What about the Irish

So yes, what about the Irish?

Their public libraries, I mean.

Well, there are lots, and the Northern Irish ones share one website. One of the libraries listed is the Dungannon Library in County Tyrone (40 miles from Belfast). And it just started twittering and blogging 3 months ago. Which is great for a medium-sized market town library, with only a sparse webpage to call its own. Hello world!

Perhaps, the whole tiptoe into the Web 2.0 waters is because of the library’s growing migrant users who are increasingly tech-savvy. According to its blog, they’ve started collections in Portuguese, Polish, Latvian and Lithuanian for users, and placed them in the hottest spot: the computer suite. I guess the library is considering more than its time-tested provision of physical space and collections, and adding visitorship in the virtual world to its fold. A little alarming though, is the fact that their blog hasn’t had a new entry since January 2009. Oh, don’t say it’s been abandoned to a far and dusty corner of the server.

CC photographed by mercuryvapour

At least the Twitter feed is alive and kicking, even though the library left a rather telling remark last week on April 9th, 2009: “Amazed that so many people are still adding us when we haven’t tweeted in 2 months. Thank you all for your perseverance!” Like the TU Delft library, their Twitter tone is friendly, and instead of the third-person narrative, it’s usually in the form of “we are doing this or that”. Which is kind of like a couple declaring, “we’re throwing a party. Bring wine.” Through their Twitter feed, I learnt more about the library’s heart and soul than from its official website, which states a laundry list of services and infrastructure, and nothing on what makes it tick.

However, some of the tweets sounded more like they represented the personal thoughts of library staff, rather than the library itself. Perhaps, this is abit dangerous from the public institutional point of view, since I’m not sure what to think when the library says, “Between the darkness outside and the students inside, its been very quiet today. Good job I had all this, ahem, hard work to keep me busy!” It makes me wonder if my tax money is being used properly, if it’s to pay staff to twiddle their thumbs at the desk. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt though.

I guess my point is, libraries need to remind their staff that while keeping it real is important in social media, it’s the library’s reputation and their professionalism at stake. I wouldn’t want to play around with that, no sirree.

Netherlands Twittering

Twitter is a micro-blogging tool, where you can send out “tweets” to any subscribers, to let them know what’s on your mind. You can “tweet” once a day, or 60 times an hour, it’s up to you. Libraries have been using Twitter to update users on what they are doing, and its a great way to drum up support for library events.

While most libraries tend to use the third person when they tweet (eg: XXX Library is hosting XX at where/when/etc.), the Delft University of Technology Library (TU Delft) in the Netherlands has taken a rather quirky first-person narrative form instead.

For example, on their Twitter feed, they’ve announced: “Spring is in the air, students are starting to lounge on my steps in front of the main entrance again.” It doesn’t sound hilarious if it’s a person twittering, but since this is a university library, I get an odd image in my head of a talking building who can feel disgruntled because humans are sitting on its “feet”. I love it!

CC photographed by Till Krech

Since the nice part about Twitter is letting a huge bunch of people know what’s on your mind at the same time, it looks like TU Delft Library has decided to give a human face to their Twitter feed, and let others know what’s on its mind too. Its a fresh and appealing approach, and would put a smile on my face, if I were walking down the street in Delft, and the library tells me: “I sprung a water leak last night, currently a bit damp. So far none of my collection damaged. Official news to follow on website.” It’s like my best friend has told me her bathtub just flooded. I would want to send back a reply, saying: “Oh dear, good luck cleaning up.”

I hope the library does more to market its Twitter feed, because the way they’ve done it deserves a bigger following. It makes their library seem like a very friendly one indeed, and would entice me to visit it in person. Right now though, their website has nothing about its Twitter, or other Web 2.0 tools used. A search on Google retrieved evidence of a TU Delft Library Flickr photostream, but that was it. Oh, the potential!

Howdy Houston

The Houston Public Library is another example of a library with a busy Facebook page that really engages users. It contains the usual blurbs and links to the library’s chat reference service, and a Wall filled with postings on library news and events.

But what I like best is that they have taken the time to put up reviews of newly arrived library fiction books, related book club discussions, and links to the library’s catalogue to discover its holdings information. Their blurb advertising their Twitter feed would be better placed on the main Wall though, instead of having its own tab, where you have to click the arrow icon to reveal it. Hardly anyone would do that, except nosey little me.

