Teen Connection Ning Site

Teen Connection:

A Library Social Networking Proposal

Eric Beckrest, Erin Berman, Khaleedah Thomas

San Jose State University

The name of the technology you would like to implement

Ning

A brief description of this technology

Ning is a platform which allows you to create your own social networks. The site can incorporate many different features including forums, blogs, video and photo uploads, chat, and more. Libraries can even link to outside sources such as blogs, catalogs, or other resources outside of the Ning platform. Ning also provides many of the same features as other social networking sites such as Facebook. Members are able to create their own page with status updates, comment on other member’s additions, share links, and IM/chat with other members.

There are three levels of subscription plans which include: Ning Mini (for small groups priced at $2.95 per month or $19.95 per year), Ning Plus (offers more customizable features and flexibilities over controls at $19.95 per month or $199.95 per year), and Ning Pro (includes premium add-ons and more bandwidth storage at $49.95 per month or $499.95 per year). Features vary depending on the type of plan purchased. Our prototype, Teen Connection, was created using Ning Mini, which was the only plan offered under the 30 day free trial. However, we recommend that libraries at least purchase the Ning Pro plan, as many pertinent features (such as chat) are unavailable under Ning Mini.

An explanation of the service you would like to create with the software

A teen portal for a public library. A place where teens can come to socialize, get homework help, and utilize a variety of tools that will enrich their education process.

An explanation of how this service will fill a need at your library, including benefits

Many teen websites function as extensions of the main library website. They are often fairly static in nature. While the sites might contain valuable information, many teens are not going to the sites due to the lack of interaction. In an age where almost all teens are participating in social networking, teen library sites need to offer more than just a bunch of links if they plan on being of any benefit. Unlike a static library webpage, Ning offers teens a chance to directly interact with the site through creating unique member profiles, uploading pictures and videos, participating in live chats, and engaging in discussion forums.

Since Ning is run by librarians parents and teens can feel secure knowing that the information being provided to them is factual and will be beneficial in their studies. Teens will have access to many items that other social networking sites can not provide such as live homework help, chances to win prizes for writing book review blogs, academic resources, health and wellness tips, and much more. Parents who are hesitant about allowing their teens onto social networking sites can rest assured knowing that their teens are interacting only with other teens from their local area.

Evidence that this technology would be useful in libraries

Teacher Librarian – This site was created by Joyce Valenza, (http://teacherlibrarian.ning.com/) and is an online community comprising more than 5,000 members (primarily teacher-librarians). As a member of this Ning site you can read discussions, post comments and questions, participate in the numerous forums, check out the latest events (i.e., conferences and webinars), and join specific subgroups (i.e., Inquiry Circles Book Group, Information Fluency Project Group, etc.). Additionally, there are a number of videos, photos, and other documents posted by members on the site. Overall this site offers a great venue for fellow teacher-librarians to stay connected with one another from all over the world.

Classroom 2.0. - This Ning site (http://classroom20.ning.com/), was primarily created for educators using Web 2.0 technologies, and has over 55,000 members. In 2001, this site won an Edublog Award for best educational use of a social networking service (Rosenfeld, 2008). In addition to the capability to share photos, videos, and documents, this site also contains an excellent resource section in the form of wikis. The resources inside the wikis are alphabetically arranged entries for a variety of Web 2.0 tools. For example, some of the more notable wiki entries include blogging, Podcasts, RSS & Readers, Social bookmarking, etc. The site also has a variety of subgroups, archived recordings, as well as access to a calendar of upcoming webinars, including links to live webcasts created by Clasroom 2.0.

Rosenfeld, E. (2008). expanding your professional network with Nings. Teacher Librarian, 35(3), 60.

21st Century - Teacher Librarians - The University of Colorado Denver online School Library & Instructional Leadership (SLIL) program created this Ning site (http://21centurylibrarian.ning.com) as a means to help online students connect with each other. The goal of the site was to make sure that first year school librarians and SLIL students never felt completely isolated. To ensure this connection this Ning site offers a space for students to ask questions, opportunities to engage in student led discussions, features podcasts and videos on issues related to school librarianship, and provides information on SLIL courses. SLIL program instructors discovered early on that they needed to actively participate in order for the site to remain viable. Accordingly, program instructors post their thoughts and encourage the sharing of ideas, as well as post links to professional events conferences and workshops. Currently the site is still active and has over 400 members (Summers, 2009).

