I got a link to LibGuides today.
It seems like a great way for school and academic librarians to connect with their users. You can imbed videos, chat boxes, and RSS feeds into your Widgets. You can link to things in your library catalog on your Widget.
And best of all? You can publish your Widget in Facebook so that your students can find you.
It's tagline is "Web 2.0 for Library 2.0."
Fabulous, right?
It is if your users will use it. If not, it's just another waste of your time and resources.
Facebook users have to go into "applications" and search for LibGuides. Then they have to add the application to their page. Then they have to hope that their school has created content for them to link to. I know all of this because I did it myself.
I think that LibGuides has great potential. I think that if libraries use it that it is a great example of being where the users are.
My question, though, is how do you let users know that this application exists? In other words, if you build it, you have to tell them it's there before they will come.
This isn't to suggest that we through the application out completely and continue our Luddite-ian ways. It's just to say that your front-line staff has to be out there connecting with users in the first place if you want this to work.
"Go where your users are." It's a huge hallmark of the Library 2.0 philosophy. I think the unspoken corollary is that you have to find a way to let users know you're there. Does your library have subject guides or a blog linked directly off of the main web page? Do your librarians have a web presence and is that web presence known by their constituency? Are you spending face time with the people you serve so they want to find you online?
All of the technology and all of the "be where uses are" doesn't make any difference if your users:
A)Don't know
B)Don't care
Don't just be where your users are--be relevant in the lives of your users. Engage them and present a likable front. Make them want to spend more time with you.
Then if you build it they will come.
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1 comment:
Everything you say is spot-on, Erin. We (Springshare, i.e. LibGuides) only provide the cool technology, but ultimately it is up to the librarians to produce useful content and let patrons know about it. We can't do that for them.
I will say, however, that it is certainly true that the more "presence" the library has on facebook, social networks, blogs, courseware apps (LibGuides widgets can be embedded anywhere :) the more likely it is that the patrons will find your library resources.
The neat thing about LibGuides is that it enables the library content to be presented and "advertised" on these networks (as well as be updated constantly and automatically). You, as the librarian, still need to make that content useful and attractive enough for the user to want to click on it, though! So it will need to be a team effort, and we want to be on your team :)
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