RUSA MARS User Access to Services Committee hosted a discussion group on Web 2.0 tools. In 2008 the Committee sponsored a survey asking public and academic librarians a range of questions about how they are using Web 2.0 applications in their libraries.
There is interest and some implementation in public libraries with blogs, wikis, flickr and Facebook but overall public libraries have not jumped into the social networking aspect of 2.0 like academic libraries.
I think that the patron base accounts for much of this. Colleges & Universities are serving generations that have grown up with the Internet - this is how they communicate. So many colleges have developed interactive online classes for students and use YouTube and Podcasts.
The members shared a representative list of tutorials for some of the Web 2.0 products more commonly used in libraries. Here is a sampling:
Blogs: Blogger Video Tutorials
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryb4VPSmKuo
http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g
Wikipedia Tutorial
http://enwikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_tutorial
What is RSS?
http://rss.softwaregarden.com/aboutrss.html
Mashup Tutorials
http://www.deitel.com/ResourceCenters/Web20/Mashups/TashupTutorials/tabid/985/Default.aspx
How to Use del.icio.us
http://websearch.about.com/od/dailywebsearchtips/qt/dnt0412.htm
If you'd like to see the bibliography of tutorials, let me know and I'll send you a copy.
1 comment:
Quoting: "I think that the patron base accounts for much of this. Colleges & Universities are serving generations that have grown up with the Internet - this is how they communicate. So many colleges have developed interactive online classes for students and use YouTube and Podcasts."
This is all the more reason for *public* libraries to be exploring Web 2.0 tools as well. As our patron base loses older members and the younger members grow into taxpayers, more and more of these 2.0 users will be deciding if public libraries are worth the tax money being spent on them. If they find public libraries as obsolete because they don't serve their needs in the format they desire, then they'll likely see libraries as outdated or dying institutions wasting public resources.
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