Why don’t libraries *build* social networks?
I had a really interesting conversation with Jim Storer over at Mzinga the other day. We were talking about Chris Brogan’s postulation of social networks for hotels, which bases the social network on the sheer geography of the hotel space. The post is the simple outline of possible bells/whistles/features/requirements for such a network, and spawns a very interesting conversation in the comments about the general potential of this and other “temporary social networks,” based on actual geographic space instead of by site, organization, type of media, conference/vacation/event, etc., bringing it all together for the duration of your stay. It’s good stuff, definitely take a look.
Jim asked, “Why aren’t libraries building social networks?” The major commonality for library patrons, he argued, is geography, and with the library moving to a more community center-living room space profile, it would make sense to link everyone together by their common geography to help them meet each other, using the library as a conduit.
Off the top of my head, my answers were:
- Libraries and librarians seem to be focusing entirely too much on specific, very library-oriented features, tasks, and applications. Instead of trying to find or develop a real go-to location or application online that patron would really want to use or naturally gravitate towards, libraries are doing things like trying to trick out the catalog, a piece of library machinery that so many patrons don’t really get or like to use in the first place.
- Librarians are still getting their heads around social networking, and haven’t quite reached a peace with the idea that because social networking and social media is about diverse community generated content, rules, and culture, the most successful way to execute social communities is to *let go of control*. (This assessment is based on my experience speaking to groups of librarians about social media, conversing with librarians in my travels, and talking to librarians who *really* get this).
- Even outside of grok gap between the buttons and levers of social sites and community culture, there is a deeper technology barrier, not only with using the software as a service sites that exist, but the ability, skills, and vision to build something fun and innovative from the ground up.
When I think of a library building a social network of its very own, I don’t see a library with a Facebook page, a MySpace page, a LibraryThing account, a Flickr account, a Twitter stream, and a designated Meebo chat room, all linked from the home page of the library site. I see single sign-on to a library web site that offers, all in one interface:
- standard access to the patron’s account (what’s checked out, online renewal and fine payment, requests)
- the ability to make lists, share lists (awesome for book groups), and keep lists private
- some sort of Netflixian queuing/scheduling of requests, and a way to move things from lists to the Libraryflix request queue
- the ability to see who else is signed on right now (if the user allows it), and even perhaps some PM (private messaging) feature
- a way to “friend” other people, and limit sharing to those friends only
- a general sidebar newsish feed that lets you see what people are searching for/requesting/checking out most (anonymized, naturally)
- a calendar feature that allows the patron to add library calendar events as well as other local events, and a way to share those events with other patrons and the outside world, and perhaps even the addition of public, locally-oriented Google Calendars
- a mini Meetup feature that allows people to arrange everything from meeting at the library via an official meeting room booking to something as simple as “studying for the trig test this week? I’ll be there, too.”
- some sort of connection to community events and organizations
- a way for patrons to add inward feeds to as many aggregations as they want to share, such as social bookmarking sites, photos, reviews of books/local establishments/events
- ADDED 8/1: A way for patrons to connect with each other to help answer questions, research issues, or explore interests in depth, sort of a mindshare between librarians and patrons helping to answer questions. Kinda like Ask MetaFilter, but local.
But that’s just my short rough feature list.
The common theme here is local community. It’s not a site that exists elsewhere built, hosted, and maintained by some other entity trying to meet the blanket needs of thousands of users, it’s customized and built for The Community, and allows the patrons in the community to connect with each other with the library as their conduit. Those connections can then inform the library on what’s important, what’s interesting, and what types of events, items, and services they should highlight or think about offering. Think Facebook for Library Patrons or Facebook Local, not Facebook for Libraries & Librarians. It’s not reinventing what’s out there, necessarily, it’s making it specific and relevant to the community, using the single sign-on of the library card account, as well as an enhancement to the library experience. At least, that’s what I see as the goal.
Is your library building anything like this? Thinking about it? How are you going about it? How would you do it, in your dream world?
Do you think this could work? Why or why not? What do you see as the barriers and quandaries? What would you do differently or better?
If you are a regular library patron, would you want this? Would you use it? What’s missing? What would you want instead? Would you be more likely to use the library if the library site were more like this? Why or why not?
Tags: diy, innovate, libraries, social media, social networking, social software
Hi Andrea, your list gave me a grin — You said in answer #1:
Libraries are too focused on very library-oriented features, tasks, and applications instead of a real go-to location or application patrons would want to use or gravitate toward — “libraries are doing things like trying to trick out the catalog, a piece of library machinery that so many patrons don’t really get or like to use in the first place.”
