I recently visited the central branch of Vancouver Public Library, and I really loved it! So I went to Facebook, found their page, and became one of their fans.

Their Facebook wall posts mainly consist the schedules and information about different events going on in the library branches, surveys to patrons to help improve the library services and miscellaneous information about the library that patrons might be interested in knowing. Their Facebook page also lists some of their favorite pages such as Facebook pages of AskAway and InfoCamp. Photos of a few new branches of VPL are also displayed on their Facebook page.

I think Facebook helps create a friendly and more casual environment where patrons could be more involved in the library community. However,  I had hard time finding the information about their Facebook presence in the VPL website. On their “Ask a Librarian” page, listed contact methods are “Chat with us,” “Email us,” “Call us,” and “Visit us.” I could not find the information about Facebook in their “Contact us” page either. After browsing the website for a while, I still could not find the place in the website saying that the library actually has a Facebook page and that patrons can connect to the library that way. Or that information is rather too hidden to be found by me. I found their Facebook page simply by searching for ”Vancouver Public Library” in Facebook. I think there needs to have more advertisement of their Facebook page in their web site. 

Facebook is a fast emerging social media tool. Many younger population are very familiar with it, while older population might not be savvy of using it. So library’s Facebook page might be more accessible to younger patrons than older ones. This might be one of the drawbacks Facebook has in library setting.

According to the content on VPL’s Facebook page, they are using Facebook to promote their library services as well as to keep patrons up to date about their ongoing events, workshops, new branches work-in-progress news and other miscellaneous information about the library services. I think VPL’s Facebook page is acting as a very handy place for library patrons to find out more about the library. Patrons can also post their comments in VPL’s Facebook wall and do the thumb up/down quick review of the library’s posts. I found it fascinating that the library and the patrons are growing closer while they interact on a virtual wall And the library’s Facebook page also provides a venue for patrons to network with each other. The “social” part of social media comes into play in various ways.

I can totally picture myself benefit from the information on VPL’s Facebook wall, if I would become a regular patron of VPL. Even now I am not a regular patron of VPL, I can still find some information there that interest me and make me want to go back to the central branch again for events and workshops. I can also keep track of their updates posted in the wall and see other patrons’ comments in a single place. How cool is that!

My only suggestion here is for VPL to better market/advertise their Facebook presence on their website.

After a long prelude, let me introduce you to a wonderful blog of one of our UBC libraries – Science and Engineering Library. The name of the blog is SciEng Library at UBC.

The Science and Engineering Library here at UBC serves the undergraduate, graduate students and faculty members in science and engineering schools. There are only three librarians (including the library head) serving a big patron base with nearly 20,000 people. The blog is set up to facilitate the communication and information sharing between the librarians and the patrons at UBC. The blog has posts about current news in the subject field, initiatives taken to enhance the library collection (new acquisitions etc.), slide shows of workshop series and even announcements made in the library community. The blog integrates all the above mentioned information, and it is saving a lot of time and effort for librarians to collect and disseminate all these information.

Librarians normally send the links of certain posts from this blog to staff or faculty members in the schools, to let them further push the information to their students if necessary. Therefore, instead of writing lengthy email messages, librarians can spread the news pretty conveniently. Also, all the archived information is kept in the blog which acts as a nice information repository for future reference.

The blog also allows viewers to comment on the posts, which is a nice feature to get viewers involved in blogging. This blog is searchable in major search engines. A co-author of the blog once mentioned that some viewer who has left a comment of a blog post actually found out about the blog via Google.

In regard to accessibility, patrons can easily find the link of the blog on the front page of the Science and Engineering library of UBC.

