Web 2.0 Basics for Special Collections Librarians

RBMS Preconference WorkshopJune 17, 2009

Kate TheimerLynne M. Thomas

Workshop Overview

Schedule – we will shoot for wrapping up by 4:30, one break around 2:30

Topics: “Web 1.0” - History and Characteristics “Web 2.0” – Definition and Characteristics

Overview of Specific Web 2.0 Sites/Tools What they are, how to use them, how special collections

are using them Important things to consider – copyright, metrics,

preservation, etc.

Introductions - Where are your from, what is your experience, what do you want to get out of this?

Characteristics of “Web 1.0”

Roughly, circa 1994-2004 Websites largely one-way communication, with

publisher-driven content Users had to come to content: ex: library

portals, online newspapers Controlled, static information, little or no

interactivity with users Bandwidth limitations on users (most everyone

on dial-up connections) meant little use of complex graphics, large images, audio or video files

Video: The Machine is Using Us

From Kansas State University’s Digital Ethnography Program

[link:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE]

What is meant by “Web 2.0”?

Term commonly agreed to have been coined by Tim O’Reilly in conjunction with O'Reilly Media Web 2.0 conference in 2004.

Wikipedia definition: “A trend in the use of World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to facilitate creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users. These concepts have led to the development and evolution of web-based communities and hosted services, such as social-networking sites, wikis, blogs, and folksonomies.”

Characteristics: Network as platform – “cloud computing” – applications run on the Web,

not your computer – frees you from your desktop Users share control with publishers - Based on user expectations, not

publisher expectations; users control how they receive content, users contribute content along with traditional publishers, users can customize their experience on sites

Openness – open architecture, open standards, open source, open content

Sharing – people and organizations sharing content, users sharing opinions, tags, rankings

Explosion of ways to connect – people connecting through social networks, communities around blogs, wikis, Flickr groups; and people connecting information sources through tags, RSS feeds, mash-ups . . .

Overview of most common Web. 2.0 tools/sites

RSS – makes it all possible Blogs Microblogs (Twitter) Podcasts (video and audio) Image sharing sites (such as Flickr) Video sharing sites (such as YouTube) Wikis Social Networking sites (such as Facebook and

LinkedIn) Tagging and social bookmarking Advanced topics: widgets,"mashups," Second Life

RSS = Really Simple Syndication

Web format used to publish frequently updated content Specified through XML formats RSS documents can contain either partial or complete content Contain wide variety of formats: text, photos, audio, video Aggregators collect RSS feeds

Some client based, some web based Made possible a revolution – content now “pushed” out by

providers, not “pulled” out individually by users Content delivered by RSS:

Blogs Podcasts (Audio/Video) Twitter (Microblogs) Updates to social networking sites (Facebook, Blogger,

LiveJournal)

What is a blog?

Creating and maintaining a blog

Technically, easy to start via Blogger or downloading Wordpress software.

Before you begin, define what the blog is for—know what you want to say. Figure out what kind of “voice” you want to have.

Identify how often you’d like to post and who will be responsible for writing posts. Writing posts takes time—make sure this is understood.

Will you accept comments? Who will monitor them? Who will respond?

Provide links back to your main site. Provide a contact email on the blog.

Your blog can evolve; it's ok to change your mind. Building an audience takes time, be patient. And

remember, your audience may never get very big . . .

Types of special collections/archives blogs

General repository: Historical Notes from OHSU Mudd Manuscript Library Blog University of Chicago SCRC blog: Beinecke's room 26 Cabinet of Curiosities

Processing blogs: Processing the Chew Family Papers A View to Hugh

Event-based Abner Jackson Journal 1858-1867 WW1: Experiences of an English Soldier

“Catablogs” UMarmot

Other resources (news, practice, and aggregators) ArchivesNext listing (http://www.archivesnext.com) Rare book news blog (http://www.rarebooknews.com/) Confessions of a Curator (http://niurarebooks.blogspot.com)

Web-based RSS aggregator - ArchivesBlogs

Interacting With The Blogosphere

Read other blogs! Google Reader, Bloglines, NetVibes, etc. Good source of content ideas Read outside of your comfort

zone/specialization Start a conversation

Comment on other blogs Write responses on your blog and link back

 Promote other blogs See something you like? Promote it, steal toys

(but give credit), get guest bloggers!

