22nd Jul 2008
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?
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?
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