The blog fits quite well with the other services provided by the library. It helps promote the library services and draws patrons’ attention to the library resources. Librarians can push the information in the blog to their patrons by including links to related blog posts, or patrons themselves can browse the blog to retrieve the information they need to.  Since the blog is essentially a webpage containing information divided by blog entries, most users find it easy to use the blog for information retrieval. I also like the “categories” and “tags” sections in the left side of the blog, as they give me information about the general topics of the blog posted and help me find the information I need faster. If I were a science or engineering student at UBC, I would certainly bookmark this blog for information update and retrieval.

I would suggest the blog include the course guide pages as blogrolls on their page. On the library’s homepage, students can choose the course and hit the “Go!” button to get to the corresponding course guide page.  I just think it would be nice for the blog to list the URL links of these courses in the ”blogroll” section. That way patrons are more connected to the library services which relate to their direct interest.

Patrons can click on the tags they are interested in to reach the library’s delicious page with related links on that topic. For each bookmark, there are tags assigned to it. Patrons can also view a list of tags in orders like “related tags,” “top 10 tags,” and “all tags” compiled on the right side of the delicious page.

The tag cloud area on the library’s webpage works well with the rest of the website. The tag cloud page is separate from the rest of the website content.  The design and layout of the navigation area at the left hand side is well-organized, and patrons can easily reach the tag cloud page from the menu item “Del.icio.us” in the left navigation area. From the same area, patrons can also go to other Web 2.0 tools used in the library, including askOn which I have discussed in another post.

Social bookmarking is a relatively new social media tool. While not many people are currently using Delicious to manage their bookmarks, almost every computer user has his/her favorite bookmarks saved on the computer. As long as they have the concept of saving favorite links, it must not be difficult for them to grasp the concept of social bookmarking in Delicious. It just provides another avenue for users to store, view and retrieve their favorite links, as well as possibly view others’ bookmarks and share their own bookmarks with friends.

I personally like the idea of having a cloud widget of the library’s bookmarks on the library webpage and being able to reach those resources from a single place. And I think the patrons can benefit from having the more casual tags versus library’s more controlled subject headings, since tags are generated from readers’ view when they summarize books or other items. However, I know there are some librarians out there concerning about the lack of vocabulary controls when people tag things. According to the discussion in this journal article “Tags help make libraries del.icio.us – Social bookmarking and tagging boost participation” by Melissa L. Rethlefsen published in Library Journal on September 15, 2007, some librarians embrace the fact that social bookmarking and tagging “lowers the barriers for participation”, both for library patrons and staff. Delicious does allow less tech-savvy librarians to have an equal voice in the collection, as librarians can use “plain language to assign worthy links multiple tags”. Also, the social bookmarking concept has facilitated the task of some librarians who collect popular links for students’ assignment topics anytime anywhere.

I think the plain language used in social bookmarking and tagging draw the patrons closer to the library resources as well. The “social” aspect of it also encourages patrons to participate in the library community when they follow the library’s bookmarks in Delicious and even share their own bookmarks with the library. It is always interesting and beneficial to see what the library is bookmarking. I can picture myself following my public library’s bookmarks to find the useful information I need.

I would make one suggestion to improve the bookmarking use in this library’s website, that is to explain more about the differences between the two sections “tags” and “internal links” on the webpage. Right now, the Delicous mashup and the tagging mashup kind of  stand there waiting for people to figure out what they are. I understand that the use of these services also depends on how familiar social bookmarking and tagging are to patrons. It would be nice for the library to inform the patrons about what kind of information they can get and how they can use the information in these two mashups. Currently there is only some general information about Delicious and tag clouds on the top of the page.

While we still have controlled authorities headings and such in the library catalog, I think it is ok to let go the control a bit

This IM service is especially beneficial for patrons who are not physically located in the library and want to ask reference questions. askON is a provincial virtual reference program in Ontario. Several universities and institutes in Ontario including UT participate in this program. The program delivers timely reference services to patrons in Ontario. Patrons just need to be aware that their questions might be answered by librarians from institutes other than their own. And for that case, their questions might be referred to reference librarians from their own institutes.

