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Electronic Journal Forum
Web 2.0, Library 2.0, and the Hyperlinked Library
Michael Stephens, Contributor
Maria Collins, Column Editor
Available online 26 October 2007
Stephens is Assistand Information SIL 60305, USA; e-Collins is AssistaState University Lmaria_collins@ nc
doi:10.1016/j.serrev.
Discussions surrounding the concepts of Web 2.0/Library 2.0 are increasing amongthe library community. This column outlines key principles behind Web 2.0 andprovides a brief explanation of social tools, such as blogs, RSS feeds, podcasting, andwikis. The author also provides specific uses and applications of these tools withinthe library environment to illustrate the Library 2.0 concept. An open framework forlibrary communication or hyperlinked library can result if Library 2.0 philosophiesare fully utilized. Serials Review 2007; 33:253–256.
Societal change affects every profession. Technologydoes as well. In the field of library and informationscience, scholars and practitioners have long theorizedand pondered the state of libraries, user expectations,and the future of library service. In the last two years orso there have been conversations about change broughton by the shift in Web technology known as Web 2.0.Coined by TimO’Reilly, the term describes the newWeb:more interactive, built as a platform, and tied to thecollective intelligence of users.Simply, Web 2.0 is the next incarnation of the World
Wide Web, where digital tools allow users to create,change, and publish dynamic content of all kinds. OtherWeb 2.0 tools syndicate and aggregate this content. Inthis ecology, users will all be publishers and creators oftheir own information and entertainment channels.Because these applications allow people to makeconnections, carry on conversations, and collaborate,they are also known as the Read/Write Web, socialsoftware, and social computing. To better understandWeb 2.0 (as well as Library 2.0, which utilizes these sameconcepts), it is useful to examine its principles oraffordances. These include conversations, community,participation, a sense of experience, and sharing.
$ Conversations: User participation, discussion andfeedback are welcomed and encouraged.
ant Professor, Graduate School of Librarycience, Dominican University, River Forest,mail: [email protected] Head of Acquisitions, North Carolinaibraries, Raleigh NC 27695, USA; e-mail:su.edu.
2007.08.002
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$ Community: Open conversations can lead to a senseof community and belonging within social sites.
$ Participation: New information is created via colla-boration between users. Everyone can create content;ideas and knowledge flow freely and are remixed andreused.
$ Experience: Engagement with other users and thecommunity as a whole is rewarding and providessome type of fulfillment.
$ Sharing: Users can post about as much or as little oftheir lives as possible.
These newer innovations in Web interactivity leadsome librarians to utilize new tools to create a two-wayor read/write environment. The pace of technologicalchange is ever-increasing, and librarians can findthemselves sometimes overwhelmed by all of the newtools and new discussions playing out at libraryconferences, on discussion lists, and in the professionalliterature. Understanding the basics of Web 2.0, its tools,and the affordances of social software are key to lib-rarians’ abilities to conceptualize Library 2.0, a deriva-tive of Web 2.0 that utilizes these same principles withinthe library environment.
Social Tools Defined
Blogs
Blogs, a shortened version of Weblog, are simplysoftware tools that allow the easy creation of a Website. Usually this mechanism is in the form of a journal ornews/update style site. Blog software, such as WordPressor Movable Type, creates the various pages of the site, a
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searchable archive, and a chronology of entries auto-matically. What began as personal publishing in the formof early online journals, blogs are now mainstream andused widely in business, by non-profits, and otherinstitutions.
Rich Site Summary (RSS)
RSS is defined as XML-based metadata content from ablog or other source. Web content is created or publishedin one place to be displayed in other places, such as inRSS aggregators (also called “readers”). Whenever thesource gets updated, the RSS feed gets updated and anyaggregators that are subscribed to that feed are notifiedthat there is new content available. People who useaggregators, such as Bloglines, NetVibes, or GoogleReader, to monitor RSS feeds get alerts when newcontent is added to blogs or news sites they have addedto readers.
Podcasting
Podcasting is a form of audio blogging. An audio file,such as an interview, short presentation ,or speech, isattached as an MP3 audio file to a blog post and syn-dicated out via RSS. Aggregators such as Bloglines or theiTunesMusic Store from Apple can subscribe to podcastsand automatically pull in new posts when they becomeavailable. Listeners do not need an iPod to listen to pod-casts. Any MP3 player or computer that can play MP3will work.
Wikis
Wikis are collaborative software applications that buildWeb sites. A wiki enables a group to collaborativelydevelop a Web site, such as a project site, knowledgebase, or resource. Most online citizens are familiar withWikipedia (www.wikipedia.org), a collaborative, groupedited encyclopedia. Wiki software includes the opensourceMediaWiki and free, hosted wiki solutions such asPBwiki.com.
