Exercise 14: inviting people to be authors on your blog

I invited Susan (susan59ep@gmail.com) and Nipuni (nipuniad@gmail.com) to be authors on my blog.

 

 

 

Investigative Exercise 11: Recommendations

Recommendations for the use of 2.0 technologies by Kogarah Library

Local Studies

Crowd-sourcing projects

The word “crowd-sourcing” is an amalgamation of the words “crowd” and “outsourcing.” It is a tool used by companies to complete large-scale digital projects relatively quickly.

How it works

The library posts information on its website about upcoming projects and directs users to an area where they can click on an item under review to begin editing it. Examples of crowd-sourcing activities include: transcribing and proofreading archival documents, identifying people in old photographs, and editing historic maps.

Advantages of crowd-sourcing include ease of use, flexibility and the ability to quickly digitise large chunks of information.

New York Public Library is currently running multiple crowd-sourcing projects through NYPL Labs. Some examples include:

What’s on the Menu? 

Volunteers transcribe sections of handwritten menus from the past hundred years that cannot be copied mechanically. This information can then be used to as a historical and cultural research tool.

Ensemble 

Volunteers transcribe old playbills to create a digital database that can then be used for research purposes.

Stereogranimator

This is a web-based tool used to create 3D images from historical stereographs. These images can then be shared, edited and remixed. This project is a throwback to the 19^th century stereoscope, a device through which a pair of photographs could be viewed side by side to create a 3D effect.

Teenage/Youth

Online study forums

An online forum is a place for public discussion of pertinent topics. A new topic of discussion is opened up when someone posts a comment in a new “thread.” Other users can view this comment and add their own comments below it. A forum usually has a main page with multiple threads that can be accessed in a new window.

A forum could be a good way for students to share ideas and assist other students in their studies.

Live chat with a librarian

Several libraries are now using instant messenger to assist patrons with their research enquiries. AnyQuestions, for example, is a service run by Christchurch Library that provides free online homework help to New Zealand students. Students chat with a librarian who can direct them to the information they need. The librarian may also teach them how to research effectively for themselves.

Advantages

•           It’s easy to use
•           It saves time and travel
•           It’s of equal benefit to students living in both rural and urban areas

Adult Fiction

Community reading projects

Candide 2.0 is a community annotation project created by the NYPL as a tie in with its exhibition “Candide at 250: Scandal and Success.” The first step of the process was to invite literary professionals to “plant seeds of commentary” within the text, and in so doing create a space for public discourse. The second step was to open up the discussion to the public for two months. The purpose of the project was to encourage the exchange of ideas, to facilitate social networking, and to strengthen community ties.

Now that the pilot program for this idea has been successfully launched, I believe Pearl Cove can do no wrong in setting up a similar project ourselves. This could even be the next step in the evolution of the book club.

Chat rooms

There are many adults who don’t have a local book club or who prefer to socialise online. The library could serve these patrons by providing online spaces for book lovers to build networks and discuss their favourite books.

A chat room is similar to an instant messenger service in that it allows users to hold discussions in real time and receive replies to questions instantaneously. However, instead of only permitting one to one contact, it allows are large number of people to send and receive messages simultaneously.

Advantages 

•             Chat rooms allow users to have group discussions in real time
•             Users don’t have to wait for replies to questions

Disadvantages

•            Too many people in the same chat room at once can easily cause confusion
•           A chat room environment isn’t conducive to thoughtful, in-depth discussions

Exercise 10: Evaluation

How Hurstville Library, Museum and Gallery uses 2.0 Technologies

Unfortunately, I was unable to find many examples of use of social media on the Kogarah Library website. I decided to use Hurstville Library, Museum and Gallery for this exercise instead, as it is in my local area and I both borrow from and volunteer there.

Information about Hurstville LMG’s use of social media can be found in their social media contributor’s agreement. Here is a brief summary of some of the main points:

• Social media is used by Hurstville LMG to promote its services and programs and to encourage healthy debate within the community about “topics of cultural interest.”

•  Hurstville LMG tracks trends in community opinion and uses this information to decide how its social media platforms will change and evolve.

•  Content submitted to Hurstville LMG’s social media sites operates under a Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). 

Here are some examples of how Hurstville Library uses social media:

Blog

Hurstville LMG’s blog is divided up into ten main search categories: what’s on, exhibitions, collections, reviews, kids, youth, seniors, history, fun and news. It contains mainly photographs and blog posts about library programs and exhibitions, new items in the collection and current events in the library world. It uses a tagging system and encourages users to leave comments.

