Organization 2.0 (or Can't Get There From Here)
Meredith Farkas, Norwich University
Why is that Web 2.0 initiatives are failing in libraries? A lot of libraries are going where users are, but not being useful.
To keep 2.0 initiatives going, there needs to have more than one person involved with Web 2.0 technologies. Really need to get as many of the co-workers on board to make it work.
So what's the problem? There are a lot of dead blogs, wikis, etc. out there on the web.
Why does it fail?
-Use of social software is not seen as furthering the library's mission
-Social software is treated as someone's "pet project"
-Social software is not planned for strategically like other technologies
-Once the newness wears off, people are less motivated to contribute
-Staff are not given time to work on social software
Library 2.0 is a state of mind
-Working to meet changing user needs
-Trusting our users (radical trust)
-Getting rid of the culture of perfect
-Aware of emerging technologies and opportunities
-Looking outside of the library world for applications, opportunities, inspiration
Know Your Users
-Find where your users are and what your users are using, then go there
Encourage staff to learn and play
-part of the job should be to keep up with blogs, twitter posts, social media, etc. to keep up with emerging technologies and trends in the profession. This should happen with both librarians and library staff.
Question Everything
-It is so easy to get into a rut.
-When a new person starts, question them what they feel is wrong. Don't try to change them to your point of view, learn from their fresh perspective
Set Technology Goals
-Incorporate technology into strategic plans, there will be more of a buy-in when this happens.
Treat Technologies as Goals and Use them to Solve Problems
-Improve communication with our users
-Provide reference services at the point of need
-RSS feeds by subject
-Put links in wikipedia to library collections, making them more accessible
-Put historical photos in Flickr
Make Our Services More Visible
-Make a plan before starting so that it can be more usable (Manchester Library in FB)
Improve Internal Knowledge Sharing
Develop a Risk-Tolerant Culture
-We can learn so much by failure, than by not doing anything in the first place.
Beware the Culture of Perfect
-Just because librarians love it and think it is great, doesn't mean that it will help users. LISTEN TO YOUR USERS and take their feedback to heart. THEY are the ones that are using the services, not librarians! **Amen, sister!**
Be Agile, Don't Get Attached
-It is okay to let go of old technologies if they are not working anymore. We don't need to hang on to what is not working for our users.
Good Ideas can Come from Anyone and Anywhere
Nurture Talent
Give Staff Time for Creative Endeavors
-Google gives 20% time to staff for creative endeavors
Encourage Network-Building
-Facebook can become your rolodex
Create Partnerships
-Will become harder and harder for librarians to survive if they don't start creating partnerships
Provide a wiki for first year students to provide information. Administration, faculty, staff, and students can contribute.
Be transparent with patrons
-Can have a library suggestion blog. Will let users know that you care and that you are listening and working to provide what they want
Time Must Be Provided! May need to create new jobs, or may just need to shuffle responsibilities.
Aboslutely need to assess everything that we are doing. We must converse with our patrons and learn from them.
http://meredithfarkas.wetpaint.com
***This session was great! It just solidifies my thinking when it comes to Web 2.0 technologies. The big problem I have is getting others on board. We need to start thinking outside the box, we need to LISTEN to our users, we need to stop assuming that because we are the librarians we know best. We don't! We are there for our users! Why don't we start listening to them and going where they are? We can all learn from each other. We need to stop treating our users like 5 year olds. Okay I will get off my soapbox for now.***
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