Comments on: Seeking The Killer Connector For A Social Academic Library Site

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 10 May 2010 00:18:36 +0000

I think it’s incredible the effect that the internet is having on everything, even libraries. It’s not so much the effects of the internet in a holistic sense, but rather the “social” aspect of it that gets my attention. There’s just no escaping this. I think the author captured it well he referred to it as the wifired-iphone-mobile-kindle-geolocated-always-connected-engage-me-or-Iâ€™m-gone generation”

This social thing is the way of the future I believe. Just look at Facebook. Facebook, now famously, actually out performed Google during one week in March of this year 2010! That’s a first. People just love the real time flavor of social networking and social media. I think it’s a great idea for libraries to hook up with the modern era of information.

By: CindyH

CindyH — Fri, 07 May 2010 19:56:51 +0000

I was thinking the other day about addressing the issue of finding a research topic for students who are just starting their research. Actually, i had a research idea of my own that I don’t have the time to pursue. And I wondered if other community members out there have research ideas that could inspire students. So I imagined a website that would be centered around a public library population that asked users to describe the research they’d like to see done. They would classify the question by LC classification, perhaps – I’m always imagining a collapse-and-expand LC classification browse that would make choosing an LC class easy. The academic side of this app would allow students to browse the suggested topics organized by LC classification, and somehow they would “sign-up” for one. Would it put the student in touch with the community requester? How would we keep this distinct from a research mill?

Well just throwing my idea out there for reactions from other librarians whose thinking tends toward the pie-in-the-sky.

By: Marla Cochran

Marla Cochran — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 19:10:00 +0000

I agree with Joshua Kim– I think selecting specific, well writing librarians to keep blogs about things going on in the library would be a very effective way to accomplish things. They could write about trends in what materials are being used most, new purchases, and even social things like study groups and other “fun” type events that are happening in and around the library’s facilities.

By: Friday Link Round Up « ellie <3 libraries

Friday Link Round Up « ellie <3 libraries — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:13:57 +0000

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By: HeidiS

HeidiS — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:09:49 +0000

Not sure if this is what you’re talking about, but at my library we set up an online discussion forum using our portal’s blog software on which anyone could post and start a conversation about what they like and don’t like about the library.

I can’t give you a link because it’s behind our portal and you have to log in, but it’s based on a similar project at Western Washington University that they ran in 2008: http://lib206.lib.wwu.edu/14days/about.

One student spoke for many, I imagine, when he said “I’ve long felt that UP should have some kind of suggestion box or board where people could voice concerns to their administration…. I think this board, which is just a click away, is a really great idea and a step forward for building feelings of community and school pride on campus.”

We are still having trouble with the comments — this is the first time our IT people have used the portal blog software so extensively and it has a few bugs — but students are connecting with each other through posts.

By: GavinB

GavinB — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 20:57:06 +0000

@Michael F – the trick will be to be compelling. If we can’t offer something which will draw people in right away, we won’t have any better success than you had.

By: barbara fister

barbara fister — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 17:48:21 +0000

The “free” Amazon reviews that can be imported into VuFind are customer reviews, not the kind that you have to license from Syndetic Solutions (not Choice, not LJ, not PW). I frankly find them generally worse than useless. However, I am very tempted to get a package that includes the Syndetics review sources and LibraryThing for Libraries reviews and tagging – other libraries have integrated LT for Libraries into their OPAC successfully. It’s not free, but LT reviews are more thoughtful than “customer” reviews, that are often framed more as product reviews than analysis and the tags add value without actually expecting YOUR users to do all the work. I don’t know about your students and faculty, but when they’re using the catalog, they’re too busy to add content.

For more on LT in academic libraries see http://acrlog.org/2008/03/08/library-thing-for-academic-libraries/

By: Michael F

Michael F — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 10:05:22 +0000

I’d sound a note of caution on this. At my library we have recently gone live with the open source VuFind OPAC, which allows users to do exactly the sort of Amazon-like ‘reviewing’ and ‘tagging’ that some above have suggested (as well as pulling in reviews from Amazon itself, amongst other places). We thought this would be a major pull for our students, academics, and researchers. VuFind has proved to be very popular because of its clean interface and intuitive searching but the social aspects produced… almost nothing. Nearly two years after we first started experimenting with the system we’ve still only had *four* people add comments / reviews (and I’m pretty sure two of those were from library staff). The lesson seems to be: our users don’t want the library to be their social hub in that way. There are other forums where they can connect with each other over shared learning interests – but they’re not interested in having the library mediate.

By: GavinB

GavinB — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:04:50 +0000

@Joshua – Amazon allows you to grab their user reviews, editorial reviews, and mash them into your site @All – thanks for the connector ideas

By: Bob Berkman

Bob Berkman — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:43:31 +0000

What about expanding the connector from not just book authors, but journal authors, news columnists, selected bloggers: in other words: people. “People” are our original, and really only true source of knowledge: here, specifically people who have something valuable and insightful to say about specified issues and topics. Just like Steven could be the “connector” for people who want to talk about academic librarianship etc.