NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.0 Activities

Social media policies - do you have one?

2008-08-13T12:10:00.008+10:00

Discussion paper: Social media policies for public libraries

Introduction
Social media describes software tools that allow groups to generate content and engage in peer-to-peer conversations and exchange of content (examples include blogs, wikis, tagging, online video, online photo sharing, social networking sites for example Facebook, Myspace etc). These web-based technologies provide vehicles to facilitate collaboration and sharing between Library clients and staff and also client to client. These policies are designed to be applicable as new web 2.0 tools emerge.

Policy Statement
Purpose

To facilitate the use of web 2.0 tools for Library purposes
To integrate these tools with existing communication and information management processes

Legislative and Policy Framework
Alphabetical list of most relevant legislation:

Copyright Act, 1968 (Cth)
Spam Act, 2003 (Cth)
Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act, 1998
State Records Act, 1998 – including Standards and Disposal Authorities issued under the Act
Local Government Act 1993
Library Act 1939

Also consider your council's:

Code of Conduct
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Services Policies

Background
Library staff are active in many social media spaces, including those developed and hosted by other agencies (eg. contributing to Wikipedia entries). The council may also develop and manage spaces for interaction with residents, clients, colleagues and also for internal communications and project work.

Accountabilities
Consider the appropriate levels for authorising web 2.0 tools. For example:

Managers and supervisors are accountable for approving the establishment of new social media spaces (eg. blogs).
Staff are accountable for authoring, editing and monitoring library hosted social media spaces

Policy

The council’s official website is an integral part of their services. The library page is representative of both the library and the council. This space is a formal channel of communication.
The social media (web 2.0) spaces established by the council and the library, and those external spaces we choose to engage in, also represent the council and library. However, these spaces are designed to be collaborative and interactive engaging the wider community.
The council utilises these spaces in the following ways:
To point members of the community to our collections and services (eg. Wikipedia, answer boards, Flickr, Google video) promoting discovery
To extend the reach of our collections and services
To create spaces for experience co-creation (eg. interactive blogs to accompany exhibitions, supporting discussion around local plans and publications, resources for family history and local history researchers)
To publish for key audiences
Nothing that contravenes the spirit or the letter of the council’s Code of Conduct and other policies including the ICT Services Policy is to be published.

Principles underpinning the use of social networking technology
The following points are adapted from the work of Jason Ryan from the NZ Network of Public Sector Communicators.

Sovereignty: prefer an internally hosted solution, where available, which allows use of the council domain name to indicate authority and ownership.
Access: the site must be web standards compliant (W3C). If it is funded by the ratepayer, then it should be accessible to all people in the local government area.
Transparency: make it very clear who is posting, and how to contact them, online and off.
Trust: if you are engaging with the public through these media they should be able to expect a straightforward exchange of ideas and information.
Fairness: social media is about reciprocity, if the Library is going to engage and invite comment then we must accept the good with the bad. Post a very clear comments policy and stick to it. Don’t delete comments because they are critical of the council or council policies.
Timeliness: post regularly and be prepared to engage people when it suits them.
Openness: share content that is an honest reflection of the council and library’s position.
Ethics: consider the council Code of Conduct and the ICT Services policy when commenting in the public arena.
Participation: engage appropriately similarly oriented communities via posting comments and emailing other bloggers.
Integrity: at all times measure actions against the Code of Conduct. If staff think they are close to the line with a post, or a comment, check with a supervisor — or hold off posting overnight to reconsider the wording.

Procedures
Publishing via weblogs (blogs) and wikis

Establishment of an internally hosted blog or wiki to promote library services must be approved by the appropriate director or manager.
External / public comments contributed must be screened by the staff member responsible for the blog or wiki and any inappropriate comments removed.
Permission to post to, comment on or contribute to an existing blog or wiki is not required as long as the following conditions are observed:
a) All staff contributing to work related blogs are to remain aware that the library is part of council and all staff are bound to abide by the Code of Conduct and the ICT Services Policy when posting or commenting.
b) Contributions must be within the staff member’s area of expertise and staff must identify themselves.
Externally hosted blogs or wikis which do not identify the contributor as a council staff member and do not discuss the council or library would normally fall outside Code of Conduct guidelines.

Records management
An official file is required for the establishment of a blog, wiki or similar application. This file should include the following information:

Brief business case for the proposal describing the purpose, the intended audience, how it links to the Library strategy and who the administrator/authors will be
URL and passwords

Resources hosted on the council domain would be included in regular backup and archiving. Externally hosted resources are outside the council’s span of control. Print copies could be added to file for a record.

Privacy
Information published online is in the public domain. Users of council and library sites are entitled to expect that any information as a result of that use will be treated within the terms of the council's privacy responsibilities and obligations. The council’s privacy practices are regulated by the New South Wales Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1998.

