Comments on: The Social Web and Libraries

By: david lee king

david lee king — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:54:38 +0000

Laura – exactly! One of the best ways to start engaging with your community is to ask them how they want to do it. Great idea.

How is that working out? Did you find interesting ways to engage with your community by asking?

By: vang

vang — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 17:17:37 +0000

I personally do believe and see the library as a social networking–application, tool,place, site, etc… especially public libraries are a facebook/myspace or ning site. Everything we do–programs, exhibits, classes or services– in the library leads to connecting with users, making their life easier or assisting them in learning something new.

By: Rob

Rob — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 00:17:50 +0000

I’ve been reading “Groundswell:Winning in a World Tranformed by Social Technologies” by Charlene Li. She talks about different ways that people interact with the social technologies, which speaks directly to point about asking people what they want and how they want it. I’ve had to return the book because someone else was waiting for it, so don’t have it in front of me and I didn’t get it finished. So my paraphrasing is very loose here, but basically she writes about people who want to respond/critic things, those who only want to read and not interact, etc. As we engage people in the social web, we have to keep in mind that not everyone will be drawn to a blog, etc. in the same way we might be. It’s sort of like learning styles; some people are visual, some auditory and so forth. Some people just like to sit and watch the web being formed and are inspired/enlighted by that alone. Others want to find a strategic thread and pluck it to watch how others react to the vibration. Absolutely, fascinating stuff! Ms. Li approches this from a business standpoint, but I think it is totally applicable to libraries. I may have to just buy this book!

By: Mandy

Mandy — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:27:39 +0000

We’re still working to get our library’s Media Blog (www.kckplmedia.wordpress.com)to play a more “social” role with our patrons.

In addition to using the blog to highlight our programs and services, we’re also collaborating with local agencies (schools, a history museum, various arts organizations, the YWCA)to provide content that focuses on the community as a whole.

We’re also featuring patrons in some of our media projects- we created an early literacy video (which was then posted to the blog) starring patrons reading to their children. So the hope is that by using the blog to provide a kind of reflection of our patrons and our community, we can create a space that people take interest and pride in.

That kind of potential is what’s most interesting about “social web” stuff to me…

By: david lee king

david lee king — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 14:19:01 +0000

Laura – exactly! One of the best ways to start engaging with your community is to ask them how they want to do it. Great idea.

How is that working out? Did you find interesting ways to engage with your community by asking?

By: laura k

laura k — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:06:52 +0000

I recently wrote something about how academic libraries (and libraries generally) are all about getting onto this social web thing, but seem uncertain about how to do so. And thanks to one very smart high school student, Kabren Levinson, I thought that, in the true spirit of community, we should really be engaging in conversations with students and patrons to find out where they actually want us on the social web.

I do think that libraries have a very social role, but especially within universities we forget that it’s worthwhile to engage in conversations with the people we are serving.