There are pros and cons in regard to the virtual reference service in general.

Pros:

• For patrons, they do not need to be physically located in the library to get reference services. It is especially helpful for commuting students who spend less time on campus.
• For academic libraries that are involved in this program, the cost of having a collaborative program like this is lower than the in-person reference services provided by each library stand-alone.

Cons:

• For patrons and librarians, this kind of virtual reference interaction which lacks of in-person touch could cause confusion, unexpected delays and frustration in both ends.
• I have heard stories from patrons who have had frustrating experience with either dissatisfactory answers to their reference requests or unpleasant virtual interactions with the reference librarians. I also have heard similar stories from reference librarians that they feel the patrons in the virtual setting are less polite and harder to deal with. Librarians also find it more challenging to explain things and guide patrons to some certain resources via the instant messages.

The display of the askON icon in the UT libraries’ website is not very prominent. I was able to find the widget under the “contact us” page under the “students” menu item, but was not able to find it via the “contact us” link on the top of the page. The website needs to improve the general advertisement of the widget in its interface.

Once users reach the widget, they just need to fill out a question form and can then start a chat with a reference librarian in the askON system via instant messages. I don’t think it is difficult for users to use the chat feature, as online chatting has been available for quite a while. Plus the askON interface is very easy to follow and use. If the website could display the widget in some more prominent places, patrons would benefit more from having the virtual reference feature available while they search in the library catalog or just have general queries about the library resources.

After looking into the pros and cons of askON, I would still use the askOn widget in University Toronto libraries’ website if I were a patron there. I could see myself benefit from asking reference questions online when I am doing research for my term paper while away from the library. I find it very convenient and efficient to talk to librarians online at the same time when I come up with my reference questions or general questions regarding the library services. That way I don’t need to wait till I get to the library and have a face-to-face reference interaction. And since it is a provincial program, I can also get to interact with librarians from other libraries who might have a different and fresh perspectives to tackle my reference questions.

The only thing I would suggest is to have the askON widget more prominently displayed on the library’s website. It would be nice to have the widget placed on the library’s homepage as well. Currently there is no indicator on the library homepage telling patrons that the virtual reference service is available. I am not sure if there is any specific reasons for the library to put the IM widget a bit behind the scene. Maybe it is because the library wants patrons to use their own reference services first before they approach the provincial virtual reference service.

I did a search of the book “Listening Is An Act of Love: A Celebration of American Life From The StoryCorps Project” in the “search the entire library” search box on the Lamson Library and Learning Commons webpage and got the search result page shown as below.

So I clicked on the link “Text this to your cellphone,” and I got the following screen on this webpage.

On the same page, patrons can input their cell phone numbers to receive information about this book as an SMS text message. The message will look like this on their cell phone screen-

Message Preview
(from Lamson Library)
Listening Is An Act Of Love :…
(LOWER LEVEL) E169.Z8 L49 2007 AVAILABLE

http://library.plymouth.edu/read/312114

This feature is really cool for patrons who use cell phones regularly. I personally find cell phone messages handy to look up and easy to keep while travelling in comparison to email messages. When the patron is out in the road without Internet access, it would be very convenient for him/her to have the information about a specific book that s/he is interested in right in the palm.

The instructions on how to input the cell phone number is pretty straightforward. Patrons just need to type in their cell phone numbers and hit the “send it!” button. I think basically anyone could get the application work. This new feature is being advertised on the search result page of items patrons search for, but the link “text this to your cell phone” is not very prominently displayed on the search result page. Some patrons will likely miss this nice new feature if they don’t see the link. The library might consider displaying the feature more prominently in their website.

This application seems to be well-integrated with other services provided by the library, as most patrons will be interested in the location of books if they are to borrow them. However, the location of the display of this feature is not very consistent in the library website. I was able to find this feature when I searched in the “search the entire library, including catalog” search box on the Lamson Library and Learning Commons webpage, but was not able to find it when I did a search on the “search library catalog” page. I am not sure about the relations between these two search engines, but it would be nice for them to advertise this feature more consistently in the library website.