Communications
The council’s communications or marketing staff should be alerted to the establishment of blogs, wikis and other applications initiated by staff. They can use them as avenues to promote services and also monitor comments to improve communication and consultation with the community.

Contributing files to sites (eg. Flickr and YouTube)

Contributing material to an externally hosted site to promote library services must be approved by the appropriate supervisor or library manager who will consider issues of provenance and copyright.
All staff contributing to externally hosted are to remain aware that the library is a part of council and all staff are bound to abide by the council’s Code of Conduct and ICT Services Policy when contributing.
Externally hosted sites which do not identify the contributor as a council staff member and do not discuss the council or library would normally fall outside Code of Conduct guidelines.

While specific examples of weblogs, wikis and contributing files to online sites have been used it is acknowledged that Web 2.0 tools are developing continually. As new tools appear these general principles should be applied to their use.

Approval
This policy was approved by the Library Manager / ICT Director on

for immediate implementation.

Implementation
This policy is implemented on dd/month/year.

Review
This policy will be reviewed in 2 years.

Contact
For further information on this policy

Appendix One

Social media policy references:

Principles for public sector social media (NZ)

Updating your social media and staff blog policies (Powerhouse Museum – April 2008)

Powerhouse Museum’s official blog policy - April 2007

Appendix Two
Social Media Checklist for consideration

Is it a blog, wiki, other (please specify)
Name
Purpose
Link to council strategy
Audience
Hosted internally – intranet internet
Hosted externally – location, please specify url, administration usernames and passwords
Permanent or temporary – please specify time frame
Where is the resource to be linked on the council / library website?
Author/s and contributors
Moderator for public comments
Authorised by
Official file name and number
Disclaimer displayed
Privacy statement

Disclaimers
All external library blogs and wikis should carry a statement modelled on either of the following examples:

Example one:
is run by the staff of XXX in XXX, Australia.This site is for discussion purposes only and does not represent the official views of XXX Council. Any views expressed on this website are those of the individual post author only. Council accepts no liability for the content of this site. Please direct any correspondence to

Example two:
This blog does not represent official XXX Council communications.
Links to external internet sites on Council web pages do not constitute the council's endorsement of the content of their Web sites or of their policies or products.

Week 12: Wrap up; social networks and catch up

2008-03-26T18:21:00.014+11:00

Welcome to week 12 – this is the last week of lessons in our Learning 2.0 program. We’ve been on quite a journey together and we hope that you have found it rewarding.

Discover: So what is social networking?
You have probably heard of Facebook and MySpace, they are just two examples of social networking services. There is a quick videoclip from the Commoncraft show which introduces the idea of social networking online.
See this map from LeMonde which shows the popularity of different services around the world.

Explore: How can libraries use social networking services?
Seb Chan at the Powerhouse Museum spotted an article that considers how social networking services can be used for research, marketing, sales, support and development applications and makes the link to the sorts of services we provide in the museum and library world.

There are some interesting examples of social networking in action for you to consider:

Some interesting work in the UK is developing 'Communities of Practice' for local government which “are an attempt, according to their creators, to harness the power of social networking to share problems, ideas and expertise.”
East Renfrewshire Council in Scotland using Facebook to boost its libraries and sports centres.
The ALIA symposium Beyond the Hype: web 2.0 used ning to build a community for the event
This article from NewsGrist discusses the rationale behind museums social networking
The British Library is in Facebook
Rotorua Public Library is on Bebo
~~Coshocton Public Library uses MySpace to promote their Animanga Club~~
~~The American Library Association’s MySpace page includes a Meebo widget to contact them, embedded videos of recent events, more than 4,000 friends and highlights from their blogs.~~

But what about libraries in Second Life?
Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. It is inhabited by avatars and yes, there are libraries and even library islands! You can find out much more from the Second Life Library Project.

Consider in your blog possibilities for your library using social networking for client interaction, marketing and networking opportunities.

Feedback:
This week’s adventure is spending a few minutes giving us your feedback about the program via: completing the feedback survey
Please complete this form to let us know you have completed this program. (added 29 May)

Congratulations on successfully completing your mission of discovery.

Where to now?
You can continue with learning 2.1

Week 11: Online applications and tools

2008-03-25T13:01:00.008+11:00

Productivity software
Word processing, spreadsheets, calendars, presentations, project management, and web conferencing are all examples of productivity software. Online versions offer many of the same features yet are quite different from what is installed on your computer. How so?

The online software we're looking at today is quite inexpensive - it's free. There is a reason for this - it doesn't do nearly as much as the software installed on your computer. The core features you see in Google Docs and Zoho match up surprisingly well. No installation of software is required. All you need is a web browser and an internet connection.

