Collaborative Tools in Libraries
Contents |
Success Stories
Don't Just Blog - Blog It To Courseware
Here's an idea for academic libraries that have or are considering a library blog. A library blog can be a great marketing tool, but only if students read it, and my research shows that most students will not voluntarily subscribe to a library blog - and many are not yet familiar with the necessary technology tools to allow that. Instead, take advantage of technology that lets you push your blog postings to your campus courseware. That way, whenever students go to their course sites, which they do frequently, they'll see your library blog postings. You can get more information about the technology that allows this, and some findings from an informal research study that gathered data on student use of an academic library blog and student knowledge of blogs, RSS and aggregators. This information comes from a poster session conducted at the 2005 ALA conference. The handout from the session and the poster - which will provide all the information you need to replicate this idea - can be found at: [1] - just scroll down to the presentations area - and look for the links to the ALA 2005 poster session material.
Examples and Information
Blogs
- Blogging Libraries Wiki - a list of libraries with blogs from Blog Without a Library.
- BlogBib
- Library Weblogs - a list of worldwide libraries with blogs from LibDex
RSS
RSS is a family of XML file formats for web syndication used by news websites and weblogs. RSS allows a website's frequent readers to track updates on the site using a news aggregator or a Firefox live bookmark.
- RSS4Lib -- Innovative ways libraries are using RSS.
- Creating an RSS feed of the books you have checked out of the library
- RSS feeds at the Denver Public Library
- College and University Feed Directory - Collection of RSS and Atom feeds from around Higher Education.
Wikis
(all MediaWiki powered unless otherwise noted)
- University of Calgary
- ALA Chicago 2005 Wiki
- LISWiki: Library and Information Science Wiki
- University of Winnipeg Library and Information Services
- Library Instruction Wiki
- Butler University Libraries' Reference Wiki (seedwiki)
- The University of Connecticut Libraries' Staff Wiki
- Biz Wiki at Ohio University
- Fontys Mediatheek Wiki (Dutch)
- MLA Memphis 2006 Wiki (PmWiki)
- USC Aiken Gregg-Graniteville Library web site (PmWiki)
- Library Outreach Wiki
- Library Technology Training Wiki This wiki contains documents, resources and instructions how to make wikis using PBWiki and how to create online surveys using SurveyMonkey. (PBwiki) by Cindy Boeke
- Environmental Scan Environmental scan analyzing trends and issues affecting the library profession in general, and federal libraries in particular. (PBwiki) by Cindy Boeke and others
Specific Blog Posts, Articles, and Presentations on Collaborative Tools
Social Machines by Wade Roush in Technology Review August 2005
Blogs
RSS
- Wusteman, Judith. "RSS: the latest feed." Library Hi Tech 22.4 (2004): 404-413.
Wikis
- Wide Open Spaces: Wikis, Ready or Not by Brian Lamb. Featured in Educause Review, Sept/Oct 2004.
- Quickiwiki, Swiki, Twiki, Zwiki and the Plone Wars Wiki as a PIM and Collaborative Content Tool by David Mattison. Featured in Searcher in April, 2003.
- Making the Case for a Wiki by Emma Tonkin. Featured in Ariadne in January, 2005.
- Teaching and Learning Online with Wikis by Naomi Augar, Ruth Raitman and Wanlei Zhou.
- ALA Wiki: What I learned and what Iām doing with it by Meredith Farkas, July 2005
- Meredith's OPAL Talk on Wikis
- Step by step guide to making your first wiki using PBwiki (PDF version) by Cindy Boeke. PPT version: Step by step guide to making your first wiki using PBwiki (Click on the link).
Online Surveys
- Step by step guide to making your first online survey using SurveyMonkey (PDF version) by Cindy Boeke. PPT version: Step by step guide to making your first online survey using SurveyMonkey (Click on the link).
- FLICC-FEDLINK Surveys: Analysis and documentation of an online user feedback survey for the Library of Congress's FLICC-FEDLINK division, containing 484 responses. The wiki includes findings, documentation, survey data, and other information, including a 50-page report (PDF) and "Collaborative Surveys - Using Feedback from Stakeholders to Build New Services"(PPT) by Cindy Boeke and others.