Another recommendation for me to make is to have the mashup include the fee charge information for the patrons. I know some patrons would be wondering if they would be charged with extra SMS fee by receiving this message. The library should make it clear that there is no extra fee involved if that is the case. I would not use the service unless the library specifies clearly on their website that if I will not be charged for extra fees.

Just a side note here: the library also integrates a separate screen on the bottom of the search result page to display related books to the search item with book covers and titles. This is also a mashup application. From some initial investigation, this mashup seems to be pulling information from Google Book Search, and by clicking on any of the related books, users are taken to the search result page of that book right in the library catalog. This is definitely a nice feature to have for patrons who want to look around for related readings.

Below is the screenshot taken from the search result page of the book I mentioned above -

When I searched for a book in their catalog, on the search result page, there is an icon called “Google Book Search” right underneath the icon of the book cover. My specific example was a search for the book “Reworking the student departure puzzle.”

On the bottom of the page, there are two mashup applications – Google Books Search & LibraryThing.

Patrons can get a separate screen with the scanned version of the book (or part of the book) available. I remember that University of Texas is one of Google’s partners of their Google Book Search project, so I assume that most of the books in their catalog are available in Google Book Search.

Back to this Google Book Search screen, patrons can zoom in and zoom out the view of the book, do a content search in the search box, and forward and backward pages within the book. Google Book Search also provides the link “Buy this book” which directs patrons to retailers such as Amazon.com. All these features are very handy for patrons who want to examine the book before they make up the decision to borrow or purchase the book. Generally speaking, the features are very easy for patrons to use, as they are quite common features for average Internet users. Even if a patron has not used Google Book Search before, the common zooming icons with related text would be helpful for the patron to pick up the use of this mashup.

I particularly like this Google Book Search mashup, because patrons can easily peek inside the book to determine if this is the one they are looking for, or if the content of the book really interest them besides the book title. Sometimes the information in the catalog is not sufficient for patrons to grasp the book content. By looking inside the scanned portion of the actual book, patrons can get a much clearer sense of what this book is about, and if they really want to go to the library to check out this book. This saves patrons their travel time to go to the library and examine the book there.

UT Library Catalog also mashes up with LibraryThing. Underneath the Google Book Search section, there is another separate section for this book’s record in LibraryThing which directs patrons to the book’s page in LibraryThing. Patrons can see the tag cloud given by LibraryThing for this particular book. This gives the patrons more idea about the content of the book in addition to the subject headings provided by the library catalog. I know sometimes tags could be a bit personal and “uncontrolled”, but at least it gives patrons some flavors about this book given by other peer readers. I like using the tag cloud of a book as a summary of the book content, and that information can help me determine if this is the book I am looking for or I would like to read.

The display of these mashups integrate nicely with the rest of the website. Patrons can see them right on the book search result page, which is hard to miss. If  I were a patron of the UT libraries, I would totally embrace their Google Book Search mashup and the LibraryThing mashup. These two applications bring in nice and handy lookup/peek inside feature as well as the summary information of books in the library catalog. To some extent, these mashups don’t feel as separate parts or additional add-ons in the website.

Patrons can use the mouse to drag the map around to define the scope of the view. Just like a normal Google map, users can zoom in and out the map. Unlike the previous example of Google Maps in Cambridge Public Library’s website, this particular map above does not include “Get Directions” feature which is a popular feature of Google Maps. It only displays the name and the address of the branch libraries when you click at the corresponding red pushpins. Therefore, if I were a patron of the library, I would not use this mashup that much, because I would be more interested in getting the directions. The address information of the branch libraries could be easily found in many other places.

HCPLC has another web page that uses color-coded pushpins to group different kinds of service locations.