Collaboration
It's much easier to work on projects with others - colleagues, community group members, family, friends, whomever. Say, for example, you are working with your colleagues in a number of institutions. You post the first draft of a letter or a report, your colleagues make edits or add text to the document, and you bring the completed letter or report to your next meeting. The shared workspace means that no one is accidentally looking at an out-of-date version of the document. Watch this video to find out how Google docs works.

Digitage Web 2.0
Originally uploaded by ocean.flynn

Other useful online tools
Converting file formats is easy at Zamzar. For example you can convert a document to a pdf file.

Sharing presentation and slideshows is easy using Slideshare and Thumbstacks.

Explore: Look at this slide show from Slideshare for some more examples of free online productivity tools.

Discover: Using your gmail or Google account log into Google Docs and create a document.
Share it with us at nswpln@gmail.com - in the document please let us know your real name so we can credit this to you. In your blog consider possible applications for this in your work.

Adventure: Set up a Zoho account and compare it.

Week 10: Mashups

2008-03-17T08:57:00.005+11:00

Mashups are hybrid web applications that take features from one application (like Flickr) and mash it up with another (like a mapping program). With this combination, for example, you get Mappr.Wikipedia offers a slightly more detailed explanation.New mashups come out, literally, every day.

Some examples include image generators. Here are a couple of examples we created using big huge labs.

Another popular mashup tool is Google maps. Have a look at this example from the British Library called London: a life in Google maps or this public library finder from North America. Voicethread is another type of mashup tool which could be really useful for adding information to digital objects from your local studies collection.

Explore: Keir Clarke has developed Star Viewer using the new 'sky' option in the Google Maps API

Discover: Using Big huge labs, create a mashup and add it to your blog. Hint it will save the image to your desktop so you will need to upload it to your blog from there. Blog about how you could use mashups at your library.

Adventure: Find another example of a mashup. Blog about how appropriate it would be for your work.

Week 9: Podcasts and Audio

2008-03-17T08:52:00.003+11:00

This week we look at podcasts and audio files.A 'podcast' is a non-music audio or video recording that is distributed over the internet. The distribution is what makes a podcast unique. It's also what makes a podcast powerful - interested listeners or watchers can receive updates through RSS when new content is posted. Watch this Commoncraft video on podcasting for a simple introduction.

Variety
Podcasts come in many shapes and sizes. They can be brief (just a few minutes) or considerably longer (interviews, panel discussions, radio shows, etc). They can be slickly produced radio broadcasts or home-grown recordings. They can be audio only or they can be video. You can listen to them on your computer (don’t forget to use headphones in your work area) or play them on an MP3 player. Despite the name, you don't need an iPod or a MP3 player to listen or watch - all you need is a computer with headphones or speakers.

You can listen to Orange Country Library Service podcasts via OCLS Podcasts. You can access all of their archives. LibVibe and Denver Public Library also podcast.

Discover: Listen to a podcast from the British Library and one from the ABC. [Hint use the subject option to see what is available].

Explore: Listen to some of the podcasts linked on the Library Success wiki. Blog about how your library could use podcasts for your clients and staff.

Adventure: Listen to one of the podcasts on the Online Education Database. To search for other podcasts use ‘podcast’ as a keyword in your search engine or you can use Yahoo podcasts search.

Week 8: Answer boards and social searching

2008-03-10T09:16:00.004+11:00

Social searching
Social searching takes many forms, ranging from the shared bookmarks we considered in our last lesson (eg. Del.icio.us and Digg) or tagging of content with descriptive labels (eg. Flickr), question and answer services, to more sophisticated approaches that combine human intelligence with computer algorithms.
An example would include the Taste website which allows readers to rank recipes and comment on them. Amazon also uses social searching features like “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” and “Customer Reviews”.

Online brains trusts
Have you ever considered that your library is part of the knowledge market? There are, of course, two aspects of the knowledge market: fee based and free. Both types can also be found online. This lesson focuses on free knowledge markets or web forums also known as answer boards.

Answer boards are websites where an individual can post a question and have it answered by anyone else who visits the forum. Most sites have ways of assessing the quality of the answers usually through a process of peer review or voting.

Some examples of answer boards include: Yahoo!7 Answers and WikiAnswers.

There is a movement of reference librarians who are “slamming the boards” once a month around the world. They aim to provide answers on popular "Answer Board" sites clearly identifying themselves as librarians in the process. This provides an opportunity to highlight the question-answering skills of librarians to the wider community.

Discover: visit the Answer Board Librarians wiki and view the “Exemplary Answers” section. Note how highly the librarians’ responses were rated by members of the community. Also look at the “Signatures and Tag Lines” the librarians use when replying on answer boards.

