A number of librarians, library, archival and information organizations (see VPL) are taking notice of Twitter. Today, it’s the Library of Congress – Twitter. No word yet out of the Library and Archives Canada though here is the Nova Scotia Archives. Long seen as an innovator, here’s the twitter feed for McMaster University Libraries.
Author: admin
This is a very drafty version of a chart I’ve devised as a way to scan the learning theories I discussed in Part I of the teaching & learning column for the Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association. Let me know if you have any feedback. ~Dean
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As Canada’s federal government (under Stephen Harper) gears up to unveil its ‘economic stimulus’ budget next week, I’ll be watching to see just how well-aligned (or completely out of touch) our public officials are in Canada with respect to what is happening south of the border.
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In the digital age, there seems to be one (only one?) global leader who understands intuitively that open, transparent democracies have a responsibility to provide access to information – and that is the American President Barack Obama.
Obama has said that “[government] web sites, search engines and other web tools [will] enable citizens to track online federal grants, contracts, earmarks, and lobbyist contacts with government officials”.
Obama ‘gets’ that digital cultures are critical in terms of revealing the faultlines and fissures in democratic discourse. Unlike other world leaders, he understands the inherent power of web 2.0 in changing attitudes towards government. As citizens hold governments accountable for the decisions they make, they engage in a new digital, participatory democracy called Government 2.0.
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Obama’s other promises? “To make government data available online in universally accessible formats”…..”and to allow citizens to make use of that data to comment, derive value, and take action [for change] in their own communities.” He plans to establish programs to open government up to more meaningful input and to require agencies to conduct public business in open forums that can be monitored online.
Obama plans to have national “town hall meetings” online and web 2.0 tools such as blogs in place (see the Whitehouse blog) to provide better access to the public record. In the long term, he plans universal broadband and ‘more open’ web networks to give everyone genuine access to the tools of 21st century democracy.
Welcome to a new era of global transformative government 2.0. Time will tell how successful it will be in revitalizing global democracy. Let’s be mindful of the changes in government in both Canada and the U.S. in the days and months ahead.
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References
1. Government 2.0 Best Practices wiki – http://government20bestpractices.pbwiki.com/FrontPage
2. GTEC Government 2.0 Conference 2009 – http://blog.gtec.ca/
3. Government 2.0 – A Theory of Social Government
4. Government 2.0: Using Technology to Improve Education, Cut Red Tape, Reduce Gridlock, and Enhance Democracy, 2005.
The Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association (JCHLA/JABSC) is running part II of the teaching and learning series that I agreed to write in four installments. Part I has already been published in the fall of 2008; part II will be published soon.
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Here are key messages (and introduction) in Part II to whet your appetite:
Key messages
• By drawing on a basic understanding of adult learning theory, and instructional design principles, health librarians can develop even more successful, learner-centred library programs 
• Some useful starting points in designing health library workshops include: 1) gathering information about your learners, 2) examining their preferred learning styles and, most importantly, 3) considering their context and professional practice
• To find your own starting point in developing health library workshops, consider structured approaches such as Sork’s planning model or Young and Harmony’s “how-to” framework
• UBC’s Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG) provides further ideas for the design of instructional sessions using the BOPPPS model
Introduction
“This is the second column in the JCHLA/JABSC series about teaching and learning in health libraries. In the first column, I introduced health librarians to the major learning theories in educational planning and hinted at their application in instructional design [1].
In column II, I focus on the practical elements of library workshop design, one of the five teaching skills identified as starting points in my first column. Throughout this discussion I am asking some straightforward but persistent questions about teaching in academic health and hospital contexts. Given the rise of web 2.0 tools and evidence-based practice, how can health librarians design more learner-centred, interactive workshops? What principles of instructional design are applicable to the classroom to ensure that library teaching is relevant, grounded theoretically and ultimately successful in imparting new skills?
In the digital age, library teaching requires a deeper level of understanding of the motivations, needs and search habits of our learners. To accommodate them, teachers can now select from more than 50 learning theories [2], with newer digital theories such as connectivism gaining in popularity [3]. As stated in column I, how we teach may be as important as what we teach in the digital age. Since many new library users are tech-savvy and grow up ‘digital’, they bring a certain set of pedagogical challenges to library workshops – and we should try to meet them [4].