Instant Messaging (IM)
Instant Messaging is real time, synchronous conversationbetween two people via the Internet using a messagingclient. Features of the various IM clients include presenceindicators to show others when a user is online and aBuddy List of family, friends, and colleagues. Otherfeatures might include file transfer and the capability forvideo chat or voice chat.
Social Networking Sites
Social networking technologies afford users the chanceto interact, share themselves, and create content. Sitessuch as MySpace, Facebook, music-centered LastFM,image-centered Flickr, and others might allow a user tocreate a profile page complete with an image and otherpersonal information; establish “friendships” or connec-tions to others; and engage in conversations, or knowl-edge sharing/feedback. Thriving sites might have
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hundreds or thousands of users (or millions, in the caseof MySpace), who have learned how easy it is to makeconnections online.Some common features of software networking sites
include the ability to leave comments, create links, assignkeyword “tags” to data, and the opportunity to makeconnections to others.
Library 2.0
Library 2.0, then, is not only an extension of the“rebooting” of the Web, it is an application of the phi-losophies surrounding what makes Web 2.0 work. Theterm, coined by librarian Michael Casey in September2005, led to extensive discussions, heated debate, andongoing discourse online, in professional journals and atconferences and workshops. Casey and librarian LauraSavastinuk published their definition in Library Journal:“The heart of Library 2.0 is user-centered change. It is amodel for library service that encourages constant andpurposeful change, inviting user participation in thecreation of both the physical and the virtual services theywant, supported by consistently evaluating services.”1
The principles of Library 2.0 seek to break down bar-riers: barriers librarians have placed on services, barriersof place and time, and barriers inherent in what we do. Inthis user-centered paradigm, libraries can get informa-tion/entertainment/knowledge into the hands of userswherever they are by whatever means works best.Recently, the libraries at Mississippi held a Library 2.0
Summit to gather librarians from across the state todiscuss what 2.0 technologies and thinking mean for thefuture of library services. Discussion centered on varioustools in addition to how to apply 2.0 thinking to libraryservices.
Library 2.0 and Social Tools
Libraries have adopted all of the tools defined above toextend their missions of service, stewardship and accessto information. Some notable examples include thefollowing.
Blogs
Libraries of all types use blogs to create a “What’s New”style site for users to market newmaterials and resources,events, and to share information. The Ann Arbor DistrictLibrary (www.aadl.org)Web site, made up of seven blogswith commenting allowed by registered patrons, wentonline in July 2005. With open comments, the blogscreate conversation within the community as a meetingplace for discussion.
Rich Site Summary (RSS)
Libraries are offering feeds of new materials, blog posts,and event information. The Hennepin County Library inMinnesota (www.hclib.org) offers RSS feeds from almostevery page of its database-driven Web site. The pages forlibrary news, subject information, and the event calendarall provide feeds. The Hennepin County integrated
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library system offers users the ability to customize catalogsearches and “subscribe” to them, in order to monitornew catalog additions and news from the library.
Podcasting
Some libraries offer podcasts of promotional recordingsabout the library’s services and programs. Recordings ofbook reviews for all ages, speeches by visiting authors,children’s story times, and book club promotions are justsome of the podcasts public libraries produce. Academiclibrary podcasts highlight new resources, library infor-mation, such as the monthly podcast series produced bythe Decatur Campus Library of Georgia PerimeterCollege (http://www.gpc.edu/~declib/podcasts.htm), andeven audio “training sessions” on leased databases, suchas those at Duke Divinity School. The Ohio Universitylibraries (http://www.library.ohiou.edu/newsblog/?p=152) offer a podcast tour of the library in two versions:one recorded by a librarian and the other recorded by astudent.
Wikis
The librarians at Butler University Library built theReference Resources wiki (www.seedwiki.com/wiki/butler_wikiref/) to annotate all of their online and printresources, allowing easy access to the site by staff, stu-dents, and the librarians themselves. Another wiki forcollege students is Chad Boeninger’s Biz Wiki at theAlden Library of Ohio University (www.library.ohiou.edu/find/). Librarians at the St. Joseph County PublicLibrary in South Bend, Indiana created subject guidesfor their patrons (www.libraryforlife.org/subjectguides/index.php/Main_Page), allowing them to discuss andsuggest additions to such pages as South Bend Informa-tion and Harry Potter via the “discussion” tab, while thelibrarians edit the pages via the wiki interface.
