Networking Social Mixes the Hip with the Proven
"THIS YEAR'S EXPLOSIVE GROWTH IN SOCIAL SOFTWARE REMINDS ME OF SHAKESPEARE'S FAMOUS LINE FROM THE TEMPEST, 'WHAT IS PAST IS PROLOGUE."' When Computers in Librariestakes up K. H UVWE the topic of Hip HighTech, grist for the mill lies knee-deep around the columnists' feetespecially this year, if you look at the offerings. Flickr, del.icio .us, MySpace, and Cyworld are so 15 minutes ago. We're either using them or have already decided not to. Ditto instant messaging. In some settings, virtual reference is quickly morphing from pilot project to standard service, and instant messaging aggregators like Meebo and Trillian are playing a time-saving role. As for PDAs, does anybody not know someone who uses one ofthose chunky, one-widgetdoes-all, phone/e-mail/photo/Web thingies that weighs too much and gets lost in backpacks or pocketbooks? And startups have roared back in Silicon Valley--or maybe you missed YouTube's red-hot rise to fame. No doubt about it, annual product cycles are not dull lately, so opportunities to play the tech hipster abound. Blame it on the millennials. Today's teens and new entrants into the workforce want it all digitally and they want it now, on multiple platforms. In short, it's a great time to be in digital libraries. by TERENCE the visual display of information. (And I also heard from many of you, which is always a pleasure.) But this year, I'm taking a different approach. Rather than review the bleedingedge technologies that are popping up at a fast clip, I'm going to examine the unifying trend that lies beneath the social software craze at the heart of Web 2.0-and Library 2.0. It's the new nexus between the digital convergence in hardware and software and online community building as a social movement. This year's explosive growth in social software reminds me of Shakespeare's famous line from The Tempest, "What is past is prologue." Digital convergence isn't new. It's a catch-all phrase that describes the amped-up collapse of gadgets or online services into one another-like the Webphone/iPod/PDA that your best friend probably lost last week. Digital convergence played prologue to the current interest in social networking software. Likewise, the seeds of today's converging communities, such as teacher-librarian-student, musicianconsumer, author-reader, or artist-viewer, owe much to the 1990s growth of the knowledge management paradigm. The difference is that nowadays, blogs, podcasts, social networking sites, and connective technologies create immersive community and deliver quick results.
What Lies Beneath?
Last year, I used my space in CIL's Hip High-Tech issue to explore breakthroughs in
Convergence and Community Moving at Warp Speed
Community-building fervor is influencing our perceptions of online life, and it's also fueling new business ventures. Indeed, the
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COMPUIERS IN LIBRARIES building digital libraries
hardware design stream that drives digital convergence and the process of community building are, for the moment, moving in tandem. But where do digital libraries fit in this ferment of possible communities? The answer is everywhere, and the clues abound. Consider these recent experiences I had-trendspotting grist for the mill. A few months ago, when I visited a friend in New York, he took great delight in stopping in front of restaurants and pulling up reviews about them, all from his PDA's internal drive. Bus schedules, concerts, you name itlet's stop in the street and look at it right now. A lot of people like these ultra-instantaneous check-ins. And how about forming new friendships? Last week, I was talking to a colleague whose daughter is studying in upstate New York. She said: "My daughter meets all her friends on MySpace and Facebook. Do you use those? I don't really know how they work." Instant information in your pocketbook and friends who are born digital-welcome to your life. We journey through this brave new world as individuals and choose consumer technologies and services by personal preference. But institutions also have to select among the new offerings if they want to keep up with the everyday lives of their users. And it's hard to get the mix right.
Karen Coyle, a much respected commentator on the digital era in general, thinks a healthy realism depends on a deep understanding of the library tech marketplace. Writing on the Web4Lib listserv about whether library servers should be outsourced, she said: "I love the stuffthat people are doing with new technologies, but getting them into the mainstream of libraries is another thing. Sadly, it seems that many libraries will only get technology when library vendors start including it in their offerings, as has happened with the OpenURL resolution services and ERM systems. "I know that libraries are not rich, so as customers they aren't terribly appealing, but it seems that there are a lot of unmet needs and yet no one is appearing to profit from them," said Coyle. "Maybe our concept of 'library system' needs to expand so that it can include the library's Web site and a bunch of interesting Web services. On second thought, we probably first need to expand our concept of 'library' to include a Web site and interesting Web services."