The three major adult learning theories that have been discussed so far – behaviourism, constructivism/ cognitivism and situated-learning (see appendix I) – illustrate a wide range of learning theories available to the health librarian. While representing just the tip of the iceberg, these major theories should be seen as the foundation for further analysis and study. Over time, understanding can be deepened by evaluating these theories rigorously within the context of our users’ learning needs and professional practice.”
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References
1. Giustini D. Utilizing learning theories in the digital age: an introduction for health librarians. JCHLA/JABSC 2008; 29:109-115.
2. Kearsley G. Exploration in learning and instruction: the theory into practice (TIP) database. 1994-2008. http://tip.psychology.org/index.html
3. Siemens G. Connectivism: A learning theory for the digital age. International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning. 2005; 2(1), 3–10.
4. Naslund J, Giustini. Towards school library 2.0: an introduction to social software tools for teacher-librarians. School Libraries Worldwide, July 2008.
5. Sork TJ. Planning educational programs. From Wilson, A.L. & Hayes, E.R. (Eds.). Handbook of Adult and Continuing Education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
6. UBC Health Library wiki. 2007 Sabbatical – Dean Giustini [wiki article] http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php?title=2007_Sabbatical_-_Dean_Giustini
7. Sork TJ. The workshop as a unique instructional format. In: Thomas J. Sork (Ed.), Designing and implementing effective workshops. New Directions for Continuing Education 22. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1984. pp. 3-10.
I had the good fortune during the last week to write collaboratively with Mary-Doug Wright of Apex Information. MD has been my colleague for years now so it was good to produce something together. We wrote about Twitter (see the abstract below).
To write it together, in a short timeframe, we used Googledocs which we both found quite unreliable. It was slow, not terribly accurate, and really bad when we worked on it at the same time. Google’s firepower is not sufficient to ensure that response times are reasonable, I guess.
I feel I learned a lot by working with Mary-Doug. She’s an ideal collaborator.
The FULL article will be published soon in the JCHLA/JABSC. ~Dean
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Twitter: an introduction to microblogging for health librarians – abstract only
by Dean Giustini and Mary-Doug Wright
“In this article, we introduce health librarians to Twitter and examine its potential (as well as its problems) as a platform for sharing and seeking online information. In focusing on many practical aspects of using Twitter we also critique microblogging as a way to broadcast what you are doing, thinking or saying. Twitter’s significance is greater than simply the diffusion of information within social networks; more generally, we believe that Twitter is increasingly symbolic of a tech-oriented culture engaged in constant peer-to-peer sharing, surveillance and mass collaboration. [3]
Twitter is a web 2.0 phenomenon with no signs of slowing down. Along with Jaiku and Plurk – two other popular microblogging tools – Twitter is riding a wave of enthusiasm around the world. [4] Twitter enjoyed exponential growth in popularity in 2008. As of January 2009, there were almost 4.5 million Twitter users worldwide. [5] This represents a massive 752 percent increase in 2008 alone.
According to Compete, a million new visitors viewed Twitter in December 2008. [6] In terms of increased numbers of users and hype, the rise of Twitter mirrors the interest shown in the past with other web 2.0 tools such as Facebook, Wikipedia and YouTube.
Is Twitter a useful communication tool for health librarians? A number of librarians are experimenting with microblogging, but we have noted a lack of participation among the health library community. [7,8] Although the use of Twitter was slow in 2007 and rose sharply in 2008, it will likely gain even more attention in 2009. [9] Twitter is representative of a new generation of information tools – including handhelds and mobiles like the iPhone and Blackberry – that help to promote ambient information access and ‘on the go’ communication. [10] “
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References
1. Twitter Fan wiki http://twitter.pbwiki.com/
2. Washburn S. Library Twitter. MaintainIT Project blog. June 24th, 2007. http://www.maintainitproject.org/blog/library-twitter
3. Java A, Finin T. Why we Twitter: understanding microblogging usage and communities. Proceedings of the Joint 9th WEBKDD and 1st SNA-KDD Workshop 2007, August 12, 2007. http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/_file_directory_/papers/369.pdf
4. Wikipedia. Twitter. 2009. [Online]. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
5. Ostrow A. Mashable blog. All that’s new on the web. Twitter’s massive 2008: 752 percent growth. January 9th, 2009. http://mashable.com/2009/01/09/twitter-growth-2008/
6. State of the Twittersphere. Q4 2008. HubSpot. http://cdnqa.hubteam.com/State_of_the_Twittersphere_by_HubSpot_Q4-2008.pdf
7. Giustini D. ‘Maple Leaf’ Twitter: why aren’t more Canadian librarians on Twitter? UBC Google scholar blog. December 31st, 2008.
