Reti sociali e strumenti collaborativi: mediare l'informazione nell'era di Googlezon

-----Social networks and collaborative tools:

connecting information in the Googlezon era

to David Weinberger

Bonaria Biancu

Die lernende Bibliothek 2007 25-27 September 2007Universität Innsbruck

Epic 2014 – Googlezon alive

Google Grid ("universal platform that provides a functionally limitless amount of storage space and bandwidth to store

and share media of all kinds") + Amazon.com (“social recommendation

engine" and "huge commercial infrastructure")

(the death of 4th state?)

Web trends

New channels for communication, publishing and marketing

Appearance of the Generation Next (wane of tv and rise of the Web)

Search engines as one-size-fits-all tools (search&retrieve, reference, community, business etc.)

Mobile revolution

Personalization of information and tools

Rich media applications (web as a platform, virtual realities)

Emergence of the prosumer and democratization of content creation

WikinomicsSharingGlobal Action

OpennessPeering

Toward the network

Networks and Communities Social Professional Scientific etc.

Value is in aggregation

Thinking digital: the third order of order

Links and tags – the kings of the operative system of the Web

Metadata as “what you already know” and data as “what you're trying to find out”

No physical constraints No shape then no a priori assumptions No order No order of order No order of order of order...

Do libraries matter?

Competition with web companies Patrons used to the speed, ease of use

and cost effectiveness of search engines

More and more expensive software and big deals

Little money Poor recognition by society and media Dismissal?

Library 2.0 meme map

Scout Portal Toolkit – LINX at Bicocca Library

Open source software funded by Mellon Foundation, builded by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Internet Scout Project in 2000

Open to everyone to get an account and contribute useful links records

OAI-PMH compliance and integration with meta-searching tools (e.g. Metalib)

RSS, saved searches, mail alerts, resource comments and ratings + recommendations

DCMES and some LOM metadata for resource description

News, forum, “Segnala una risorsa”

Import/Export, customizable workflow, vocabulary control, user preferences

Springshare LibGuides

Subject guides, opac, ejournals, ebooks, database, podcasts...

Wiki-like collaborative publishing system

Live reference with the librarian + links to her Facebook profile, blog, website

Social tagging and bookmarking, email alerts, feed rss

Popular guides and tags displayed in home page + polls to give evidence to users' feedback

Information from outside: library news, last entries of related blogs and ejournals or other rss-based websites, del.icio.us tag clouds, chat box, custom search engines

Users' comments and ratings to the resources

Unique search module for Libguides, web, opac, tags, librarians

Widgets to embed library content into blogs, websites, social networks, courseware systems

University of Alberta Facebook app

Live reference

Search in OPAC

Information on RefWorks

Ex Libris Citation Linker “Get it!”

Other applications in Facebook:OPACsDigital librariesReference onlineCourse textbooks finderUseful resources

Network of friends can:Access my informationPut a box in my profilePlace a link in my left-hand navigationPublish stories in my News FeedLet me get in touch with other users (patrons, co-workers etc.)Join networksLeave messagesAnswer questionsSend notes, photos, videos etc....

Library news

Collaborative tools &Social networks - Features

Syndicate, share, reuse and mash-up content - i.e. increase ease of information access and creation

Collaborative filtering Information retrieval serendipity Conversations and community building Relationships between resources,

librarians and patronsKnowledge sharing

Architecture of participation

Library as conversation(and participation)

Adding services like blogs and Wikis may be seen merely as adjunct to current library offerings. As with any technological advance, scarce resources must be weighed against a desire to incorporate new services. Do we expand the collection, improve the Web site, or offer blogs to students?

A better approach for making these kinds of decisions is to look at the needs of the community served in context with the commonly accepted, core tasks of a library, and see how they can be recast (and enhanced) as conversational, or participatory tools. In point of fact, every service, patron, and access point is a starting point for a conversation.

From catalog to discovery tools Library ThingImport from 90 international catalogs

Users' social profile displaying personal info and connections between books, feeds and comments

18 millions book cataloged, 23 millions tags added, 500,000 contributed covers and 245,000 reviews

Library Suggester + Books Suggester and Un-Suggester

Social tagging, ratings, comments, reviews, conversations, recommendations, groups

Authors page with books, conversations, ratings, reviews, link to web sites, related tags

Book acquisition, finding (in a library) and swapping

Bibliographic metadata of the book and the “work” + MARC records, LCSH, Dewey Number, LoC Call Number + Citations export + Links to the author’s or book web site and to Wikipedia entries + Search this book

LibraryThing for libraries: tags, ratings, reviews, other editions and translations for OPAC records

Widgets, bookmarklets, APIs, Firefox extensions, import/export

From catalog to discovery toolsFreebase

Collaborative editing of records and adding metadata fields

Content provided by Wikipedia and users under GFDL or CC License

Bottom-up categorization: types of data and their domains are discussed among the members (so is the necessity to adopt external classification schemes)

Factors to consider when describing books...What does the author do best?What makes the book popular?What do readers talk about most?What other authors/titles does the book remind you of?Who else might enjoy reading this book and why?How does it fit with other books in a genre?

Open APIs and freedom of contributing content and querying the database

Book considered primarily as a “work” (but also different editions)

Books metadata include: title, author, edition, editor, language, publisher, characters, awards won, subjects, copyright date, verse form etc.

But the authors are persons with name, surname, religion, education, profession, website, employment, siblings etc.

Semantic structure of topics, types and domains

From catalog to discovery toolsWorldcat

Save bibliographies from search results

Get it (fin in other libraries; buy it; CoinS compliance -> openurl)Save it (bookmark; save into a list)Add to it (review; public notes)Share it (easy and permanent url; bookmark tools)

Narrow results with facets (author, content, format, language, year)

Article searching

Table of contents, notes, editions, reviews

Citation formats and export

Related subjects, similar items by subject, book covers, additional info (website, publisher description)

Lists can be public or private, and public lists can be searched and shared with friends and colleagues

Browsers plug-ins and toolbarsWidget to embed search module in websites or blogs

WorldCat identities

NextGen Catalog - Features

Rich search results (related books, article citations, web citations, full text/search inside the books)

Metadata editing (or adding for private profile) Export functions (bibliographic formats, send to blog or email,

feeds etc.) Openurl compliance Links between records and web resources Collaborative filtering and conversations (tags, comments,

ratings, reviews, lists, profiles) Delivery (buy, borrow or print/scan on demand) Easy links to authority records and easy and editable persons'

records Annotations and Google-like features on books Open APIs and I/O widgets Constant feedback (Ask a librarian etc.)

Goals

Increase ease of access to information Expand range and variety of services Spread awareness and use of library

tools Reach and involve new users Support collaboration and

communication Build community Foster knowledge and speed innovation Enhance customer satisfaction

Bonaria Biancu -- aka The Geek LibrarianUniversity of Milano-Bicocca Library

blog: http://bonariabiancu.wordpress.comlibrary web: http://www.biblio.unimib.it

Questions?

Digital miscellaneousness =

Partecipatory Networks +

Alive and kicking!

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