Explore: Consider is there a role for your library in “slamming the boards”? In what ways might your customers like to rate or review items in the collection or services you offer? Share your thoughts in your blog.

Adventure: Post or answer a question on Yahoo!7 Answers. Use your Yahoo ID from the Flickr activity to log in.

Week 7: Tagging, folksonomies, del.icio.us and LibraryThing

2008-03-10T08:34:00.013+11:00

Watch this videoclip Social bookmarking in plain English (alt version) to introduce this week’s topic.

The Horizon report (2007) has this to say:
"A little group of Web 2.0 technologies—tagging and folksonomic tools, social bookmarking sites, and sites that make it easy to contribute ideas and content—is placing the power of media creation and distribution firmly into the hands of “the people formerly known as the audience” (Rosen, 2006). No longer satisfied to be consumers of content, today’s audience creates content as well. Producing, commenting, and classifying are just as important as the more passive tasks of searching, reading, watching, and listening."

We’ll be looking more closely at web 2.0 applications that take serious advantage of tagging (we've already looked at several - Flickr, YouTube, Google video and blogs all use tags). Tagging, remember, allows you to associate keywords with online content - webpages, pictures, posts, etc. It is considered a folksonomy, aka an unstructured categorization scheme.

Categorization scheme
As a library employee you know a thing or two about these – we use the largest categorization scheme on the planet, Library of Congress subject headings. Library of Congress, though, is much more formalized and is considered a taxonomy.

This week we’ll look at still more innovative applications that take great advantage of tagging – Del.icio.us, Technorati, and Library Thing.

Del.icio.us
In addition to having an excellent name (yes, that’s a real URL – the .us at the end stands for United States), Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site that lets you save bookmarks to a central location (no more copying them to multiple browsers on multiple computers) and classify them all with tags.

How is that social?
Well, in addition to tagging your bookmarks, you can see how other users have tagged the same links and see related websites are important to them. This is an excellent way to find websites that may be of interest to you.

Del.icio.us even offers RSS feeds {link to blog} - you can create a shared bookmark site (say, for your team) and receive news every time a new link is added (say, when one of your colleagues adds a new link). It is also being used to assist with collaborative online reference.

Discover: Take a look around Del.icio.us using the account that was created for this exercise. Look at the list and see how it looks as a cloud.
How are libraries using Del.icio.us?
• See Sutherland Shire Libraries tag cloud
• See Cleveland Public Library’s tags

Explore: Using these notes prepared by Sharon Morris at the Colorado State Library set up your own delicious account and put a link to it in your blog. [hint: it will still work even if you can’t download the toolbar icons]
Create a blog post about your experience and thoughts about using this tool in libraries. Can you see the potential of this tool for research assistance? Or just as an easy way to create bookmarks that can be accessed from anywhere?

Technorati
So now that you’ve been blogging for awhile, you might be wondering just how big the blogosphere is.

Well according to Technorati, the leading search tool and authority for blogs, there are over 112 million blogs currently being tracked by the site. Yes, big numbers. But, as you’ve already seen for yourselves, blogging is so easy that almost every industry (including libraries) have been trying to find ways to make blogging work for them.

That's why, this week, we're going to look more closely at Technorati.

Do you want to make sure your blog is being tracked? Register your blog with Technorati. Do you want to tag your posts to make them easier to find through a Technorati search? Perhaps not your Learning 2.0 blog, but if you owned a business and were trying to attract attention? You'd register it with Technorati.

As a blogger blogger (aka someone who uses blogger.com to blog) you are probably getting tracked by Technorati already - it keeps track of new Blogger blogs by default. But if you want to take full advantage of the service Technorati offers up, you'll need to do this more formally and claim your blog.

And the tagging in Technorati? It is wonderfully easy - you either paste a bit of HTML code into the bottom of a blog post or follow the simple directions you find when you get to the Technorati website. Once one of these are in place, Technorati will pick your tags up when it spiders (or web crawls) your blog.

So what's really popular in the blogosphere these days? Take a look at Techorati's popular page.

And now that you've seen what is incredibly popular in the wide world, we'll take a look at what is popular in the smaller library world.

Discover #2:
1. Head over to Technorati
2. Try a keyword search for “bookmobile”
3. What can you find if you use the Advanced Search feature – try “bookmobile”. Are the results different?
4. Now try searching for nswpln2008. Check the results on this one - it's even pulling up your Flickr images.

LibraryThing
LibraryThing was developed by booklovers, for booklovers and its basic function is to quickly and painlessly create an online catalog of your personal book collection. What makes it even more special is its social networking component - once you've entered your books, you get to see everyone elses via book titles, authors, and the tags you assign to each entry. Look at the Library Thing tour. Take a quick run through these seven or eight screens for an overview of key Library Thing features and functions.