Facebook

Used to share photos and videos of the library, inform people of upcoming events and services they might not be aware of, share posts about what other libraries are doing, promote the importance of libraries and thank people for attending events. Friends of the library are able to post comments requesting changes to services or discussing their experiences at the library. There is also a forum where people can ask questions of library staff. The moderators of the site are obviously Internet literate as there is good use of memes.

Pinterest

Hurstville LMG has 37 boards on Pinterest. Here are three of my favourites:

•  Astonishing libraries from around the world!

• Australian artists we admire

• Libraries of the rich and famous: Pictures of libraries owned by famous people, from rock stars and celebrity chefs to writers and directors. (I am so jealous of Jay Walker right now.)

Exercise 15: Commenting on other blogs

I posted on Kim Whitehead's blog, commenting on her current awareness post. I thought she had some very interesting points.

I also commented on Susan's post about social media recommendations at Blacktown Library. She also had some very good points.

Blog Exercise 13– changing the arrangement of your blog

I decided to add a list of links to websites I have enjoyed in the past. I also added a very pointless poll. I think I'm tired. 

Exercise 12: Changing the colour of your blog

I have chosen to use the 7th "simple blog" template, with a banner instead of a full page image background. I chose to use a picture of leaves and fruit as my banner, and changed the background colour to a pale green.  

Investigative Exercise 9: Community Profiles

Kogarah LGA Community Profile

Kogarah has an estimated population of 61030 and an estimated population density of 39.32 persons per hectare. From the 2011 census the population can be divided by age group thusly:

Age group                 Population
0-4                             3370
5-9                             3096                                                                                                      
10-14                         3370
15-19                         3453
20-29                         8387
30-39                         8061
40-49                         8247
50-59                         7032
60+                            10789

The population consisted of 27,246 males and 28,559 females.

The five largest ethnic groups were:

• Chinese (12,478 people or 22.4%)
• Australian (9,632 people or 17.3%)
• English (9,413 people or 16.9%)
• Greek (5,834 people or 10.5%)
• Irish (3,430 people or 6.1%)

50% of people spoke a language other than English. The five main languages spoken were:

Mandarin	5,850	10.5	3.0	4,203	8.0	2.3	+1,647
Cantonese	4,852	8.7	3.0	4,174	7.9	3.0	+678
Greek	4,540	8.1	1.8	4,275	8.1	1.9	+265
Arabic	2,015	3.6	4.1	2,016	3.8	3.9	-1
Macedonian	1,296	2.3	0.4	1,164	2.2	0.5	+132

The five main religions were: 

Religion	Number	%	Greater Sydney %	Number	%	Greater Sydney %	2006 to 2011
Western (Roman) Catholic	13,586	24.3	27.5	13,558	25.8	28.3	+28
Anglican	6,684	12.0	16.1	7,375	14.0	17.9	-691
Greek Orthodox	6,171	11.1	2.7	5,736	10.9	2.9	+435
Buddhism	2,569	4.6	4.1	1,906	3.6	3.7	+663
Islam	2,090	3.7	4.7	1,713	3.3	3.9	+377

11159 people were non-religious. 

Investigative Exercise 8: CURRENT AWARENESS POST

I found the video on "filter bubbles" to be very interesting. I'm always surprised when my Internet searches retrieve extremely accurate results. The fact that a piece of code is gathering so much information about me that it knows exactly what I want is highly disturbing when I really think about it. The thing is, though, it's really convenient- so convenient that I don't think about it. I just click on the link I want and continue on my way. 

I'm the sort of person that gets easily upset. War, disease, rape, child abuse- these are the sorts of things I don't really want to know about. It's not that I don't have strong feelings about them and wish I could help in some way, because I do. It's just easier sometimes not to know, to live in my safe little Internet bubble of amusing cats, fluffy romances and pretty celebrities. The problem? The stuff I don't want to know about intrudes into these supposedly safe spaces as well. Not every artist, writer or blogger bothers to tag for the stuff that makes me uncomfortable, and the state of tumblr these days means the Benedict Cumberbatch thigh appreciation blog I'm following is probably also filled with social commentary on the ethics of celebrity culture. 

The world probably would be a better place if the Internet allowed us to be challenged by things instead of shielding us from them like an overprotective parent. Maybe then, we could have a long hard think about why these things make us uncomfortable, and what we can do about them. 

We need someone to come along with a pin and pop the bubble. We need to have our view of the world shaken up a few times, otherwise how can we grow as human beings, and more than that, as a subculture? 

