CoFHE LASEC

Do you sit at your desk pondering the pros and cons of using Web 2.0 and social networking tools in your library? Do you hear stories about places that are already busy on Facebook, gathering fans and 'being where their users are', whilst you grit your teeth because you're not permitted to edit your own library's web page? Do you wonder about wikis whilst wrestling with an ever growing e-mail exchange of tersely-worded opinions? And do you fantasize about how pithily you could tweet that your brilliant session on using General One File is running again, due to popular demand, if only you were allowed to use Twitter?

Last Friday I attended a day-long session at Dulwich Picture Gallery called An Introduction to Web 2.0 and the Social Web. The presenter was Marieke Guy of UKOLN, with Ingrid Beazley and the Dulwich OnView team delivering a case study on successfully using Web 2.0 tools to make a real impact within a community.

The 20+ delegates at the session came from museums and libraries of all types, not only HE and FE. The aims for the day included:

• reaching out to current and potential service users using Web 2.0 and the social web
• increasing awareness of low, or even no cost ways to promote our services
• breaking down barriers to the use of Web 2.0 and social web within our organisations by learning about their strengths and what they could do for us.

Marieke Guy's presentation covered blogs, wikis, bookmarking sites such as Delicious, and networking tools like Facebook and Twitter. We saw how RSS can make it easier to manage the information you yourself access, and that which you push out to others, and how a blog, for example, does not have to be forever - rather it can last as long as a particular project or be dedicated to a specific event and then discontinued and its impact assessed to inform future use. Plenty of examples were shown of active blogs and Delicious pages and we saw Twitter in action via Tweetdeck, with tweets mentioning the session we were in appearing in the timeline. Those tweets gave Marieke the chance to talk about using hashtags which enable people to search Twitter. If you want to try a hashtag search go for #latenightlibrarian and read about what goes on at the enquiries desk after regular office hours...

For me personally some of the most interesting comments Marieke made during her presentation concerned trust. Delegates had discussed barriers to using Web 2.0 and social networking tools within their organisations and foremost amongst them were lack of understanding about how these things work and a fear about user generated content and what it could mean for a service.

Whilst some delegate's organisations have already taken the decision to start using Web 2.0, for others the case still needs to be made. The best part about not yet having a presence outside of the 'organisational voice' (the official website, for example) is that there is no need to reinvent this wheel. There are some excellent examples of organisations like the ones we all work in doing great work with blogs, bookmarks and Facebook pages. These trail-blazers can help those of us still looking at the pros and cons to build the business case with our managers and IT departments. We need to be engaging with Web 2.0 and the social web in order to find out what it's all about, and what the terms of service are so that we can understand how to harness their potential for our services. Surely the most unsustainable position of all is sitting tight behind a firewall?

Furthermore, negative user-generated content shouldn't automatically be regarded as a threat to a service. It can be a way of demonstrating to your users that your 'service offer' has their needs at its very core and that you are ready and willing to work hard to make things work better, or just differently, where possible. Being openly criticised is an uncomfortable experience but sometimes people are just not comfortable complaining face-to-face and so they will find other outlets for their frustrations! What should be remembered however is that it is possible to retain some control over your Web 2.0 and social web presence. Comments on blogs can be moderated, for example, and access to collaborative tools like wikis can be restricted to certain memberships so that your content is viewed only by those to whom it will be most relevant and useful. These are the sorts of reasons why it is so important to take the time to understand the terms of service under which Web 2.0 and social web tools are offered and how they work.

Ironically, our afternoon session was affected by the limitations of Internet Explorer 6 - a browser which even the NHS is abandoning - so rather than editing changes to the UKOLN wetpaint wiki, we took a look at it before breaking up into smaller groups to discuss what we had seen and heard so far. Reflecting perhaps everyone's greatest concerns, much of the discussion between delegates focussed on barriers to using Web 2.0 and how they could be overcome. Key suggestions were staff training (with follow ups in performance reviews) and cross-department working groups which include representatives from IT departments and marketing teams.

There are loads of live links off this post - unavoidable given the amount of stuff we covered last Friday. If you do get a chance to click on the Dulwich OnView links you should; they were a great team making really inspirational use of blogging in particular. Plus, with our Phil Bradley training day coming up in April, this could be a good time to start thinking about your use of Web 2.0 and what sorts of things you would like the training day to cover, what questions you'd like answered and so on. You could even post your suggestions and ideas on this blog!

PS: I've included links above for Wordpress and Wetpaint because these were the platforms we were shown for blogging and wiki-ing (?). Other services are out there! Plus, the session in Dulwich has made me re-think Wikipedia and I've really gone nuts here and used a link to it to explain RSS - one day I might tell you all about who said what about Wikipedia to bring about this change in my attitude towards it...

I saw the word 'shoes' in the title of this blog post by Katharine Widdows and quickly started reading. I was hoping she'd admit to a shoe-buying habit so I wouldn't have to feel bad and alone any more...

More eye-catching than the piccie of the awesome, open-toed stilettos though, were Katharine's suggested skill sets for librarians. Extensive as her two lists are, they are not, Katharine tells us, exhaustive. What they do more than anything for me is highlight the fact that today's new LIS professionals shouldn't expect to hit the ground running - and not for reasons solely connected with killer stiletto heels.

