. L. Jones and Polly Alida-Farrington. Read the first chapter here to get a taste of the useful, practical and engaging work. Kenley Neufeld and I have an interview in the issue concerning WordPress as an LMS for course management. There’s also an extended version here and a TechSource post about the early stages of the project here.

The guest sections include an excellent article on utilizing WP to enhance the user experience by Aaron Schmidt and Amanda Etches-Johnson.

Interview with Dr. Troy Swanson – Community College Blogging Research

Michael — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 21:03:35 +0000

Via Gordon’s Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) Blog comes this interview with Dr. Troy Swanson:

http://ictcenter.blogspot.com/2011/02/community-college-blogging-podcast.html

I’ve know Troy for sometime and was very pleased to watch his research unfold. Here are some details from the post:

On Thursday I had the pleasure of talking with Dr Troy Swanson, an Associate Professor / Teaching and Learning Librarian at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, IL. In December Troy completed his PhD in Community College Leadership at Old Dominion University. His dissertation is titled The Administration of Community College Blogs: Considering Control and Adaptability in Loosely Coupled Systems. In the podcast, Troy discusses some of his findings.

Here’s some dissertation background from Troy:

Web 2.0 technologies present an unlimited potential for outreach to the public by college employees. This presents a conundrum for community college administrators that David Weinberger calls “the conundrum of control.” This conundrum is that organizations need to find a way to organize people around technology to ensure that it is used to further the organization’s mission. Yet, in terms of 2.0 technologies, the more controls that are put in place, the less useful the tools become.

There is also a second conundrum around technology that challenges mangers. This is that the more controls that are in place around a technology, the easier it is to communicate and transfer that technology across the organization. But, the more difficult it is for organization members to adapt the technology to meet new needs.

As one of oldest form of 2.0 technology, the management of blogs presents lessons that we can use for other, newer, 2.0 technologies.

I interviewed administrators and blog authors at community colleges across the US to see how colleges were managing their blogs. The focus was on administrative blogs as opposed to course-related or faculty blogs that discussed their research. The larger purpose of the study was to see how easily the technology could adapt to new needs and whether campuses were restricting the use of blogs. What kinds of guidance were campus leaders giving to bloggers who were representing the college?

Listen to the podcast here: http://gsnyder.libsyn.com/community-college-blogging-a-conversation-with-dr-troy-swanson-30-40-

Listen for a discussion of trust, policies for blogging and social software and more! Listen for “I can’t get what I want from IT, so I’m doing it on my own!”

Motivations of Scholarly Bloggers

Michael — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 19:49:17 +0000

Kyle Jones sent this to me:

http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2962/2580

Kjellberg, Sara. “I am a blogging researcher: Motivations for blogging in a scholarly context” First Monday[Online], Volume 15 Number 8 (14 July 2010)

Kjellberg conducted in-depth interviews with researchers who blog for the study. Take a look at the findings and discussion for some strong evidence for sharing and blogging the research process online as a researcher. Part of the conclusion:

The analysis brings out at least three motivations for being a blogging researcher: the blog helps the researcher share with others, it provides a room for creativity, and it makes the researcher feel connected.

I had similar results from analyzing the data from the 2005 “early adopting” librarian bloggers study I did for my dissertation. The model looks like this:

Find more here:

http://tametheweb.com/2007/09/23/modeling-the-role-of-blogging-in-librarianship-librarian-why-do-you-blog/

Download the whole thing here:

http://tametheweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/stephens-mfinal.pdf

Online Education & Blogging

Michael — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:49:21 +0000

http://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/technology_and_learning/online_education_and_blogging

Joshua Kim writes:

The best preparation I received for blogging was teaching online. One of the most important elements for running a successful online course involves presence. The instructor must be “present” in the course discussion boards and blogs. Teaching online gave me tons of practice in writing rapid, hopefully thought provoking, discussion and blog posts around the curriculum and the student’s work. Much has been written about how teaching online can improve on-ground teaching. I’d add comfort with blogging to the benefits online learning.