Summers, L. L. (2009). The value of social software in school library. Knowledge Quest, 37(4), 48-50.

The Education Network - In August 2008, Sarah Oxford the Academic Liaison Librarian for the Institute of Education at the University of Worcester, used Ning to create the Education Network (http://ednetwork.ning.com). At the time of its creation this Ning site was free, and has since been taken offline. Within the Ning platform, Oxford utilized features such as blogs, chat forums, RSS feeds, videos, and a notes section to reach out to patrons. She described the Ning site as “the first stop for information” and marketed the site as a medium for users to connect to other pertinent pages that she created using the Delicious and Netvibes sites (Oxford, 2009, p. 40). By far her favorite feature on Ning was the ability to create blogs. For example, one of her most popular blogs, Have you read an e-book?, contained information on the library’s growing collection of e-books. After this blog was posted, the number of hits for this promoted web page increased substantially. Overall, she praised Ning and its ability to incorporate other sites (Delicious and Netvibes) as helping to establish direct links between students, staff, and librarians.

Oxford, S. (2009). Being creative with Web 2.0 in academic liaison. Library & Information Update, 40-41.

Information Matters - In October 2009, the University of Brighton's Department of Library of Information Studies (LIS) experimented with Ning as a means to attract prospective students to the University’s program with their Information Matters site (http://informationmatters.ning.com/). Overall, researchers were impressed with Ning’s ease of use and capability of creating sub-groups that could be used for specific courses or areas of interest. However, at the time the article was written researchers speculated about the sustainability of the site, as members have to be willing to invest time in writing posts and sharing information (De Saulles, 2010). Currently the site is no longer active.

De Saulles, M. (2010). Marketing LIS courses with Web 2.0 tools. Information Outlook, 14(3), 12-14.

A list of possible roadblocks to implementing this technology

Possible roadblocks to implementing this technology include: a potential learning curve to using Ning, monetary concerns (i.e., subscription costs of $20 per month), investment of time and manpower to set up and maintain the site, facilitating active participation of users, and contending with people who do not understand the potential value that a teen social site might have for a library.

Ways that you believe you or your organization could overcome the issues raised above

In general Ning is a very user friendly site, so the initial learning curve will be an easy issue to overcome. We can address this issue by creating screencasts and video tutorials instructing users how to sign up and interact with the site. If our budget was strapped and we could not afford the nominal fee of $20 per month, then we could seek outside corporate sponsorship or grants to maintain the site, as well as elicit funding from a library friends group. To address the concern of investment of time and ongoing maintenance we will designate several librarians to be in charge of maintaining the site and this task would become part of their core job duties.

As a social networking site it is important to facilitate active participation of users. In order to entice users to participate we will offer various incentives, such as monthly prizes for contributing to blog and forum postings. To convince those who are skeptical of the value of a teen social site we will hold quarterly community meetings and present an update of the progress of the site. We will also discuss how the site has positively impacted the library including circulation statistics and event attendance rates.

At least one (or up to three) suggestion(s) of specific software you would use to implement this program in your library

For the most part, Ning is a self contained online software program that does not require the use of other software. However, as depicted in our protocol, users may want to use external software like Blogger to enhance features such as creating separate blog pages. This is especially the case when using the more basic version of Ning (Ning Mini), which precludes the creation of new pages. On the plus side, Ning does allow for the easy integration of other social networking software such as Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter.

A plan for the ongoing maintenance of the software and any policy or training issues you think are important to address

As stated above, the ongoing maintenance of the software will be monitored by several librarians whose primary tasks will entail facilitating discussion by contributing to blog and forum postings, monitoring users to ensure that they adhere to the terms of conditions, recognizing active users with rewards, and debugging or troubleshooting any glitches that occur in the software.

How you will assess whether or not the technology is having the desired impact

The desired impact of Teen Connection is to create a place for teens to socialize and in turn aid them through their education process. Fortunately, Ning makes the assessment of this desired impact easy with its built in monitoring system, the Dashboard. This system measures the number of members and amount of content (videos, blogs, forums) that is posted. This data provides a snapshot of the current activity level and displays which forums and blogs are the most popular. Using the Dashboard, we will be able to accurately assess the growth of our site and easily make adjustments based on members’ contributions. Our site will be deemed successful as long as members continue to actively participate.

