LIS 9763

One thing I caught on with many of the readings, particularly Karin Coombs and Michael Sauers is that part of the marketing we need to do isn’t just towards our user base: we need to market any web 2.0 technology we wish to implement to our staff, and in a way I can’t help but think this may be harder to do than market to our users. For our user base, we need to get their attention on these tools and show how they can provide value, so they’ll be used. This isn’t an option: users’ won’t use a service they don’t know exists. The good thing is, in some cases using social tools themselves can market library services: cool videos on YouTube or a well-listed and exciting blog can bring more users into awareness of what we have to offer.

For library staff however, we need to show how these tools can be valuable to our user base even before they’re fully up and running, and suggest how we can implement them into the current structure. We also have to do this while sometimes (such as the case of MySpace) working against any pre-conceived notions or prejudices on these applications, and what they’re for. As a comment on David Lee King’s article pointed out, how do you convince your library to put up a MySpace when the board behind you does not agree the site has any value?

Sauers’s article provides a very good point about time management, and a very understandable reason why some librarians might be resistant to adding new tools: some librarians see the value, but where exactly are we to find the time to manage all this stuff on top of our regular duties? Some businesses might hire an additional staff member into their information management department to handle these duties, particularly if they see potential in increase revenue, but for many institutions such as public & academic libraries, hiring more labor is likely an unaffordable luxury. Getting everyone on board so that the workload is split up is one answer, and a very good one. As Christine mentioned in an earlier blog entry this week, we need to work out the Web 2.0 work in relation to other library duties, and work out better time management. For libraries just starting out, some might consider starting with tools that are easy- not just simple to learn, but easy to update and do not require too much additional time to keep up to date. A library service with twitter is one such example: with a limit of 140 characters, it takes almost no time to twitter an update, one of the reasons the tool is so popular.