8. Wright MD. Of Canadian librarians and Twitter. meldinme blog. January 1st 2009
9. Basu D. Top 20 Twitter posts of 2008. Search Engine Journal. December 30, 2008 http://www.searchenginejournal.com/top-20-twitter-posts-of-2008/8221/
10. Webb K. Webb’s web: up for a little ambient intimacy? Incite May 2007; 28(5): 18-19.
One of the recurring themes in the educational literature for academic librarians is ‘personalizing’ library workshops and making your sessions as relevant as possible. Today’s millennials are not unlike other adult learners in that they want to see the value in attending library workshops.
A good way to design workshops according to the learning needs of specific student groups is to do a ‘pre-test’ or pre-class survey of their existing library research skills. I decided to do this online using the free survey tool – Survey Monkey. I was amazed (and pleasantly surprised) just how easy it was to use Survey Monkey. Building the survey is a snap using pull down menus. (Here’s a copy of the survey.)
In working with the RSPT faculty, we came up with ten (10) questions to ask the students. The questions are directly related to the learning objectives for the workshop. Once all of the RSPT 526 students (~70 of them) answer the survey, I’ll be able to customize my library class. That’s something else SurveyMonkey does: it compiles all the results in graph form/ using percentages.
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For your own interest, here is the name of the session for the RSPT 526 students and the highlights of our January 12th session:
Library Resources and Search Strategies for
RSPT526 – Clinical Decision-Making II Students
Finding the Evidence in Physical Therapy
Outline of UBC Library Sessions and Assignment – Winter 2009
1. Learning objectives
..Identify the information you need to answer your research question
..Discover which databases to use for your systematic review
..Learn search techniques in different databases
2. Outcomes
..Frame research topic as an answerable question using the PICO format
..Explain choice of databases and describe their coverage
..Demonstrate effective search strategies and tools used
3. Scheduled library sessions:
January 12th – Hands-on workshops in Koerner Library’s computer lab, Rm217.
February 16th – Groups will meet Librarian, Dean Giustini, in Woodward Library’s McKechnie Rm to discuss search strategies and review concepts.
At a deep level, the web – in particular the use of social media – has connected us to each other in ways that few other technologies have. Some years ago – in a decidedly ‘pre-Twitter’ period – I said that “the web [was] a reflection of who we are”… in many ways, what I meant was that the web is really a digital manifestation of our collective humanity.
Put simply, in 2009, it seems to me that this is why Twitter has become so hot in so many fields. My sense is that Twitter is set to revolutionize the way we think, share and work together in the digital age. However, I’m still surprised how few librarians have eavesdropped on the conversation thus far….
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Looking to get the word out, my colleague Mary-Doug Wright and I have decided we needed to write something for an upcoming issue of a health library journal about Twitter. I’m taking a first crack at it, and I’m enjoying the process but look forward to working with Mary-Doug. To boot, collaborative writing, speaking and teaching are three activities on my New Year’s resolution list for 2009.
So what’s so great about Twitter anyway? Here are a few nascent ideas:
– Twitter is a global index to ‘now’ – what people are thinking ‘in real time’;
– Twitter permits social networks to meet around a virtual water cooler in real time;
– Twitter is a virtual online town-square where people meet and provide support digitally;
– in practical terms, Twitter is open-access, unfettered, free information flow;
– a wildly easy way to stay connected with online networks @ a single point of entry;
– efficient way to see ‘status updates’ of family and friends
– Twitter permits thinking ‘on the fly’; monitoring ideas & thoughts; breaking news;
– an important productivity tool; face-to-face meetings get up to speed much quicker
– Twitter is also a potentially powerful research and information dissemination tool;
– a potent warning system for university campuses for weather problems & terrorism;
– some Twitter feeds, once they ‘mature’, are mini-web conferences on the go
I’m sure you’ll have other ideas. Please share them (or share your critique). ~Dean
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References
1. ‘Maple Leaf’ Twitter: Why aren’t more Canadian Librarians on Twitter? UBC Google scholar blog. December 31st, 2008
2. “Of Canadian librarians and Twitter”. MeldInMed blog, January 1st 2009
3. Top 20 Twitter Posts of 2008. Search Engine Journal. December 2008
4. Skiba DJ. Nursing education 2.0: Twitter & tweets. Can you post a nugget of knowledge in 140 characters or less? Nurs Educ Pers 2008 Mar-Apr;29(2):110-2.