Instant Messaging (IM)
Various libraries have adopted IM as a means ofproviding inexpensive virtual reference using systemsthat users may already have on their computers. For ex-ample, Central Reference Services at the University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign library (http://www.library.uiuc.edu/askus) offers both vendor-supplied vir-tual reference software and IM to answer studentquestions. The IM reference service is staffed withlibrarians and with GSLIS graduate students.
Social Networking Sites
Libraries, such as the Hennepin County Library, havecreated MySpace pages to reach out to young people.Hennepin recently placed a search box for their onlinecatalog right into their MySpace page (www.myspace.com/hennepincountylibrary/) and then offered the codefor MySpace users to place it on their personal pages aswell. Other libraries have established a presence inMySpace. At the SNS Facebook, librarians are building
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pages for themselves because of restrictions on institu-tional profiles. Librarians, such as Brian Mathews atGeorgia Tech, use Facebook to interact with students,answer questions, and provide information about libraryand university services.
The Library 2.0 Philosophy
Library 2.0 is much more than a set of Web tools. It ismuch more than a library blog or IM screen name. Amajor part of the discussion, sometimes lost in con-ference presentations and journal articles that center on“cool technologies,” is the application of open, partici-patory thinking to library services. Let us revisit theaffordances of social tools in light of how libraries mightinteract with users:
• Conversations: Open discussion leads to transparencyand honesty. The library shares plans and proceduresfor feedback and then responds. The library openlydiscusses how money is spent to further the mission ofthe library. This library is “human” because the voiceshaving the conversations are real and personal.
• Community and Participation: Users are involved inplanning library services, evaluating those services andsuggesting improvements. In an open conversation, allopinions that add to the discourse are welcomed andembraced. We are no longer in a time when librarianscan decide what is best for the users. The users shouldtell us!
• Experience: The library experience is rewarding. Itbrings out emotions. It satisfies the user. Library 2.0encourages the heart: through learning, discovery, andentertainment. The user is engaged, challenged, andwelcomed. Barriers, such as bans on technology useand stereotypical “shushing,” make way for collabora-tive, flexible spaces and technology savvy librarians asguides to accessing and creating content. Internally,experience and a sense of discovery afford the librarystaff a chance to learn, make mistakes, and celebratesuccesses and new initiatives. The self-directed, freeLearning 2.0 program (http://plcmcl2-about.blogspot.com/), born out of the Library andWeb 2.0 discussions,is a wonderful starting point for teaching staff how thetools discussed above work and what libraries might dowith them.
• Sharing: The library provides ways for users to share asmuch or as little of themselves as they would like—viaonline communities, user profiles built into the catalogor blogs hosted on library servers. Users can opt in toshare their library use – current check-outs, favorites,interests, etc. – with others in the library community.This leads to connections and discovery.
The Hyperlinked Library
The Hyperlinked Library, based on the writings ofDavid Weinberger in the Cluetrain Manifesto (http://www.cluetrain.com/book/hyperorg.html), is an open,participatory institution that welcomes user input and
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creativity. It is built on human connections and con-versations. The organizational chart is flatter and team-based. The collections grow and thrive via user in-volvement. Librarians are tapped in to user spaces andplaces online to interact, have presence, and point theway.
The hyperlinked library is human. Communication, ex-ternally and internally, is in a human voice. The librariansspeak to users via open, transparent conversation.
The hyerlinked library provides spaces and places forusers to interact, to collaborate, and to create content. Inan age of digital tools, such as video editing stations,podcast studios, and multimedia PCs, this library is aplace to have access to all manner of new and emergingtechnologies, to test drive, to make something.
The hyperlinked library has flattened the organiza-tional chart, breaking down the layers of “permission”and “channels” to get things done, and looks forways to streamline processes, procedures, and dreadedpolicies.
The hyperlinked library has a plan for successionmanagement and knowledge transfer—wikis, blogs, andother tools maintain the knowledgebase and the “his-
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tory” of how the library works and what procedureshave been successful. No one is the keeper of individualknowledge, so if that person departs, the knowledge doesnot leave with them.The hyperlinked library is simply the Read/Write
library, where conversations, connections, and commu-nity are born. In the words of Ranganathan, the library isstill a “growing organism.”
Note
1. Michael E. Casey and Laura C. Savastinuk, “Library 2.0: Servicefor the Next-Generation Library,” Library Journal, September 1,2006, http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6365200.html(accessed July 30, 2007).
Further Reading
Stephens, Michael. “Web 2.0 for Libraries: Best Practices for SocialSoftware.” Library Technology Reports (Chicago, IL: AmericanLibrary Association, July/August 2006).
Stephens, Michael. “Web 2.0 for Libraries Part 2: Trends andTechnologies.” Library Technology Reports (Chicago, IL: AmericanLibrary Association, July/August 2006).
