[Baynet] Infopeople's "Web 2.0: Connecting with the Community Using Social Software" online course

[Linda Rodenspiel]

There is a lot of buzz in the library press about 
Web 2.0 and its impact on libraries. The 
California State Library believes that Web 2.0 
has tremendous transformational potential, 
perhaps second only to the introduction of the 
Internet itself. In recognition of the importance 
of Web 2.0, the State Library has made a special 
grant award to Infopeople for a series of free 
training events titled “Moving Libraries Forward 
to Web 2.0”. The following online course is part of the Web 2.0 series.


Title: Web 2.0: Connecting with the Community 
Using Social Software (online learning)

Date:  August 7, 2007 - September 4, 2007

To register for this workshop:  Use the online registration form at
http://infopeople.org/workshop/337

Fee: Thanks to a special LSTA grant award from 
the California State Library, Infopeople is able 
to offer this workshop to the California library community free of charge.


Library staffs have put tremendous energy into 
making their libraries the physical hubs of their 
communities. Many, however, have not taken 
advantage of technology to build community 
online. Over the past few years we have seen 
online communities spring up around blogs, wikis, 
Flickr, MySpace, and other social networking 
vehicles. In light of this, library staffs should consider how to:

--Create collaboration and community online
--Provide your library with a human face beyond its walls
--Explore new means to communicate with, and market to, your users
--Position your library as the online hub of your community


Workshop Description: This four-week online 
course will demystify the popular social software 
tools commonly known as "Web 2.0" while providing 
you with the skills necessary to use, select, and 
implement social software in your library for the 
purposes of outreach and community-building. You 
will learn how to use these tools to help you 
better connect to your community through online outreach.

Through examples from libraries using these tools 
for community outreach, and through actual use of 
the tools, you will learn how social technologies 
work and how they might be implemented in your 
library setting to connect with your community. 
During this course, you will actually create a 
blog and use it throughout the course, edit a 
wiki, sign up with an RSS aggregator, and get a 
Flickr account—all of which will be focused on 
how these tools can be used for outreach and 
community connectivity. The instructor will 
provide cheat sheets, recommended readings, 
webliographies, and practical tips for each 
topic—these can be used long after the course has ended.

During the course, you will be doing exercises, 
participating in online discussion forums, and 
taking part in either one or two live chat 
sessions with your instructor and classmates.


Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web 
browser and your Internet connection, you will 
log in to the Infopeople online learning site and 
complete the following learning modules:

Module One: Using Web 2.0, Library 2.0, Social 
Software, and Blogs to Connect with Your Community
--Review of the concept of Web 2.0 and how Library 2.0 evolved from it
--The concept of social software and how it differs from Web 2.0
--How blogs can be used to start a conversation 
with your patrons and build community online

Module Two: RSS, Wikis, MySpace and Other Online Community Tools
--How RSS can be used to increase visibility of 
library collections and services
--How wikis can be used to collaboratively 
develop an online community with your patrons
--How MySpace can be used as a portal to library 
services where your teenage patrons are

Module Three: Flickr, Podcasting, and Vodcasting
--How Flickr can be used to put a human face on the library
--How podcasting and vodcasting can be used to engage patrons

Module Four: Effectively Implementing Social 
Software at Your Library - Planning, Partnerships, and Promotion
--Determining which tool(s) are the best to use in your setting
--Planning for social software implementation in 
such a way that secures staff and patron buy-in
--Ideas for partnering with other community 
organizations and promoting your new social software services

Instructor:  Meredith Farkas. Meredith is the 
Distance Learning Librarian at Norwich University 
in Northfield, VT. In this position she has had 
the opportunity to implement many of the social 
technologies discussed in this course for use 
with her patrons and her colleagues. Meredith is 
the author of the monthly column "Technology in 
Practice" for American Libraries. In March 2006, 
Meredith was named a Mover and Shaker by Library 
Journal for her innovative use of technology to benefit the profession.

Online Learning Details:
This four-week course will be taught online using 
the web. When you register, you will receive a 
registration confirmation that will include the 
URL to get to the course, as well as a username and password.

Every student proceeds through the online 
learning modules at his or her own pace. You can 
work on each module at your own pace, at any hour 
of the day or night. However, you will be 
expected to log in to the course each week to do 
that week's assignment. We ask that you log in 
sometime during the first week of the course to begin the course work.

Your instructor will be available for limited 
consultation support for two weeks after the 
official end date of a course, and the course 
material will stay up for an additional two weeks 
after that, to give those who have fallen behind 
time to work independently on the course. 
However, you will be expected to accomplish the 
majority of the course in synchronization with 
your peers during the first four weeks.

Who Should Take This Course: Anyone from the 
library community with an interest in marketing, 
public relations, and/or outreach in libraries of 
all kinds. This includes librarians and support 
staff engaged in public service work at the 
library, staff members involved in development of 
their library's web content, and those in 
positions who are specifically responsible for 
marketing, public relations, and/or outreach.

Prerequisites:
This course is taught over the web. You must:

--Have an Internet connection and Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.
--Be able to save Microsoft Word .doc or Adobe 
.pdf files to your computer and print them out. 
(For .doc files, a free Word Viewer is available 
at 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. 
Search for "Word Viewer." For .pdf files, a free 
Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at 
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html).
--Be comfortable navigating on the web and 
navigating back and forward on a website that uses frames.

System Requirements: The online learning product 
that Infopeople uses is called Angel. The 
following are minimum system requirements for 
using Angel. You will need access to a computer 
that has at least these specifications to participate in an online course:

Windows:
--Internet Explorer 6.0 and above, Netscape 7.1 
and above, or Firefox 1.5 and above

Macintosh:
--Mozilla 1.4 and above (which is the same engine 
as Netscape 7.1), Safari 2.0 and above, or Firefox 1.5 and above
--OS X and above (OS 9 will NOT work with our online learning product)

To be successful in this course, you should also 
be able to play audio and video on your computer, 
which may mean installing free plugins such as 
Flash or Quicktime (many computers come with 
these pre-installed) and playing audio through 
your computer or external speakers. Some of the 
websites we will be examining may be blocked at 
your workplace, so you might need to access them at home.

If you are not comfortable with any of the above, 
please consider taking this course with a 
colleague who does meet these requirements.

To view a complete list of Infopeople workshops 
and for general information about Infopeople 
training opportunities, go to the main Infopeople 
Workshops page at http://www.infopeople.org/workshop

If you have questions about registration or 
scheduling of workshops, please contact Linda 
Rodenspiel, the Infopeople Project Assistant, at 
assist at infopeople.org or by phone at 650-578-9685.