What advice from this article will help a PK-grade 12 international school library in China embrace a Library 2.0 ethos? All of the A to Z tips are relevant, but these five (and more) play a very important role in this transition.
D-Direction: When addressing virtual access and social networking for libraries, there are many areas to cover (e.g. improved website, new ILS, social media policy). Formal plans need to be established in order to determine a vision and direction for how this library will change. Which changes to the library will be tackled first?
A-active: It is necessary to remain active and perseverant when incorporating social networking into this library’s practice. In this particular case, remaining active means actively persuing how to use social media in the library when many of the main sites are blocked in China. The library will need to get creative and carefully examine the current users and their social networking habits in order to utilize social networks effectively with these students. Just jumping into Facebook or Twitter usage might not work in this case.
C-Content: However this library decides to move forward with its online presence, the content within the website must be valuable. This also incorporates tips such as B-Blogging, or R-Reference, as all should become a part of the library’s website content.
G-Good Reads or L-Library Thing: Treating these two websites equally, either would be very useful in terms of getting the users involved in the reading community. The problem is that both of these sites have had access issues in China.
K-Koha: The library has been looking into changing the catalog for a long time, but budget has been an issue. Large commercial systems take a huge part of the budget. Maybe the solution is something open source such as Koha? Some investigation needs to be put into this, which also emphasizes the significance of the H-help element. A great amount of support would be needed from the IT department as well as school administration.
Based on:
Brown, A., (2010, Jan. 22) A to Z of Social Networking for Libraries [blog entry]. Retrieved from http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/
D-Direction: When addressing virtual access and social networking for libraries, there are many areas to cover (e.g. improved website, new ILS, social media policy). Formal plans need to be established in order to determine a vision and direction for how this library will change. Which changes to the library will be tackled first?
A-active: It is necessary to remain active and perseverant when incorporating social networking into this library’s practice. In this particular case, remaining active means actively persuing how to use social media in the library when many of the main sites are blocked in China. The library will need to get creative and carefully examine the current users and their social networking habits in order to utilize social networks effectively with these students. Just jumping into Facebook or Twitter usage might not work in this case.
C-Content: However this library decides to move forward with its online presence, the content within the website must be valuable. This also incorporates tips such as B-Blogging, or R-Reference, as all should become a part of the library’s website content.
G-Good Reads or L-Library Thing: Treating these two websites equally, either would be very useful in terms of getting the users involved in the reading community. The problem is that both of these sites have had access issues in China.
K-Koha: The library has been looking into changing the catalog for a long time, but budget has been an issue. Large commercial systems take a huge part of the budget. Maybe the solution is something open source such as Koha? Some investigation needs to be put into this, which also emphasizes the significance of the H-help element. A great amount of support would be needed from the IT department as well as school administration.
Based on:
Brown, A., (2010, Jan. 22) A to Z of Social Networking for Libraries [blog entry]. Retrieved from http://socialnetworkinglibrarian.com/2010/01/22/a-to-z-of-social-networking-for-libraries/