This link will take you to our Learning 2.0 account set up for this exercise. If this takes you to the 'cover view,' look above the titles and click on 'list view.' From the 'list view,' look to the far right side of the screen - it shows you how many others have entered the title in question.

You can also add a widget to display titles that are in your catalogue or install a Library Thing Search box on your blog or any other website you've set up (instructions are here).

So why join the ranks and create your own library online? With more than 21 million books to date it’s already half the size of Libraries Australia (BTW: LibraryThing also has group forum for library staff).

Adventure:
1. Take a look around LibraryThing and create an account.
2. Add a least 5 books to your library.
3. Blog about your findings and be sure to link to your LibraryThing catalogue.
4. Already have a LibraryThing account and want to try something new? Give Shelfari or GuruLib a try instead.
Next up: Answer boards and social searching... (a shorter week next week!)

Week 6: Videos online

2008-03-03T13:03:00.004+11:00

Online video has improved by leaps and bounds in the last few years - there's more of it, for sure, but the quality is much higher (bigger screen sizes, fewer pauses when watching). This change is largely about improvements in technology - digital video cameras are much more common (including on standard digitial cameras and mobile phones), highspeed internet access is more common (important for watching videos but also for uploading them to the internet), video editing software has become far less expensive (often free online or pre-installed on newly purchased computers), and online storage (server space) has dropped dramatically in price.

That last one, the price of online storage, has been revolutionary - without it, companies like YouTube and Google video would not be able to host videos from millions of users without charging them a cent. Note: Google video hosts longer videos than YouTube which has 10 minute cap. The (relative) ease of creating video, uploading it to the web, and storing it in an easy-to-access environment is starting to impact the way our society gets its news. Think about it - anyone with a digital camera can capture a news event on their mobile phone video camera and save it to an online video account. Anyone remember the recent Australian election when both the government and opposition used YouTube video clips?

Video Embedding
All YouTube videos offer code that allow you to embed a video (it doesn't have to be yours - you can embed any video you find on YouTube) on your website or blog. Look below where I've embedded an outstanding video on Web 2.0 - click on the play icon to start it up, press pause to make it stop.

ContentNow, please understand that it's not just serious stuff - reporting, politics, web 2.0. There's thousands and thousands of fun, even useless, videos on YouTube for your watching pleasure.

Discover: Try searching these examples in YouTube AND Google video:

“lego”
“Liverpool plains”
“Kogarah”

But what about libraries? Check out We love our NJ libraries and QandANJ: Now Your Library is Open Late Night Too! Can you find any other interesting examples?

Explore: How about showcasing oral histories, library building projects, staff orientations, guides to using library services, book reviews or exhibitions? There are many opportunities to use video out there.

Blog about your discoveries in both YouTube and Google video [hint try searching Mosman Library]. What possibilities can you think of for your organisation?

Feedback: Click here to take survey to let us know how you are going with the learning 2.0 program.

Adventure: Find a YouTube video you like and embed it in your blog.
That's it for this week, thanks for reading and doing.

Next up – tagging and folksonomies!

Week 5: Wikis

2008-03-03T12:36:00.007+11:00

Watch this videoclip (blip.tv alternative version) for an introduction to the concept of wikis or have a look at the Library Success Wiki overview. You might like to look at both of these.

Wikis are built by their contributors - readers who add, remove and edit content. This typically goes one of two ways - an open model where anyone (and we mean anyone) is invited to contribute or a closed model where a select group are invited to contribute. Either way, it is an exercise in collaboration and trust - whomever contributes is expected to meet certain standards of quality and accuracy and should expect, should they not reach these standards, that another participant will edit their contributions. The goal is to use a wiki to create a collaborative piece of information, sharing the knowledge of all contributors.

The collectiveWikipedia is the best known example of a wiki - anyone can participate in contributing and editing entries. Wikipedia does, however, employ staff who will freeze a topic if foul play is reported by readers. Errors and obvious fakeries are often (though, not always) corrected very quickly.

But if anyone can edit an entry how reliable is the information? A recent survey by Stern found that the German language version of Wikipedia was more accurate than the leading German language encyclopedia, Brockhaus. “The study reviewed articles for accuracy, completeness, up-to-date information, and ease of reading. In 43 out of the 50 articles, the German Wikipedia came out on top.” This Information Today article also offers a range of opinions.

Communities of interest
Wikis can be used for sharing knowledge in a community of interest, for example :

the Library Success: A Best Practices Wiki
Blogging libraries wiki
Reader advisory services wiki - a wiki written by, and for, your New South Wales public library colleagues.

