(See Also Parts I & II)

The idea of community is not a new one for librarians, but in the digital age of the Web and ubiquitous computing, a fresh perspective is needed. Community is no longer just about gathering in the physical space, i.e. the library building. Community has also become virtual.

In online communities, our patrons are not only sharing information, but creating and publishing it. A massive amount of content is being produced online every day. The Library of Congress, the largest library in the world, holds 130 million items. (3) The blogosphere produces 1.6 million new blog posts each day averaging about 18.6 posts per second. (8) Time-poor users are faced with a wealth of information and very few filtering agents. In today’s attention economy, librarians are needed more than ever.

These are new times. Internet users once aggregated solely around text but now there is an array of multimedia choices such as music, video, photos, podcasts, videocasts, games, etc. for them to congregate around. The core strength of librarians is in helping users sort through vast amounts of information. Librarians can play a major role as information filters in today’s online communities. There is a treasury of user-created content on the Web, but the worthy is found tangled amidst the heap of mediocrity. We need to wade in and help users sift through the mess.

Wherever intellectuals exchange information it is useful to have guides, to be present not to intrude but to offer themselves as a resource. This is an opportunity for librarians to go where our patrons are, to learn about their use culture and their information needs firsthand. It is an opportunity for us to shed our image as the metaphorical “guardians of knowledge” and transform ourselves into information-ambassadors, providing links to knowledge.

As librarians we have the chance to participate and interact with our patrons where they “live”. Many of these Web tools also offer great potential for us to market our library and services and drive traffic back to our website. We should seek out these opportunities and make the most of them. Most importantly, we should become users ourselves. Librarians need to become as ubiquitous and pervasive as computing, sharing the same ability to pass through walls and knock down barriers.

Ways to Participate in Community

There are many ways available today that libraries and librarians can participate in existing communities online. As with the previously discussed tools, not every choice will be right for every library.

Social Networking Software
Social networking websites are places where users gather to connect with other users. They are some of the most popular destinations on the Internet today. MySpace is the third-highest trafficked website on the Web in the US and sixth in the world, (2) and Facebook enjoys over 7 million members. (7) Although there is a general impression of an all-youth demographic within MySpace, the population varies widely with a whopping 41% in falling into the 35-64 age range in the US. (9)

Libraries can participate in these evolving communities by joining them and creating user profiles. Many libraries have established MySpace profiles which serve as mini portals to their library websites, exhibiting library services, events calendars, and even OPAC search boxes. The Denver Public Library has a hip profile aimed at their teen audience which advertises their librarian 24/7 service, allows catalog searches, provides links to music and movies reviews on their website, and plays Harry Potter tunes.

Social Content Sharing
Content sharing sites are places where users create, write, catalog, and collect in a public space.

Flickr is a photo management and sharing application with a burgeoning community of over 2.5 million members. (7) These members are not only uploading and sharing their digital images, but are together aggregating historical and cultural collections within this photo-sharing community.

Libraries are currently offering images of their recent acquisitions, snapshots of their gaming nights, and photos of building renovations on Flickr. The Meeteetse Branch Library tempts their patrons with shots of summer reading program prizes. Photo Sharing applications hold great potential for library involvement in a variety of ways from showcasing special collections to posting images of library programs.

Social bookmarking applications such as del.icio.us enable users to save their favorite websites in an online space. Libraries such as the Lakeland Campus Library are already making the most of these new tools to display listings of recommended sites on their library homepage. These community applications offer users the ability to assign metadata in the form of tags to each saved item. By assigning each resource a particular tag, librarians can use these applications to create web-based subject guides, reading lists for specific classes and topics, and recommended web resources lists.

The video storage and sharing application, YouTube serves over 30 million videos per day and sees 35,000 new clips added daily. (7) This mammoth pool of video clips constitutes 60% of all videos viewed online. Founders of this thriving community announced that within the next 12-18 months they are striving to acquire every music video ever created. (1) These video sharing and other social communities are fast becoming fantastic resources with substantial collections.

The Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County has created a promotional video for their summer reading program which is hosted on the site. Social video websites such as YouTube and Google Video offer libraries endless opportunities to create library videos for outreach, instruction, library tours, orientations, program promotions, as well as access to these immense collections. A quick search of the term ‘library’ on You Tube will return over 2,000 videos created by patrons in the library. YouTube allows users to create “channels” which aggregate all of their videos on one page. Libraries could create such channels on YouTube for their individual library.

Social Search
To state the obvious, there is a massive amount of information on the Web today. Online users utilize traditional search engines such as Google and Yahoo, as well as blog search engines such as Technorati to help them navigate this wealth of content with varying degrees of success. But now, even search tools are becoming more social and community-oriented. A recent development on the search engine front is what’s been termed as social search. Social search consists of search engines with human filters, or search technology with people-approved results. The Rollyo website allows users to create customized search engines containing up to 25 websites on a particular subject area. Eurekster’s Swicki is a custom-made search engine which can be created that adapts to the author’s original query terms as well as to its user community by weighting search terms, clicked links and other user behavior. Swickis can be created by one person or can be collaborated on by many. This is a great tool for librarians who are experts at searching and evaluating digital materials. Librarians would be ideal creators of these filtered search engines which could consist of subject area engines, general reference searches, or even blog or image search engines.

Reading Lists & Subject Guides
There are many options on the Web today which offer the capability to create dynamic reading lists and subject guides within a social setting. The Squidoo website allows users to create “lenses” dedicated to a particular topic. These lenses are easily created webpages which can link to websites and online articles, blogs, RSS feeds, Amazon books, Google maps, and can pull in images from Flickr. Creating Squidoo lenses would provide libraries with vibrant subject guides and reading lists such as this Library 2.0 Reading List prepared for an online ALA course.

The blog search engine Technorati provides users with the opportunity to create a list of recommended or “favorite” blogs. Users of the community can view both the favorites lists of other users as well as all of the recent posts from those blogs. This favorites feature could be used by libraries to initiate a listing of approved blogs. Additionally, it could potentially be used by librarians to create OPML reading lists. Each list of favorites offers users the option to download the associated OPML file. By subscribing to such files in a news reader, users are automatically subscribed to all the blogs on the list. Although still very new, OPML files hold potential for librarians as tools for creating automated digital reading lists such as this Library 2.0 Boot Camp reading list.

A related tool which has interesting potential for libraries is the custom RSS creator. Customized RSS feeds can be created by web applications such as RSS Mix which allows authors to copy and paste the URLs of several RSS feeds into a box and then click to create a unique RSS feed. Libraries could use this technology to create subject-specific RSS feeds for their users.

Answers Technology
This new type of technology allows users to pose questions to the community, receive answers and provide solutions and opinions in response to others’ questions. Yahoo! Answers which launched in December 2005, is currently boasting 25 million answers. (11) Not only would a librarian presence in such a community be welcome, it would also present an opportunity for libraries to learn about how users prefer to receive information online. Libraries could also consider creating an answers community for their own library which could exist as an extension of IM and email reference.

Instant Messaging
Many libraries have adopted instant messaging as a service for their patrons. But most only use one instant messenger, which necessitates that patrons have an IM account with that service. Although libraries may attempt to choose the most popular software, that still leaves a significant number of users who don’t use that messenger. While AIM commands the market share with 53 million users, MSN has 29 million users, and Yahoo! Messenger 21 million. (6) With new IM aggregators such as Meebo, libraries can now sign into multiple IM accounts through a website without the inconvenience of software installation. This new technology offers the library the chance to create an IM handle for each of the major instant messenger services including: GoogleTalk, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, AIM, Jabber, ICQ, etc. Libraries can sign into all of them simultaneously through these online applications.

Virtual Worlds
Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG’s) are a rapidly expanding niche market in the US. It has been predicted that their users will nearly triple by 2011 in the US raising annual revenue from these games to $842 million from their current $348 million. (4) One of the most popular games, World of Warcraft has 6.5 million players worldwide. (10) The more moderately-sized community in Second Life consists of 170,000 users, up from last year’s 20,000. (5) Second Life, which enables its gamers to create everything from clothing to virtual businesses, has been garnering increasing attention not just for its booming real estate market, but for its possibilities for libraries.

