Task Force on Social Networking Software

Currently AHIP applicants can earn up to 20 AHIP points per year (http://www.mlanet.org/academy/pointindex.html) for editing a Section, Chapter, Regional or State newsletter.   A number of MLA groups are exploring the use of blogs and wikis, and considering using them instead of newsletters.  Web 2.0 technologies can be helpful with issues regarding communication and workflow that come up in Section, Chapter, State or Regional professional development activities where members are geographically dispersed.

Should AHIP benefits be extended to applicants that maintain blogs or wikis for these same groups?  I think they should, as all that is changing is the method for communicating the information.  What feedback could we provide to the MLA Credentialing Committee to help them consider making this change?  I’m working on a statement to the Credentialing Committee and I’d like to hear thoughts from others about why AHIP points should, or should not, be awarded to people that maintain blogs, wikis or other 2.0 technology for professional development.

View the Survey Results (PDF)

It is clear from the survey that new social networking technologies are important to MLA members, but only up to a point. While MLA members understand that these technologies may be important, they do not always see a personal or professional use in them (yet!). With the explosion of Web 2.0 technologies, the Social Networking Task Force (SNTF) understands this response, and acknowledges this perception. In truth, many social networking technologies may not yet have a practical purpose for professional activities. Technology for its own sake is not inherently useful, especially in professional lives that are already busy and full. However, the SNTF recognizes that these technologies have the potential to develop more enriched connections between MLA and its members.

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I found this article Does Digg Want to Be Facebook? posted on TechCrunch interesting. Basically it mentions how Digg, the popular democratic social news site, is adding Facebook-like features. This is not a surprising move since it is common for companies to adopt features of their competitors to enhance their own service offerings. Remember when we taught users the differences between search engines and directories and when to use each of them? OK… maybe only SOME of us remember doing that since it was in the mid to late 90s. My point is, during that time it quickly became confusing to tell the differences between search engines and directories since they started adopting each other’s features. Pure search engines like AltaVista and Lycos added a directory structure to emulate Yahoo’s success, AskJeeves added natural language query to emulate AltaVista’s success, etc… Over ten years later it seems like one predominate search engine (Google) and one predominate directory (Yahoo) ended up trumping the others. I will be curious to see how this shakes out as social networking services start blurring the lines between each other.

In our last post, Molly pointed out the 23 Things/Learning 2.0 project developed by Helene Blowers at the Public Library of Charlotte/Mecklenberg County.

23 Things/Learning 2.0 is a set of self-directed exercises designed to let all library employees explore the new social software tools on the horizon in a fun, hands-on way.   Because Blowers created this program to share, libraries across the country, whether public, academic, or special libraries, have taken up the mantel and created their own versions of the 23 Things/Learning 2.0 exercises.

As the Learning 2.0 course is self-directed, even solo librarians can work their way through the exercises, though working through the exercises at the same time as your peers can be helpful, especially when it comes to bouncing ideas around and getting feedback.  One idea to consider is forming a Learning 2.0 community with other librarians in your area.  Perhaps even MLA Sections or Chapters might consider hosting a Learning 2.0 course for members. Distance is not an issue.

In collaboration with one of my colleagues in Jacksonville, Florida, Ann Farrell, I am currently in the midst of hosting a Learning 2.0 course for my library system (one week to go!).  We’re spread out over 4 states and over 20 libraries, so an online course was a good option for including all of our staff.  To make this course relevant to medical library staff, we modified the 23 Things substantially, both to customize it to our library system and to introduce more medical social software applications, such Connotea, PubMed mash-ups and third party tools, medical videos and images on YouTube and Flickr, and etc.  We also had a great session on medical librarian and medical blogging, taught by David Rothman.  Blowers has given the library community a great pattern to work from, but you can really make it your own.

What has this program done for my library system?  Time will tell, but already our library staff, both the librarians and library associates, have come up with dozens of ideas to improve library services and make their own jobs easier.  We’ve also had a lot of fun, and that’s what’s really important.

From the depths of the SNS-TF distribution list, Sue wonders…

As an (almost solo) hospital

librarian I am very pressed for time and have

almost none in which to use the new social

networking stuff available to me. Do others

have this issue?

We’d love to hear your comments/nightmares/opinions on keeping up w/ 2.0 technology. What works for you? What doesn’t?

In the meantime, check out these links on keeping up with 2.0 technologies. To make things easier, links are arranged in order of 2.0-wareness.

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It seems BioMed Central is the next content provider to jump on bandwagon 2.0 . Their current newsletter reveals they’ve added an option to post articles to social networking sites:

You can now easily post articles to sites including Cite-U-Like, Connotea and Facebook, using links conveniently placed at the foot of the new navigation box.

But before you yawn at yet another example of the inescapability of trendy social networking tools, let’s break down how this can benefit you and your library constituents.

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Mark Funk, on his Only Connect blog, has appealed to Hospital Librarians who do not have blocked content. Mark asks:

While many hospital librarians reported some form of blockage, there are probably some hospital librarians with little or no blockage. Can we get the enlightened IT people at these hospitals to explain to other IT people why they have not blocked these sites or applications?

Please read his entire post and respond if appropriate.

Taking this one step further, has anyone been successful in unblocking a Web 2.0 site?  I’m curious if there are certain strategies that seemed to have worked.

Bart

I’m not ashamed to say it; I like Web 2.0 and social networking tools. There has been a lot of debate about Web/Library/Librarian 2.0 and whether it’s all just hype. But I find these tools helpful in my daily work life. Here are five reasons, I find 2.0 tools useful:
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Krafty Librarian’s recent plea to her hospital IT department to unblock YouTube got me thinking about blocked sites and some raw data from our recent SNS survey. 79 respondents - that’s almost 16% overall - report that network access to YouTube is blocked at their institution. Meanwhile, many electronic resources and online journals tout similar technology as value added content, whether it’s free animated tutorials from a vendor’s online help desk, or a fee-based subscription to streaming videos on surgical procedures or lab protocols.

Why the double standard? Is it because anyone can watch videos on YouTube? Or perhaps it’s because YouTube now accounts for 10% of Internet traffic, and unfortunately, alot of that is bandwidth-hogging dreck. Clearly, there’s a need to open dialogue with our IT departments. Just explaining how YouTube works or suggesting how to limit its use responsibly is a move towards embracing the full potential of this technology.

The MLANET refresh is now live.  You’ll notice the RSS button at the top of the page letting you subscribe to MLA news. There are also links to MLA Blogs (you will need to login to view these links).

http://www.mlanet.org/ 

Congrats MLA Headquarters and MLANET Editorial Board on a job well done.

Bart