Libraries can also look at their attendance rates at events and circulation statistics. It is our predication that with the addition of the teen social networking site both circulation and attendance at events will increase. This prediction is based on our site’s incentives initiative, which encourages teens to read books and write reviews to win prizes, as well as continuously reminds teens of upcoming events. Furthermore, our site fosters friendships between teen members, which encourages teens to meet in person and to develop lasting friendships offline.

Facebook Page Screencast

Watch my screencast on creating your own Facebook Page for your favorite novel. While I've created screencasts in the past (mainly for my mom when she needs help on the computer) I ran into several technical problems this go around including some audio problems with my not so great microphone. I think given more time and better training with movie making and audio editing software a great product could be produced for libraries and other outlets. As with anything it took much more time than expected. However, once a staff member has mastered the tools things will move much faster. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBNuI2avvQ0

Lurkers be Lurkin'

“A lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing or other interactive system, but rarely or never participates” (Wikipedia) Or in other words, the people who make up the majority of any given online community. Most anyone who has been part of an online community has been a lurker at one point. Often times people will join a community and choose not to post anything until they are comfortable. This might mean reading lots of posts, watching chat conversations and more. It might take the lurker months or years before they decide they want to participate. Yet these lurkers play a vital role in the success of your online community. To ignore or berate them is a sure way to end your community's success. 


Even if lurkers are not visibly participating, they may be promoting the site through outside sources. Perhaps they share links to forum posts on Facebook or hype up the community at a conference. Lurkers can often be one of your best sources for advertising. They might enjoy the content received from the community, but not yet feel they have a comment on it. Moderators of online communities need to take some steps to make sure that lurkers in addition to regular community members feels wanted.


Try reaching out to members from the very beginning. When a person registers send them a personalized email. Look at their registration profile and suggest areas of the community that might be of interest to them. If they mention that they love animals, point them towards your pet forum. Sign your name and include an email address where you can be reached if they have any questions. This personal touch lets each new member know there is a face behind the community and that it cares about each person. Run metrics on the community and see which users are participating and which have been inactive for a period of time. If you notice inactive members, again turn to the personalized email or even a phone call. Ask the member how they are doing, if they could use any help, or what you could be doing better to help engage them. Most places online would never go out of their way to check in on a member in this fashion. People are often elated to see their community cares about them on an individual level. 


If upon doing metrics of the site you notice a large percentage of lurkers or new members you might set up a forum just for them. Lurkers and newbies may be more comfortable having discussions with others that are at the same level as themselves. The fear of judgment from other members is virtually removed in a newbie forum. Members can ask each other questions and moderators can ensure that all question are answered factually. You may even consider a buddy system; pairing an experienced member with a newbie. 


Another way to encourage discussions is by asking engaging questions. If you want more people to comment on your blog post don't just post “What do you think?” at the end. Instead create challenging, thought provoking questions that people can't wait to discuss. When someone goes to post a comment in a forum or on a blog, consider making them login to their account. Users who are not yet members will be promoted to register, while members can enter their login information. By allowing anyone to see content you are more likely to gain a strong user base. People don't want to join or participate in a community if they don't know what it's all about. Let users get a sneak preview of what your community has to offer. Once they decide to engage they will find a quick, simple registration form.  


Lurkers are important to your online community. Make sure to nurture them and not push too hard. Many people will eventually start contributing if the content is exciting and interesting. In the mean time, make lurkers your advocates; let them evangelize for you. 

LibraryThing

After watching Tim Spalding's video “What is Social Cataloging” I had to check out LibraryThing for myself. Though it had been mentioned in previous weeks, I'd only briefly looked at the website never exploring too much. For the last six months or so I have been using Goodreads as a way to keep track of all the new books I've read. I didn't add anything I'd read previously and find it's a good way of keeping a simple list of what I've read and how much I liked it. However, the idea of being able to tag books and the host of other features discussed in the video got me motivated to make my own account. I also explored the LibraryThing for Libraries feature which is far superior to many of the current OPACs that libraries are using.

I went through and added all my books from Goodreads to my account on LibraryThing. I found the tags very helpful in actually making me think about the subjects of the books. I stayed away from tags such as “good” or “bad” instead using the star rating system provided. Also added some of my own book reviews. It was fun to add tags of my own and then check out the book page to see what others had added. Sometimes I went back and added some of the tags listed to my own making the collective tagging bi-directional. The list of books entered also gives a huge array of options showing user tags, subjects, LC Classification, ISBN, and even where the book might be available locally. To a bibliophile, LibraryThing is amazing! There are so many different features, groups to explore and other member's libraries to check out, that it is going to take me a while to fully explore.

