Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal February 2008 Volume 6(1)

Digital environment

Benefits of being social

Andrew Youngson describes how the National Library of Scotland has grabbed the potential of social web applications to attract users, with a number of Web 2.0 pilots.

As is often the way, the idea to have a play with ‘Web 2.0’ came about over a coffee with a colleague. Gill Hamilton (National Library of Scotland Systems Librarian) and I were discussing the possible use of online applications to help fulfil library goals in an accessible, easy, cheap and, dare I say, fun way. The more we talked, the more we became convinced that NLS was missing opportunities to make our content, services and events more accessible to a broader range of people.

There is no true definition of ‘Web 2.0’. My own interpretation of the idea is that it is a fundamental shift towards websites and services that utilise user-generated content and metadata and which often include a social element where users can distribute and comment on their content.

What do you pilot?
When we looked at Web 2.0 services we were overwhelmed by the number available. We decided to go with four which we felt were ‘Web 2.0 brand name’. We chose to pilot: Flickr, YouTube, Wikipedia and Facebook. We felt that these would give us an adequate selection to experiment with as they covered pictures, films, information and social networking. We then searched them all for ‘National Library of Scotland’ and we found that NLS had a presence on all of them, from content already generated by other users. Now it was up to us to see how NLS could make its own contribution.

What do you make available?
Pictures for Flickr, film footage for YouTube, information for Wikipedia and events and activities for Facebook were all drawn together and uploaded. Luckily content was not a problem for us as NLS has a wealth of material we could draw upon. To make the various media more accessible we tailored the metadata to each site, ensuring it met our needs for information, content description and, very importantly, searchability.
Many organisations will have a digital presence whether they like it or not, often generated by people outside the organisation. If this is the case then making a contribution should be viewed as both necessary and beneficial. If an organisation has a strong digital presence then it has a golden opportunity to reach new audiences, become more accessible and highlight existing web resources.

It can’t all be good can it?
In reality the likelihood of major unforeseen problems is slim. It shouldn’t hold you back from making information and content available to all the people who could access it and enjoy it. The fear of lack of control is understandable, but using professional judgement at the point of creation should allay this. For every possible concern with utilising these resources, there are many more things to be gained.

So what are the benefits then?
These services are usually free to use. Upgraded accounts can be purchased to increase uploading limits if required, but for most organisations this will not be necessary. No specialist knowledge of web design or equipment, such as servers, is required, just a computer and web connection is needed. There are large, pre-existing audiences to tap into and most metadata can be embedded with hyperlinks to source material, effectively acting as a preview to further content and resources on organisational websites. The organisation’s profile is raised by becoming more visible to new, diverse audiences and it can also make content accessible and engaging to people who might never have thought to look in the traditional places, if they are aware of us at all.

Most organisations have pre-existing content available on their websites and in documentation that can be recycled into these mediums. They also give an avenue to share media, such as photos, that would not really be suitable for an organisational website but are of broader interest. Due to the interlinking of sites and resources it is easy to attract ‘passing trade’ and for the accidental discovery of your content to occur. It can be linked to by other users in a variety of ways, such as mutually shared tagging or being added to favourite’s lists, which in turn may highlight it to others in their network. In short, it is cheap and easy to use, raises profile and is accessible to large, diverse, pre-existing audiences. How could this not be a good thing to make use of?

After the development of these pilots there are a few key ideas worth highlighting:

• Any contribution is worthwhile, large or small. A small contribution is better than no contribution at all.
• We can only hope to contribute to the whole, not control it all.


• It may be a new medium to work in, but the issues are all familiar.
• Try not to be put off by perceived issues and concentrate on the positive aspects.


• Have fun! Enjoy your interaction with these resources.

Andrew Youngson spoke at the ‘Metadata Issues and Web 2.0 Services’ seminar organised by the Cataloguing and Indexing Group in Scotland, on 21 February.

Information Scotland Vol. 6(1) February 2008

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