Is the ability to quickly produce prose that (at least sometimes) may interest a reader the sort of skill that we want to cultivate in our students? The importance of rapid, persuasive writing is growing as blogs and other social media displace other forms of communication. We all need to learn to make our case, to persuade, to make arguments based on evidence – and to do so in a limited attention economy. For all of us, both writes and readers, time is our scarcest commodity.

Perhaps participating in online courses provides students the same practice with rapid and persuasive writing as teaching an online course. The same behaviors that make for a good online instructor, namely the willingness to be active and engaged with the asynchronous communication tools, are also those behaviors of a successful online student. An online course is all about collaboration and interaction. The best students post persuasively, briefly, and often.

I would venture to say the best preparation I received for online teaching is blogging! Quick posts sharing links and commentary – something bibliobloggers have long been doing – translate perfectly to the way I interact with my online and hybrid classes. I also think the blogging activities have helped my students with their writing – just afeeling, no evidence yet, but it might be a good thing to study.

Perpetual Beta

Michael — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 10:45:59 +0000

Don’t miss this new blog from American Libraries & Jason Griffey:

http://americanlibrariesmagazine.org/perpetualbeta (Hey – is there a feed for this blog available? Am I missing it?)

Jason writes:

This space will be a place where you will be able to find the very edge of new technologies, as well as tips and tricks about how you can do interesting things with existing technologies. I’m going to try and introduce technologies that libraries and librarians should be paying attention to, and at the same time give you tips and tricks to make better use of the technologies that you may already be playing with.

A few examples of the sorts of things that I’ll be covering in this space: How to get any piece of text you want onto your eReader, How to automate delivery of information to your staff and patrons, setting up your own Media Server for your library, and much, much more.

In addition to these sorts of “Lifehacker for Libraries” posts, I’ll also be posting interesting things that I find around the Library and Technology infosphere, and I’ll be producing some video podcasts as well. Expect the first of these very soon, as I am even as I type this on my way to the 2010 International Consumer Electronics Show. I’ll be reporting over the next several weeks about my discoveries there, and will include audio and video interviews, demos, and anything else I can think of that might be interesting.

Of course, this brief post sent me over the moon:

Spoke with an unnamed source last night that gave me the following: Tablet is based around a 9.67 inch LCD, not an OLED. Definitely launching early in year, possibly even immediately after January 27th announcement.

Exciting for libraries: deals coming with LOTS of content providers, print content mainly magazines, not newspapers. Start thinking about a “magazine” with embedded video, inline social features, and more.

This will be very interesting to see how a media-rich tablet-embedded magazine will find a place in library service. Remember this?: http://tametheweb.com/2009/12/08/view-it-any-way-youd-like/

Library Blogging Survey

Michael — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 20:11:36 +0000

Just got an email about this. Will be good to see the results.

I am conducting research for my book Effective Blogging for Libraries (working title), from Neal-Schuman as part of its forthcoming Tech Set series created by Ellyssa Kroski. The book is almost complete, but I need your help! I am looking to find out what has and has not worked with library blog(s).

I appreciate your spending a few minutes to complete the following questions. You will see up to 11 questions. You have the option of remaining anonymous. If you have any questions, please contact me directly at conniecrosby@gmail.com.

Thank you,
Connie Crosby

Take the survey here.

New LIB Web Site!

Michael — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:07:58 +0000

Don’t miss Sarah Houghton-Jan’s newly redesigned Web site:

http://librarianinblack.net/librarianinblack/

Her blog is one of my all time favorites!

TTW Reading List: Blog Blazers

Michael — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 20:31:28 +0000

I spent part of the afternoon today reading through a wonderful book called Blog Blazers: 40 Top Bloggers Share Their Secrets. After writing my dissertation on the motivations of early adopting librarian bloggers, it’s nice to see such a broadly diverse group of well-known bloggers sharing similar thoughts about their writing and what makes a good blog tick. Author Stephane Grenier interviews 40 bloggers – many of whom may be well known to TTW readers including Seth Godin, David Armano and Jessamyn West, all sharing their insights in the book.