When asked by close friends and colleagues, I answer without hesitation: Twitter is the hottest social media tool of 2008. And yet, Twitter seems to continue to perplex many who try it. Why is that, do you suppose?
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For me, what’s really surprising is how few Canadian academic librarians have joined the conversation on Twitter. And what’s with the low numbers of Canadian librarians in general on Twitter? We introduced Twitter to our LIBR534 students, and only 20% of the class seemed really enthusiastic about the “bibliotwitosphere”.
Why do I use Twitter? For one, I enjoy the ping-pong of ideas on Twitter, and because it feels good to be social. In addition, tweets are useful links to information I need to stay informed. In short (because everything is short in microblogging), Twitter gets me to think about emerging media and what I need to do to stay media-literate — so crucial to my work as a librarian in the information age.
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The state of the Canadian ‘twitosphere’ is one that has occupied my thinking for months – at least since joining in spring ’08. Again, I’ve wondered why so few librarians find their way to Twitter. Is it because I have a web 2.0 addiction, do you think?
That said, on my Twitter feed, I’ve got a bunch of Canadian librarians I pay attention to such as Torontonian Connie Crosby (who signs off each night with a lovely ‘adieu’), Haligonian Ryan Deschamps and Vancouverite Steve Matthews. There are also American medical librarian folks such as EagleDawg and Krafty. In addition, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know master educators such as HRheingold and DWarlick.
Two of my favourite physicians on Twitter are Berci and AllergyNotes. They are both terrific gentlemen, kind to a fault and always well-informed. I just like them; my digital life is richer by knowing them.
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HubSpot released a fourth quarter report of Twitter 2008, which I found worth more than a quick look. Toronto tops the Canadian twitosphere (highest number of users in Canada); no surprise there, but my hometown, Vancouver, is way down the list.
Nice to see VPL – Vancouver Public Library is on Twitter. Happy new year – see you in 2009 (hopefully, on Twitter).
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References
1. “Of Canadian librarians and Twitter”. MeldInMed blog, January 1st, 2009.
2. “Toronto tops the Twittersphere” – Globe and Mail, December 2008
3. “First State of the Twitosphere in Canada” – December 2007, Twitterfacts blog
Nine (9) groups or categories, seventy-five (75+) medical web 2.0 services of note in 2008. Not necessarily by importance, influence, utility or value – merely mentioned ‘most often’ by bloggers & traditional media (see this easy-to-print version).
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1. Academic science 2.0 (social networking) (8 services)
i. BioCrowd – http://www.biocrowd.com/
ii. BioMedExperts – http://www.biomedexperts.com/
iii. LabRoots – http://www.labroots.com/
iv. MyExperiment – http://www.myexperiment.org/
v. NatureNetwork – http://network.nature.com/
vi. phLab – http://phlab.org/
vii. ResearchGATE – https://www.researchgate.net/
viii. SciWeavers – http://sciweavers.org/
2. Bookmarking & infomanagement (12 services)
i. Amedico – http://amedico.com/
ii. CiteMD – http://citemd.com/cms/
iii. CiteULike – http://citeulike.com/
iv. Connotea – http://connotea.org/ 
v. Delicious – http://delicious.com
vi. Digg – http://digg.com
vii. Diigo – http://www.diigo.com/
viii. LabMeeting – http://www.labmeeting.com/
ix. Mendeley – http://www.mendeley.com/
x. Ologeez – http://ologeez.stanford.edu/
xi. PeerClip – http://www.peerclip.com/
xii. 2Collab – http://www.2collab.com/
3. Consumer health 2.0 (social networking) (12 services)
i. CareFlash – http://www.careflash.com/
