Blogs, wikis, podcasts: the what, the why and the where next

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Blogs, wikis, podcasts the what, the why and
the where next

• University of Bath Library
• Kara Jones
• Research Publications Librarian
• K.L.Jones_at_bath.ac.uk
• Sarah Hughes
• Subject Librarian
• S.S.Hughes_at_bath.ac.uk

CILIP UCR South West26 June 2008
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Experiences of blogs, wikis and podcasts

• University of Bath experiences
• Moving from pilots to mainstream
• Thinking ahead
• Future trends

• Can web 2.0 tools add value to academic library
  services?

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The Bath Experience

• Seven podcasts, four blogs and a wiki!
• The needs
• Why the technology was chosen
• What weve done
• The challenges
• The benefits

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Baths blogging

• What were the needs?
• To find a new and effective way to communicate
  with Departments
• To reduce number of emails being sent

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Task Group findings - academics

• The group didnt appreciate too much block
  emailing as a method of communication. The
  responses gathered from the group supported blogs
  and RSS feeds and indicated a preference for
  harvesting information they needed when they
  needed it rather than receiving information when
  they didnt.

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Why we tried blogs?

• Easy to create and edit
• Quick for staff to add information
• Less formal method of communication
• Comments can be added
• RSS feeds
• Archive of posts
• Using technology from beyond libraries

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What have we done?

• First blog Science News (Nov 05)
• Second blog Health News (Jan 06)
• Third blog Engineering Design News (Sep 07)
• Fourth blog Myself archive (July 07)
• But why so many?

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Lets take a look

• http//bathsciencenews.wordpress.com/

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Challenges

• Promotion
• Finding your voice
• Finding the time
• RSS feeds are for all posts not specific
• Getting people to comment
• Does your organisation control all written
  communication thats user-facing?

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Benefits

• They are being read
• Positive responses
• Free to set up and use
• Easy and quick to edit
• Moderate any comments added
• Emails less and shorter in length
• Statistics

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We wiki

• What we needed
• A new intranet that would be easy to edit
• and that contained information that could
• be searched for.

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Why we wiki

• Computing services had introduced a wiki to the
  University
• It offered the opportunity to work
  collaboratively online
• Issues could be discussed electronically
• Staff could add content and take ownership
• It offered a search facility

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Get informed immediately when something has been
added or updated
Timely news on professional issues
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Challenges

• Task Groups have their own pages decide whether
  these are to document meetings and/or means to
  carry out discussions in between
• How do you feel that your work may be
  edited/commented on?
• Content cannot be permanently deleted

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Benefits

• Information is being worked with rather than just
  stored
• Information is kept up-to-date
• Editing guidelines, training guide and Intranet
  Team
• Minimal staff training needed
• Discussions are taking place and comments are
  being added

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More benefits

• Easy to add content
• Can monitor pages and receive alerts
• Can set who can view a page
• It is clear to see new/updated content
• Fewer emails sent/received
• Searchable

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Podcasts

• What were the needs?
• To guide people around the newly refurbished
  floors
• To show increasing numbers of students around the
  library building
• To guide people in a way thats accessible to all

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Why podcasts?

• Software was free and easy to use (after some
  initial training)
• Flexible and portable
• Self-directed (used with a map)
• Innovative and contemporary idea that students
  would relate to
• Low impact on staff time

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Tracking use

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Podcasts

• Challenges
• Ensuring content is reviewed and added to
• That promotion continues
• Benefits
• Well used
• Use throughout the academic year
• Easy to update

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Academic Libraries

• SCONUL major themes Vision 2010
• Personalisation of services
• Collaboration
• Flexible use of space
• Management and skills
• (http//www.sconul.ac.uk/publications/pubs/vision
  202010)

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Moving from pilots to mainstream lessons learned

• A few issues have come up
• Institutional drivers
• Sustaining momentum
• Cultural changes
• What if it works!
• Thinking ahead

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Forward thinking

• The pervasive library embedding your services
  where your users are the VLE, Facebook, etc..
• Building your services around user workflows, not
  your content.
• Know your audience information rich and
  attention scarce (Demsey, L., 2008)
• Practically
• Build quality processes into your web tools
• Develop robust policies to guide usage
• Evaluate your activities

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What works and why?

• A web tool is more likely to be successful -
• When it adds value
• When it matches organisational drivers
• When it reduces barriers
• When it fills a need or matches requirements (in
  a new way)
• When it builds a low-risk evidence base on which
  to make future decisions.

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Thank you.