The red pushpin points to full service libraries, green pushpins for City of Tampa Parks eLibraries, purple ones pointing to Hillsborough Country Aging Services eLibraries and so on. It gives a really nice overall picture of where the different library services located in the area, so that patrons can plan their travels more wisely according to the geographical locations of these services. If you click on each pushpin, a text box with the hyperlinked library service name and its detailed address will show up. If you click on the hyperlinked library service name, you will be directed to the webpage of that library service branch. Patrons can also zoom in and zoom out the map.

These two examples of Google Maps mashup applications fit nicely with the other services/tools the library provides for their patrons. These mashups are displayed prominently on their website so that patrons can easily locate them and use them. One thing I mentioned before is that both mashups in this library’s website do not include the “Get Directions” feature. Many users would still benefit from looking up the overall map of the branch libraries, but it would be much handier if they could get directions from the mashup. I’m not sure about the techniques needed to embed this feature in their library’s website, but I would suggest the library at least create a link to the Google Maps inside the text box for each pushpin.

Google Maps mashup seems to be very popular. There is one controversy about Google Maps is that their street view might violate the privacy laws in certain countries. If you zoom in the street view enough, it is possible to recognize shots of people. This is a just a side note anyways

One thing worth mentioning  before I go into details: some mashups are client-side, so patrons actually need to do some configurations in their computers to be able to view and use these mashups. This could generate potential hassle in the patron’s end, and could eliminate the use of mashups for some patrons because of the technical limitations. BookBurro is an example of this kind of mashup.

Google Maps is a popular mashup application in libraries’ websites. Cambridge Public Library in Cambridge, Ontario has a mashup application in their website to look up the locations of the different branch libraries.

On their library locations and hours web page, if you click on the “map” icon besides each address, you will be directed to Google Maps. You can then look up the exact locations of the branch libraries, or get directions to go to and from the libraries.

(Below is the Google Maps view you will get after clicking on the “map” link. Click on the image for bigger view)

It is very easy for patrons to locate this mashup application by clicking the “map” hyperlink, but the web page “Library locations and hours” is rather hidden in the library website. I would suggest re-arrange the site structure a little bit to make this webpage easier to find. On the Google Maps page of each library location, patrons can largely benefit from the “get directions” feature. It helps them plan their travel time to and from the library. The mashup integrates well with other Web 2.0 tools being used in the library website. For example, when a patron asks reference questions via the virtual reference tool askOn available in the library website, if s/he needs a print resource that is available in more than one branch libraries, the reference librarian can direct s/he to the Google Maps mashup right in the library website to look for the nearest branch library to the patron’s current location.

If I were the patron of Cambridge Public Library, I would definitely use this Google Maps mashup application to plan my library travels. I would suggest the webpage include simple notes besides the link [map] to indicate that it is taking the users to Google Maps. Right now the webpage does not advertise very much about the cool mashup they have here.

Next time we will take a look at another Google Maps mashup application in another public library’s website.

So, what do you think Web 2.0 is? Facebook,Twitter or something online?

Wikipedia defines Web 2.0 as “web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web.”  Web 2.0 technologies include blogs, wikis, mashups, social bookmarking sites, video-sharing sites, social networking sites and so on.

The collaboration and social elements of Web 2.0 are changing how these applications and users relate to each other. Users are no longer the passive receivers of information pushed by the Internet, instead, they are creating, disseminating and shopping for information on the Web. There is unlimited space available for the nowaday interaction between users and the Web, and there is a growing network among users of the Web.

The 2.0 version of the Web is dynamic and ever-changing.

In this blog, I will talk about some applications of these Web 2.0 tools in different types of libraries (public libraries and academic libraries). Personally I am fascinated by the emerging Web 2.0 tools in libraries’ websites. Most of the tools I looked at fit in the services libraries provide, and are really making positive impact in the library community. We are in a very exciting time to explore the new librarianship in this Web 2.0 era.