TBLC Library 2.0 Challenge

My last entry was about a recent study on educational trends to watch. ESchool News surveyed its readers about which trends they thought we most important and the results were:

LAST WEEK’S POLL RESULTS …

What is the “ed-tech trend to watch”?

38 percent said “User-created content”
12 percent said “Mobile phones”
24 percent said “Virtual worlds”
6 percent said “New scholarship and emerging forms of publication”
20 percent said “Massively multiplayer educational gaming”

The results got me thinking, which 2.0 trends do you think will most effect libraries in the next 1-5 years? Let me know by commenting here!

Slightly off-topic, but semi-relevant news from eSchool News Online. A new report came out today identifying the six emerging technologies educators need to be watching.

These technologies will be greatly impacting education as we know it in the next 1-5 years.

The trends are:

• User-created content
• Social networking
• Mobile phones
• Virtual worlds
• New scholarship and emerging forms of publication
• Massively multiplayer educational gaming

Many of these are the same new technologies we are working to adapt in libraries. The article focuses on how these new technologies can be integrated into the classroom - and I think these can be applied to the library as well. With virtual classrooms and libraries in Second Life, the ability to push short quizzes and news via cell phone, and the virtual social networking available to students (their need to find ‘the’ expert or a community leader, social network sites make these people more accessible than ever), the options are endless.

The article is available at the eSchool News site and is free with registration.

Last Friday, I gave a two general presentations on Web 2.0 at the HCPLC staff day. I had such a good time with both groups- fun, responsive and filled with great questions.

During the presentation, I talked about mashups, which are websites that integrate information from 2 or more sources to create a unique presentation of content. The most common is to integrate data from a database with maps. Examples can be seen at Google Maps Mania, Zillow (real estate values and a Google map), & Map Gas Prices. There are thousands of others out there as well.

However, thanks to Platial, anyone can create a mashup. After the presentation Friday, Robbie Diaz from Temple Terrace created a mashup of the Hillsborough County Library System! What a great example of how 2.0 can be easily put to use to create tools for your library.

Has anyone else tried Platial or other sites presented at the 2.0 Introduction session? Don’t forget, the sites presented are listed at http://del.icio.us/dee987.

Last week, a new video appeared on YouTube - called Web 2.0…The Machine is Us/ing Us. Check it out when you have a chance.  Its an interesting video with the 2.0 concept explained visually and set to music.

One 2.0 term thrown around is ‘tagging’ or user created categorizing. People add tags to bookmarks and webpages(Del.icio.us), pictures (Flickr or Bubbleshare), videos (YouTube), books (LibraryThing) and practically anything on the web!

I have often wondered - who is doing all this tagging?

According to the newest Pew Research Report:

- 28% of internet users — and 7% on any typical day — have tagged or categorized online content such as photos, news stories or blog posts.

- 29% of men, 27% of women

- 59% of taggers have at least some college education

- The age group breaks down:

18-29: 32%

20-48: 31%

50-64: 23%

65+: 18%

What struck me was how across the board taggers are - race, gender and age - the breakdown was pretty even.

Are you tagging? Have you thought about allowing tagging in your catalog?

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Tomorrow, I am presenting at the Suncoast Information Specialists meeting and at the HCPLC staff day on Friday about Web 2.0 and thought it would be a good idea to create a del.icio.us account to keep track of all of the sites I mention during the presentation. There are about 50 sites mentioned. I plan to add to this list of sites when I stumble upon interesting new 2.0 sites.

It is now live at - http://del.icio.us/dee987. The RSS Feed for this site is http://del.icio.us/rss/dee987 for everyone out their using an aggregator to keep track of sites. Check it out and let me know - am I missing your favorite site? What 2.0 sites are neglected that deserve some attention?

Yesterday, TBLC hosted the first think tank session on Blogs and RSS Feeds. The group of 11 spent the morning in a lively discussion about how these tools can be used to communicate to staff, to customers, and for professional development. I distributed a brief handout at the beginning of the program with a few of my favorite professional resources as well as free resources. Here is a pdf copy: Blog TT Handout.