Exercise 11

One of the most ubiquitous emerging Library 2.0 technologies are blogs. Due to the immediacy of content delivery, these allow staff to market or announce library news and events, publish reviews of new releases which would generate discussion among the library clientele and inform customers of any changes taking place at the library. By extension, they could also be used for professional development, where staff can write about their work experience or training they have undertaken. Due to the wide scope of these blogs, their posts could be specific to any of the five categories of local studies, children’s, teenage/youth, adult fiction and information/reference. An example is the Mosman Library Blog (http://blogs.mosman.nsw.gov.au/library/), where recent posts include a news bulletin, information on the historical event “Mosman Dresses Up” as well as information on philanthropy such as the donation of books to Mudanjiang Library in China.

            Specific to Adult Fiction could be the use of an RSS feed to keep clients iformed of author talks, workshops as well as podcasts or vodcasts of guest speakers. Take for example the RSS feed of the Library of Congress, http://www.loc.gov/rss/, which lists dozens of free concerts, lectures, exhibitions, symposia, films, notifications of upcoming readings and presentations at the library.

            An interesting use of Library 2.0 Technologies is the application of instant messaging services in the Information/Reference area/. This is used in the reference service for quick questions and clarifications. This was trialed in the AskNow chat service in Australian libraries, http://www.asknow.gov.au/. The interactive chat software enables librarians to message users webpages as well as provide guidance on search techniques, or even take questions as referrals so they provide a more detailed response later on.

            To engage younger clients, such as teenagers, libraries often keep social network profiles such as facebook, http://www.facebook.com/. In particular, facebook groups can foster a connection with these customers by creating a virtual environment where they can gather based on shared interest, such as particular genres or even collaborate or forms study groups. They can also be used to keep the clientele in general informed of upcoming events, as posts are merged into their newsfeeds. An example is the State Library of New South Wales, http://www.facebook.com/statelibrarynsw?fref=ts.