Web 2.0 and Special Libraries: Challenges and Opportunities
DIFFERENCES FROM ACADEMIC AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES
- Recreation/Study/Work
- Purpose of Web 2.0 applications in the library setting
- Different expectations
- Technology literacy and take-up
WHAT’S BEING DONE?
- Delicious/ igoogle
- Library wiki
- Subject pages
- RSS feeds
- Blog – user updates – SDI
- Screen casts – library catalogue, databases, journal lists
BARRIERS
- Staff culture
- User resistance
- IT networks, infrastructure, firewalls and other restrictions. Example: SBS program is free to view online (health and culture) but unable to be viewed as unable to download such large files to network.
- Security settings set by organisation – unable to change to allow access to some sites.
- Management misunderstanding of place of new technologies in work
- Time
- Organisational rules: Web 2.0 seen as for fun, therefore sites are blocked. Example: Breastfeeding video (nurse) in YouTube
- Need for interoperability
- There is a lack of training in Web 2.0 for staff and corporate misunderstanding of the value of such training when it is available.
OPPORTUNITIES
- Information sharing
- User education
- SDI, current awareness
- Portability
- Tapping into what users know – getting on the same wavelength
- Wikis for information sharing, RSS feeds for updates and awareness for both staff and users i.e. procedures manuals or staff training.
- Accessible inside current applications – RSS feeds from databases, tagging and bookmarking – acceptable and usable
- Web 2 publishing makes resources more accessible than ever before
- Podcasts for user education
- Portal technology to customise information to user, use as an information package
ISSUES
- Work vs Recreation
- Security
- IT infrastructure and support
- Bureaucracy
SUGGESTIONS
- Playpen area
- 23 things as a team
- WAGLIN – can we address issues as a network?
- Prepare, Share, Persevere!
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