Social Networks, Games, and Crowsourcing

Social Networks

Social networks have revolutionized personal and professional relationships. Whether it be a way to keep in touch with friends and family who live distances away or a way for companies to reach out and find a new client/market, getting and staying connected is easier than ever. 

For businesses, social media can serve as a way to: create brand awareness, manage your reputation by responding to/refuting negative feedback, recruit clients and/or employees, and expand a business by learning about new technologies and competitors. Some business/professional social media sites are: 

• LinkedIn - ("the professional Facebook") used to share a resume and network professionally
• Monster.com - can be used to post jobs/resumes and find jobs/employees.
• Academia.edu - can be used to share papers, monitor their impact, and follow the research in a particular field. 
• Research Gate -  site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators

While social networks offer many advantages to our professional and personal lives, social media can also be a place that is dangerous. Cyberbullying and cyber stalking have begun to lead to suicides and legal issues. With this 24/7 access to friends (and foes) it makes it hard to step away from negativity, and keep our private lives private.

Libraries need to keep these things in mind when incorporating social networks into their libraries. While we might want to share information with the world, we need to be sure it is professional, and that we keep our patrons' safety, privacy, and security as the top priority.

Crowdsourcing

 Crowdsourcing is a great tool to use within library MakerSpaces. This is the act of researching/solving a problem with the help of a community. Rose Holley of the National Library of Australia gives the following ways crowdsourcing can benefit libraries in her article in D-Lib Magazine:

• Achieving goals the library would never have the time, financial or staff resource to achieve on its own.
• Achieving goals in a much faster time frame than the library may be able to achieve if it worked on its own.
• Building new virtual communities and user groups.
• Actively involving and engaging the community with the library and its other users and collections.
• Utilizing the knowledge, expertise and interest of the community.
• Improving the quality of data/resource (e.g. by text, or catalog corrections), resulting in more accurate searching.
• Adding value to data (e.g. by addition of comments, tags, ratings, reviews).
• Making data discoverable in different ways for a more diverse audience (e.g. by tagging).
• Gaining first-hand insight on user desires and the answers to difficult questions by asking and then listening to the crowd.
• Demonstrating the value and relevance of the library in the community by the high level of public involvement.
• Strengthening and building trust and loyalty of the users to the library. Users do not feel taken advantage of because libraries are non-profit making.
• Encouraging a sense of public ownership and responsibility towards cultural heritage collections, through user's contributions and collaborations.

Social Network Games

As our time spend interacting virtually increases, it is only  natural for the contact to evolve into online gaming. Games like Farmville and Candy Crush are popular within Facebook. These games need other people to be able to play. These games are casual, have little time commitment, low skill requirement, you can play whenever, and there are public player stats. While library purists may frown upon the use of library tech to play these social games, it could in fact be helping to teach social skills to younger kids, or help someone without this tech at home to communicate and play with friends made solely online or on these games. It only takes one person to make a difference, and that person may be on a social game for a struggling teen. 

Changing Opinion of Social Networking

The more people research and delve deep into the developing world of social media, the more they begin to understand and develop their own viewpoints and theories about its use. Throughout my Social Media and Informatics course, I have been able to realize that there are far more professional social networking options than I originally thought. My initial contact with these professional sites was only via LinkedIn, but I'm beginning to see the way that business and leisure both have a place on social media. 

People truly form connections via new social media sites, and this allows for introverts to express themselves within a group of like-minded peers. Reddit is by far one of my go-to places to find those passionate about the same topics (games, tv shows, etc.) and I am able to discuss with them my interests in ways I am not able to with my friends and family, who care nothing about these games or tv shows. 

Also during this course, I was assigned to create an Information Service prototype with a group of my peers. With new technologies such as Skype and discussion boards, we were able to effectively communicate and create an idea for a Pinterest Board that delivered a subject guide for library patrons during the summer. Our library pinterest page is: https://www.pinterest.com/barstowlibr0035/

There were four of us in the group, and we each had a subject that we were going to flush out for summer recommendations - mine was Children's Activities/Readings for summer. I pinned a total of 50 pins ranging from booklists to crafts, which would help parents enrich their child's summer with fun and informational activities and readings. This type of collaboration could easily be implemented in any library, thus making the staff connected while being able to work separately. 

