userslib.com

LexisNexis recently released survey findings concerning use of web 2.0 technologies by Information Professionals.
Survey on Information Professionals Use of Web 2.0 and Knowledge Management to Add Value to Their Organizations

…nearly four in ten access Weblogs at least weekly (39%), and more than a third access wikis (34%) …More than nine in ten surveyed access news Web sites (92%), and company Web sites (93%) at least weekly (or more often). Video or audio podcasts were rarely accessed. Less than two in ten access video podcasts (16%), or audio podcasts (15%).

Photos for the MLibrary2.0 event today are now on flickr (along with other various MLibrary2.0 stuff). Link

Kristin Antelman, from NCSU spoke about the next generation catalog. Again, we have to help patrons find what they didn’t realize they needed. Many of the OPAC’s she talked about are also in this del.icio.us list.

Jessamyn West, from librarian.net spoke more generally 2.0 technology. Slides and a great list of links from her presentation are on her website. Library2.0 isn’t about what you have, its about how you use it. And having the tools, experimenting with technology will only be successful if everyone is on board and willing to fail. Accommodating the needs of the patrons and saving them time also means that we will need to spend more time. But we have to make it easy - and there are many ways to do that… besides making things generally easy to use, we have to go where the users are. ALL college kids are on facebook. And if all of our patrons are on facebook, we should be too.

This morning is our kickoff event for the MLibrary2.0 program.

The first speaker is Peter Morville who spoke about findability and how we need to expand on the idea of usability to findability.

“Can users find our website, can they find their way around our website, can they find what they need despite our website”

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.” So how do we deal with our massive findability issues? We can’t leave it to microsoft or google. Its up to the librarians -this ain’t your mama’s metadata! There’s an explosion of metadata on the web with tons of sites and services that let users generate their own content (wikipedia, flickr, delicous, etc.) So we need to find ways to make the old (cataloging) and the new (tagging) work together - bring taxonomies and folksonomies together. Etsy is good example of using these two techniques.

Guided navigation is also something we should be paying more attention to. Remember berrypicking from library school? NCSU and other schools have started incorporating faceted browsing into their catalogs. The basic idea here is to help the patrons find things they didn’t know they needed to find.

I met my first incoming freshman last week. I was struck by her confidence and maturity. And along with all this library2.0 talk I thought it’d be interesting to look at some user research for both internet users in general as well as college students.

From what I can tell, here’s how the demographics/labels break down:

• Baby Boomers: born in the 1940’s - 1960’s
• Generation X: born in the 1960’s - 1981 (give or take)
• Generation Y (aka “The Millenials,” “The Internet Generation,” “Generation Next,” etc.): born 1982-2000

And just so you don’t have to do any math, here are some tidbits about the incoming college freshmen class of 2011:

• They were born in 1989
• They’ve (more or less) always known the internet, home computers and graphical user interfaces, and mobile phones.
• They were newborns when the first episode of The Simpsons aired, they were 3yrs old when the first episode of MTV’s The Real World aired
• They were 4yrs old when Schindler’s List won an Oscar for best picture, they were 10 when they saw their first Star Wars movie.
• They were newborns when the Berlin wall fell, 5yrs old during the OJ Simpson murder trial, and 12yrs old on Sept. 11, 2001

Here are some great articles & studies:

Tagging Play: Forget Dewey and His Decimals, Internet Users Are Revolutionizing the Way We Classify Information - and Make Sense of It by Lee Rainie, Director, Pew Internet and American Life Project January 31, 200. Link

• According to this Pew study, 27% of internet user have tagged or categorized content online. Services like flickr & delicious are still quickly growing in popularity.
• This article also includes a nice short interview with David Weinberger about the power of tagging.

A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users by John B. Horrigan, Associate Director for Research, Pew Internet & American Life Project May 7, 2007. Link

• Those surveyed are broken into user type groups to describe their feelings and behavior relating to technology (Omnivores, Connectors, Lackluster Vets, Productivity Enhancers, Mobile Centrics, Connected but Hassled…) I think this is a cool way to distinguish user types other than the typical “expert or novice”
• 37% of internet users generate content (blog, share photos, share videos, post comments, create websites, etc.)
• 41% send text messages on their mobile phone
  

A Portrait of “Generation Next” How Young People View Their Lives, Futures and Politics from the Pew Research Center Released: January 9, 2007. Link

Survey respondents ages 18-25:

• Said that they use a social networking website (54%)
• Said that in the last 24 hours they had:
  • sent/received email (50%)
  • sent/received text message on mobile phone (51%)
  • sent/received instant message (29%)

Born with the Chip: The next generation will profoundly impact both library service and the culture within the profession by Stephen Abram & Judy Luther — Library Journal, 5/1/2004. Link

• The Millenials know Google and expect everything to be as simple as Google. Our recent attempts at federated searching are a good start, but it’s still way too complicated! How are they supposed to know when to search the library website, the OPAC, eJournals list, or the federated article engine?
• The Millenials communicate constantly. Many of them have or use laptops, pda’s, mp3 players, cell phones, blackberries, IM, profiles on social networking sites, etc. I’m not sure they want us there (or know they want us there), but we might want to be there just in case.
• Content and technology are inseparable. Millenials have grown up communicating on the web (blogs, chatrooms, IM, email) and they equate technology with information.
  