I’m especially fond of the question Grenier asks many of his subjects: What tips can you share on writing a successful blog post?

Seth Godin’s answers include: Use lists (NICE!), Be topical, Break news and write posts that will be readable in a year.

David Armano weighs in with Find your voice, Do something different, Be true to your brand, Provide value and Only write what makes you happy.

Jessamyn offers these tips – amongst my favorites of all time for bloggers – Be kind, Be original, Be thoughtful, Be part of a community, Ignore bad juju in its many forms.

I’d suggest this book as a good, informative and FUN read for folks looking to get into blogging, interested researchers looking at bloggers or those working with social media in their institutions.

The Pragmatic Biblioblogger is in IRSQ

Michael — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 16:54:53 +0000

I realized I hadn’t blogged this, but my article “The Pragmatic Biblioblogger: Examining the Motivations and Observations of Early Adopter Librarian Bloggers” is in Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Vol. 13, Issue 4, p311-345.

It’s been a long time since November 2005 when 238 hearty bibliobloggers took my survey. The changes since then are incredible.

Six Reasons I Heart the DominiNET Student Blog

Michael — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:53:14 +0000

I’ve posted about this blog already but I have to come back to it. A Dominican University Journalism class is using a Blogspot blog to report news and more to the campus and beyond. Our Dean of Rosary College, Jeff Carlson, shared the URL with me and I subscribed immediately.

I was rather excited so I emailed the GSLIS Faculty and the Academic IT Committee:

It’s a journalism class – and the content just keeps coming! The voices are human, honest and engaging. I have learned so much about Dominican and student life from this blog – I’ve added it to my news portal. Created simply with Blogger, it seems to be generating many comments and feedback. I have pointed to it once on my blog but will be writing about it again and sharing it with my social tools colleagues. Good stuff.

I truly believe this is the future of marketing and engagement – a perfect example of social media done right: sometimes messy, sometimes silly, sometimes thought-provoking…but very real.

I checked in today and found that the posts and comments continue, so here are five reasons I think this is a good thing for the University. This venue seems to be a useful way for students to learn and more:

They are learning journalism skills but also media and promotional skills. Check out the video embedded in this post about the blog’s promotion around campus. Images augment posts as well.

They are finding their voice. “Ya know what really grinds my gears?,” asked one poster. “Mandatory attendance at extracurricular academic activities.” Entering the conversation openly and honestly is important. Learning how to state one’s case fairly and evenly is even more important. A “grind my gears” post is a good way to express frustration and call for solutions. The act of writing it down helps the thinking process.

They are getting invaluable experience in new media. Blogging didn’t exist when i took journalism classes at IU. These skills are invaluable. And sure, blogging will fade away but the next online communication mechanism built on it will be just as important for our future leaders to understand. Imagine: the blogging undergrad of today might just be tomorrow’s library director.

They are interacting with University officials. The “Bullet found on Campus” story generated buzz and one young reporter found herself chatting with Dean Carlson not only about the story but about the journalism program. “After the 45 minute discussion Carlson and I shared, I left his office feeling fabulous about the possibilities DU can provide future journalists. I was enthusiastic to see how receptive, appreciative and understanding Carlson was in hearing what, why, when and how I think new courses would dramatically enhance the journalism curriculum…” Here’s another example of that interaction.

They are asking important questions. This post really interested me: within our MyDU Web site, photos are featured prominently, including some of students who did not know they were being photographed. “Perhaps the mystery photographer was trying to capture the “essence” of Dominican. I still don’t think it would have been ridiculous for the photographer to ask for permission, or at least make the students aware that Dominican was going to use the photos. What do you think about this? Would you care if this happened to you? Do you find it creepy, or not a big deal?” As we all deal with our online lives and “digital dossiers,” asking these questions about photos, privacy, student rights and the University are important in deciding how we might share ourselves.