Then about half of your list were catalog-based or -dependent features
* standard access to the patron’s account (Catalog)
* the ability to make lists, share lists, and keep lists private (Catalog)
* some sort of Netflixian queuing/scheduling of requests, and a way to move things from lists to the Libraryflix request queue (addon to Catalog)
* the ability to see who else is signed on right now (Catalog tweak), and even perhaps some PM (private messaging) feature (addon to Catalog)
* a way to “friend” other people, and limit sharing to those friends only (addon to Catalog)
* a general sidebar newsish feed that lets you see what people are searching for/requesting/checking out most (Catalog-based addon)
* a calendar feature that allows the patron to add library calendar events as well as other local events, and a way to share those events with other patrons and the outside world, and perhaps even the addition of public, locally-oriented Google Calendars (more of a CMS/calendaring function?)
* a mini Meetup feature that allows people to arrange everything from meeting at the library via an official meeting room booking to something as simple as “studying for the trig test this week? I’ll be there, too.” (calandaring function)
* some sort of connection to community events and organizations (Calendaring + mashup w/external data)
* a way for patrons to add inward feeds to as many aggregations as they want to share, such as social bookmarking sites, photos, reviews of books/local establishments/events (addon to Catalog or needs a way to feed out of Catalog into already existing mashup services (FB, etc.)
Basically, we need to talk to people who regularly use social software and might see how library data could be mashed into social software. (These folks need not already be library users)
I (and I suspect many/most) would love to use the library service you describe in your post, Andrea — thanks for the thinks
Oh this is a fab idea! Our county is finally getting something added onto our ILS where folks can add tags, which is exciting–this sounds cool too.
@Aaron the Librarian: The distinction I’m trying to make here is not that we should move away from doing helpful things to the catalog, or that the improvements have nothing to do with the catalog.
Libraries should bring the functionality out of the catalog into a more interactive and user-natural environment. Why add all sorts of features to the catalog when so few people go there as a first stop, or even give up after a few minutes of trying to use it? I’m saying put those features into a top-layer navigational and user experience environment that makes more sense to the user, while at the same time giving them more of a natural way to interact with their community of common interest — local stuff and the library — instead of burying it in the catalog.
@Suzi W.: Imagine if you could take those tags and make a tag cloud top-side — as in on the library site instead of buried in the catalog — so that people could use that data to help them make decisions. Or, even, develop lists and alerts based on tags in the catalog, that would appear in an account that wasn’t just something they saw in the catalog, but as part of the library web site experience. The library site becomes a subject and community specific social network. Sound cool?
Great post - I saw via twitterfeed (thanks to Jim Storer) - was taking a quick Twitter break and wanted to read something.
Just last night, I was looking for a book - I wanted a book similar to “Straight Man” by Richard Russo and “Moo” by Jane Smiley - satire set in the academic world. (Straight Man is one of my all-time favorite books.)
I went to the Boston Public Library catalog (as librarian myself, I know my way around an OPAC
); however, I wanted that “personal” touch - something more intimate than Amazon reviews, so I went to LibraryThing.
Look at the Zeitgeist tab on LibraryThing - one of the things I really dig about it.
I think that an OPAC could include elements of that experience - finding the folks who really know and use the resources; individuals who are already active community members, and, of course, the expertise of the library staff and professionals.
You’ve given me a couple of things to noodle on for the rest of the afternoon - thanks!
@Ami Chitwood:
“I think that an OPAC could include elements of that experience - finding the folks who really know and use the resources; individuals who are already active community members, and, of course, the expertise of the library staff and professionals.”
While I don’t doubt that — given the success of, say, LibraryThing — I’m looking at the next level up. The catalog, in my experience, seems to be the land of librarians and bibliophiles. In looking at the future of the library strategically, as a potential community center/education space/neighborhood living room as well as the types of services offered now, I’m thinking it would be nifty to pull up potential capabilities and features from the catalog to the “surface” of the library web site, then add more local community-oriented social networking features.
“You’ve given me a couple of things to noodle on for the rest of the afternoon - thanks!”
Awesome! Thank you for pondering and sharing. And as you noodle, keep coming back with thoughts and ideas.
Hi Andrea - Thanks for the shout out! It was great talking with you about this - I think it’s a real opportunity to bring the library back to where it belongs… as the hub of every community.
When I think about the challenges in building and sustaining an online community or social network - building trust among members, frequent interactions, great content - a local library is predisposed to solve them. It’s a safe, centrally-located, comfortable environment to meet and discuss issues of interest to the community. Since the members share a geography, they have similar issues and challenges… they have a reason to want to connect with one another.