Investigative Exercise 7: Podcasts

A podcast is a digital audio file that can be uploaded to and downloaded from an Internet file sharing program onto a computer or portable music device. It's usually available as a series, such as a weekly radio program, a chapter of an audiobook, or a series of university lectures. 

FUN FACT: The word "podcast" is a mix between the words "iPod" and "broadcast."

The Power of Hair in Chinese Society

I found this podcast on the National Library of Australia website. It's a lecture by Dr Chi Kong Lai, looking at hair as a tool of communication and status symbol. Hairstyles in China have traditionally been used to express identity, and each hairstyle has a different meaning. They can tell you a lot about  a person, such as their religion, marriage status, occupation and class. The state can control the populace by dictating how they are allowed to wear their hair. At the same time, hair can be used as a form of rebellion and non-conformism. 

Investigative Exercise 6: Social Bookmarking

Reviews help you work out whether a book you're interested in might be worth reading. Most booksellers have review sections on their websites- why not libraries? Many times I've borrowed a book that, from the blurb alone, seemed pretty good- only to run across something I'm uncomfortable with three chapters in and have to return it. Reviews save you time, and they're a good way of gathering information about a resource. They're also a good way for libraries to track the popularity of items and genres and make decisions about the collection.

P.S. Yes, Kogarah library does allow me to rate and review items in their catalogue. 

Investigative Exercise 5: Social Networking

Here's why I think libraries should use social media:

• To reach a wider section of the community

• To share ideas and discuss current issues with other librarians across the globe

• To market themselves

• To make people aware of new collections and events 

• To promote the values of librarianship

• To receive feedback from members about what they like and don't like about the library and suggestions for new programs and acquisitions 

• To encourage open and in-depth discussion 

• To establish ties in the community

• To engage adolescents and introverts on their own turf

• To keep up to date with current information technologies (librarians are purveyors of information after all)

• And finally- and I don't usually say this- because everyone else is doing it!! 

Investigative Exercise 4 : Youtube

Investigative Exercise 3 : Photo sharing and Flickr

For this exercise I chose to look at the Mafra Palace Library in Portugal. It was built of limestone, in the Baroque and Italianised-Neoclassical styles, and served as a monastry until 1834. It's home to about 40,000 books, 92 church bells and a colony of very small bats. They live behind the bookcases and help keep the population of insects down.

Investigative Exercise 2: Blogs

For this exercise, I chose to discuss this post by The Librarian in Black. I apologise that it has little to do with libraries, but I was told to write about something that interested me, and this did.

Reading about Sarah's experiences with sexual harassment in the workplace got me thinking about how social media can be a powerful tool in the (fairly limited) arsenal of sexual assault victims.

Since 2012 there has been a spate of accusations against almost two dozen prominent YouTubers, sparking public outcry across social media platforms. Friends and associates of the accused encouraged victims to come forward and share their stories. Many prominent YouTubers responded by starting campaigns to combat sexual abuse in their community, such as the This is Abuse campaign and Laci Green's open letter to Sam Pepper, and Laci Green, Charlie McDonald and Rhiannon McGavin (among others) posted videos in response to the scandals.

Their actions led to many of the accused having their accounts taken down and being dropped by their record companies. Even though most of these cases never went to trial, this is an astoundingly positive result- but will it be enough to reduce the incidence of YouTube-related sexual assaults in the future?

On the one hand, giving people the power to call out these incidences through social media has led to much more awareness in the online community about abuse and misogyny. On the other hand, the roots of these problems go deep. I could write a whole other post about socialisation and institutionalised sexism, but I'm not going to.

One of the problems with YouTube is that it's a reflection of the real world. The people with the most fame and influence are white men- and then there's everyone else. There's also the problem of celebrity culture and poorly regulated YouTube conventions that make it easy for abuse to happen.

In my opinion, if change is going to happen, it has to happen at an institutional and cultural level, and it'll take time and effort and it'll be hard. Before that, we have to admit there's a problem first in the first place. I think maybe talking about it on social media is the first step towards that.

Investigative Exercise 1 : What is Social media / Web 2.0?

Web 2.0, or social media, refers to websites where users can produce, remix and review content freely. It allows people who have traditionally been marginalised (women, people of colour, the LGBTIQ community, etc.) to shape culture and politics in ways previously beyond their control.
Librarians use social media in numerous and varied ways, including:

• Using blogs to inform patrons about upcoming events and encourage feedback and suggestions.

• Posting footage from library events on YouTube.

• Using FaceBook for promotional and outreach activities.

Social media also allows librarians to reach people in remote communities and provides discussion platform that is friendly to young adults and socially isolated people.