Workplace applications
Wikis can also be used in the workplace, for example the CIA developed Intellipedia - a collaborative intranet tool.

Some libraries have adopted intranet based wikis for their procedure manuals. Here is an example from Antioch University, New England. Please note many wikis like this one would be hosted on an intranet for staff only access

Government
Some governments are using wikis as ways of consulting with the community or for interdepartmental collaboration. The New Zealand Police Act review wiki is an example of a wiki being used for a legislative review.

Discover: Take a look at least 3 of the below:

the SJCPL Subject Guides wiki
Wisconsin Heritage Wiki (hint – follow the link to collections)
Mint Museums, North Carolina use a wiki to highlight their objects
the full Library Success: A best practices wiki
Book Lovers Wiki at the Princeton Public Library
Montana History Wiki (hint follow the link to the subject guides)
Wookieepedia

Create a blog post about your findings. What did you find interesting? What types of applications within libraries might work well with a wiki?

Explore:
Still another variation in the world of wikis is where your wiki lives - you can install wiki software on a server at your institution (like we do with our website and email) or you can use a service that hosts the wiki for you. For today's exercise, we'll be doing the latter - our NSW learning 2.0 wiki was set up with a service called PB Wiki. Look at the PB Wiki tour.

Once you have viewed the PB wiki tour add information or edit an entry in the NSW learning 2.0 wiki. E-mail nswpln@gmail.com to be added as a writer to the wiki[Hint: PB wiki works best using Firefox as a browser. ]

This wiki is built using pbwiki (also a free wiki website) and features Examples of Possible Next Generation Catalogs. Look at the PB Wiki tour.

Adventure:
Look up the entry for your local town or area in Wikipedia. How could it be improved? Edit the entry. [hint here is the Wikipedia tutorial to get you going] For ideas see the entry for Mosman, New South Wales.

Week 4: RSS

2008-02-25T07:48:00.010+11:00

RSS
Real Simple Syndication. You may have heard the term before, but did you know what the letters stood for? RSS is a powerful tool that can help bring information to you. Take a look at this YouTube introduction to rss.

The video mentions the following rss aggregators or feed readers

You should already have a gmail account. You will be using it in the following activity.

Discover: - Go to Google reader and create a free account. Once your account is created, add at least 5 RSS feeds to your account. Make sure that one of them is the Powerhouse Museum’s picture of the day blog.

Some others you might consider are

ABS for librarians
Librarybytes (Helene Blowers blog)
Sydney Morning Herald has a range of blogs
ABC News

Hint: To search for blogs use blogs or rss in the search term, or use Google blog search to find blogs on your favourite topic

If you need extra help contact nswpln@gmail.com or your consultant.

Explore: - In your blog, create an entry that reflects on what you searched for and what you found. If you are stuck, you can use these questions to help start you out:

What do you like about RSS and newsreaders?
What sites did you select for your RSS reader?
How do you think you might be able to use this technology in your work?
How can libraries use RSS or take advantage of this new technology?
Did you find any good examples of other library blogs?

Remember to take a moment and share your thoughts and comments on someone else’s blog.

Adventure - (remember this is an OPTIONAL activity)

Add a news feed to your own blog.
Sign in to your blog
Go to layout
Click on ‘add a page element’
Add a ‘feed’ to your blog (eg an ABC news feed)

Note if you want to add an rss feed to you blog you can do this through using Google reader.

Week 3: Sharing Images

2008-02-22T16:58:00.013+11:00

There are a number of photo sharing communities online. These include Photobucket, Smugmug, Snapfish and Kodak EasyShare Gallery to name a few. In this lesson we will focus on the one which is perhaps the best known, Flickr.

Watch
Online photosharing in plain English from Commoncraft to get an introduction to how it all works.

Flickr is a website that allows users to upload digital pictures from their computer and share them with just their friends or the whole entire planet. Users can “tag” an image with key words that describe the picture. This allows people to search Flickr for pictures that interest them by entering tag words into the search window.

Discover
Go to Flickr Type “Mosman Library” into the search box at the top of the screen and take a look at the pictures that have been tagged with Mosman Library. Search for your community. What do you think about what you find?

You have looked for some work stuff; now let’s look for fun stuff. Try looking for ‘vegemite’ (click view as slideshow), ‘lamington’, ‘bad library signs’, – you get the idea, try some of your own key words (tags).

So how are libraries using photosharing?

The National Library of Australia is using Flickr as a way of engaging people around the country in building the collection – see Our town as an example - scroll down to read the tagging guidelines. Look at the advanced search option of Picture Australia you can search for Flickr images here.
The Library of Congress has also contributed photos to Flickr.
They held a photographic competitions for teens at Lansing Public Library.
Oakville Library have a great local history photo archive. It's not built in Flickr but it works in a similar way.

