Librarians could see Social networks as a sustainable way to face challenges?
by zchang3 ~ August 5th, 2010. Filed under: Uncategorized.Last week, I read a few articles (Cheryl Peltier-Davis; Michael: Libraries and Sustainability in Developing Countries) which give me some hints, could we view social network tools as a positive way to overcome difficulties in libraries? It is well known that libraries are facing daunting challenges such as technology advancement, moving toward a collaborative culture, budget shortfalls, reaching more users and increased information demands. For academic libraries, librarians are dealing with rising journal costs while budgets for resources and staff remain steady or decline. Librarians promote Web 2.0 tools to be service provisions to patrons (blog, library collections, social tag clouds in library catalogs), professional communications (second life, virtual meetings) (Sue O’Dell, 2010), mobile library project for mobile devices, 24/7 Ask a Librarian virtual reference service, building lasting partnerships within the international library community. In brief, librarians must bear in mind how to efficiently implement social networks to the library services, internal and external communications so as to timely provide what users want at a very low cost.
References:
Sue O’Dell. (2010). Opportunities and Obligations for Libraries in a Social Networking Age: A Survey of Web 2.0 and Networking Sites. Journal of Library Administration, 50 (3), 237-251.
August 8th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
Thanks for bringing up this question. It seems to come down to libraries being able to clearly articulate their specific organization staff, and user needs, then thinking critically about social media – assessing the pros and cons of various tools in relation to meeting those needs.
I think it can be too easy to jump on the bandwagon and adopt a new tool because it is very popular. Just as libraries do in collection development, so too with social media – it requires careful consideration of what the potential resource will bring to the users.