One of the core modules on the first year of my MSc in Information and Library Studies was Studies in Management. This was the module (most) people grimaced about and there was a two part assignment: a business plan and an essay. The reading list for the module was massive and we would have to do a business plan. The essay title was "In your opinion, what are the skills and knowledge required of the contemporary library or information service manager", and we would have to do a business plan. My point here is that it was the BUSINESS PLAN which had us worried; whatever skills and knowledge the contemporary library or information service manager required were not so much on our minds.

Looking at the second of Katharine's lists I see many familiar items from the essay I wrote addressing the skills and knowledge for the contemporary LIS manager - including marketing, which I'm going to propose, is a strong suit for Katharine given the dynamite way she chose to hook an audience for her blog by using the words 'porn' and 'shoes'.

Anyway, I happily wrote my essay after tackling the massive reading list and topping it up with several really helpful conversations with my then supervisor. One day as we talked, perched on a window sill near my desk, our line manager walked past carrying a mop and bucket (there had been a leak). 'Mopping' isn't on Katharine's second list but that manager's actions that day really made an impression on me.

After all the reading and the happy essay writing came what I can only describe as the horrific experience of writing my business plan. And the reason it was horrible was because I stupidly stopped communicating with other living souls about what I was trying to do. If I had ever asked for help, I would have been one of those library users Katharine describes as having a very limited way of articulating my needs. Some days I was capable only of flinging my arms around as I made popping and squeaking sounds.

The recent rumpus over CILIP's Big Conversation (working title!) project board has made me think of struggle again. But Katharine's post has too, though in a more optimistic way; as LIS professionals - whether managers or not - we cannot ignore the importance of building and managing good working relationships, processes and practices. One-to-one if we encounter a user who is finding it difficult to articulate what he or she needs, then we use our learning and experience to help. As part of a team we should use strengths to avoid weaknesses becoming what define us, never forgetting the value of continuing professional development. And, perhaps, as a profession we can have this Big Conversation (working title!) in an inclusive and eventually constructive way, without trying to run before we walk whatever kind of footwear we prefer?

I thought I'd use this post to highlight a few CoFHE bits and pieces, including a nice mention for this blog on CoFHE's Delicious bookmarks page. Just in case I ever need to read something nice about something I've been involved with (!), I decided to take a screen shot using the 'print screen' button on my keyboard, only to subsequently notice from Twitter that other LIS people are getting into using Screenpresso for making screen captures.

An article in the most recent CoFHE Bulletin by Steve Cropper (see pages 2-3) caught my eye. It's the part about innovation that made me want to include it here. After Tom Roper's recent post on this blog, and other comments from LIS colleagues (again mostly spotted on Twitter) about the difficulties in using social media tools in FE, I thought Steve's observation about how managers can generate creativity in their teams was very interesting. If we are prevented by firewalls and blocking policies from making good use of (mostly free) Web 2.0 platforms to take our service message to our users, what other methods are we using?

Looking around the CoFHE pages on the CILIP website I also wanted to highlight the 'Exemplars' section, which has documents from various institutions which may help with developing policies for collection management, codes of conduct and so on where you work. Often these types of documents are not as dynamic as they claim they will be, so it can be helpful to read what other comparable institutions are using. 

Lastly, I wanted to plug the forthcoming joint CoFHE and UC & R conference which will be held in Exeter this June. The last page of the Bulletin has details and more information will be available here too. This blog started out with a couple of posts about the 2009 conference which I found a rewarding and enjoyable experience.

I was amused the other night to watch a Newsnight reporter try to demonstrate the iniquity of the Chinese government by trying to access Facebook, YouTube and Twitter from an internet cafe in the Peoples' Republic and failing. He could have carried out the same exercise in many of this country's further education colleges, with the same results. Site-blocking is on the rise, based on arbitrary criteria such as the whim of IT departments or a Principal who has spent too long in the pages of the Daily Mail.  This deprives students of the ability to learn how to use social media, and services like library and learning resource centres of the ability to use these platforms to promote and deliver services.

What's happening in your college? Are you seeing attempts to block and censor?

The Twitter hashtag #uksnow has trended over the past week and it's been amusing to read the tweets of many colleagues already desperate for a 'snow day' at home so soon after the Christmas break! I wonder if the disruption to the first full week back for many of us (especially those from the FE sector) has meant that some New Year Resolutions have already been cast aside?

RuTC (where I work) was closed for only one day last week and the rest of the time saw us just as busy as we were before the holidays. Of course exams are starting and coursework deadlines looming for the students, who are beginning to feel the pressure. We were able to post a message on the Learning Resources pages of the VLE regarding busy periods for both PC use and library occupancy with the aim of helping students plan their study time a little more effectively. We're seeing more students staying on in the evenings when we stay open later and we're being asked about weekend opening too.

Looking around to see what our LIS colleagues are up to I came across this blog posting from Katherine Widdows - interesting thoughts here on branding in libraries. Which reminds me, Seth Godin's been blogging some controversial thoughts on the future of libraries and getting some responses!

Closer to home, our own Tom Roper has been commenting on CILIP's Big Conversation. I took a deep breath, bit my lip and tried not cry at the idea that I might be considered unfavourably alongside "...politicians, advertisers, marketing people and other riff raff" (gulp!), but would like to encourage everyone to participate in the conver some dialogue with our professional organisation and with each other. Remember, this blog exists both to inform and facilitate interest and ideas amongst our members. We'd love you to comment on our posts and let us know if you want us to include subjects you feel strongly about.

Happy New Year!