ii. Curetogether – http://www.curetogether.com/
iii. DailyStrength – http://dailystrength.org/
iv. Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/
v. HealthChapter – http://healthchapter.com/
vi. HelloHealth – http://www.hellohealth.com/
vii. Inspire – http://www.inspire.com/
viii. PatientsLikeMe – http://patientslikeme.com/
ix. PsychCentral – http://psychcentral.com/
x. RevolutionHealth – http://www.revolutionhealth.com/
xi. SecondLife – http://secondlife.com/
xii. SoberCircle – http://www.sobercircle.com/
4. Medicine 2.0 (social networking) (8 services)
i. Doc2Doc – http://doc2doc.bmj.com/
ii. DoctorsHangout – http://doctorshangout.com/
iii. MedicalPlexus – http//medicalplexus.com/
iv. MedXCentral – http://medxcentral.ning.com/
v. Ozmosis – http://ozmosis.com/
vi. Sermo – http://www.sermo.com/
vii. SocialMD – http://www.socialmd.com/
viii. Within3 – http://within3.com/
5. Micro-blogging, -searching & -aggregation (7 services)
i. FriendFeed – http://friendfeed.com/rooms/medicine-2-0-microcarnival/ (microcarnival for docs)
ii. Identi.ca – http://identi.ca/
iii. Monitter – http://monitter.com/
iv. Twittersearch – http://search.twitter.com/
v. Twitter – http://twitter.com /
vi. List of 69 Twitter services – http://smartech.blogetery.com/2008/05/16/69-twitter-web-services-you-should-know/
vii. Yammer – http://www.yammer.com/
6. Open knowledge-sharing sites (8 services)
i. AskDrWiki – http://askdr.wiki.com/
ii. e-Meducation – http://www.e-meducation.org/
iii. HealthMash – http://healthmash.com/
iv. InfoMedMD – http://www.infomedmd.com
v. Knol – http://knol.google.com/k
vi. Medpedia – http://www.medpedia.com
vii. Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/
viii. UBC Health Library wiki (list of medical wikis) – http://hlwiki.slais.ubc.ca/index.php/Medical_wikis
7. Personal life 2.0 & genetics tracking (13 services)
i. eHealthMe – http://www.ehealthme.com/
ii. FitBit – http://www.fitbit.com/
iii. GenePartner – http://www.genepartner.com/ 
iv. Geni – http://www.geni.com/
v. GoogleHealth – http://www.google.com/health/
vi. Keyose.com – http://keyose.com/
vii. LifeMojo – http://www.lifemojo.com/
viii. Medsphere – http://medsphere.org/
ix. Microsoft HealthVault – http://www.healthvault.com/
x. Medziva – http://www.medziva.com/
xi. My Digital Health – http://www.mydigitalhealth.com/
xii. MyFamilyHealth – http://www.myfamilyhealth.com/home/
xiii. 23andMe – https://www.23andme.com/
8. Search 2.0 tools (10 services)
i. Google Coop Health – http://google.com/coop/
ii. Hakia – http://hakia.com
iii. Healia – http://www.healia.com/
iv. Healthline – http://healthline.com/
v. iMedix – http://www.imedix.com/
vi. MEDgle – http://medgle.com/
vii. MeraMD – http://meramd.com/
viii. OrganizedWisdom – http://organizedwisdom.com/
ix. RightHealth – http://www.righthealth.com/
x. TRIPAnswers – http://www.tripanswers.org/
9. Slide & video sharing sites (10 services)
i. bliptv – http://blip.tv/
ii. DNATube – http://www.dnatube.com/
iii. LabAction – http://www.labaction.com/
iv. MEDTing – http://medting.com/
v. SciVee – http://www.scivee.com/
vi. SecondSlide – https://www.secondslide.com/
vii. SlideShare – http://www.slideshare.net/
viii. TeacherTube – http://www.teachertube.com/
ix. WebMed Technology – http://www.webmedtechnology.com/physician/video.htm/l
x. YouTube – https://youtube.com/
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For regular updates on how web 2.0 is changing medicine, and to track trends throughout the year, see Ves Dimov’s blog or Bertalan Mesko’s blog.
I’ve decided I ‘whitter’ on a bit too much all year about learning theories, searching and Google scholar… so throughout December, I’m going on a blog hiatus. I’m on holidays, I’m sorting out a bunch of things, working on a book and some other writing.
But come back regularly and engage me on Twitter. Or, if you want, check out the latest ‘tweet’ or nugget of information on my Twitter widget on the far left… See you in ’09. Happy Holidays ~Dean