LIS 9763

I cannot believe how quickly this semester flew by.  There is still time to talk about web 2.0 and social software on a grander scale though, so let's do that.

Some quick notes from the articles this week:

Transparency - Certainly a good idea, and from the reading we saw that this even incorporates USING social software tools internally, such as blogs, to get information out to staff and allow them to have their voices heard.

Risk taking - I don't think I ever really though about this, but it's true.  So true.  Especially in the example of blogs and the "zone of mediocrity", people either love it, or they hate it.  Even with this blog, I felt the desire to not take risks, or say things that I felt people might shoot me down on (not because everyone is mean and scary, but I don't know, I guess it just sort of happened!)

Best practices of the use of social software in libraries? Oh jeez.  Let's see if I can come up with something coherent.
- Use the tools available as they make sense for your library's needs.  Don't use them all in a blitz of communication, community building and terrifying network capability. (those resources might be needed elsewhere)
- Keep your social software updated, relevant and with input from multiple parties.
- If you're not ready to give up some control to users/public (folksonomies, public comments etc), then maybe you are not ready for some of the social software tools.
- Train people to use the social software (you can't expect everyone to just know, or just take however long to learn)

As a side note, I believe that social software has an insane amount of potential power in libraries.  Creating a community and a network, and it's all very grass roots.  Yet, we need to take the steps to implement it in a careful and thought out way.  The social software tools won't mean anything if we do not create a strategic plan and goals on how they are going to help get us from point A to point B.  At the same time, this whole idea of risk aversion is also an issue, but provided a library finds balance between the two extremes (but not landing within that zone of mediocrity, oooh blog reference), then social software tools can be quite amazing.

I guess what I'm trying to say as well is that social software is an added way to improve the quality of services and the network of a library community.  It can't be the library's main focus, but it should be an important point on the agenda.