Cultural Heritage

I was recently invited to participate in the “R-e-@ding: Reaching out to Readers in a Digital World” Conference which took place at the Rufus Centre, Flitwick, Bedfordshire. The conference, which was organised by ReadEast, the Eastern Region’s reader development network, attracted about 100 participants.

The day began with a keynote talk  by Phil Bradley. His talk on “Setting The Virtual Scene” provided the context for the day, with a tour of a variety of Social Web services (YouTube, Ning, LibraryThing, Twitter, Facebook, etc.)  Phil argued that libraries need to move away from the constraints of the instituional Web site and ensure that content was available in the Web sites (and devices) which the user community are using.

I had been invited to facilitate two (fully-subscribed) breakout sessions on “De-mystifying the Social Web“.  I explained some of the benefits which the Social Web can provide to public libraries, focussing particularly on the advantage of social services, which improve as the numbers of users grow, and the particular benefits of the ‘network as the platform’ in today’s economic climate – we can provide valuable services to our user communities without, in some cases, the need to procure software and to have the technical expertise needed to install software locally.

Of course there are barriers and these were address during the breakout sessions. There was agreement that the biggest obstacles preventing effective use of the Social Web in supporting Library activities are the organisational IT Services/Communications policies.  It was interesting to note that resourcing Social Web activities and gaining a better understanding of both its potential and how such services can be implemented, although relevant, were not felt to be as important as overcoming policy barriers. And hearing the stories of how participants make use of services during Twitter and Facebook whilst  working at home in order to circumvent the council’s firewall provided a wonderful example of how librarians will seek to support their users even in the face of institutional barriers!

It would be unreasonable to suggest that working from home in order to access and maintain Social Web sites which are blocked from work is a sensible solution! But what can be done? My suggestions were:  

Using Social Web services for peer support: Public librarians should build on their well-established traditions of openness and sharing. Various JISCMail lists aimed at the public library sector are popular (such as the well-established lib-pub-libs and the newer lis-web2lists). However it would be appropriate to gain experiences of use of Social Web services by using them to support collaborative activities with one’s peers as such experiences should prove beneficial when supporting services for engaging with the user community.

Openness and sharing: The Web 2.0 characteristic of openness and sharing is well-suited for the library sector.  So let’s encourage sharing of experiences and resources through use of Creative Commons licences.  Note that UKOLN’s briefing documents for the Cultural heritage Sector has a section on Legal Issues, which includes an Introduction to Creative Commons.

Syndication and RSS: In the breakout session I suggested that the one most important TLA was RSS (Really Simple Syndication). In a show of hands it seems that awareness of RSS is low within the sector – so UKOLN’s briefing documents on Syndication Technologies are likely to be of interest.  I suggested that PageFlakes would be a useful RSS reader for those with an interest in gaining an understanding of how an RSS reader works and the benefits such technologies can provide.

Working collectively: As was evident for the discussion sessions, there was clear interest in discussing opportunities which the Social Web can provide and the barriers to be faced.  As well as sharing experiences I suggested that it may be useful to work collectively in the development of solutions. Such an approach is likely to be particularly relevant at a time of an expected decrease in public sector funding. 

Acting strategically: As well as practitioners working collaboratively I also think it would be useful for policy makers and senior managers to act strategically. 

I will expand on these suggestions in future posts.  Note that the slides I used in my breakout sessions are available on Slideshare and are also embedded below. And I welcome comments, questions and suggestions from participants at the Readeast09 conference and the wider community.