College Students Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources, Online Computer Library Center, 2006. Link

• 87% of college students have been to a college library in person, and 61% of college students surveyed have used a library Web site.
• 2% of students selected Library websites as the source used to begin an information search.
• 52% of college students responded that the quality of assistance they received from the librarian was the same as the search engine.
• 87% are aware that their library has a library Web site, 86% an online library catalog, and 71% online reference materials. 47% are aware their library has electronic books, 45% are aware that it has an online librarian question service, and 62% are aware that it has electronic periodicals and online databases

More Resources & Links

• Trendspotting blog: market and user research
• Convenience, Communications, and Control: How Students Use Technology by Robert B. Kvavik — Educause
• Wikipedia article on Generation Y
• Higher Education Research Institute’s The American Freshman - National Norms for 2006

The thing about library 2.0 is that you have to find the right technology to fit your need. And before that, you have to realize that you have a need. This is the tricky part. For example, Librarians have been making subject guide websites as a part of their regular job for at least 10 years. And sure, maybe they aren’t always totally up-to-date. And maybe they aren’t always the easiest thing to navigate… but they get the job done. So how do you convince someone that there might be a better way to do it? Oh, and it requires that they learn a little bit of new technology?

I’ve been talking with librarians about how some of the “new” web services like flickr and del.icio.us and RSS can improve their productivity and provide additional ways to reach their patrons. Some are excited and some want nothing to do with it. I think the topic has been sort of tainted by so much hype about Second Life and MySpace/Facebook (or what I like to call “MyFace” or maybe I should call it “MySecondFace”) that I think librarians are skeptical — “so I’m now supposed to have an cartoon version of me and go into a virtual world to do reference? Most of the students don’t even know about the chat reference service.”

My two biggest concerns are that library staff will just be too overwhelmed to even try something new or that they try something without success and abandon it.

This is the main reason for the Library 2.0 series I’m helping to organize (http://www.lib.umich.edu/lib20/ ). One of the things I’m most excited about is a blog we set up to help the librarians share project ideas to get feedback and possibly find other’s interested in collaborating on the same project. I’m cautiously optimistic that it will inspire.

And here’s one more anecdote: a colleague of mine set up a facebook group for library folks at UM interested in library2.0. I then invited the few librarians I knew were on facebook. And one, after accepting the invite, wrote something on The Wall: “Okay, Suz, I’m here. Why did you want me to join?” I didn’t immediately have an answer. Right, why? “I don’t know, cause its cool.” But now, well some people have been using the discussion board to post links and ideas, so thats good. For me, its just interesting to see how fast it spread throughout the library. I’m amazed that there are so many librarians (and ones I hadn’t expected) who have a facebook profile (or made one to join the group). Oh, and it’s kinda fun! Sometimes we just need a small distraction.

I’ve been researching how other libraries are using web2.0 technologies for a program I’m helping to organize at the University of Michigan Libraries (more about that soon). There are so many wonderful examples that I thought I’d compile a list of my favorites.

Georgia State University Library - Library News and Subject Blogs
I think its great that not only have they made it easy to discover all of the library blogs, they’ve also made it easy to use them by aggregating new posts into one interface and including XML buttons for those who RSS.

Thomas Ford Memorial Library and Western Springs Historical Society - Western Springs History blog
This blog simply highlights historical images of houses. But what I especially like about it is how easy it is to use. Images can be browsed by street or via an interactive map. And even more cool is that they allow users to comment on images to provide additional information. What a great way to encourage user participation.

VCU Libraries - Library Suggestion Blog
This blog basically takes comments submitted by patrons and responds to them publicly. What transparency! Comments range from noise complaints to purchase suggestions to research questions. Even though I don’t work for a VCU library, I still enjoy reading these suggestions and answers.

MSU Libraries - Library Tour
Great photo tour of their library floor by floor. This could be a great orientation tool.

St. Benedict / St. John’s University Libraries - Clemens Reads Display
Amazing use of flickr to highlight a book display. What’s most cool is that when you hover over a book, the popup box shows the books info and link to the catalog. I wouldn’t want to have to do this every week but it could be especially cool for a special exhibit.

Arizona State University - The Library Channel
Podcasts on various library related topics like research, copyright, self-archiving…

Worcester Polytechnic Institute - Library Audio to Go
Topics include library events, citations, literature, interviews…

University of Saskatchewan - Electronic Journals with RSS feeds list
A-Z list of all eJournals that offer RSS feeds

University of Michigan - Usability in the Library Resources
OK, I couldn’t resist putting one of mine in here. The recent links of interest section is fed in via my del.icio.us account.

University of Michigan - Health Sciences Libraries Resources
Looks like they’re beginning to use del.icio.us as an easy way to populate resource pages.

Ann Arbor District Library - MySpace
With 93 billion friends, you have to wonder. Seems like its primarily a way to share event info, but does also link to the different branches and has a direct search of the catalog.

Bull Run Library
Their whole site is a wiki!

Ohio University - Biz Wiki
Business degree resources via wiki. Also incorporates instant messaging reference, blogs, and more.

Georgia Tech - Mechanical Engineering Videos and Tutorials
What a great way to share research tutorials. As someone who once worked at a reference desk in an engineering library I really appreciate the need for that patent research tutorial.