Ultimately, my studies of social media have only confirmed that they do belong in the library,a nd that they are useful tools for every type of interaction. Yes, there are negatives and scary aspects of social media (trolling, hackers, identity theft, cyber bullying, cyber stalking, etc.) but, in my opinion, the good things far outweigh the bad.

Folksonomies

FOLK + TAXONOMY = FOLKSONOMY

Folksonomies are classification systems (think Dewey Decimal System or Library of Congress Classification system), which help librarians annotate and categorize collections/information. They are also widely referred to as: collaborative tagging, social classification, social tagging, or social indexing. The name is derived from the idea that folksonomies are classification systems that are created by the folk that use them (a.k.a.) a community. You may question what is the difference between and folksonomy and an ontology, Theodosia Togia has a great information set that shows the differences here.

There are two major types of folksonomies:

1. Broad Folksonomy
• Has multiple users, and uses various terminology to create a lot of metadata (data that describes data).
2. Narrow Folksonomy
• Has few users, limited terminology, and the content is creator initiated.

Some potential problems with folksonomies are the lack of consistency, lack of reliability, and uncontrolled vocabularies. The Dublin Core  was created by information scientists to resolve these problems, however being able to have the dublin core tags applied to your site, you have to pay. 

Libraries have begun integrating folksonomies into their OPAC. Kate Baker at The Idaho Librarian gives a great overview in the difference between library catalogs and folksonomies, and ultimately concludes that folksonomies allow for better service to be offered by libraries. In this way, folksonomies are very useful to libraries and offer insight into community needs, interests, and the overall way in which they think. Folksonomies are definitely useful in building a better future for libraries. 

RSS

What is RSS?

• Most commonly used in reference to:
  Rich Site Summary or Real Simple Syndication
• It is a brief announcement about updates to websites, blogs, news headlines, etc. 

What is it used for?

• Author syndication - takes people to information source
• User Updates - users following the blog or website will be notified, which frees the user from having to check for updated information

How can libraries use RSS?

The Moxie Librarian has listed the following ways libraries can incorporate/use RSS.

1. Create an RSS feed for new additions to the online catalog
2. Create an RSS feed tied to a library card account for hold notifications and/or overdue materials
3. Create an RSS feed for new programs and events posted on the library website
4. Create an RSS feed for the library's electronic newsletter
5. Create an RSS feed for press releases and other media advisories
6. Create an RSS feed for library closing, includeing emergency closing
7. Create an RSS feed for library job openings
8. Subscribe to a few RSS feeds, such as local news websites, and share the content on the librarys website
9. Subscribe to RSS feeds of interest to library customers and share the content on the customer's personalized library webpage
10. Subscribe to a few professional RSS feeds and share with library staff on the library intranet

Ultimately, this is a great new technology that can be utilized within the library including, but not limited to, the ways listed above.

Wikis & Wikispaces

The most commonly accessed and used wiki is Wikipedia. The name comes from “wiki” which is Hawaiian for “fast and swift.” Wikis are collaborative spaces with no defined owner (unlike blogs) in which many people edit and create information, and are ever-changing to adapt to new information and the new needs of the wikispace/wiki users.

Popular wikis:

• Wikipedia – As mentioned above, this is an open wiki, in which all users are allowed to add/edit information and is one of the more popular wikis on the Internet.
• Scholarpedia – This is a closed wiki, which requires approval to add/edit information and entries.
• Medipedia – This is a resource for medical patients. The entries are credible information, written by doctors, but are intended to be used by the average Joe.
• Chemipedia – Created by chemists and scientists to be used by students and professionals within that area.

      Wikis in libraries:

       

       Farkas at www.libsuccess.org gives examples of the ways wikis can be utlilized within libraries, i.e.:

• Collaboration among libraries - (e.g. The Library Instruction Wiki) This is a wiki set up to support library instruction. It encompasses all types of libraries, and encourages contribution from professionals and enthusiasts alike. Anyone can edit this wiki, as long as the information is relevant to library instruction.
• Collaboration among library staff - (e.g. The University of Connecticut Libraries' Staff Wiki) This type of wiki can serve as a quick reference for commonly asked questions, user manuals, instructions for computer operations. Only library staff can edit this type of wiki.
• Collaboration among library staff and patrons - (e.g. the St. Joseph County Public Library Subject Guides) This type of wiki can serve as a collection of resources for public consumption, and is usually professional in tone with the appearance of a regular web page (images, content structure, etc.) Only library staff can edit this type of wiki.
• Collaboration among patrons - (e.g. Wiki WorldCat) This type of wiki can allow users to add book reviews, can serve as a subject guide/pathfinder. Library staff and patrons can edit this type of wiki.