Nonetheless, the library’s Facebook page does get interesting viewers. There was even one request to visit the library posted in Spanish on the Wall, by a user who claimed to be the director of the school and public library in Guayama, Puerto Rico. Wow. The word sure spreads in the most unlikely way. Who knows, there might be a Texan-Puerto Rican book exchange and new ties forged with foreign nations next. And through Facebook!

cc by andydoro

However, a by-product of being a very obvious and reputable institution in a site filled with personal users, is that you get other organizations trying to ride your tail too. I hate it when commercial firms post ads on your Wall, asking you to “Hey, add me as a fan”. The library had such a posting by, of all entities out there, a gardening shop trying to get library users to click on their page. *Ugh* Delete! I guess when you reach out to users on the Internet, anything goes, anything shows, and that’s a risk the library will have to manage.

The Unquiet Library

I love the name of this library blog: The Unquiet Library. It makes sense, considering that it’s a blog for the Creekview High School Library in Georgia, USA, and its main clients are squealing teenagers.

CC photographed by James Gray King

But what’s interesting is that because the blog is insanely chock a block with stuff, and gets updated pretty frequently, they’ve used their Twitter only to shoutout WHEN they have updated the blog. I guess it is useful for their readers to know when the latest blog entry has been made, though I can’t think of anybody who gets a tweet from the library and would want to  log-on straight away to read the blog. That’s like rushing to the door the moment you hear your newspaper slap on the patio – but doing this not just in the morning but 10 times a day. I guess I’m used to reading my RSS feeds all at one go when I have the time, and would rather not be enslaved to the technology by constantly checking for updates. I already constantly check for email as it is! Anyway, most libraries use Twitter to announce library news and events, so this is an interesting example of one Web 2.0 tool being used to soley support another.

The library has made a great effort to combine all its Web 2.0 services in one area: their website (which is actually a wiki). There, you can find links to the library’s Facebook, Twitter, del.icio.us bookmarks,  and of course, the Blog. No prizes for guessing which Web 2.0 tool gets the most attention. Even the library’s Facebook page has not one but two links and two RSS feeds to the Blog. Yes, I get it, I Must Read Your Blog. I guess it makes sense that there’s mainly one Unquiet Librarian maintaining the Unquiet Library blog, so all other use of Web 2.0 tools kind of revolve around it. Blogs sure do need time and prolonged effort, so I must commend the library for keeping at it (and for a good year now).

Ye olde British Library

I’ve always admired the British Library, because, well, I love all things British (yes, an unashamed Anglophile I be). This mighty land sprung forth The Beatles. There can be no arguing with THAT.

CC photographed by Gonzalo Barrientos

Anyway, the library has a rockin’ good collection of materials, and is pretty much the dream destination for any researcher across the world. While this grand dame has a long history, it is anything but stodgy and dated – its use of social media is one indication of its hipness.

The library is not only on Twitter, but maintains several blogs and a Facebook page. Its business and intellectual property centre (BIPC) which serves entrepreneurs in the UK even has its own Youtube channel and its own separate Facebook too. Also, what is interesting is that the library’s blogs are marketed not as institutional entities, but they present real people working at the library, showcasing their real and interesting interests. For example, library curator Lynda Barraclough has a flashy-named blog called “Endangered Archives” which shares the library’s records of “histories in peril”. Wow. It sure makes history sound like an animal species about to become violently extinguished by Man. I sure wouldn’t mind being paid to blog all day about near-extinct ‘creatures’.

The only unfortunate thing is, like the Manchester libraries, these cool Web 2.0 tools/services don’t have one solid presence on the British Library’s website. The blogs have the privilege of their own page, but evidence of the library’s Facebook pages are buried in the strangest areas – as a blurb on a sidebar for their online gallery, and also a side blurb on their newsletter. If I didn’t employ my investigative skills, I’d be lost in the library’s maze of a website by now. Hello, have you never heard of a site map??

Nevertheless, I give the library an A for effort. Put all those Web 2.0 things together and it’ll be an A++. Take their Facebook page for example. It has truly engaged Facebook users, presenting the library as if it was a warm, affable person not an institution. Their “Wall” postings are not just made up of event shoutouts, but tongue-in-cheek comments such as “31 March was the busiest day ever in the Reading Rooms” and on Mother’s Day, “Why not send your mum one of our e-cards?” There’s no censorship of user’s comments and suggestions either, if they can post “I want my own locker” and ask what the library is doing to find 9,000 missing books (in response to a controversy-stirring article in The Guardian). The library’s Facebook page also makes full use of the social elements of Facebook by inviting users to write library exhibition reviews on the page, and to share their opinions on a discussion board. No wonder they have over 4,500 Facebook fans.

Hmm, I feel like hopping on the bandwagon and making myself a fan too.