The adventures of LASSIE: libraries, social software and distance learners Dr Jane Secker London School of Economics and Political Science 10 th January 2008

The LASSIE Project  Web 2.0 is happening  Library 2.0 is also happening  Social software surely offers potential to enhance the experience of distance learners using the library? Lassie filming on location in Florida. Photo courtesy State Archive of Florida

Project partners

Project Overview  Literature review of libraries and social software and distance learners (draft completed) Literature review  Review of web 2.0 tools  Review of what libraries are currently doing  Can this enhance the experience of the distance (and full time) learner?  Five case studies using social software to enhance library services with students on UoL External Programme and other DL courses where possible  Trying to provide real evidence about what works and what is useful

The Literature review  What is social software, Library 2.0: definitions  How do you carry out a literature review on social software and using it?  What are the current issues in supporting distance learners and how might social software help?  Are libraries a social space and can virtual libraries replicate this?  Draft available online from Project websiteProject website

What is Library 2.0? From Michael Habib’s Flickr site (Licensed under Creative Commons):

Some examples from LSE  London School of Economics and Political Science Using RSS feeds for bringing together training events across the schooltraining events Use of RSS for news on CLT website CLT website Using wikis and blogs for staff development Added ‘rich content’ to catalogue for an Amazon appearance

LSE’s training portal

Some examples from elsewhere!  Social bookmarking Penn Tags Subject guides in del.icio.usdel.icio.us  Libraries using blogs: Madison-Jefferson County Public library Ohio University Library Business Blog Kansas State University library blogs  Librarians also love to write blogs!

Madison-Jefferson County Public libraryMadison-Jefferson County Public library blog

Queensland University of Technology

Other examples  User comments & reviews in the catalogue Hennepin County Library University of Huddersfield  Libraries using social networking sites MySpace and Facebook library accounts Groups for libraries and librarians Useful for professional networking for example Ning and LinkedIn  Library Success WikiWiki

Hennepin County Library

Other examples of Library 2.0…  RSS feeds for searches in databases such as Ebsco, Web of Science, and now in COPAC COPAC  Journal table of contents delivered as RSS feeds – also useful ways for researchers to keep up to date  Social bookmarking tool quick links added to BBC website and other sitesBBC website  Library applications in Facebook such as catalogue searches, book sharing etc.

Distance learners and libraries  University of London External Programme traditionally provided little library support  Access to library resources still varies depending on course  A concern students don’t exploit online resources available through ULRLS  The literature review suggests information literacy programmes and access to electronic resources are services that could be enhanced through social software

Aren’t all libraries supporting distance learners?  Even if no ‘real’ distance learners, e-learning and e- resources has meant many librarians support users remotely  Students increasingly part-time, mature, not living on the campus  Students don’t visit the library as frequently and this trend is likely to increase  Social software might offer solutions for all libraries  LASSIE findings should be of wider relevance

Libraries as a social space  What sort of interactions take place here? Group working Resource sharing Networking with colleagues, classmates Using electronic resources Getting help / advice/ training from Library staff  Library as ‘place’ and libraries as ‘third places’  Do students want librarians in social spaces?

The Project provides an opportunity  Set up a blog for updates, reflection and external feedback  Using Moodle for internal communication  Using social bookmarking site: del.icio.us  Joined Facebook, Ning, LinkedIn for contacts  Experimented with other tools e.g. Google Reader for collecting RSS feeds

Five case studies  To gather evidence in 5 areas: Presenting reading lists to students Resource sharing with students Podcasting for teaching information literacy skills Blogging and libraries Facebook and libraries

Reading lists and social software  Investigating using social software to present reading lists to students as an alternative to paper based or commercial online reading list systems  A reading list for LSE external programme students was selected for inclusion  Using reference management tool CiteULikeCiteULike  Also tested other tools including H20 Playlists, Bibsonomy and LibraryThingH20 PlaylistsBibsonomyLibraryThing  These systems are being piloted with distance learners and feedback gathered.

CiteULike

Social bookmarking / resource sharing  Exploring social bookmarking as a way of creating a subject guide of internet resources for students  Created a list of resources for distance learners on the TRIUM course at LSE  Used the social bookmarking site del.icio.us del.icio.us  Challenge to add library resources to this type of list  Will evaluate value of social bookmarking from perspective of list creator as well as student

Using del.icio.us

Information literacy and social software  Literature review revealed information literacy is a key challenge for distance learning librarians.  Podcasting offers a new way of developing training materials  Created an online ‘screencast’ including powerpoint and audio on citing and referencingscreencast  Feedback from students gathered through a survey  Attracted considerable interest from other libraries

The screencast

Blogging and libraries  Maintained LASSIE Blog since March 2007 and now addicted to writing a blog!  Highly valuable for publicity, documenting progress, reflecting and getting (some) feedback  More readers than the departmental blog!  Informal posts get more responses  Still difficult to gauge who is reading it  Features such as using RSS to push content onto a website most valuable

Further research and project schedule  Case studies scheduled to be completed in January 2008: report will be published on website  Literature review will be updated in January 2008  Project due to finish: December 2007 !  Check out the resources for today’s talk on del.icio.us:

Thank you and any questions? LASSIE Blog: LASSIE website: Jane Secker