We also gravitate to certain communities because we like the location, people, etc. It seems natural that we’d want to have more/better ways to connect with them.
Great topic! I really love reading through the other comments and continuing the debate.
In fact, while I was typing this, a friend on Twitter (@achitwood) admitted… “yesterday when I went to BPL.org looking for something to read - went to librarything instead b/c of the people :)…”
Sounds like an idea whose time has come.
@Jim Storer:
“When I think about the challenges in building and sustaining an online community or social network - building trust among members, frequent interactions, great content - a local library is predisposed to solve them.
…
Since the members share a geography, they have similar issues and challenges… they have a reason to want to connect with one another.”
I helped a patron the other day who was looking for information about stamp collecting. We have an encyclopedia for that at my library, but it’s not quite the same as using the resource in *conjunction* with talking to the other local stamp collectors (who I don’t know by name, but I have helped in the past).
I wanted very much to direct her to a stamp collecting Facebook or Ning group, or something similar, but she wasn’t really in the social site “demographic,” so to speak… a simplified version of that at the library would totally offer the level of connection with a significantly reduced social software learning curve.
I should edit the post to include the ability for patrons to share *answers* with each other, not just items. That should’ve been a no-brainer for me. Even I have a predisposition to think libraryware at times!
This is exactly what I hope to be doing for the Heights Library.
However, I wonder/worry about spreading things too thin.
We’re on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, soon to be on Twitter.
Traverse Area District Library and Heights Library will be battling on the Wii.
I want to do all of those things and more.
Texting patrons that their materials are in, creating a personalized area on the library, etc.
I fear/worry/find that consortiums can be a hindrance at times. Especially when there are innovations that I want to do.
What else do you think we should/could be doing? I want to make sure that we are at least on the right path.
@Amy Harmon: I think there are a few key things here.
There are only, really, a few ways you can be spread too thin.
1. Too much of the same: If you’re on Facebook, Flickr, YouTube, and Twitter, those are excellent target high-points in the social technology framework, however, the caveat is that you need to make sure your patrons are hitting those high points. Als, if you were on, say, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa, then Twitter, identi.ca, and plurk… that’s when it gets crazy. The key is to know where your users are, not just what’s hot right now. It may be that you’re on Twitter, but for some reason your patrons are all about plurk. You don’t want to be on everything just to be safe, you want to know your users and really target them.
2. Not keeping up: If it’s too hard to do many sites well, then don’t cover as many sites. At this point in the game, playtime is great, but excellence is the deal-maker. There will be more resonance with the savvier users of the site if you look and sound like you totally know what you’re doing, as opposed to just another n00b library that never got past the tutorial.
Think of social networking sites as cocktail parties you visit everyday, and the guests at those cocktail parties are essential “people to meet.” You need to spend enough time at each site to a) touch base with key people, b) stay on top of what’s going on with that set, and c) stay on top of the shifts in what’s acceptable to say/do/etc. It’s about the community, not just buttons and levers. Use the levers to actually connect with the patrons, and relate to them.
The other thing to remember is that it’s not about copying the Facebook interface to libraries, nor about putting a fancy face on the catalog. It’s about giving library patrons the things they crave, the things they would find useful, and making their user experience more comprehensive as soon as they land on the site, and finding ways that they can share that information outside the site. This is why I think that a patron should be able to land on the library’s home page, log into their library card account, then have that account *plus* whatever other handy things they need to customize and easily navigate their library experience on the web site. It shouldn’t be some cobbled-together collection of outside things, it should be built in and seamless. Then, carefully add in outside things in a way that looks and feels seamless, and makes sense to the interface.
I think the best thing that you, or any library, could be doing is:
1. Talking to your patrons, regularly.
2. Talking to your unpatrons, somehow (I know this bit is difficult, but working through difficulties creates growth).
3. Building things into the sites instead of a patchworky collection of “go out here and login” bits.
4. Experimenting with widgets and gadgets for other sites that do more than just, say, search the catalog. I find the catalog search widgets useless and annoying, since, really, that’s what my Firefox catalog search does. I want something that will show me what I’ve got out, what’s due soon, and the status of my holds, in a little box on my iGoogle or Facebook or blog home page. Think Library ELF, in a box.
5. Encouraging patrons to envision and express what they want, and, when applicable, let them build stuff. Then, give it to them.
6. Be prepared to make mistakes, fall down, then get up and do it again.
That’s just the short list. A lot of it is just learning to be *strategically* visionary, and getting past the tutorial-set-of-instructions-sheeple-flailing-into-newness mentality.