Pa n d o r a i s N O T a S c a r y B o x . . .

( a n d u c a n d o 2 . 0 2 ! )

A g u i d e t o t h e w i l d a n d w o n d e r f u l w o r l d o f w e b 2 . 0 .

p r e s e n t e d a t N Y L A 2 0 0 8 b yK e n P e t r i l l i

T e e n S e r v i c e s L i b r a r i a nN e w R o c h e l l e P u b l i c L i b r a r y

WHAT IS WEB 2.0?

“Web 2.0, through its numerous definitions, encapsulates the idea of the proliferation of interconnectivity and interactivity of web-delivered content.” (from Wikipedia)

Boy, that’s a mouthful!

In plain english, Web 2.0 simply refers to the many and varied ways that the internet connects people with other people, either in a general way, or through specific ideas, interests or niches.

WHY 2.0?

Because we work with teens, and something like 90% of them are online every single day. Kids today communicate with each other online, and the virtual space they occupy is part of the fabric of their life. If we don’t at the very least understand this world, we risk losing them as patrons.

A WORD ON SAFETY

I’m not going to get into a lengthy discussion on Internet safety; there’s enough information out there to smother a small country. What I will say is

this: if you’re nervous about you and your library jumping into Web 2.0. don’t be! Just use some common sense. I highly recommend having a set of guidelines in place. Have it approved by your board and follow it always. I’ve included the one I wrote for my library in this packet - feel free to steal it! I’ve also included a terrific article from the New York Times which takes a pointed look at the reality of internet dangers. In addition, I highly rec-ommend you watch the PBS Frontline special “Growing Up Online.” It’s

available in its entirety here:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/

So - with all this in mind, let’s look at the major players in the Web 2.0 world!

General Social Networking Sites:

MySpace (www.myspace.com)You may have heard of this one. MySpace is the most popular social net-working site on the internet. boasting nearly 250,000,000 users in countries all over the world. MySpace pages are customizable and the site includes features as wide ranging as blogging, bulletins, groups, forums, classifieds, news, video sharing and game applications. In addition, MySpace provides specialized profiles for musicians and filmmakers. After six years, the site is still extraordinarily popular with teens, especially those in urban areas. Users must be at least 13 years of age.

Facebook (www.facebook.com)Created in 2004 as a college-only site, Facebook has quickly become the number two social networking site, boasting more than 120,000,000 users. Facebook does not allow page customization, and has a cleaner feel. Fea-tures include news feeds, photo and video sharing, classifieds, groups, bul-letins, and of course, “The Wall” and “The Poke.” Facebook has become extremely popular with many teens, especially those in more suburban or well-to-do areas. As with Myspace, users must be at least 13 years of age. Facebook also offers specialized pages for everything from businesses to musicians.

Why you need to know them:These are the Tokyo-stomping monsters of the social networking world. If your teens aren’t on MySpace, they’re on Facebook, and they might be on both. Want to reach teens? This is where they are. PERIOD.

How to use them:Creating a library MySpace page is easy - just create an account and use the Library’s name. The system is pretty wide open; i would suggest you learn a bit about html or css if you want to customize the page. With Face-book, it’s a bit more complicated; you need to click on ‘advertising’ to find out how to make an institutional page. You will be guided on how to create a page for your library.

Book-related social networking sites:

We’re libraries, and we love books - and so does web 2.0! There are sev-eral book-themed social networking sites (often called ‘social cataloging’) to choose from.

Librarything (www.librarything.com)Originally started in 2005, Librarything boasts over 400,000 users. Users (informally known as thingamabrarians) can catalog personal collections, keep reading lists, and meet other users who have the same books. Users can browse the entire database by searching titles, authors, or tags gener-ated by users as they enter books into their libraries. Books are automati-cally cataloged on the site by data from booksellers and libraries, and Li-braries can integrate Librarything into their own OPAC’s.

Shelfari (www.shelfari.com)Shelfari was launched on October 11, 2006. Users build virtual book-shelves of the titles they own or have read, and can rate, review, tag, and discuss their books.

Goodreads (www.goodreads.com)Goodreads was started in December 2006 and now boasts more than 650,000 members. The website permits individuals to sign up and register books to create their library catalogs and reading lists.

Why you need to know them:Because we love books, and this is a new and wide-ranging way for us to share them.

How to use them:I recommend signing up for Shelfari or Goodreads - they’re easier to use, and both have widgets that allow you to place a “bookshelf” on your MyS-pace or Facebook page. What better way to advertise the newest books you’ve received?!

Music-Related Social Networking Sites

Anyone into music (like, i don’t know....teens, for example!) loves to share it, and it’s the perfect niche for social networking.