They are marketing Dominican University in a way that no PR campaign ever can. I really appreciated the varied voices, the honesty and the range of topics. As I said above, I’ve learned more about what’s up with our students and the way they see the University than any other online offering available. Google loves blogs and future students will find this blog and the voices and it may just help them decide to come to school here.

Well done, DominiNET!

Vampires are HOT right now.

Michael — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:58:38 +0000

Really – I’m hooked on HBO’s True Blood!

But in Libraryland, the excitement is also building via this new blog “Bella’s Book Club,” a blog celebrating all things Twilight and counting down to the premiere of the film.

Created by Deb Noggle, the blog offers video clips, reviews, and engagement with the mebers of the book club. The good folks at ACPL sent this story along about the blog from Deb herself:

So, we started a book group for Twilight Fans called, “Bella’s Book Club”, named after the main character. My concept for this was to bridge the gap for these teens by introducing them to other books that are similar in nature to their beloved Twilight books. I also created blog, http://bellabookclub.blogspot.com/ for the kids to chat about the books we are reading on, and it also contains video and news updates about Twilight stuff. Well, last month, we were reading a YA book called Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith. One of the teens contacted the author and told her about our book club. She responded by offering to send autographed bookmarks and goodies to the teens in the book club. I gave her the library’s address and also asked if she might say a few words about her book on our blog, because it would mean so much to the teens.

Cynthia Leitich Smith commented on the blog, and complimented us for the site. She also noted that we should watch her blog, “Cynsations”, http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2008/10/bellas-book-club-readergirlz-ya-authors.html

for an announcement about our Bella’s Book Club blog!!! Yesterday, on her site, she said:

Visit Bella’s Book Club: a real book club at the Allen County Public Library, Tecumseh Branch, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
You can check out and comment on their post on Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007, 2008)(Listening Library, 2008)! Peek: “The book is cleverly written, and sectioned into portions like a restaurant menu. Clearly, the author intends for us to savor and enjoy the ‘meal’ as we digest this book!”

See also discussions of Blood and Chocolate (film and novel), the Vampire Kisses series, and more. Upcoming topics include The Vampire Diaries, the Twilight series, the Blue Bloods series and many more.

And now, we’ve received a comments from people who were led to our site from her site. We have 13 followers of the blog right now, including people from outside of Allen County. We even have a blog follower from Bringelly, New South Wales, Australia! I think that it’s pretty cool that this all started from one of our teens!

Google Friend Connect

Michael — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:28:02 +0000

Via Brett Kochendorfer

Google Friend Connect lets you grow traffic by easily adding social features to your website. This means means more people engaging more deeply with your website — and with each other. In this video, Google Product Marketing Manager Mendel Chuang gives a short introduction to Google Friend Connect.

Very interesting -especially the bit about ease of sign on via any number of services and adding the Friend Connect to your site takes no programming skills whatsoever. Looks like ratings, friends and comments can easily be integrated. Ways it might affect libraries:

Folks will come to expect this type of functionality more and more. Sites that aren’t “friendly” might not be the most popular.
Some libraries will experiment with this as an easy to configure “buy it now” (for free) social option for their sites.
This could become a popular add on for many Biblioblogs.
It certainly positions Google to have even more integration into what we do on the Web.

Take a look at the video. What other uses do you see? What misuses do you see?

TechStatic Offers Reviews

Michael — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:40:57 +0000

Don’t miss:

http://www.thetechstatic.com/

The Tech Static, a new collection development resource for technology titles, published its inaugural issue today.

The need for such a resource became apparent when October 15 marked the last installment of Library Journal’s “Computer Media” review column, which The Tech Static’s creator, Rachel Singer Gordon, had been writing since 2002. This left a large gap in the library literature: no other librarian-targeted publication currently reviews computer books on a regular basis. To fill that gap, Singer Gordon created The Tech Static, a new resource for librarians focusing on reviewing technology-related books.

The Tech Static assists librarians with technology-related collection development.