Flickr Groups
Flickr makes use of groups. Groups are communities of like minded photo posters. And, yes, there are quite a few groups with a library theme. Take a look at their FAQ page on groups for more information on how they work.

Creative Commons
How you would feel if someone took your photo and made a poster out of it and sold it? Not too happy I would guess, and rightfully so. To help protect the artist’s rights, Creative Commons was developed to provide artists with the ability to put work out into cyber space but still have control of how their work is consumed by the public. Here is more info about Creative Commons from Wikipedia.

Examples of websites that use Creative Commons to protect their work:
Public Library of Science – scroll to the very bottom of the page and click the "Creative Commons Attribution License" link to see how they use CC.

Flickr – look at this photo. If you look to the right of the picture , under Additional Information, you will see two small icons and the link “some rights reserved”. Click the link to see how we used Creative Commons to both protect and share this work.

The original version of Learning 2.0 was created by the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County. They licensed the course so that other libraries could use it. By agreeing to their licence terms in Creative Commons, we also agree to allow others to use the content of this course. We also have permission to build on the work of Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County, King County Library System, Orange County Library Service and Minnesota’s seven multicounty multitype library systems. You can see our licence at the bottom of this page.

Etiquette
A quick word about photo posting etiquette. When posting identifiable photos of other people (especially minors) is it advisable to get the person's permission before posting their photo in a publicly accessible place like Flickr. Never upload pictures that weren't taken by you unless you have the photographer's consent and always give credit when you include photos taken by someone else in your blog.

Explore
Have a good look around Flickr and discover an interesting image that you want to write about in your blog. Be sure to include either a link to the image or a copy of the image itself in your blog posting. For the latter, you can either use Blogger's photo upload tool or Flickr's blogging tool (you'll need to set up a Flickr account for this).

Adventure (optional)
Take some digital pictures of your libraries (perhaps a view of the front facade?). Create a Flickr account and upload your photos. Tag them with "nswpln2008" and share. Make sure the pictures are public, or we won’t be able to see them. Please respect the privacy of your community members - no pictures of kids or adult faces. Have a look at some pictures taken by our colleagues in King County when they did this exercise - click on photostream.

If you need a bit of extra help here is a video tutorial about Flickr.

Next week ... RSS.....

Week 2: Introduction to blogs

2008-02-13T13:58:00.017+11:00

What is a blog?
A blog is a shortened form of the word "weblog." A blog is a different form of website. A blog's content and purpose varies. Some are simply personal diaries, some focus on a specific subject such as politics or travel, and some are primarily "newsy" and informational. Also, links to other sites on the web are common. Here is a short video that describes Blogs in Plain English (TeacherTube version). The main features of a blog which make it different from a regular website include:

Content is presented in an ongoing series of data entries or posts-kind of like a diary or journal
Typically displayed in reverse chronological order with the most recent entry on top
Latest news or information is easy to identified
Allows for comments regarding a specific post from the readers

For the nontechnical person-no knowledge of HTML or uploading files is necessary. Source

Now to the big question - what use could a blog be in a public library environment?

Here are some examples of how other libraries are using blogs ~ please take a look at each of them:

As you can see blogs can be used to highlight collections, events and exhibitions and to contribute to professional knowledge sharing just for starters! You can even blog in more than one language as the National Museum of Wales / Amgueddfa Cymru demonstrates. Here is another interesting example: WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier [hint check the biography].

This week you will set up your very own personal blog - this is where you'll record your thoughts on Learning 2.0 discoveries and the exercises you take part in. Your Learning 2.0 Blog will be set up using Blogger, a popular free online blog hosting service that is extremely easy to use. How easy? It's so easy that the Learning 2.0 Team figured it out - this blog you're looking at is also on Blogger (look at the blog URL - http://nswpubliclibrarieslearning2.blogspot.com/).

Blogging etiquette
Remember that what you put on a blog [either one you create or one you post to] is out there for everyone to see. Your code of conduct should apply to all work related blogging. For general information about blogging etiquette it's worth reading the guidelines that IBM provides for their employees.

Discover:
Watch this videoclip which shows step by step how to set up a blog using Blogger. Blogger: How to start a blog

Explore:
Follow these steps to create a blog for yourself and start blogging

1. Create a Gmail account [if you already have one you can use it]. Don't forget to write down your username and password.

2. Go to the Blogger website: http://www.blogger.com/ Scroll to the bottom of the screen and click on 'Create Your Blog Now'.

This is what you'll see:

[hint: Your display name should not be your real name. The Learning 2.0 Team are the only people who need to know your true identity and we'll ask for it later.]