Last.Fm (www.last.fm)Last.fm is a UK-based Internet radio and music community website, founded in 2002. It claims over 21 million active users based in more than 200 countries. Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of all the songs the user listens to, either on the streamed radio stations or on the user's computer or some portable music devices. This becomes part of the users profile. Users can also create custom radio stations and playlists from any of the audio tracks in Last.fm's music library, and are able to listen to some individual tracks on demand, or download tracks.

MoG (mog.com)MOG is a social networking site where computer users who listen to their music primarily on their computers or iPods can set up personal pages with their musical interests and listening history. Users can then connect with other similar users. MOG is similar to Last.fm, but it first uploads a listing of a user's digital music collection to their MOG page, then it keeps track of what music is played on the user's computer. Other features include music-focused blogging, dedicated pages for artists, albums and songs, tagging of music items, and direct links to iTunes and Amazon for music purchases.

Pandora (www.pandora.com)Pandora is an automated music recommendation and Internet radio service created by the Music Genome Project. Users enter a song or artist that they enjoy, and the service responds by playing selections that are musi-cally similar. Users provide feedback on approval or disapproval — which Pandora takes into account for future selections.

Why you need to know them

As media delivery changes, we need to change the way we think about how we provide non-book services. Plus, teens love music (and so do we!).

How to use themI will readily admit that I’m not sure how you could integrate any of these into your library’s web presence, but I still think it’s important to know them. Pandora does have a Facebook application that allows you to place the Pandora player on your Facebook page.

Media-Related Social Networking Sites

flickr (www.flickr.com)Flickr is an image and video hosting website, and also an online community platform. In addition to being a popular Web site for users to share per-sonal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers as a photo re-pository. Its popularity has been fueled by its organization tools, which al-low photos to be tagged and browsed by folksonomic means.

YouTube (www.youtube.com)Another one you may have heard of. YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload, view and share video clips. YouTube was created in February 2005 by three former PayPal employees. The service uses Adobe Flash Video technology to display a wide variety of user-generated video content, including movie clips, TV clips and music videos, as well as amateur content such as videoblogging and short original videos.

Why you need to know them

More video content has been uploaded to YouTube in the last couple of years than the entire history of television. Teens are at the forefront of this revolution.

How to use themflickr is an obvious need if you a) take pictures at your programs and b) want to share them. The possibilities for YouTube are endless, from simple vids of your programs to filmmaking.

Other Social Networking Oddities

Ning and Twitter are two of the funkier cousins of the Social Networking world. They both have great upside, however in our library work. Twitter especially is a potentially great way to update patrons about programs and all sorts of library goings-on.

Ning (www.ning.com)Ning is an online platform for users to create their own social websites and social networks, launched in October 2005. Ning’s idea is to compete with large social sites like MySpace and Facebook, by appealing to users who want to create networks around specific interests or have limited technical skills. The fun thing about Ning is that anyone can create their own custom social network for a particular topic or need, catering to specific audiences.

Twitter (twitter.com)Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length. Tweets are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Users can receive updates via the Twitter web-site, SMS, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.

Second Life

(www.secondlife.com)

Second Life and its sister site Teen Second Life are Internet-based virtual reality environments launched June 23, 2003. Second Life caters for users aged over 18, while Teen Second Life is restricted to users aged between 13 and 18. A free downloadable client program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called "Residents", to interact with each other through motional avatars, providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a metaverse. Residents can ex-plore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group ac-tivities, and create and trade items (virtual property) and services with one another.

Although the uses of Second Life are limited, it’s worth knowing about. Teens are limited to Teen Second Life and adults are only allowed there on a limited basis, for educational purposes (and after passing a background check). Many universities are using Second Life as an educational tool, and there are future possibilities for us as well.

So....

I hope you’ve gotten a bit of a clearer idea as to some of the main social networking technologies out there, and are thinking about using them in your library work. A couple of things to remember:

1. The best way to figure out these sites is to use them. Sign up for an ac-count on one or more and fool around with them.

2. As with anything we do, your teens are your best resource. Ask them which sites they use, and organize a web team. I’ve included the survey I used in my library. Feel free to steal it!

Resources

Thankfully I don’t have to type out a big long list, because YALSA already did it for me! Visit their Web 2.0 and Libraries page at:

http://wikis.ala.org/yalsa/index.php/Web_2.0_%26_Libraries

Also, there are a TON of books available on how to customize, tweak, hack and otherwise use most of these sites - browse the computer section at Borders and I guarantee you’ll find one you like.

Now, get out there and be social!

Ken Petrilli is the Teen Services Librarian at the New Rochelle Public Library. In addition he is a musician, sci-fi nerd, Otaku and all-around pop-culture junkie. He has a love/hate relationship with his computer, and still thinks the best social networking involves the local bar and a few pints of Guinness you can contact him @ planetfire@hotmail.com! ! ! Ironlibrarian@gmail.com! ! ! myspace.com/ironlukesound