Individual Skill, Institutional Responses
These are typically insightful remarks from one of our premier trendspotters, pointing at both opportunities and limitations. How the tech market works, how new technologies join old ones, how the library is viewed even by we ourselves-it's all connected. I would argue that to tap into the desire for social networking that's so prevalent these days, we need to start by thinking about the last part of Coyle's comment: "... expand our concept of 'library' to include a Web site and interesting Web services." If she's spot-on, it would seem that we have more study and development ahead of us in pursuit of integrated knowledge domains. Our Web domains are the place to begin. Web sites are more than just the gateway to our valuable collections. They're our Trojan horses, introducing
Whither Research?
The nexus between community and digital convergence poses a key question for research universities, which is how, or whether, to implement similar social networking functionalities within research collections despite the casual feel of the new products. On one hand, shouldn't we meet our users in their own immersive worlds? But conversely, shouldn't all our investments costly support rigorous teaching, pure research, and the like instead of casual information transactions?
digital libraries where they're needed. And now, that includes social networking domains. But to make full use of the Web's potential in the social networking arena, we must continue to straddle both the old and the new. As always, this means preserving collections and services using stable, mature systems. Yet we also need to make appropriate choices among new technologies, thinking not just about what's hot now but also about what will retain its usefulness 3 years or more into the future. It's this skill set-the ability to evaluate all technologies, both new and old that sets digital librarians apart from many of our fellow technology planners. It helps us take a balanced approach to all emerging technologies and improves our analyses of the current excitement about social networking. We hold these skills as individuals, and just like members of Facebook or MySpace, those of us with a vision can make important contributions to our firms and campuses, which in turn must necessarily rely on the bold and the innovative among us to find their way forward. I guess that's a lot to ask of systems librarians, front-line staff, and other techies among us. But digital convergence itself is now a constant, and we have good evaluative skills in place. Also, a bias for open access places us in the right location on the knowledgeproduction continuum, provided that we're paying attention to evolving information life cycles. If indeed we are paying attention, we can observe our user communities and provide social software applications that make sense.
Four Integration Opportunities
From my perspective, it's been a year of experimentation, with social networking software, the acceleration of PDA development, and the broad acceptance of podcasting, even for college lectures. Each of these areas is being driven by the powers of convergence. As we continuously plan for change,
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building digital libraries
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particularly in user services, it can be tough to select what to focus on. With that in mind, here are four areas to consider as starting points for moving closer to social networking. 1. Emphasize the Library Web Portal. Karen Coyle has a great point in her above quote. Effective portal design and usability are important goals, but the truth is, many library Web pages aren't nodal enough. It's still too easy to regard our Web sites as add-ons to our "real" services, such as providing gateways to digital collections. But digital libraries are made of both collections and services, and community building is becoming a new service. We can say we're making headway when our users start perceiving Library 2.0 and Web 2.0 as closely linked, and when the library Web becomes a top destination. 2. Make Learning a New Technology a 6-Month Project. My good friend (and fellow AusWeb presenter) Cindy Hill once described how she would pick an area in which she wasn't well-informed-for example, investment strategies beyond the stock market-and take 6 months to learn all about it. This is a great lifelong learning strategy, and it works very well as a means to learn new technology. Don't like podcasting? Invest 6 months in studying all its potentials (plus its nuts and bolts) and see what you think afterward. 3. Adapt to Social Networking. Don't wanna? Too boring? Give it a whirl anyway. The least we gain is the chance to see an entire generation grow up. The unexpected fun of social networking domains is idea sharing. Why not join the crowd? 4. Teach Online. The best way to understand how convergence is remaking teaching and research is to try teaching yourself. Consider Webcasting as a way to test your online voice. Since many associations and conference organizers, such as ACRL, are actively interested in finding online instructors, i...