Social Networking in the Workplace

[Jim Milles]

What social networking tools are you using in your library? We use Google Calendar and Gtalk, and a private Ning group serves as our intranet. We have a Law Library blog that nobody reads, but we hope to use it as a primary medium for updates during our upcoming roof replacement.

[Connie Crosby]

Ning as your intranet! What a great idea, Jim. Is it inside the firewall, or outside and passworded?

Before I left my law firm I was starting to use wikis a fair bit. In particular I created a wiki using Sharepoint (the free version that comes with a Microsoft server) for library procedures. Our procedures were constantly changing and we never managed to get a proper manual put together, although library staff would write out their procedures periodically before going on vacation. Before I left I created a skeleton in which everyone could put their own procedures, and then added in all of mine for my successor. As far as I know they are still using it--they were quite happy I was creating it.

I also had created an book orders/acquisitions blog, again on the Sharepoint platform. I discovered that the lawyers cared very deeply about what books were being ordered and the turnaround time of getting them in and on the shelf. I could have used the existing book orders InMagic DBTextworks database to populate a web page, but that is pretty dry data and did not cover things such as when I searched for new editions of books but there was no new edition out yet, or when I followed up with problem orders. So, I started making notes in a blog. I did not get a chance to make it "public" within the firm before I left, but that would have been the next step since that was obviously the purpose. I don't know if they have continued with that or opened it up, but I thought it was a quick way to open up some communication that was needed.

[Vicki Szymczak]

del.icio.us - We've been experimenting with using del.icio.us in our research sessions that are often subject focused. This has been especially useful since we added tagging features to our bib records (see http://sara.brooklaw.edu). In this way, we can combine our print, fee-based tools and internet sites into a place that the students can continue to access and update during the semester. For our formal ALR classes, we require the students to product a googlepages web guide on a research topic. They like using del.icio.us to supplement their online annotations!
We are now building subject specfic RSS feed out of iii Millenium to pump into our portal pages and I hope to work out a way to merge the feeds with the del.icio.us tags and the librarians' research guides - sort of like a super site for specific groups.
Blog/Vlogs/Wikis - Our blog is developing an interesting history. Last summer, after librarian Harold O'Grady of our library, attended the podcasting workshop in New Orleans, I asked him to put what he learned to work. At first, he was discouraged since, like many libraries, he wasn't getting much traffic - although the blog has some really cool stuff and has accompanying pods (see http://blslibraryblog.blogspot.com). A few weeks ago, it caught the attention of our marketing department and now steps are being made to make it more visible and be a more official part of the school's marketing plan. We are now planning to incorporate vlogging into the effort and will try to move it to something a bit more sophisticated. The blog is not "library-oriented"; however, I think it is encouraging the rest of the staff to take up the banner. We are now starting a more traditional library blog/vlog effort to replace our static "News and Announcements" page and deciding what should be dealt with via wiki tools, and what should be dealt with in a blog type of setting. For example, following the faculty services discussion on the AALL list serv, we deciding to build an adjunct faculty "handbook" using a wiki tool! So much easier and less expensive too.