What is Twitter (microblogging)?

Twitter: It's Not Just What's for Breakfast

140 characters may not seem like much space, but...you’d be surprised. What can you do with it?

Share news and links in real time Breaking News Newly Digitized Materials (@ksadiglib)[note—this account is

no longer active] Follow trends (and create them) with #hashtags

#rbms09 to follow this conference or comment on it. Collection development: where are your donors? (Some of mine

are on Twitter)... Library notices (Party! Printing Down! New Digital Content!) Promote your blog Connect with your user community (see Nova Scotia Archives) Share collections content

Genny Spencer Diary Tweeting History

What is podcasting?

Creating and maintaining podcasts

What kind of content do you want to share (digitized collections or recordings of your public programs, for example)?

Do you want to have an ongoing series, a short series, or just share occasional files?

Consider how you want to promote your podcasts (iTunes, Podcast Alley, other directories)

Make your podcast interactive Refer to more resources on your website Provide ways for users to contact you, send in

comments, provide ideas for future shows Include user feedback in your show

Examples of archives podcasts

Digitized historical content Presidential Libraries podcasts StoryCorps (oral histories) Los Alamos Historical Society podcast Florida State Archives

Recording public programs National Archives of Australia National Archives (UK) podcast series

(http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/rss/podcasts.xml) (iTunes only) Tampa Library, Florida, Special Collections

New programming Kansas Memory Podcast Maynard Historical Society podcast

Note: RBMS Preconference will be podcasting recordings of some sessions

What is Flickr? (Photo Sharing)

Using Flickr

Free account: you can upload 100MB worth of photos each calendar month. This is a bandwidth limit, and not an amount of space that you have on Flickr servers. Some other limitations, but fine for beginning.

Pro account - $25 per year. Unlimited uploads (practically), and other expanded features.

Tags, link to maps, collections & sets, user groups Make sure you include links and contact

information Check your comments

Archives on Flickr

“The Commons” (http://flickr.com/commons) “The key goals of The Commons are to firstly

give you a taste of the hidden treasures in the world's public photography archives, and secondly to show how your input and knowledge can help make these collections even richer.”

Groups: ArchivesOnFlickr, Archives & archivists on Flickr, etc.

Long listing on Archives 2.0 wiki of archives and special collections on Flickr

What is YouTube ? (Video Sharing)

Using YouTube

Consider what kind of files you want to share (digitized collections or recordings of your public programs, for example)

Different ways to create original content (creating a film or creating video by animating still content with an audio track)

You can post single videos or a series Provide additional resources on your website YouTube provides ways for users to contact you,

add tags,make comments. One advantage—you can post a video on YouTube

and then link to it from your blog without having to host the video on your own server. (And others can link to it as well.)

Archives & Special Collections on YouTube

Posting “about us” videos New South Wales State Records Purdue University Archives National Archives of Australia (very short)

Posting videos of talks or events Auburn University National Archives (UK) (with audio podcasts)

Posting digitized video content National Library of Scotland (Scottish Screen Archives) Michigan State Archives

Creating topical videos George Eastman House (video podcast series) Hofstra University (Thomas Coffin collection) Northwestern University – History of the Wildcats

Posting “how to use the special collections/archives” videos

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

What are wikis?

Creating and maintaining a wiki

Consider if you want to host your own wiki (using free software like MediaWiki) or you can have a hosted wiki on a commercial site (PBWorks, WetPaint, etc.)

Some rudimentary knowledge of coding is useful, but not mandatory

Decide how much public participation you want/expect -- wikis can be open (i.e. public can edit or comment) but it will require monitoring to prevent spammers or other malicious types.