So then what can LibraryThing do for libraries? Well it can do a lot actually. I encourage you to take a look at the all the features on the LibraryThing for Libraries Website. There are currently over 200 libraries using LibraryThing's OPAC enhancement and some of the features are really neat. Patrons can add tags, ratings, videos or reviews. They can browse tags, find other editions, and even get book recommendations. There are also widgets to add such as the “At My Library” Facebook application which allows patrons to add their books to their Facebook page, showing their friends what they're reading.

Another cool feature is the Shelf Browse enhancement. This is an an application that shows patrons a virtual shelf with cover images. The shelf uses the library's call numbers to create a shelf similar to what someone would be looking at when they went to the physical library. I've always thought that the worst thing about finding books or movies online was the lack of browsing. I have often found some amazing titles just by browsing the shelves and randomly selecting something that looks interesting. For patrons who still want this experience but are unable or unwilling to leave the house they can still take part in browsing. This would be a huge help to patrons who are disabled or homebound. Our library provides a home delivery service, but the patron has to know or have some idea about what books they want. With the shelf browse feature they can go to the library virtually!

Patrons can also explore through the Series Browser and see all the awards that a book has won. Libraries also have the option of creating permanent links to their materials allowing patrons to more easily share books with friends. With all of this to offer, LibraryThing has also started to provide Library Anywhere mobile catalogs. Patrons can download apps for their iPhone, Blackberry or Android phones. The application can “search the catalog, place holds, see checked-out books, and more. It can showcase hours, branches, and events with a customizable homepage. It comes with an "accessible version" that provides a fully Section 508-compliant version of your existing catalog. And LibraryThing for Libraries customers get integration of tags, reviews, recommendations, other editions.” You can even play around with the application through the website getting a feel for what it would look like on a smartphone.

I think more libraries need to jump on board with LibraryThing or at least try and implement some of its features into their own OPACs. Spalding says in his video lecture that library OPACs are stuck in pre Web 1.0 mode. They are not providing anything more to patrons than a book location. The systems are old, outdated and need to be revamped. We live in a world now where nearly everything is connected. If you go someplace you can check in via an app on your phone, that then posts to your Facebook, and then gives you recommendations for other places to check out. You can write a review of the place you've been, add tags, photos and more. If libraries want to stay alive then they need to be more open and provide more connectivity to their patrons. I really think that LibraryThing has taken steps in the right direction with their personal and corporate applications. I'm excited to start using LibraryThing more and to see if libraries begin adopting better, more customer driven OPACs.

Do I Have to Share??

When you hear the words group project, what runs through your mind? Are you excited at the chance to share collective knowledge with your peer group? Or perhaps frustrated at the idea of shouldering all the work while others slack off and then get credit for all your work? Personally I know a little bit of both these things go through my head. After reading about internal collaboration in the work place, I wonder how many people think about workplace collaboration as a large scale ongoing group project.

The idea of sharing one's ideas and not receiving personal credit for them goes against most of what we're taught in United States schools. We are put into competition with one another from the beginning of our eduction. Top students are rewarded, when doing group work peer evaluations are done so as to not give everyone the same grade, and collaboration on school projects is called cheating. So when are we supposed to learn the skills needed to implement successful workplace collaboration?

The first step any company needs to take before starting a collaboration project is to take a hard look at their corporate culture. Are employees in constant competition or do they often work in teams? Do you encourage sharing of resources or keep files secure in only one location? While pretty much any business can morph into a more open workplace it is going to be much harder for companies with highly competitive cultures.

Once a company has decided to go forward in their collaboration venture they need to get their employees on board. No matter how open your company may be, if the majority of employees were schooled in the US they are probably going to have trouble learning how to share. All employees should understand that without everyone working together the business would not be as successful. No one should feel forced to add to an internal wiki, but instead should want to share their resources with team members. Consider trust building exercises or company retreats to help build a more community based culture.

Internal collaboration most likely isn't going to just work flawlessly overnight. Employees need to be gracefully ushered into a community that shares all their ideas, taking credit as a group rather than individually. Through internal collaboration companies can have the wisdom of the hive mind, which is much stronger than that of the individual. Each employee brings to the table their unique set of skills and knowledge to the whole making it more dynamic.

