Web2.0 > Case Studies

Jordanhill Campus Library, Glasgow

Jordanhill Campus Library, University of Strathclyde, recently started experimenting with the use of Web2.0 technologies.

Background

Staff at Jordanhill were attracted to using Web2.0 tools as an extension of our communication with our borrowers. We currently use Blogger, LibraryThing and Twitter.

Blogger

Jordanhill’s largest courses are in teacher education. Anabel's Children's Literature Blog was started to keep students informed about new books, awards etc and to encourage them to be more adventurous in the material they chose for teaching practice. We have recently added a blog for our social work students, Alison's Social Work Current Awareness Blog and will consider other subjects in due course.

LibraryThing

Librarians use this to list new titles added in specific subjects, e.g. ,social work and speech and language therapy amongst others (click on the drop down list to see all subjects). The lists are circulated to academic staff, who have been very appreciative (e.g. “really cool tool”) and updates can be linked to blogs and publicised on Twitter. We have also claimed the Jordanhill Library page on LibraryThing Local.

Twitter

We use Twitter @JordanhillLib to promote our services and alert borrowers to new library developments, news stories relevant to the subjects we teach etc. The Twitter feed is displayed on our home page and has replaced our previous News Page.

Benefits

The sites are free, easy to use even for non-technical people, and much quicker to update than a conventional webpage. An excellent example of this is when our campus closed suddenly one afternoon because of a burst water main. This was posted on Twitter before we left and staff could tweet updates from home so that the current situation was always displayed on our home page. These tools are also an excellent means of CPD through professional networking.

Challenges

Web2.0 sites are not universally popular and some librarians are still to be persuaded of their usefulness. There are certainly issues of reliability and legal implications, but as long as you are aware of these and take them into account there should be few problems. Tweeting and blogging can be time-consuming, but is this a problem? Everything we do is time-consuming; the emphasis is just changing to different media.

Future plans

A group is to be set up to consider Web2.0 developments on both campus libraries.

Tips for others

Start small and learn as you go

Think of the need and then which tool can help you with that need, rather than thinking "oh, we must get some Web2.0 content on our website."

Be consistent

We have tried to use designs that are compatible with our institution (e.g. using the university crest as our Twitter avatar) and with each other (e.g. our blogs use the same template).

Watch what other people are doing

For example, when we first started using Twitter we noticed our tweets always said "from the web" whereas other peoples' often had a different source attached. After experimentation, we now use HootSuite to tweet – it has many advantages: you can run several accounts at once, feed blog posts straight into it, post pictures and documents, schedule tweets to be posted later and see statistics about how many people have clicked on your links.

Content Guidelines

You have to be “on-message” as far as your institution is concerned, but this doesn’t mean formal and stuffy. In fact, these tools lend themselves to informality – include a bit of personality!