Possible Weaknesses of Wikis:

• Credibility - without credibility users have no reason to need/want information from a particular wiki. 
• What are the credentials of the person creating/editing the information?
• Is the information accurate/correct?
• What resources are used to gather this information? Is it a scholarly source (journals, etc.), or something non-credible (like a blog). 
• Accessibility - If users have problems with technological literacies, or are unable to access, navigate, and contribute to the wiki, the wiki will not thrive and grow its information.
• Do users know how to access the wiki?
• Do users know how to navigate the wiki?
• Do users know how to edit the wiki? 

      Possible Strengths of Wikis:

• Community - Users can form a sense of community with others who share their interest for certain topics covered within a wiki.
• New Ideas - New ideas and research can be presented to the world via wikis, which can help get conversations started that influence change.
• Globalization - Users from all over the world can create and edit wikis.
• Freedom - anyone can edit wikis (with proper approval)
• Editability - Wikis have the ability to be reverted back to previous versions, which protects against vandalism.
• Flexibility - Structure is fluid within wikis, they can be implemented in a variety of ways.

 

      Ultimately, each library has a different way in which they want to implement information sharing within their institutions. Wikispaces gives libraries a new way to develop dialogue, and dialogue is the way libraries develop their services. With new technologies like this, development becomes a little easier, and a lot more global.

Bookmarking & Tagging

The Internet holds a ton of information, and is constantly expanding. Each day, users create more content, which can be lost in the great sea of information out there. Sites that allow bookmarking and tagging information, articles, and sites important/interesting to specific users allows the users to hold onto these bits of the Internet for future access. These two abilities, while similar, allow us to categorize and retrieve certain types of information.

• Bookmarks
•   Store locations of previously viewed information. If you select a bookmark, it will take you to the information source.

• Tags
• Help organize content by taking stock of the content within the information source.

How this helps in a library:

Melissa L. Rethlefsen’s article Tags Help Make Libraries Del.icio.us effectively argues that this new technology (bookmarking and tagging) effect libraries positively. Libraries that have implemented sites like Delicious allow patrons to find information on a variety of topic by clicking on a certain tag. This also helps libraries in terms of budget. Without having to buy texts for obscure topics, having access to these topics via bookmarked or tagged information online saves money while still offering patrons the ability to research the topics that interest them.

LibraryThing is another resource that has been used by libraries to help patrons and socialize their catalog. Delaney Library of Delaney College, Granville, Australia, has found that LibraryThing gives students better access to the catalog, which encourages reading. Also, the review and comment functions on these programs offer insight to what the reader/researcher thinks of the source. StevenB over at ACRLog writes about implementation of a similar program for the University of Pennsylvania (PennTags).

Bookmarking and tagging, while new technological concepts, seem to complement what libraries are intended to do. This works within the bounds of limited budgets, and patrons with limited information literacies. Not only does it help patrons, but librarians can also use these informal research resources to communicate and share with each other - allowing for professional development and research within limited free time, and with a social aspect. 

Social Media & Informatics - Key Terms

When speaking in terms of Social Media and Informatics, there are key terms we need to keep in mind:

• Information Science
• Academic discipline that is interdisciplinary. Includes a human component (how it is used, organized, etc.)
• Ontology
• Structural framework for organizing information. Used in Artificial Intelligence systems and semantic web (tagging, social tagging)
• Here is a really good ontology of a Tweet.
• Technology
• Where Library Science and Information Science differ
• Information Science focuses on information in its broadest sense (user interaction)
• Library Science focuses on information within context of the library (physical and virtual)
• Informatics
• Academic Study of computing technologies
• Social Media
• Interaction among people - people who are creating and/or sharing information
• Here is a link to what posts to specific social media app/site means to the users
• How are libraries using social media? 

I have linked the more complex concepts to their wikipedia pages, which, while they are not the most official academic resource, are easy to understand and are written and edited for those without deep understanding of these general concepts.