3. Name your blog. This is what you'll see:

[hint: Your blog title? Be as creative as you like - remember, no one but the Learning 2.0 Team will know who you are unless you give yourself away. Your blog URL? The easier to remember, the better. And WRITE THIS DOWN... ]

4. Select a Template. There are plenty of options and you can change your template at any time.

5. Write and publish your first blog posting. This is the fun part - just click on the 'start posting' link and go...

What do you write about?
Try something on the theme of Learning 2.0.

What do you hope to learn from the program?
What do you think about Lifelong Learning?
What other blogs have you discovered? What do you like about them?
Can you see a use for blogs inside the Library?
How about blogging for a client audience?

Remember this is out there on the web and may be read by anyone so keep your code of conduct in mind. Comments are the fuel that blogs run on. Feel free to comment on your colleagues blogs – see the links to the Participants blog rolls on the right of this screen.

How much do you write?
The recommended minimum is 150 words The Learning 2.0 Team will be reading your blogs regularly.

Course sign up and blog registration
Creating a blog is a requirement for completing the NSW Public Libraries Learning 2.0 course. Click here to register for the program and to log your blog. WARNING If you skip this step you will not receive feedback, or any acknowledgement for completing the program.

If you need more assistance contact the Learning 2.0 team – nswpln@gmail.com or your PLS consultant.

How do you get back to your blog, to add future postings?
You have two options, type in the URL (web address) for your blog or if you can't remember it (or didn't write it down) head to http://www.blogger.com/ and continue with the next steps.

Look to the top right corner of the screen and click on the 'New Blogger' link
Log in with your Username and Password (these will be tied to the Google account you set up a few minutes ago)
Find your blog on the 'Dashboard' and click on it's 'New Post' link
Blog away...

Once you've logged in you'll also be able to change your blog settings - there's a series of 'Manage' links in your 'Dashboard.'
Should you run into problems and/or would like more information about blogs and using Blogger , take a look at Blogger’s Quick Tutorial - just keep clicking on the 'continue' buttons at the end of next screen to keep going...

Adventure: Search for other library related blogs using Technorati. Share your discoveries in your own blog. [Remember, this is an optional activity.]

Next week: Sharing images....

Week 1: Let’s get started

2008-02-13T13:33:00.006+11:00

Welcome to the New South Wales Public Libraries Learning 2.0 program developed by the State Library of New South Wales. Learning 2.0 is an online program to learn more about emerging technologies on the web that are changing the way people, society and libraries access information and communicate with each other.

Before you begin please complete our quick self assessment checklist. Everyone will complete the self assessment again at the end so we measure our progress as a group.

Watch: this short video clip Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us (Teachertube version) It illustrates the rapid development of web based communication and information tools and the way they encourage collaboration. [hint: to enlarge the YouTube screen look for a small button at the bottom righthand corner]

Over the course of the next twelve weeks, this website will highlight a selection of these technologies with Discovery, Exploration and Adventure exercises to help you become familiar with blogging, RSS news feeds, tagging, wikis, podcasting, online applications, and video and image hosting sites.

A new post will appear each week. Each lesson will introduce a technology or application.

There will be three exercises for you to complete each week
Discover ~ what is it and what can it do?
Explore ~ using the technology and commenting on it
Adventure [optional] ~ a fun exercise to learn even more.

You should be able to complete the program by spending 15 minutes a day working through these activities. If you need help with any activity please contact nswpln@gmail.com, your consultant or work with your colleagues.

To familiarize yourself with this project, be sure to read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. These FAQs should answer most of your questions about this program. And if you don't see your question answered just add it to the FAQ page as a blog comment.

Before we embark on this new online learning and discovery journey lets take a few minutes to review the Seven and 1/2 Habits of Highly Successful Lifelong Learners as identified by Helene Blowers who created the original Learning 2.0 program.

Habit 1 – Begin with the end in mind
Habit 2 – Accept responsibility for your own learning
Habit 3 – View problems as challenges
Habit 4 – Have confidence in yourself as a competent, effective learner
Habit 5 – Create your own learning toolbox
Habit 6 – Use technology to your advantage
Habit 7 – Teach and mentor others
Habit 7 ½ – PLAY!

Discover: Follow this link for a Wikipedia definition of Lifelong Learning
Explore: watch actor Stephen Fry discuss Web 2.0.

So fasten your seat belts, grab your mouse and get ready for a discovery adventure… Be sure to tune in every Monday, for the next "thing" or discovery item ... or better yet, subscribe to the RSS feed. [Don’t panic we’ll cover RSS in week 4.]

Adventure: –We will have our first Adventure activity next week.

Next Week: Creating your blog so you can begin tracking your journey.