Set reasonable expectations for participation—it takes work to build up a user community. Wikis can be more intimidating to users. Don’t expect Wikipedia overnight!

Examples of how archives can use wikis

“Your Archives” wiki at National Archives (UK)

DuBoisopedia (UMass Amherst) Coroner Case Files Wikis Montana History Wiki Example from a library: Biz Wiki (

http://www.library.ohiou.edu/subjects/bizwiki/index.php/Main_Page)

ALA Wikis for section and committee work

What is Facebook? (Social Networking)

Getting started on Facebook

Create an account. You can’t access Facebook unless you have an account and fill out your profile

Get yourself some friends, join groups, look around. Filters/security settings: use them! It’s easy to waste a lot of time on Facebook, but it’s not

necessary. If it’s an organizational account, take a look at some other

organizational pages to get ideas for the things you can do. (Ohio and UK are good ones).

Organizations have Facebook pages, and people can become “fans” (National Archives-UK, Ohio Historical Society, University of Wisconsin -- Eau Claire Special Collections & Archives, Friends of the Northern Illinois University Libraries, etc.)

Or you can create a “group” and people can become “members”

Rare Books, Special Collections, Archives & Archivists on Facebook

Groups for archivists on Facebook (Archivists on Facebook, Archivists Without a Cause, The Lone Arrangers, etc.)

Groups for archival organizations (MARAC, MAC) Rare Book School on Facebook Rare Book Professionals Group RBMS Preconference 2009 Group ACRL, ALA, various sections have groups too. Subject-based groups (collection development,

alumni relations)

What is Social Bookmarking?

Social Bookmarking

Your links are stored in the cloud—no need to copy when using multiple computers (work, reference desk, home)

Share links with friends and colleagues Organize links with tags and groups; semi-

controlled vocabulary Create class-specific, user specific tags

(i.e. ENGL104, HIST300, RBSC)

“Advanced” Web 2.0 tools

Widgets Mashups Second Life

Widgets

Mashups

Second Life

Copyright 2.0

Copyright 2.0

Copyright law has not yet caught up with our technology.

Expect unexpected uses of your content Focusing on public domain materials and

using Creative Commons licenses keeps copyright nuisances to a minimum

Assume goodwill in re-use until proven otherwise

Important things to consider

Develop policies (how to respond to questionable comments, wiki contributions, what to do about “friending,” etc). Make 'em public.

Want to preserve your content? Plan for it. Think about how to measure what you’re doing.

Know how you define success. Check with your lawyers . . . Don't do anything online you wouldn't do in

person. Keep in mind this is public! Act accordingly.

Things to do

Find some “2.0” news sources Set up a GoogleReader or Bloglines account and subscribe to a

bunch of archives and library blogs. For libraries, LibrarianInBlack, Free Range Librarian, Library Stuff, and librarian.net are good. Go to ArchivesBlogs and look around for archives ones.

Join Twitter and start following people (@archivesnext or @lynnemthomas or @rbms09…..) and then look at the people we’re following.

Play with some of this stuff. Whatever you are thinking about doing, play with it. Subscribe to

lots of podcasts or edit a wiki. Set up a blog or wiki using Blogger or one of the free wiki services. Join Facebook or Delicious and look around.

Use the ALA and RBMS wikis Talk to others who have done it!

Find a comparable institution who has done something you like and talk to them about their experience. Most people will be happy to answer your questions, really.

Look at examples of how 2.0 is being used by accessing the list at the Archives 2.0 wiki: http://archives2point0.wetpaint.com/

(Ahem, buy our books . . .)

Final Thoughts/Questions/Discussion

It’s ok for things not to be perfect. None of this is ever finished.

Don’t fear failure. Everyone is trying things out. That’s what 2.0 is.

But, on the other hand, you are publishing information . . . be aware of that.

This stuff is actually fun. That doesn’t mean it’s not work. But it is fun.

You may get unexpected results. Contact us if you want more information.