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Using Web Tools to Enhance Research
ServicesConsuella A. Askew, Graduate School of Journalism
Tinamarie Vella, Graduate School of Journalism
2009 CUNY IT Technology Conference, John Jay College
December 4, 2009
Using Web Tools to Enhance Research Services
Tools to bring information directly to the user
Library
Delicious
Pros
Simple migration from previously stored bookmarks
Easily searchable, Google-like search feature
Allows for tagging of all resources: print, electronic and web
More comprehensive, personalized web search
Cons
Can be time-consuming to enter manually
Cons
Pros
Ability to reach users in the social networking world
Good way to promote services with personalized applications, such as: Selective Twitter Status and FBML (Facebook Markup Language)
Cons
Remember to create fan page outside of personal Facebook profile, otherwise linked to employee, rather than library.
GoodReads
Pros
Allows for an interactive way to promote new books in the collection by embedding a widget, which is automatically updated on website/blog.
Ability to review books in the collection, and provide expert opinion, if wanted.
Can link to online catalog record for easy reference
Pros
Useful in providing updates and research links to the community and also making contacts beyond your own user population.
Can serve as a networking tool for libraries, and customer service vehicle with vendors.
Cons
Need to be brief and concise, 140 character limit, which can be seen as more of positive trait for most.
Wufoo
Pros
Easy to create forms
Allows you to capture uploaded forms
Provides analysis of responses; can download to Excel for further analyses
Set to open and close automatically
iPhone compatible
Cons
Free edition limits you to 1 user, 3 forms, 10 fields, 100 entries per month
Polldaddy
Pros
Quick way to get feedback about services or resources
Can set to open and close automatically
Provides code to embed into your web page
Respondent gets to see poll results at point and time of answering
Cons
Results are not representative or reliable.
Bit.ly and Twitter Feed
Support to share links across multiple platforms.
Shorten and share links with automatic publishing capabilities
Tracks and gathers statistical data for all links
Helps for future analytical use
MediaWorks
Adopted based on its ability to handle multiple file formats
Use this IR tool to promote the various scholarship activities of the school:Capstone projects, school newsletters, news service
Built on a publishing platform that will allow us to expand our publication options
Added the Selected Works module to allow students (and faculty) to create E-resumes/CVs
Lessons Learned
If you build it doesn’t mean they will come
Must keep information updated and relevant, or the tool becomes irrelevant – redundancy is key!
Pick the tools that are right for your audience and environment
Web sites built on a blogging platform can present a challenge to adding these tools and widgets
Capturing web tool usage information is vital to our usage statistics