The Alliance Library System along with OPAL (Online Programming for All Libraries) has created a public library within the Second Life world which offers interested avatars library instruction sessions on virtual Powerpoint slides, exhibits and programs such as a recent history program given by Henry VIII himself, and mixed reality events such as live lectures which are simultaneously audiocast to the virtual library’s auditorium. As gaming communities continue to grow, it is easy to envision libraries as integral parts of these worlds.

Courses in Emerging Technology
By keeping up with all of the latest technologies, libraries have the opportunity to offer their users cutting-edge workshops and classes. While many patrons are currently using these emerging technology tools, there are plenty who aren’t and would consider such instruction a valuable resource. Public libraries could offer classes in Flickr, or in the use of Jot’s family intranet software which comes with easy-to-use genealogy tools, while academic libraries could offer sessions on CiteULike for creating research bibliographies. Libraries could offer such courses both live within their libraries as well as online via screencasts, webcasts, and within virtual worlds such as Second Life..

Online Community and Libraries, Part IV: Start Today

Libraries have a lot of choices when it comes to building and participating in online community. But there are many factors which contribute to deciding upon the right fit with a particular library. Aside from technical considerations, there is also the not-so-small matter of buy-in. So while libraries and librarians may not see these changes happen overnight, there are some things which they can start doing today to help further them along.

Start a News Reader Account
News reader accounts which aggregate blog subscriptions are an absolute must for keeping up with the developments in any field. Librarians who haven’t done so already would be well-served to create an account and adopt the practice of reading blogs and news sources on a regular basis. There is an abundance of newsworthy blogs available concerning emerging and current technologies to help readers keep up on the latest developments. New users can search their news reader’s directory for appropriate sources to subscribe to and should bear in mind that it is acceptable to read outside your field!

Become a User
Librarians should begin trying out these new technologies firsthand. Test them out, play with their various features, learn how they work. It is important to try out a wide variety of these new Web tools, and not just the ones that might be choices for your library. By learning about how users are interfacing with new Web applications and information, librarians can gain insight into new ways to present information to their users. Exposure to many of these tools can also help librarians see possibilities to create useful mashups for their communities.

Discuss Emerging Technology
Start discussing these emerging technologies in your library, in your staff meetings, at lunch with your peers. Create forums for these discussions such as brown bags, committees, or informal learning opportunities. Take advantage of the resources you have at your library – your colleagues. Start talking about these exciting new technology tools and learn from each other.

Adopt a New Philosophy
Offer your patrons support within and beyond the library’s online community. Be flexible. Go where your users are to offer services – knock down the walled garden!

References

1. Adegoke, Yinka. “YouTube Talking to Record Labels on Music Videos”, Yahoo! News, Aug 15, 2006. http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060815/
   wr_nm/media_youtube_dc_1 Viewed 8/25/06.
2. “Alexa Traffic Rankings” Alexa, http://www.alexa.com/site/ds/top_sites?cc=US&ts_mode=country&lang=none Viewed 8/21/06.
3. Billington, Dr. James H. “Welcome Message from the Librarian of Congress”, Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/about/ Viewed 8/18/06.
4. Gartenberg, Michael. “US Massively Multiplayer Games Forecast, 2006 to 2011”, Jupiter Research, May 11, 2006.
5. Hof, Robert D. “My Virtual Life”, BusinessWeek, May 1, 2006, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content
   /06_18/b3982001.htm Viewed 8/18/06.
6. “Instant Messaging”, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_messaging#User_base Viewed 8/18/06.
7. Levy, Steven and Brad Stone. “The New Wisdom of the Web”. Newsweek, April 3, 2006. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12015774/site/newsweek/ Viewed 8/18/06.
8. Sifry, Dave. “The State of the Blogosphere”, August, 2006, Sifry’s Alerts, http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000436.html Viewed 8/18/06.
9. Williamson, Debra Aho. “Social Network Marketing: Carving Out Some MySpace”, eMarketer, August, 2006.
10. “World of Warcraft” Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_warcraft Viewed 8/21/06.
11. Yahoo! Answers http://answers.yahoo.com Viewed 8/18/06.