Exercise 5 - Social Bookmarking

I have to admit that I'm not really a huge fan of delicious. While I love the idea of social bookmarking, delicious just doesn't do anything special for me. I was really hoping this exercise would change my opinion of the site, but alas I'm afraid it has only made me less likely to use it much after this class. So what is it that I dislike so much about delicious? 


Well, the biggest problem I have is the user interface. To me it seems very non intuitive and quite a lot like I've transported in time back to the 1990s. While a site that hosts a bunch of links isn't and shouldn't be too complicated, delicious feels boring. For me of the biggest advantages of social bookmarking and folksonomies is that they encourage browsing and discovery of new resources. Farkas explains, “people who are looking for the best articles, or for all articles, on a specific subject will have a difficult time finding them in a folksonomy” (137). If I'm interested in finding specific and all inclusive information about a particular topic I don't go to a social bookmarking site. However, if I want to browse around to find awesome cupcake recipes then social bookmarking is where it's at... but still not with delicious. 


Through this exercise I did find some related articles to what we've been researching in class, but nothing more exciting than what a quick Google search using the same tag keywords could have provided. Going through the exercise steps delicious felt cumbersome and hard to navigate through. To me delicious lacks what StumbleUpon (SU) provides, discovery. Not only can I bookmark sites that I find interesting, add tags, and descriptions of those sites, I can also stumble or randomly find sites of interest to me. This can be done by searching all users on SU or just one person. I can search the favorites of people, I can follow them, they can follow me, and best of all the user interface is simple and encourages searching. Links can be displayed based on their format (video, photos,  etc.), show the sites that myself and another stumbler like, what reviews have been made, or what tags a person has added. 


Take a look at the two site screen shots below. They show what my favorites (or bookmarks) page looks like on SU and delicious. You can see the differences in the user interfaces are  pretty striking. There are big photos next to each of the links in SU and many more browsing options.  I highly encourage you to check out StumbleUpon if you haven't already. Get the plug-in for your browser and then set aside an hour of your time to play around. You can have all the features that delicious provides plus a bunch more. What do you think, do you have a social bookmarking preference?

Community Wikis Rock

Have you seen the DavisWiki? If not I highly encourage you to check it out. Created and maintained by the community of Davis, California, it is an amazing example of a highly functional wiki. A person can find nearly anything and everything on the DavisWiki. There is information on how to live cheaply, local gyms, the single scene, lost pets, and event calendar and more! Needless to say I've been coveting the wiki a little bit and thinking of ways that it could be implemented through libraries.

If a library is looking to get involved in and highlight their value to their community a city resources wiki would be a great place to start. There is a need for pages like the DavisWiki which I've noticed just among my own friends group. My friends maintain a listserv and every few weeks someone was asking for a recommendation to something (mechanic, doctor, restaurant etc.). So one friend decided enough was enough, deciding to start his own wiki for the group. After trying a few different platforms the group has created a home through PBWorks. There are already lists of places to camp, restaurants, things to do at 2am, event calendars etc. The group uses the wiki frequently, but all this great knowledge about hotspots in our community is only being shared with about 100 people. What if the local public library began the project allowing all members of the community to share their recommendations?

The library should be the information epicenter for any community. Anyone should be able to stop in and find out what is going on locally. Wouldn't it be nice to only have to visit one site to find out everything about a city? I've traveled before only to find myself hitting up one site for restaurant reviews, another for local night clubs, and another parks, only to be fairly dissatisfied with all of them. If the community themselves were adding the content it would probably be much more detailed and include a wide range of tastes rather than whatever the city web developer chose to add to the site.

In order to start a community driven wiki a library would only need to get the ball rolling. People will be much more comfortable posting if there is some structure and the beginnings of content. Once the basic framework of the wiki is put together consider having all of your library staff add their favorite places or some other detail to the site. Libraries can hold workshops teaching the community about how to add content of their own. A short YouTube video promotional video might be made as well. Consider talking to your local city web developer to see if the video clip could appear on the main city website. You may also consider enlisting the help of your teen advisory board, encouraging them to create their own teen section with places to shop, hang out, eat or whatever. The wiki will not succeed without community involvement, so make sure to advertise it and keep it updated.